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. ♪♪

at the white house and on capitol hill, folks are trying to navigate crises all of them coming to head in the next few days and weeks. there's covid, where president biden is planning to lay out a new plan tomorrow to get through the delta variant. there's afghanistan, where the secretary of state is preparing for a grilling on capitol hill in multiple hearings. there's the threat of a government shutdown at month's end unless congress acts and the potential for a debt default just a few weeks after that. all as democrats continue to spar over the size, scope, timing and political strategy surrounding the president's overall agenda and what's referred to as that massive reconciliation package which has been tied to biden trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill. the latest drama comes after joe manchin reiterated he will not support a $3.5 trillion deal. nowhere close to it. he's reportedly signaling he might only back a bill that's

less than half that size or half at best. the jockeying over this bill's cost has surfaced a major problem for democrats. the package contains sweeping reforms that individually are quite popular. party leadership struggled to brand the legislation as anything other than a one big giant spending bill. at a press conference today, speaker pelosi did not commit to a specific price tag but says the bill needs to be seen as more than a dollar amount. >> to pay for what is in there so that the cost for the future will be much lower than any 3.5. but we have to talk about what does it take? where would you cut? child care? family medical leave paid for? universal pre-k? home health care? so important. i hope that as people are looking at numbers that they're

weighing the values and what we can accomplish with that legislation. >> monica, let me start with you. the other thing that was interesting there from speaker pelosi -- in fact i want to play this second bite from her, it's how often she mentioned the word biden. let me put that out there and ask you a specific about it on the other side. >> what i want people to know is that this bill is for you. if you're a woman with children at home and want to return to the work force, if you have people with disabilities at home and need home health care, if your children are little and you want universal pre-k, children learning, parents earning, if someone is sick in your family and you need family and medical leave paid, the list goes on.

>> that was her trying to describe it in specifics, but in a previous bite it was how often she referred to biden. i say this because it seems as if, monica, she is basically sending a signal to the biden white house, hey, if you have an issue with the size of this bill, let's start talking and talking now and don't make me go through the senate. >> i think that's exactly right. you hear it from the president himself at every single event. it doesn't matter the topic. the president defending the size of this because he says the scope is necessary and needed now. for the myriad of issues and crises confronting the country. whether it was friday after that lackluster jobs report, when he was in new york and new jersey touring the storm damage or today with labor leaders, the president continues to talk about this build back better agenda. the way he frames it is what would you have me cut? we need all of these things.

that's something the white house is pushing. on the specifics of senator manchin's signaling that he won't support something this large, last night was telling when the president returned to the white house and he said from one powerful joe to another, at the end joe always gets there. he's always there for me. i think we will get him there on this particular point. but, of course, the white house is not talking about specifically how they intend to do that. we ask them constantly how often the two are in touch, we know it's regular, but this is something where the president, of course, is making the pitch and saying i don't want to shrink this in size, but at the same time i want this agenda to be passed. so, of course, the conversations continue here behind the scenes. >> you know, i guess the question i have, how alone is joe manchin? is he representing two votes? is it ten? i will say this, what i thought

he was doing was a bit of a trial balloon, it's been intriguing on the silence from others, either total denouning or total support. >> remember, that joe manchin put up his biggest balloon in all of this when the senate left town and he came out with that first op-ed saying he wouldn't be willing to go as high as $3.5 trillion. he's been periodically picking his head up during the recess period saying he is still out here and has the same concerns. he has some backup or some similar concerns expressed by kyrsten sinema, who was his ally on the infrastructure package and appears to be aligned with him here. there's a question on the house side whether the moderates, perhaps even that same group of nine or ten who pushed for the early vote on the infrastructure bill may cause problems for speaker pelosi in that chamber. i think we're talking about a

senate issue and the thing that works for manchin, even if he's alone, he likes that position. he's comfortable doing this to progressives, he can'ting bullied on cable or prime time news, that kind of thing doesn't move him. if he's alone, he'll work with that. i think he feels as though -- just knowing from covering him, that the rest of the party is going to have to ultimately come to him at some point and say okay, joe, what do you want in this bill? then he can be in the position he likes to be as that key wheeler dealer on getting something done. >> i mean, let me follow up on that second part, garrett, then i'll get to monica one more time. what does joe manchin want besides a cut in the size and scope? is he supportive of all the ideas in there and just doesn't want to fund them or is there something specific he's looking for? is this about oil, gas and coal subsidies for west virginia?

