welcome to "meet the press daily." in hours, president biden plans to address the nation and announce a new plan to fight the raging pandemic. it will have more vaccine mandates, more tests for schools among other things. the white house is trying to hit the reset button on the pandemic response. we sound like a broken record, but it is true. how covid goes, how goes the biden presidency. last few months having gone well on covid. infections, hospitalizations, deaths have risen to levels not seen since some of the worst days of the pandemic.

more than 1500 on average die every day. more than 100,000 hospitalized. pediatric hospitalizations have risen more than 40% in the last month. around 150,000 new infections are being reported daily. while the president's mission to make the vaccine available has been a success, his mission to get enough americans to get the vaccine has not. a source familiar with the white house plans today tells nbc news president biden is expected to announce a new, more stringent vaccine requirement for federal workers that won't have a testing carbon. it is expected to come in the form of an executive order, and will apply to contractors. a contractor can be somebody that works overseas or somebody that helps empty the trash at a government building. the definition of contractor varies widely in our government. in other words, it appears to be the administration's way to say if you don't get vaccinated, you won't do business with us, no exceptions. biden is expected to push the private sector to do the same.

we got new information on how they're going to impress on the private sector. an administration official confirmed the president will call on all schools to set up regular testing. what resources he will devote to that effort we'll have to wait and see. we have every angle of the big story covered. we're going to speak to some of the nation's top medical experts, school superintendents and governor on the frontlines of the fight, and our own nbc reporters working this story for the latest. we're going to dive in. mike memoli is at the white house, and dr. peter hotez, and founder of advancing health quit, dr. blackstock. mike, let me start with you. is this a reset? is that how we should look at this address today by biden? >> reporter: chuck, a lot of this is being dictated by the timing where we are now. labor day was a natural point at which people are going back to school, supposed to go back to

work places. we know this president is somebody who always wants to as he puts it speak straight from the shoulder at big moments like this about what's happening, but hard not to see today's speech in contrast to another big speech he gave on covid two months ago, fourth of july, when he was eager to put the pandemic behind him, to declare independence from the virus. it is amazing when you look at the chart of cases in this country, that was literally the low point of the pandemic, and what happened after that speech, the delta variant arrives, case levels shoot up. politics are always at play, but some of this is based on the process and legal review happening at the white house about what their options are. once the fda did fully authorize vaccines, that added some tools to the tool kit in terms of requirements they could issue and that employers could issue. one of the new pieces we are learning now, the labor department will be asked to do rule making, issue a rule to any

work force of employment of more than 100 individuals to institute vaccine mandates, to really explore whether that's possible. we're learning another big piece they were considering in terms of power of the purse as it is, any health care facilities in this country that receive medicare, medicaid dollars must require their work forces to be 100% vaccinated. that's a big deal because we know how much the federal dollars mean, in places like florida like say the state hasn't been as willing to follow the federal government's lead in terms of best practices on covid here. >> mike, did you say they're considering that or that's also part of the announcement? >> reporter: that is expected to be part of the announcement, what we are getting from sources familiar with the process. the white house is not confirming on this, but we know there's obviously a medical community in touch with the white house as they're making policy decisions and so our best guidance at this point is this is what the president is going to announce. the way to look at it, chuck,

the white house, the six pronged approach that the president is expected to layout are a lot of the best practices he talked about throughout his time as president and even before in the campaign. really turning the dial up, turning soft suggestions into requirements and mandates, with taking exceptions away. this is the president doing what some who had been critical of him for withholding, not going as hard as he could through the process is getting to that point. >> i was going to say, sounds like a little change in tone on some of these things. i will be curious to see how it is laid out. mike memoli, thank you. doctors blackstock and hotez, after this announcement of the president addressing the public later today, you quickly tweeted i hope this is a wholesale reset

essentially. explain what you mean by that, and from what you heard, do you think we're headed that direction? >> thanks so much for having me. to be honest, we need a reset. you mentioned that earlier. we have 1500 people dying each day. we need a stronger federal response. i was hoping to see that today. i hope we still do. in terms of six pronged response, i think aspects of the strategies i agree with, the booster one as much a priority as the other ones. i think now the goal is to vaccinate as much of the unvaccinated population. i agree with mandates. right now, you have most counties in high transmission levels. there's widespread transmission across the country. only 12 states with mask mandates for indoors. and that is unacceptable. we need to use other mitigation strategies to get case numbers down. i would like to hear from

