>> i'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, so much of the negativity that's defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years. >> i want to bring in california's favorite son, nbc's jacob soboroff in sacramento, national correspondent, steve kornacki, with the break down, and tim miller, an nbc political analyst. we cannot forget this cost californians, you and your neighbors, a quarter of a billion dollars, and it was basically a blowout. are the people there surprised at how things turned out? how do they feel about this price tag? are they aware of it?

>> reporter: i don't think anybody is happy about the price tag, particularly given there's going to be another gubernatorial election just a year from now. people will be voting on whether or not gavin newsom should be the governor again in 2022. if you would have asked me about the surprise a month ago, the answer potentially would have been yes. but the fact that gavin newsom is going back to work in the building behind me this morning after the last couple of weeks that we've had here in california, i don't think it's a surprise. certainly not to his campaign. they felt very confident about how this was going to play out, especially with the late campaign turn, larry elders, and he wasn't going to accept the results of the election. and the reality is people support gavin newsom's policies, they support him on covid vaccine mandates and mask mandates, support his effort to help the unhoused population, to close the inequality gap and fight the wildfires fueled by climate change. this was a validation of his leadership. >> a really expensive one. hopefully there will be no

celebratory dinner at french laundry. steve kornacki, break down the numbers for us. republicans clearly fell short. why did they think they had a chance? >> it was a steep challenge, that's worth keeping in mind. this is a deeply democratic state that joe biden won by nearly 30 points last year. it's a state that gavin newsom won by 25 when he first got elected in 2018. you saw the democratic messaging, you saw biden come into california on election eve, democrats basically were just trying to recreate that same divide that lifted biden to the big win last november. you look at the map and the margin, 70% of the vote in. i don't think these numbers are going to change too much with what's left. so essentially democrats succeeded in their mission. when it was trump/biden last year it was biden 63, trump 34. right now you see no on the raul, 64, 36. you see the purple counties are the counties voting against it, the orange counties are the

counties voting for it. let me flip over and show you what trump/biden looked like. it's the same split. you go inside these counties and really it looks -- to give you an example, let's take a look at riverside. that's the wrong one. here we go. riverside county, inland empire, again, 70% of the vote is in. the recall failing. what was the biden vote in riverside county? about 53%. so it's tracking pretty closely. there are a couple of -- if you look really closely at the counties here, i think the places where the anti-recall side did particularly well are places with higher incomes, white college educated voters. for example, go across the golden gate bridge, this county very wealthy, north of san francisco. this has the highest concentration of white voters with college degrees in the state of california. 50% of the voters here are white voters with college degrees.

84% no. that's actually higher right now, a couple points higher than joe biden's number here. so that's where the opposition to the recall was the most pronounced, in places with high concentrations of white voters with college degrees. if there is a negative note at all for democrats, i think it would just be if you look at the exit poll, it suggests hispanic voters, relative to 2020 and 2018, there's been an uptick in hispanic voters moving away from democrats. i can show you one example. this is kings county, about 60% hispanic. the yes side carries this, you see 63%. that was actually an eight point jump from donald trump's performance. i believe this is the biggest jump in any county in the state from trump's performance to yes performance in the recall. not nearly enough to put yes in contention statewide. this didn't happen in many other counties. but i do think it's worth noting

the exit poll is showing a bit of surprising strength among hispanic voters when it came to support for the recall. here's a county, 60% hispanic, and you see a jump from trump's number to support for the recall. overall it's a landslide, the recall fails. it looks similar to 2020 and opposition was strongest, the democrats were the strongest in this election. i would say college educated, tended to be white voters with college degrees, that group that's been moving towards democrats pretty dramatically in the trump era, continued to in this recall election. >> tim, walk us through the republican rationale. in the last 20 years california has added 7 million democrats and the number of plans has actually gone down. did they ever think that larry elder could come into a state like california and win, or was this just about creating attention and chaos? >> i think they're diluting