does he have an ask or not? >> that's the unanswered question right now. i'm so glad you asked that. that's what we're trying to figure out right now. if he wants a smaller number it's not hard for party leaders to slide dates and times for expiing provisions on this package. you can make a ten-year plan an eight-year plan. you can find ways to save money but is it about some priority he has not articulated yet? we saw this in the voting rights position, where at first he came out and said not this bill. it was only after weeks and in meetings with progressive leaders, voting rights activists he came out with his compromised position. that's where we still are here. this relates to the pelosi bite you played, the second one about priorities. what don't you want in here? do you not want child care or dependent care, paid family leave? that's why you see progressive democrats pushing for this bill, make it about the popular priorities that are in there and

not the $3.5 trillion price tag which really has been the way this bill has been discussed since the word go. >> monica, how is the white house viewing the negotiations with mansion? is it over substance or price tag? >> i think for now it's a bit about both. remember, we go back to infrastructure as this roadmap that is a parallel track of how they handle it negotiating with not just republicans but with the bipartisan group and the president and the white house had this price tag that they said they wouldn't come down from, wouldn't shrink and ultimately they did. it's a different discussion with these key allies. it's less about that and what's in it, we understand. but the white house is saying we have the house on board. we need to get the senate in line. and that is just not something that they're ready to say this is immovable at this point, this

is a complete red line because their priority still is getting it done even if it does end up potentially becoming a bit of a smaller package. >> well, look, the only person that says the price is not coming down is bernie sanders. it is interesting that nobody will draw -- pelosi didn't draw that line in the sand, schumer hasn't drawn it and biden has not drawn it. monica, garrett, thank you very much. joining me now is abigail spanberger, she sits at the nexus of many of these political fights we talk about. congresswoman, let me start with this issue of substance versus price tag. it's hard to be against any of the ideas, i think, as a conventional democrat that is in this bill. when you're looking at it, how much of it do you look at it as far as scope and size? how much do you look at it as the price tag?

>> i think it's unfortunate most of the focus was on price tag to begin with. when we create policy that's important in the lives of americans that we represent, whether in the commonwealth of virginia or across the country, we should be looking at programs, policy objectives, the investments that they require but the impact they're supposed to have on our communities. particularly at this time where we really need to lean in on and invest in our economic recovery. so i fall solidly in the category and in the camp of individuals who think what programs are necessary at this time? what are the programs we want to invest in so we can invest in our people, in our economic recovery, our communities, and go from there. of course having a general budget that we're kind of aiming towards or something is important. my focus is on the programs.

there are a lot of tremendously beneficial ways to spend taxpayer dollars. i'm focused on the intended outcomes of the investments we're looking to make. >> do you think that 3.5 is a number you can live with or is it something that you think maybe it ought to be shaved down a little bit or should it be bigger? >> i think it's going to be dependent on the programs. at this point in time the different committees of jurisdiction are creating the contours of the package, the build back better act. i serve on the agriculture committee, we have our mark up on friday to see what it is we're going to be pushing towards this package as part of the full creation of congress working in concert. and so it is, for me, very program dependent. i think that we should always be

very thoughtful in the full dollar amounts we're looking to spend and how we're looking to pay for these programs. so much of the decisionmaking is what will we be investing in and how will we pay for it. >> i was going to ask you that. how much of this plan has to be paid for in your mind? 50%, two-thirds, whatever the number is or all of it? >> i think that we've made some extraordinary investments in our covid response over this past year and a half. we've made investments in our economy and in our communities that were vital. they've had real impacts on the -- where we are with our debt and deficits. as we're looking long-term we should be focused on paying for these investments that we're making. long-term investments in the economic recovery of our country but we should be looking at how to pay for it. i want our generation to be the ones paying for it as we plan for the future.