president biden what is he going to do in terms of federal powers, legal loopholes to get states and localities to institute indoor mask mandates, especially if the concern is keeping schools open, we need to be sure that community rates are down. you have to remember schools aren't inherently safe, we need to do what we can to use multi layered strategies for inside schools. we can't forget what's happening in communities as well. we need to of course consider equity considerations, providing social supports to essential and nonessential workers to stay home if needed. >> dr. blackstock, are you concerned some masking decisions, including the if you get vaccinated, you don't have to wear a mask have been infused with too much politics and not enough science? >> you know what i think, i think that some of the more recent guideline updates seemed to come from a very personal

responsibility, individualistic perspective, and i think in terms of ending the pandemic, we need a collective response. what i would like for the cdc and white house to think about in terms of messaging is that we are all in the same boat, the idea of the pandemic of unvaccinated, we have seen that it is not just the pandemic of the unvaccinated, when hospitals are at capacity, both people with covid and noncovid problems are impacted and we have cases across the country. we need a reset in terms of thinking about perspective that messaging is coming from. >> dr. hotez, the announcement, one of the first leaks from what the president was going to announce was the idea of calling on all schools to do testing. i am sitting here going this should have been laid out august 9th, not september 9th. is this still a strategy that's too focused on vaccinations and not thinking about the testing issue and masking issue?

>> well, chuck, when you have a virus this transmissible, it is not either or, we have to do everything. and what you really have to do is have vaccine mandates in schools. we should have a rule anyone walks into a school over the age of 12 has to be vaccinated, in addition to wearing a mask. otherwise we've seen what happens in the south here when we don't do that, schools attempt to open and have to shutter after a couple of weeks because there's too much covid transmission. this is the overwhelming problem the biden administration is facing of the 80 million unvaccinated and of those, you have 100,000 between may and now lost their lives. those are almost all unvaccinated. and projections are another 100,000 will lose their lives and 100,000 hospitalizations a day, that's overwhelming the health system. the central question is this, chuck. how far can federal mandates take us to chip away at the 80

million, and i think it can have some impact, but it is still not enough. there has to be a parallel plan in place. >> you think a mask mandate essentially for schools in some form, which again, the federal government could do if it did the federal dollar approach, you could make universities do it and many are already doing that, i mean, would you be looking for more ways to make sure both a vaccine requirement and mask mandate until we get to a certain metric is somehow put in place? >> absolutely. and i think of those maxing out vaccination mandates are absolutely critical. the thing to do. the problem with schools, k-12 schools is that that's for historically and recent history always been done at the state level. are there levers we can push at the federal level for the schools. i think what you're going to be looking at are unprecedented

attempts to try to have the federal government weigh in to increase the number of vaccinated, otherwise we're going to continue to live with this pandemic. and the bar is high. the virus has reproductive number between 5 and 8. 85 to 90% of the u.s. population, not adults, u.s. population has to be vaccinated, all the adults and adolescents. i am hoping we hear something innovative from the white house what they can do to close that gap. >> dr. blackstock, how concerned are you about schools and the way that they are going to be spreaders for a surge that's going to continue the next three months. >> and patch work is definitely the right word. i have a four and six-year-old starting school next monday in new york city public schools and i'm definitely concerned. we have the delta variant, more transmissible.

schools will be full for in person. yeah, i have concerns. i agree with dr. hotez in terms of mask and vaccine mandates for anyone eligible in schools. and the northeast schools are reopening next week. we will see what happens. we really have to take better care of our children. they're incredibly vulnerable. i hope the fda can approve, give eua for vaccines for children 5 to 11. put again, what's important is getting cases overall down, getting as many people vaccinated as possible. >> the issue of the third shot or booster, dr. hotez, the messaging on this has been to use the word mixed is probably being gentle, it has been confusing. my mother doesn't know when she's supposed to get a booster. what is the definition of immuno compromised, anybody over a certain age or if you have this, this, and this.