themselves. i think sometimes for good reason they talk about democrats being in a coastal bubble of their own and being out of touch with certain parts of the country. the republicans are in a media bubble of their own and are completely out of touch with many parts of the country and the growing dynamic parts of the country. and i think that republicans have bought their own bs, they've decided that if gavin newsom had one dumb out of touch dinner and if people were as mad as they were about mask mandates, they might be able to make this a referendum on gavin newsom's governorship. that's not how things work in politics anymore. you cannot run in california in an anti-vaccine, not believing in climate change, it was madness to have a candidate running that campaign here. and the result was exactly what anybody who had their eyes open

knew it was going to be. >> and a quarter of a billion dollars. >> hopefully this is a wake-up call to republicans running in blue states that they need to run more moderate candidates like charlie baker if they want to have any chance to win. otherwise, this is going to be a replay in the midterms. >> jacob, we talked about this yesterday. even before election day, larry elder's campaign was opening the door, alleging possible election fraud. that was before the polls opened. any more on that today, and given the numbers, do they even have a chance? it's not close. >> reporter: no, not even close. the integrity of the election here is unquestioned. i told you this the other day. i went inside the largest election jurisdiction, not only in california but the united states of america. steve talked about this last night. los angeles, i think 10 million registered voters in los angeles. they check every single signature automatically. larry elder did not do himself

any favors by saying he would not accept or at least refusing to say he would accept the outcome of the election, and it turns out, stephanie, he did accept the outcome of the election last night at that event. he said that he had lost the battle, but he was going to win the war. sounds pretty much like a concession to me after all of that talk. >> thank you so much. we're going to leave it there. i'm sure you need to get to bed, jacob. you've been up all night. now we've got to turn to some stunning new details about the lengths america's top general was willing to go to to stop former president trump from starting a war in a last-ditch effort to hold onto power, even getting one of america's adversaries on the phone to assure them he wasn't going to let a war happen. the details come from the new book "peril". nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander has more. >> reporter: among the most explosive revelations in the new

book "peril" it's reported that two days after the january 6th riot, mark milley had become increasingly concerned about president trump's mental state following his election loss, worrying the president could go rogue and start a war. according to the book that's been obtained by nbc news, the country's top military officer summoned his staff to a secret meeting to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, millie emphasizing that only the president could get the launch order, he also had to be involved. he said, quote, if you get calls no matter who they're from, there's a process, there's a procedure and i'm part of the procedure. earlier that day, millie took a call super house speaker nancy pelosi who asked what precautions were available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike. millie assured her there were a lot of checks in the system. pelosi saying of trump, he's crazy and what he did on january

6th is further evidence of his craziness. millie's response, i agree with you on everything. millie also assured china's top general in late october the u.s. would not strike, prompted by beijing's fears america was prepared to attack, due in part to trump repeatedly berating china for the coronavirus. >> it's not my fault that it came here. it's china's fault. >> reporter: millie delivering this pledge, if we're going to attack, i'm going to call you ahead of time. it's not going to be a surprise. overnight trump firing back at millie. >> for him to say that i was going to attack china is the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. >> reporter: the authors also report in late december then vice president pence, the target of president trump's pressure campaign to overturn the results, called former vice president dan quayle to ask whether he could accommodate that demand. quail telling pence, you have no flexibility on this, none, zero.

>> overnight donald trump blasted the book. millie is certain to face tough questioning when the four-star general testifies before congress. that will happen later this year. republican marco rubio calling for president biden to fire millie. >> dan quayle saves the day. peter, thank you. let's bring in white house correspondent for pbs news hour and moderator of washington week on pbs. we're talking about someone who very well might be the next republican nominee for president. i'm obviously talking about former president trump. i know you've been looking into some of the reporting that is in this book. given that at this moment he is still the de facto head of the republican party, what is the most shocking thing in here that the american people need to know? >> the most shocking thing when you take all of this reporting into account, and i've been talking to some former trump

officials, as well as allies of president trump, the most shocking thing is that people within the trump administration thought president trump was crazy. they thought that he was someone who would not be trusted to head the military and to be the commander in chief of our country and that you had military officials taking extraordinary actions and having extraordinary conversations in order to try to protect the american people from what they thought was a president who was unstable and who at times they felt was mentally ill. this was a president who even the people that were closest to him really did not trust him with some of the basic things that a president is supposed to do, which is really protect the american people. i've also been having conversations with people who have at some times confirmed for me the direct word-for-word conversation that general millie was having with a number of people, among them house speaker nancy pelosi. he of course at the time was a chief opponent of former president trump on january 8th, two days after the capitol