>> okay. will you vote for this if it has some deficit spending and does it depend how much? >> this bill is not even written yet. my focus and what i've been advocating for is to ensure we responsibly paying for longer-term investments that we're looking to make here. >> let me shift to afghanistan. you're going to be dealing with a hearing that is coming up. you'll have the secretary of state in front of your foreign affairs committee next week. when you think about this withdrawal in your own experience in the national security field, you're a long-time member of the intelligence community, can you pinpoint one way this went wrong or is it a confluence of events? >> my background, as you mentioned, i was a cia officer. i was driven to serve in the cia after the events of 9/11. i was getting my mba when the

pentagon and twin towers were struck. i always intended to move home and idealize the idea of serving my country, that's when it came into stark, really, my desire to serve in the intelligence field. i worked counterterroism for the entirety i was with the agency. so much of what we've seen has really struck me. i think the important aspects of what went wrong in afghanistan, what has occurred evaluating what we've seen is there's 20 years worth of decisionmaking that we ultimately need to be looking at. when secretary blinken comes before the hearing i will specifically ask about his time and his position and what happened under the current administration. but certainly that can't happen in a vacuum. there's 20 years of pivot points that we as a nation have pursued that have impacted the decision

factors and the state of play as the new administration came in in january. >> let's talk about your counterterroism background, the idea that we have the over the horizon capabilities on one hand, generally we do, more so than any other country, but in afghanistan are you confident that an over the horizon counterterroism strategy is feasible or the lack of nearby base is a problem? >> so, i come at this with a bit of a mixed view. i'm a former intelligence officer, a core collector as we were called. i was a case officer. so one of the individuals who were be recruiting individuals, handling foreign nationals who were providing information back to the united states. i believe deeply in the value of human intelligence that is collected person to person, which, of course, requires a presence in country. i think it's undeniable without a presence in country we will

see a shift in what it is we can collect. the relationships that we can create and the information that we can garner from them. however, there are places throughout the world where we do not have a significant or presence of great existence and over the horizon efforts have been valuable tools to not just combat terrorism locally but also understand the ongoing threat. so i think that we're in a place where -- before i make any grand assertions of how prepared we are or what shortcomings may exist, certainly those are going to be questions that i'll be asking, elements of what our preparations are that i'll be speaking to understand. but i do value human intelligence greatly. it's how i came to be the intelligence field. it's the trade that i practice. ultimately we do -- technology

has changed very, very much over the past 20 years. the elements we're able to bring and the technologies we're able to bring to bear. >> right. you sound optimistically skeptical, if i could sum up your contradiction. you want this to work but it's a wait and see, fair? >> optimistically skeptical is a great way to characterize my feelings. >> congresswoman abigail spanberger, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> thank you very much for having me. coming up, as president biden prepares to talk to the nation tomorrow about coronavirus, there are signs of cases plateauing.

how long will that last? and later on we will head to texas as governor abbott struggles to defend this new abortion ban. the now strictest in the country. before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪♪

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welcome back. president biden is set to unveil a new pandemic strategy tomorrow. it's expected to focus on boosting vaccinations amid efforts to contain the delta variant in what could be a pivotal time for the country. nationwide cases are showing some signs of plateauing. the seven-day average decreased this week for the first time since june. but maintaining that downward trend will prove challenging. millions of students are back in class. states that saw some of the worst surges are waging wars over masks in schools. at least 1,000 schools in 31

states have been forced to close and tens of thousands of students are stuck at home quarantining. joining me now from outside one of those schools that was forced to close is kyle perry and also joining us is medical contributor dr. medilia. nobody wants to close schools. the one thing that everybody seems to agree on, no matter your view of the danger of this virus is let's find a way to get everybody in-person learning, but it seems as if schools are just running into logistical and operational issues to even keep schools open with so many people getting covid. >> yeah. there's a staffing shortage as well. in kentucky it was a last-ditch effort to control what we're seeing as almost a historic spike in cases. 13,000 in just a week. that's the worst week kentucky has seen since the pandemic began. it is, as the governor says, a situation on the brink.

the health situation is a dire one indeed. they're shifting patients from hospital to hospital. the state is running low on icu beds. so that is why the schools are shutting down. 38 out of 171 school districts are shut down right now in the state to try to control those numbers. central to all of this is a very ugly political fight over masks. for many superintendents in the state, it shouldn't be a political fight. take a listen to what the superintendent in harrison county told me a short time ago. >> masks are necessary in schools. absent masks we don't have the social space within the schools in order to operate safely and efficiently without having numerous and just an unbelievable amount of quarantines. >> as we look towards the president's speech tomorrow, he will be talking about vaccines. to give you an idea, in the state of kentucky, 49.1% of folks are fully vaccinated. one of the problems here is when you get into the more rural areas of the state, some of