i assume you're hoping that gets cleared up a little today. >> yeah. as we talked in the past, chuck, i thought the two mrna vaccines were a three dose vaccine and the j&j were two dose vaccine. part of the problem wasn't messaged from the very beginning. and so now we're playing catchup on that. and to add to the confusion, we don't have a lot of data in front of us to know the extent to which immunity is declining. >> why is that, why do we have this data issue. >> all the data is coming out of israel and the uk. that's why we have no information on moderna or j&j vaccine, those aren't used in the uk or israel. this is another time where the cdc unfortunately, hate to say this, come up small. we just have not had that adequate presentation of data. we should have this in real time every day knowing break through

hospitalizations and cases and other countries do it. >> dr. black stock, my question is sort of is this sort of look, they inherited a tough situation, they've got governors not being helpful, the biden team, but getting better surveillance at the cdc was something that was in their hands here. have they made a mistake not boosting up the cdc's ability to be the point person? should we really be waiting for data out of the uk and israel to make our decisions? >> i agree. that should be the priority right now, getting data. 100,000 hospitalized in the u.s. right now from covid. we need information on those 100,000 people to guide how the rest of the strategy goes to containing the pandemic. i think what it speaks to is the lack of investment in our public health infrastructure. that is one of the lessons that

we have learned in this pandemic is that we really need to prioritize public health and resources because we can't afford this to happen again the way it is happening. >> yeah, the testing, i mean, we blew it from the start, didn't we, at the cdc. seems like we have been playing catchup on the testing front and then the surveillance front basically from the start of the pandemic. dr. hotez, dr. blackstock, two important, comforting voices to have on here to help guide folks through this. thank you both. i appreciate it. meanwhile, we have breaking news out of the justice department. the attorney general, merrick garland, plans to have a press conference at 2:30 p.m. eastern time, expected to announce the u.s. government plans to sue the state of texas over the law that effectively bans all abortions after six weeks. we have known since monday doj planned to take action to challenge the law. texas sba, abortion law.

in about an hour, we'll find out what the action is. it isn't clear what justice can do here, but it may expedite how soon the supreme court may hear a case involving texas. we'll hear the remarks at 2:30. coming up, the president is expected to call on all schools to set up regular testing. is it too late? i speak to two superintendents. and later, first time since the u.s. withdrawal, the taliban allowed a passenger jet with around 200 americans and other foreign citizens to fly out of kabul. you're watching "mtp daily." u'r" the journey is why they ride. when the road is all you need, there is no destination. uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom.

nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... ♪ if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy.

no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com.

welcome back. we just learned the president will call on all schools to set up regular coronavirus testing as part of the administration's six part plan to get the

pandemic under control. we'll hear more on that in a few hours. this is as the pressure to keep schools opens intensifies, many unvaccinated return to class in the middle of a mass summer surge. in los angeles, they have the first mandate, requiring vaccinations for all students 12 and older. federal data shows there's a reason for concern. pediatric hospitalizations up 42% in one month. children makeup a quarter of all new infections. with the least vaccinated states leading the surge in hospital admissions for children. sadly, this isn't that complicated to see who's at risk. joined by two school superintendents on the frontlines as kids return to the classroom. chad geston from phoenix union, and let me start with phoenix. you see what l.a. is doing. tell me, do you have mandates in place for students 12 and up or

teachers within your system? >> no. right now no vaccine mandate. we are mandating masks, which is an important mitigation strategy for us. we just this week launched a campaign for vaccines. our goal, you heard from dr. hotez earlier on the show, trying to get to 85 to 90% vaccination rate. we launched a campaign called vaxxed to the max. we are shifting from strongly encourage to incentive. we are incentivizing for staff and students. we're not talking about a mandate. if that's the role we play, we'll talk about continue the near future. >> what about, look, the incentive campaigns haven't totally worked but it seems of all different don't call it mandate mandates that seem to be effective, the nfl has one which is as your vaccine percentage goes up, your privileges go up.

you get to eat in a cafeteria together or things like that. have you thought about any of those ideas? >> there's a lot of talk about that, high school clubs, sports, activities, staff want to travel to conferences, students with more access to privileges. at this point, we're trying to get as many vaccines in arms as possible. we're having the same conversations that we see at the national level, but at this point just working on incentives and strongly encourage. >> alberto car vallow is joining us, superintendent of miami-dade public schools, my home where i got my education. alberto, i am curious. l.a. decided to create a vaccine mandate for 12 plus. where are you on that, number one. and number two, the president is announcing, he wants all schools to do regular testing. you've been doing a lot of testing. is this something you can implement? >> hello, chuck.