attacks. and when house speaker nancy pelosi said he is crazy, he is crazy, we cannot trust him, general millie was not a political person, and said i agree with you on everything. that's word for word. that tells you that even people who were not conventionally political, they were looking at president trump and saying he is someone that is very, very much someone who would put us all in peril, and as a result you see this reporting coming out with people saying they had to try to do what they could, even reaching up the chain of command in order to protect the country. >> peter mention a moment ago millie is set to testify before the senate armed services committee less than two weeks from now and there's a ton of questions. he's got to cover terror threats, afghanistan, a whole lot. do you think the stuff inside this book also needs to be addressed or is it a waste of time, the person who was potentially putting us in peril or at risk, donald trump, he's now just a private citizen, an unemployed guy? >> it's a great question.

there's two things. one, former president trump is a private citizen, but he's also someone who is at the head of the ticket. this is not something that's going away. so there is real energy on the side of the democrats and possibly also the republicans because some of them are calling for millie to be dismissed. this is this real bipartisan interest in figuring out how bad did it get and how bad could it get if president trump was possibly re-elected. i think you're going to see democrats really wanting to try to paint millie and say he was protecting the country so they might be asking questions about that and questions about what are the dangers going forward if someone who is unstable is the president again. and then i think you have republicans, including senator marco rubio, who want to pressure millie to resign, as he's already called for, is wanting president biden to dismiss him.

>> milley resigns, how is that a win for rubio? >> it's a really interesting question. i think what he gets is this more close alliance to the head of the republican party, which is former president trump. there are these people, of course, that are going to be vying for marco rubio and see if former president trump doesn't run, can they still run on the trump legacy, on the closeness with trump? because republican voters are very much aligned with trump. if you're someone who is seen as having trump's back, you could then be seen as someone who would take trump's supporters if he doesn't run. so that's the political angle. if you ask republicans, they're saying what marco rubio gets is taking down a joint chief of staff who stepped out of line who republicans think did the wrong thing here. that's a republican view of this because you go back to democrats and say president trump was unstable and he was lying about the democracy that holds this country together and he needed

to have guardrails around them and general milley was one of those guardrails. >> all of this impacts where we're going in the future. thank you so much. we've got to turn to breaking news down south. tropical storm nicholas downgraded to a depression overnight but the threat is still very real. the storm moving painfully slow, unleashing rain from texas to mississippi, while more than 200,000 people there still without power in texas and louisiana, and parts of louisiana are remaining under flood watch. this is the ninth storm to hit texas or louisiana since last year, so let's bring in vaughn hillyard in baton rouge. what's the latest? >> reporter: stephanie, 6 million americans are under flash flood watch right now here, which speaks to the expansiveness of this storm here. we're in baton rouge, louisiana, right now and one of those rain bands that spun up in just the last half hour.

it speaks to the significance in the damage this storm could still cause in communities. we're talking about a flash flood, talking about 3 inches, potentially, falling in an hour and that is where officials are concerned. you are seeing rain from here down to new orleans, down to biloxi, mississippi, over to mobile, alabama, all the way to pensacola, florida, right now. this storm is slowly making its way east and north of here. i got a text message early this morning from a woman who i met last week down in la plas, louisiana, where thousands are still without power. their roof is still damaged where water is seeping in. she sent me a photo of water rushing down the main street there. she said it was just a matter of a couple of hours the water rose because the ground is so saturated. the governor, john bel edwards, said they didn't have the ability to be able to clear out the drainage systems ahead of this storm.