those counties are only seeing 35% of folks vaccinated. it will be hard to get the virus under control in this state with those numbers going up. >> that's the problem. this is not an even distribution where our vaccinated and unvaccinated folks are. cal perry for us, thank you very much. let me bring in the doctor. so, based on what you're seeing with this plateauing, is this -- this surge has been driven by the southern states. the plateauing feels like it's also driving this. should we assume this is real or is this just a pause until we see the midwest uptick in the next two to four weeks? >> well, i think cal just mentioned that, this is an uneven distribution of cases, peaks and vaccinations. clearly the southern states are starting to see plateaus, the midwest is seeing some rising cases. i think you may see a decrease,

but a few things on the horizon make me worry that we might then see a slight increase again, which is, as you mentioned, the schools not to mention universities opening which is causing travel from across the world and now congregate living. in a month people who are younger who -- a portion of whom may not be vaccinated and colder weather and the fact you might have waning of immunity who are much older and may have gotten the vaccine last december and january, which leads into that conversation about boosters. >> what is there to watch for? are you looking at specific couple of towns that you're looking at? maybe it's college towns that are going to have an influx of fans from -- i think of whether it's penn state and a home game at penn state where that's a crowd that basically gathers from all of the mid-atlantic and a lot of pennsylvania. is it to see if there's outbreaks there or if things hold up pretty well?

will that tell you if a fall surge is in our future? >> well, i think you can already see that the dye is being cast. when you look at the states right now that have the highest rates of vaccinations, vermont and connecticut and you compare some with the lowest rates of vaccination, it's such a big difference. even in terms of numbers of cases and hospitalizations. at some states the cases are 1/5 or 1/8 compared to those who have vaccination rates less than 50%. one would hope -- i think one would hope in those states that are highly vaccinated, that you still have a resilience. we're looking at the same number, which is really an increase in those cases followed by hospitalizations. for me, those large gatherings, chuck, over the weekend, like the texas a&m game, the college football games are concerning because most of them are happening in communities that

have lower vaccinations. my eyes are in those communities because it's not just the events themselves, which carries a risk, but where the events are happening. the resilience of those communities in terms of vaccination, how overwhelmed the hospitals and health care systems already are. >> let's talk about what the president is going to roll out tomorrow. i've talked to a lot of public health officials quietly who have said, yeah, the covid test needs a reboot. some thinks it needs new voices or a new plan what do you hope to hear from the president tomorrow that you haven't heard? >> yeah. i think there's two things that -- as a public health practitioner not in the administration, you are seeing an increasing call for more data. you know, the vaccination rates that are corresponding to people who are hospitalized, it would be great to have granular data from our health care system and

granular data about the number of break-through infections and the impact on vaccination rates. we don't have that because in the u.s. we have a public health system in the public sector and a health care system largely in the private sector. there needs to be a way to get that information. i'm hoping to see -- we talk about boosters, we talk about vaccines for kids, which i'm hoping to hear more guidance from the white house about, and to sort of potentially fix some of the communication issues that have gone on with the booster. but really, to comfort with a plan on how we'll gather that data so that we are making decisions that are more science-based rather than projecting into the future and reacting. >> well, in fact that brings me to break-through infections. it does seem as if there's an explanation of why some people -- i will use my family as an example. i have family who lives in florida. central florida and northwest florida who are fully vaccinated

but they know a lot of vaccinated people with break-through infections. here in northern virginia, it's a much higher vaccinated community, you don't hear about these break-through infections. is that really the -- basically if you're fully vaccinated, you're more a threat of a break-through infection if you're in a place like florida than you are if you're in a place like northern virginia or suburban maryland? >> yeah. i think i've used this in the past, which is really about umbrellas and raincoats. all these tools that we're layering on to help us keep protected from rain, in this case, virus, depends on how heavy the rain is and how much virus there is out there in the community. we always talk about vaccine efficacy as an individual function. we should be talking about it in correlation with the activity of what the vaccines are doing as a community function, which is that it truly is the more people that are vaccinated around you the less the amount of virus

that is there so you yourself -- it's not just the vaccines but also how high the community transmission is that affects your risk. >> the bottom line, folks, you want your community to be healthy, safe and normal, get vaccinated. doctor, as always, thanks for your expertise. appreciate it. coming up, the legal and political fight over these mandates, particularly vaccine mandates. we'll speak to the democratic mayor of tucson as she goes head to head over the republican attorney general over the issue. . [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding]