number one, we are prevented by law in state of florida from mandating vaccination for employees and or students. this is as a result of legislation passed in the last session. however, we are aggressively incentivizing vaccination of employees with $275 stipend. this community, frankly, vaccination levels is high compared to the rest of the state or country. about 98% of residents in miami-dade got at least one dose of the vaccine. over 88% two doses. as far as 12 and 17, over 85% of them vaccinated. more needs to be done. secondly, specific to the testing. yes, we have mobile units for vaccination and testing of employees and students. we're going to increase frequency of those services in the schools. i can tell you with more than

two weeks into the school year, the positivity rate of miami-dade is lower than positivity rate in the community as large, which means the multi layer protective protocols in place are actually working. >> you have a mask mandate. you fought the state and you have your mask mandate, right? >> we have a mandatory mask mandate with accommodations for those medically endorsed. we are in a series of legal fights. we won in the first court case, it was appealed. there was a stay of the order. it has been appealed. the stay has been lifted, which means our mask mandate is in full force in miami-dade and 13 other districts that adopted similar measures. >> you had some tragedy with teachers dying from covid. can you share, were those unvaccinated or vaccinated folks? >> therein lies the biggest

tragedy. 13 individuals that lost their lives to covid or covid related ailments, none of them, none of them were vaccinated. >> miami-dade public school employees. >> four of them were teachers. the rest were support staff. a significant number of them were bus drivers. all of them contracted and perished as a result of covid based on contact made prior to start of the school year. look, this is one of many consequences of misinformation, disinformation associated with vaccines, about reliability and safety of vaccines. it is the best, most protective way against covid-19. i cannot believe well into the 21st century, there are political forces debating this. >> chad, what do you want to hear from the president that would help you keep your school system safe? >> what you heard from alberto.

first of all, vaccines work. we have to mirror it with testing, know the spread of covid in the community, but this is a layered approach. masks are critical. we have a mask requirement. there's a law in place says we can't require masks or vaccines in arizona. but science is clear, layered mitigation matters. we want to continue to hear that from the president. what we also want to hear is shift of conversation that this can no longer be a conversation about safely reopening schools. we know how to reopen schools. it is about keeping schools open. we must do everything we can in our power across the nation to keep our children in classrooms on campuses, engaged in clubs and sports. the conversation must shift to keeping our kids in school. >> i am curious, do you have the same experience, that the schools with the mask mandate have a lower positivity rate than the community at large? >> maricopa county is one of the

largest counties in the nation, just published data schools with a mask requirement have half the number of outbreaks. in other words, if you don't have a mask mandate, you're twice as likely to have an outbreak. here in phoenix union, we're the high school system, fifth largest city in the nation. we only had 44 active cases among students and staff across the entire system last week. mitigation works. >> alberto, is there anything in -- do you think there's a way if the president announced a federal vaccine requirement for schools that take any federal dollars, do you think that is a loophole that miami-dade public schools could take advantage of to create a mandate or not? >> chuck, right now we are exploring feasibility of additional protective measures to safeguard health and well-being of our kids and work force. we cannot rule out the mandating of vaccines. why? vaccines have been the most

protective tool america and the rest of the world had over generations for ailments that otherwise would kill millions and millions of people. why negate this possibility. do i think there's some lever appropriate and forceful enough, of course. funding is that type of lever. without having access at this point still to the last batch of federal funding which for miami represents about $1.2 billion, yeah, that is a critical element. >> alberto carvalho, chad geston, interesting similar challenges with your state bosses. appreciate you come on and sharing experience with us. next, it is happening around the country. icus in one part of colorado are over capacity. i talk to the governor of colorado what he wants to hear from the president and what

state leaders need from the biden administration as they try to keep covid contained. you're watching "meet the press daily." you're watching "meet the press daily. named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power. number one in reliability, 16 times in a row. most awarded for network quality, 27 times in a row. proving once again that nobody builds networks like verizon. that's why we're building 5g right, that's why there's only one best network. [grunts] ♪ ♪ [grunts] pnc bank believes that if a pair of goggles can help your backhand get better... yeah! ...then your bank should help you budget even better. (laughing) virtual wallet® is so much more than a checking account. its low cash mode feature gives you at least 24 hours of extra time to help you avoid an overdraft fee. you see that?