when you see this radar here, this system slowly move around, yes, the rain may clear out for one hour but it could easily spin up just an hour later and that is the concern as this storm slowly moves northeast of louisiana. >> that is a lot of water and it is not moving fast. thank you. stay safe where you are. coming up, democrats still hammering out the details of the $3.5 trillion spending package as the debate gets up over the price tag and how they're going to pay for it. senator elizabeth warren will be here to discuss that and a whole lot more. ted tr sk pros, and a passionate trader community sharing strategies right on the platform. because we take trading as seriously as you do. thinkorswim trading™ from td ameritrade. ♪♪ things you start becawhen you're 45.ding as seriously as you do. coaching. new workouts. and screening for colon cancer. yep. the american cancer society recommends screening starting at age 45, instead of 50, since colon cancer is increasing in younger adults. >> that is a lot of water and it here to discuss that and a whole t

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right now the clock is ticking on capitol hill, where lawmakers are still hashing out the democratic only part of president biden's infrastructure plan. we just learned senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema will meet with them later today. today marks the unofficial deadline for the house committee to wrap up their work. house speaker nancy pelosi wants all of it done in two weeks. manchin and bernie sanders are far apart on the price tag and neither are backing down. let's dig deeper in bring in massachusetts democratic senator elizabeth warren. always good to have you here. i have to start, i know you're not in the house, but we hear over and over about these deadlines, these deadlines as part of the infrastructure package, but they're meaningless. they all get blown through. what's the point of them and are there any consequences? >> oh, deadlines are important,

especially for legislators. it's the way to keep them moving forward. look, when decisions are hard and you've got a whole lot of people who have an interest in it, the easiest answer is always, let's go back and think about that some more. and we can do that until the clock runs out. we need to get this done, we need to get this infrastructure package done, the whole thing. i'm glad you show it as the two parts. we need to get it done, frankly, because we need to get to the voting bill. so we have a big agenda here. and keeping everyone latched down, do your work, make your agreements, i think is exactly the right thing and i cheer the speaker and leader schumer, who are trying to keep us moving forward and on a deadline. >> i realize i'm preaching literally to the head of the choir on this one, but i want to go back to the wealth tax,

because the democratic party, the democratic voters want to see wealthy americans pay more in taxes. we are seeing an increase in the plan for corporate taxes. we're not seeing an increase on taxes for the wealthy. what is it about your wealth tax that would truly only impact the richest of the rich americans that literally have dozens of people working on tax loopholes for them? why wouldn't some form of your wealth tax be in there? it is what democratic voters want. >> well, you always want to remember, stephanie, that billionaires are really loud voices in washington, and a lot of legislators are like, well, let's do something else. and keep in mind, when you say democratic voters want to see us put in a wealth tax, the majority of republican voters want to see us put in a wealth tax.

this is a place where congress is in one place and the american people are in a very different place. and i think the two principal reasons for that, people understand how unfair the current system is. 99% of america paid about 7.2% of their total wealth in taxes last year. that top one-tenth of one person, paid 3%. the second reason we need to get the wealth tax in, this is how we have the revenues to be able to pay for universal child care and pre-k and community college and expanding medicare, and fighting the climate crisis head-on. it is the financially responsible thing to do, as well as the thing that produces the most equity in this country.

ask those at the top to trim back a little on their joyrides in outer space and spend some of that money on our babies so they get a good start and our seniors who need access to dental and vision and hearing care, please. >> let's talk about the debt ceiling. mitch mcconnell says republicans are completely against raising it. ted cruz says he will block any attempt to do so. i know you are not down to negotiate. how do you get this thing done? >> look, the united states honors its obligations. we make these obligations when we vote budgets. the debt ceiling is not about somehow restricting americans. sorry, republicans, you have already voted for all of that. and let's keep in mind, during the time that trump was president he ran up the deficit by an additional $5 trillion. now, part of this was pandemic related, part of it was the tax

cuts. democrats went along with the pandemic. but what we always went along with is you raise the debt ceiling to honor america's financial promises. to fail to do so would cost this country enormously around the globe. and that's something you can't reel back in when you break promises like that. so my view on this is the republicans know this, they're just playing politics. they're trolling us, trying to see if they think they can get something out of it. and as democrats, we're just not going to take the bait. >> i want to switch gears and talk about cryptocurrency. you care about protecting everyday americans. cryptocurrencies, i think it's fair to say, are almost basically completely unregulated. just yesterday the sec chair gary gensler told your committee that he sees cryptocurrencies like the wild, wild west.