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just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. . welcome back. as president biden prepares to roll out a new federal plan to fight covid, the political and legal fight over pandemic precautions continues to rage across the country at the local level. in arizona, for example, the state's attorney general, mark brnovich ordered the city of tucson to rescind its mandate for city workers and accused the city of violating state law. this after a month city leaders told 1,000 who were not vaccinated to get vaccinated. brnovich says tucson has 30 days to repeal the vaccine requirement or risk losing millions of dollars in state funding. the mayor of tucson, regina romero, joins me now. madam mayor, what's your plan

here? do you think the state is on sound legal ground to deny you funds? >> no, we frankly don't understand how attorney general brnovich is telling the city of tucson that we're violating a law that does not yet take effect. so we are in the process of looking at our legal options, but we are flabbergasted, frankly, that the attorney general is making this -- which i feel is a -- taking a political stance on an issue that quite frankly is killing arizonas and tucsonans at an alarming level. the republican state legislature have been micro managing and

tightening the hands of local leaders of making their own decisions on how we prevent the continued threat of covid. >> tell me exactly who your vaccine mandate applies to in tucson? is it all government workers that work for the city? is it pima county? and do school employees fall under your mandate? >> it's strictly for city of tucson employees. basically we did not want to apply a mandate for all city of tucson residents. it was just for city workers. and as an employer, we have to make sure that we have a healthy work environment for our employees as well as the public that we give services to. so the city of tucson and i have

been and my colleagues have been at the leading edge following the science that tells us what we need to do to take care of the public health of our community. one year ago we did not have a vaccine, which, by the way, the fda have approved the pfizer vaccine. there's no reason why we shouldn't request that our public service employees providing services to the community protect each other and the community that we serve. >> are you coming up with an alternative don't call it a mandate mandate? meaning, so if employees choose not to get vaccinated, they would have to pay more in health care costs or things like that?

are there other ways you can get around the law that they try to impose that would essentially put people in a position where it would be a financial penalty if they didn't get vaccinated? >> we have assumptions. the city of tucson put this mandate into effect and we have seen a lot of success in having our employees vaccinated. 83% of our employees are now vaccinated because we've really tried to push how important it is for our public service employees to be vaccinated. pima county government instituted just yesterday a surcharge in insurance premiums. in tucson we have religious exemptions, medical exemptions, those are permitted. of the 3,500 employees that the

city of tucson has, about 500 employees submitted an exemption for religious or medical exemptions. >> do you assume they're all legitimate or are some folks trying to take advantage of the system? >> we're validaing them now. it's important to talk about why the city of tucson and mayor and council feel like we need to go in this direction. we have -- it's not a question of individual freedom. it's a question of public health. especially now that school has started and we've seen more than 1,300 children and teachers be

infected by the delta variant, we feel as the city of tucson we have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable communities in our city. it is a step that as duly elected officials we have through our charter the capacity to protect our residents from public health hazards. so the biggest issue that we have is that governor ducey and now the attorney general are playing games with the health and safety of arizonans and tucsonans. >> regina romero, appreciate you coming on, sharing your perspective with us. you know, people -- it couldn't be about freedom for those who are vaccinated. people would like to be free of this virus and free of the risk and those that are being selfish and are unvaccinated are also hurting our freedom. madam mayor, you don't have to

respond. i appreciate you coming on. up next, we'll head to texas on the latest political, legal and medical fallout as governor abbott struggles to defend the new abortion ban. 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. my hygienist cleans and if you're pregnant orwith a round head. so does my oral-b

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welcome back. the governor of texas, greg abbott, defended his state's new restrictive abortion law pushing back at a reporter questioning the law, it requires rape victims to give birth. >> 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, let's make something very clear, rape is a crime. and texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate

all rapists from the streets of texas. >> so, while abbott vowed to get all rapists off the streets, critics noted it will not help any woman who finds out she's pregnant after the state's six-week ban deadline, which can come as early as six weeks on the heartbeat side before many women know they're pregnant. texans are now trying to travel to surrounding states like oklahoma to get an abortion. that assuming that oklahoma doesn't tighten its laws. priscilla thompson has some new are going to to have abortions and the effects on its neighbors. what are you learning? >> clinics like this planned parenthood are beginning to refer patients past that six-week period to places like new mexico and colorado that don't have these more restrictive laws in place. it's not just these larger clinics that are having to