virtual wallet® with low cash mode from pnc bank. one way we're making a difference. (chimes)

welcome back. as president biden prepares to launch a new approach to fighting covid, even states with some of the highest vaccination rates are dealing with conditions not seen since earlier weeks after vaccinations were first approved. in colorado, 57% of residents

are fully vaccinated. hospitalizations reached the highest level since january. number of outbreaks in schools nearly doubled since just last week, approaching levels not seen since last november. i am joined by colorado governor jared polis. good to have you back. >> always a pleasure, chuck. good to see you. >> all right. you have your own set of challenges with the pandemic. you have this urban, rural divide seems to be a bright line when it comes to vaccinated versus unvaccinated. what can the president say today that helps you fight covid? >> you know, the virus doesn't know urban, rural, it goes where it goes. and obviously we know the vaccines offer a high level of protection. what i would like to see is a couple things. number one, i want them to stick with the september 20th guideline for the booster shot. sooner we get that to people, data looks terrific going from 80, 85% to hopefully 95%

protection. only pushy people can get it or people that might really try hard, it should be widely available, everybody should get it, not just the elite, number one. number two, i want to make sure they move forward quickly approving it for children age 5 to 11. data will be submitted the next day or two. they shouldn't schedule a meeting two weeks ahead, they need to review it, get it out hopefully early october. lot of kids in that category, we need to make sure they get protected. anything you can do to encourage overall vaccination rate for those currently eligible and haven't gotten first dose will end the pandemic rapidly. >> talk about testing announcement he will make. some might say where was the announcement a couple months ago, this should have been the plan as we opened schools, but he wants to increase the testing in schools. you're offering more of, i feel like you're trying to convince

kids on the testing front. should this be mandatory, given schools are a mix of unvaccinated and vaccinated? >> you know, our schools are back and they're back much of the year in colorado. we had a back to school task force early on. we think it is safer from a broad health perspective for kids to be in school for their own well-being and preparedness. a couple of poll strategies. if there's an outbreak in school, the school should be able to test back in, rather than have to go online, out of session a week or two, if they're testing everybody, come back in. it is relatively safe. on an ongoing basis, we want to do screenings. we created an incentive program where kids and families that participate get 10, 15 bucks a week to agree to go through regular testing to catch anything earlier than we otherwise might. it is some of both.

there are times they have to be tested to release them back in but also need basic level of testing, it is a minor inconvenience, so it is fair to compensate people. >> i am curious on the testing front, this feels as if we have been behind on surveillance collectively as a country for months with covid, feels like we get more out of israel that gives us the next what's coming mind-set here. do you feel you get enough data from the cdc or do you need more? >> well, i wish they would act faster with data they have. for example, talking about the booster vaccines. israel has been doing them for two months now. there's no reason we're not doing them on a large scale basis, especially those in their 60s and 70s that got vaccinated. i don't like toying around it should be eight months instead of six. the virus is here today. we have 900 hospitalized in colorado. whether you get the booster and

five or six months, people in their 70s, 80s, 60s, it is important. look to what countries like israel are doing. i wish we knew six months in the future, at least we know a month into the future and can learn a lot from that. >> the issue of messaging to the vaccine resistant, i wouldn't call them hesitant any more, you were hesitant three months ago, you're fully resistant these days if you've chosen at this time not to get the vaccine. have you stumbled on any messaging that works? >> i am more optimistic than you, chuck. there is vaccine hesitant and resistant. say we're at 75%. of that 25%, you may have 10, 12%, hardcore, don't want it, refuse to get it. you have another 10 or 12% doesn't want it, isn't ready, puts it off. i would call them hesitant. there's a way to win them over, science, data. >> do you win them over or do

they come with a mandate? >> a lot of them may do it. they see friends get it, nothing bad happens, see other people hospitalized from covid that haven't been vaccinated, i think you'll win over some of those. you're never going to win over everybody, chuck, and you don't need to. originally we thought 70%, not we, scientists told us 70% herd immunity. looks like we have to be closer to 85, 90%. i think we can. >> we may get there. combination of people getting infected plus the vaccines. i am curious. you made your name before politics. you made it taking a small business and having a lot of success in the tech world. what do you see with this economy and how concerned are you that we're never getting a post covid surge that we have all banked on. then well, not now, another three months, another three months. is there a point we don't see the economic surge?