grapple with this, we're also seeing smaller clinics in some of these neighboring states like oklahoma, which you mentioned that have just been inundated with phone calls from people here in texas. we've been speaking with trust clinics and a women's clinic in oklahoma, and they are booked for the next three weeks because over the past week they have made more than 150 appointments. two-thirds of those appointments are for women in texas. and i had an opportunity to speak with the coexecutive director there. and there's a real concern that they may not be able to serve residents in their own states because of this influx from texas, and that women in texas will have to go to states further away as the appointments fill up. i want to play part of my conversation. take a listen. >> there are going to be people who won't be able to get an

appointment. and it's going to change the course of their life. there's so much overflow from texas. there are going to be oklahoma people who won't be able to receive care in oklahoma because the clinics will be full of texas patients. 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 clinic is working to up their staffing numbers, asking doctors to take on extra shifts, but it just doesn't seem like a viable solution long-term for them. chuck? >> priscilla thompson in what could be a preview of quite a few states and quite a few bordering state issues, depending on what other states do in the coming months.

thank you. coming up, just days after the last u.s. troops left afghanistan, the remains of two fallen soldiers in the kabul blast are heading home. we have a report from the pentagon next. you're watching "meet the press" daily. ily. hey, get your own vapors relax with vicks vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. wealth is breaking ground on your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. principal. for all it's worth.

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it's awe. beauty. the measure of progress. it's where people meet people. where cultures and bonds are made between us. where we create things together. open each other's minds. raise each other's ambitions. and do together, what we can't do apart. this is space for dreams. loopnet. the most popular place to find a space. welcome back. days after the remain ps of the 13 fallen u.s. soldiers returned to dover from kabul following the deadly attack. two of the soldiers are now going to the final resting place.

you are seeing the images of the dignified transfer to cleveland international airport where navy corpman max celiac of ohio and also joining me now is courtney kube, and the final passages for these hero, and this is, i mean, it is just an excruciaing couple of weeks for the families for sure. >> yes, absolutely. as you mentioned, there were 13 american service members who were killed, and another 20 who were injured in the attack, and more than a dozen of those injured are still in the hospital now, and some of them remain in serious condition, chuck. we had a chance over the weekend to catch up with some other u.s. soldiers from the 431, and part

of the 10th mountain division, and they were the -- this is the first unit that deployed to afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11 nearly 20 years ago and among the last u.s. soldiers on the ground in kabul in the last days. they were supposed to actually come home to fort drum in may, but they were extended time and time again. their final mission there was the evacuation of the service members of americans and of afghan citizens. these are infantry soldier, chuck, and not used to dealing with the humanitarian crisis and we were able to ask a couple of the soldiers fresh off of the plane what it is like to be there from kabul in the last several days. >> what was it like to see so many afghans rushing on the base or rushing on the airport and seeing the desperation, and what was that like for you? >> yeah, it is difficult. desperation especially. you know, people handing the

babies over for, you know, doing anything they could to try to get into the airport on to the aircraft. it was hard to see some of that stuff. >> reporter: what was it like to deploy to a war that started after an attack on 9/11 that you don't remember happening? >> it is a little surreal, because, you know, growing up, you hear about the war in afghanistan, and i find myself there, and i think it is a special transition that some people have had and a honor that i have been a part of it. >> reporter: and specialist murray there was only a month old when the attack of 9/11, and this is giving you an idea of america's longest war. some of the last troops don't remember the attack that brought the u.s. into the war. >> courtney, that is the hardest thing about those who died is to think that basically, some of

them were only months' old when 9/11 happened. courtney kube at the pentagon for us, and terrific reporting. tune in tonight at "memory box, echos of 9/11" and this is a very interesting recording from a video booth that has never been shown on film, and the same eyewitnesses return to the memory booth to reflect on the past two decades and don't miss it tonight. we are very proud of this, and it will be streaming whenever you want it on peacock. that is going to do it for us this hour. we will be back tomorrow for more "meet the press daily", and we will continue with more "msnbc coverage" with geoff bennett. with geoff bennett. y without a lab.

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the building was bleeding into the sky. >> i cried tout jesus to help

me, help me get out of this. >> in the air, you could feel the reality of it. >> time doesn't heal. it does not fix things, but time makes the trauma less sharp. it softens the edges. it is good to be with you. i'm geoff bennett and as we come on the air there is a showdown brewing between the world health organization and the president's plan for covid booster shots which is pending approval. and now, there is a call for americans who have compromised immune systems and the plan laid out for the white house covid team, that boosters are going to be available to all american adults and starting with those who got the pfizer shot, but the head of the w.h.o. said, not so fast and he is