are you concerned about that? >> we've got to conquer the virus, chuck. the fact it is resurging, people are hospitalized, especially the unvaccinated, it is a setback. people cancelling their plans, conventions, even if moving forward with half the attendance they otherwise would have, so the virus is the threat to the economy. we have the solution. it is a triumph of modern science, three vaccines of pfizer or moderna. if we had the majority vaccinated with three shots, we wouldn't have the pandemic on our hands here. >> yeah. this is one of those points in the pandemic where we all feel like we're our own worst enemy collectively. governor, glad to see you have optimism. we need optimism but also need people to comply. governor polis, appreciate the perspective. >> thank you, chuck. up next, a live report from

doha where the first flight out of kabul in a taliban environment has just landed. you're watching "meet the press daily." you're watching "meet the press daily. where our new auto rates are so low, ♪ you'll jump for joy. ♪ here, better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. does your deodorant keep you fresh all day? we put dove men deodorant to the test with nelson, a volunteer that puts care into everything he does. it really protects my skin. it's comfortable and lasts a long time. dove men, 48h freshness with triple action moisturizers.

hey, dad! dove menhey, son!shness no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most and $0 commissions

for online u.s. listed stocks. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

welcome back. good breaking news from qatar where a passenger flight landed. on board, 200 passengers, including american citizens. why is it a big deal? it is the first large scale international flight to leave kabul since the u.s. completed the military withdrawal last month. a qatari official says another flight could take off tomorrow. the u.s. conceded it was not able to evacuate everyone that wanted to leave by the august 31st deadline. this is what we're hoping to do to get everybody out and flight one is working. raf sanchez is in doha, inside the airport. joins me now. raf, how did the flight come to

be. is this negotiations between our state department and the taliban? is this qatar that made this happen? what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, chuck, this is the product of coordination we never thought we'd see between the u.s. and taliban with the qataris being instrumental getting hamid karzai international airport up and running again. this is the first international passenger flight to take off from there since u.s. forces left in the middle of the night back on august 30th. a few minutes ago, chuck, we were on the runway at the airport in doha. we watched some very tired but very relieved people walking down the stairs of that boeing 777, into the safety and security of doha, after a day that began in taliban controlled kabul, passing through an airport, controlled by the taliban. the same airport that isis-k

carried out the suicide bombing at a couple weeks ago. people are extremely happy to be here. they're happy to be out of afghanistan, but nothing about this is straightforward, chuck. we just spoke to a man, a canadian citizen. he was here with his six-year-old daughter. his wife remains back in afghanistan. she was not able to get on the flight with them. she is going to try to go through pakistan and the hope is at some point through this unbelievable international bureaucracy, this family is going to be reunited. for the biden administration, today is something of a vindication. they were saying they would continue to get americans and afghans out of the country despite not having any u.s. troops there. they've taken a lot of heat for that over the last couple of weeks, but they see this flight as proof positive that that formula works. the question is the one you

raise. can this be lep ri indicated, is this scaleable. given that everybody on this flight that landed today is an international, there are americans, brits, ukrainians, can the same be done for afghan allies that hold siv visas, will they one day be able to get out on a flight like this, chuck. >> you put it well there. good way to end the segment. the real test is if we can get afghans, the taliban to let afghans who helped the americans and our allies, if we can get them out of the country if they want to get out of the country. that test has yet to be taken. raf sanchez for us in doha. thank you. tomorrow, join msnbc. we have special coverage to mark 20 years since the 9/11 attacks. coverage begins at 6:00 a.m., with a special edition of "morning joe." then shows will be anchored from

the pentagon, advantagesville. america remembers 20 years later will continue all day. coming up, we turn to capitol hill. division among the democrats of the price tag for president biden's agenda are heating up. the latest next on "meet the press daily." a corner to build a legacy. a vision for tomorrow. a fresh start. a blank canvas. a second act. a renewed company culture. a temple for ideas. and a place to make your mark. loopnet. the most popular place to find a space. 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. ("this little light of mine") - [narrator] in the world's poorest places, children with cleft conditions live in darkness and shame. they're shunned, outcast, living in pain. you can reach out and change the life of a suffering child right now. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes and your act of love can change a child's life forever. please call or visit operationsmile.org now. thousands of children are waiting.

fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. welcome back. despite claims to try to not

focus on the price tag, the fight over how much of the $3.5 trillion spending package actually makes it into the final bill and what the final price tag is kicking into high gear as the committees are marking up the final billsh and some of the moderate democrats are thinking that 3.5 trillion is too much after spending $3 trillion on covid relief, and some democrats think that 3.5 trillion is a drop in the bucket, and some wanted a $6 trillion, and listen to what the house majority whip jim clyburn had to say yesterday. >> somewhere between 3.5, and $5.5 is $2 trillion and they are there. so i think that there's a lot of room for people to sit down and to negotiate. it may be that when you are sitting around the table that you don't need $3.5 trillion to do what the president wants done

and what the current country needs done. >> spoken like a man who has to count votes for a living being the whip. joining many e now with the negotiations is punch bowl founder ceo anna palmer. so, anna, it is interesting that jim clyburn, and we played those comments over and above everything else that we heard yesterday, because of my feeling that if clyburn is saying what he said that he would not have done it without knowing what the white house is thinking. and when does this start to get more real? it is clear that 3.5 is not the number, but a lot of democrats are pretending that it is. and when does reality set in? >> i think that you are right. jim clyburn deals in reality, and so he was basically sending the smoke signals to the moderates, don't worry, we are not going to try to push it up to $3.5 trillion evenb though you have to democrats like rashida tlaib saying that 3.5 trillion is the floor. that is wrong.

it is the ceiling, and that is as much as the bill is going to be, and there is pushback in the ways and means from the moderates saying that we don't know what the bill is going to look like, and things are going to be tricky here in the next couple of days, and you are going to be starting to see the contours of the bill, and shave it off, because it is not just krysten sinema and joe manchin that we are talking about, because there are other moderates in the house that have issues. >> who is the conductor of the train to keep it on track, and steve brachetti is the one who seems to get it derailed, but usually there is one of the three who seem to keep it on track, and who are the conducks or the o -- conductors of this one? >> yes, the house is a different deal. and the house has deferred to nancy pelosi, and she has a great history of really getting

the massive packages across the finish line. she going to wait the members out, and she knows where she needs to be, and until they come back, we won't have great sense of where exactly she will find the votes and concessions. you saw the moderates cave when it came to the chops of the infrastructure votes first, and so she won that round. so never count against her, but she is by far the person to watch in the next couple of weeks. >> what is, what is the next step here? is it possible that the speaker doesn't allow a vote on the infrastructure bill if this reconciliation package is still, is far away from completion as it appears? >> so, she said that september 27 zt the date that she would like to get this done, but she can punt it, because it is the date certain that it has to happen by, the 27th, so if you zoom out, this is one big package they have to work on,

and they have government funding and the debt ceiling, and they want to do a debt reauthorization, and a lot to be done in eight days if you can believe it, eight days, so it would not surprise me if the reauthorization bill and the reconciliation vote go into october. >> and is this the only way to get the compromises to happen on capitol hill is to overstuff the agenda in number of work days they set aside. i feel like this the new normal now which is to just jam a session in with so much to do that, you don't, they don't want to have any individual member to -- or they want every individual member to think that they are holding up a massive process if you hold up one piece of legislation? >> well, modern day legislating is different from where we shuttle from crisis to crisis and often deals with the funding of the government and keeping the lights on, and there's these kind of the must-pass bills.

to your point, it is smart. when they are back home, they are not being pressed and hearing the capitol hill press corps press everyday on where they are at and negotiating in public, so it is a way for the speaker, one, and a midterm coming up, and they do want to be home, but they want to come back to have something, and a recognition of how much this is actually leadership-driven and individual committee-driven. >> look, maybe it is a smart strategy to jam the entire caucus, but we will see how it plays out for the rest of the month. and anna palm ser going to be on top of the story. thank you. and thank you, all for being with us, and we will be back tomorrow with "meet the press daily," with a big focus on 9/11 and covid. we will be back with more msnbc with geoff bennett.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high you know how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good ♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur.

it's time to start a new day. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond.

it is good to be with you. i'm geoff bennett. at this hour, we are awaiting a news conference from attorney general merrick garland scheduled in 30 minutes. he is expected to announce that justice department is taking civil action against the texas law that bans nearly all abortions in the state. we will bring you his remarks live when they happen. we are also learning this afternoon, new details about president biden's address to the nation later this evening. the white house is going to call it a major speech about covid, and it could be one of the most