he's calling for more aggressive policing. what do you think and why hasn't it happened yet? >> well, we've had regulators for the past several years during the trump administration that have not been at all enthusiastic about looking into cryptocurrency, and what's happened is it's continued to grow and it's grown exactly as chair gensler describes it, in a place where there's no law against pump and dump. there's no law against cheating people. and a place where people trade in these coins and then all of a sudden find out, as they did just last week, you can buy some coins, think you'll be able to trade, and the exchange just flatly shuts down for hours while the market for your coin goes down. or unexpected fees, chair gensler and i yesterday talked about how crypto was supposed to

be about financial inclusion. that's what the advocates say. but, in fact, people get blocked out of exchanges or the example i gave, 20 bucks to be able to buy a coin that costs $100 or $100 worth of coins. and then if the market starts to tank, just last week the price for doing an exchange ran up to $500. that kind of wipes out your $100 investment. but more to the point, it's a way of saying right now, when there's no cop on the beat, that consumers, people who need access to their money, walk into crypto and it's just a place to get fleeced. that's not good and that's not financial inclusion. >> a buzz saw with no transparency. i've got to ask you before you go, you asked chairman jay powell to break up wells fargo.

to me that was major. but i quickly looked at wells fargo stock and investors are shrugging it off. the stock actually went up. realistically, is this going to be anything more than a headline? it's an important headline, but is it going anywhere? >> you know, stephanie, remember the reason that i asked this. wells fargo has been caught again cheating consumers. this time cheating them by not following through on promises they made and agreements they signed to be able to reimburse consumers for the last time they cheated them. so my question is, if you're not going to break up wells fargo this time, tell me when you are, because wells fargo has had not one, not two, not four, not five, not seven, but eight major scandals in recent history that we know about, that have reached the public, and they have all been about cheating the american

public. when you cheat the american public that much, it's time for the regulators to step in, it's time for the fed to step in and say, you no longer get to be a giant bank holding company that can not only cheat consumers, but affect our economy overall. you've got to be taken back to your component parts where you don't pose that kind of risk. >> cheating shouldn't result in winning. senator, thank you so much for joining me this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you. still ahead, some of the biggest gymnasts in the world, including simone biles, set to testify in washington on how the fbi handled the larry nassar sexual abuse case. plus, the department of justice making another attempt to stop the restrictive texas abortion law and in south carolina a stunning twist in the shooting mystery involving a high profile lawyer. he's now suspected of plotting his own shooting and his wife and son's killings remain

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athletes will testify about their sexual abuse claims against larry nassar after the fbi dropped the ball repeatedly on investigating him. we'll hear from four gymnasts today, including simone biles, just weeks after she competed in the tokyo games. it comes after we learned the

fbi fired one of the lead fbi agents who didn't investigate tips about nassar. the former usa gymnastics doctor pled guilty to a abusing ten of 265 girls. now he's serving up to 175 years in prison. anne thompson has covered the story for years and she is going to be in the hearing room. what can we expect from this hearing? >> reporter: we are having technical problems here and i can not hear you, but what i can tell you is that the four gymnasts who will testify today have just arrived here on capitol hill. you will see there's simone biles, ali raisman is here as well, mckayla maroney and maggie nichols. they are all going to come to the senate hearing room and talk about how adults failed them all along the way, when they realized they were being sexually abused by larry nassar. this time they are going to focus on what the fbi failed to

do, and this is the story. in 2015 usa gymnastics told the fbi field office in indianapolis about the suspicions about larry nassar. one of the agents actually interviewed mckayla maroney in september of 2015, but he apparently did nothing. it wasn't until usa gymnastics took the allegations to the los angeles field office that maroney was interviewed again and then on the very same day that fbi office opened an investigation. so that's where the focus will be today. we will also hear from christopher wray, the director of the fbi. he was not the director at the time of this investigation, but he is going to outline the changes that were made and how they have put in place safeguards that they hope will keep this from happening again. stephanie, i'll throw it back to you. i apologize, i cannot hear you. >> anne, you didn't need to. as always --

>> oh, now i can hear you. >> you answered everything. you always know best. thanks, anne. >> reporter: steph? >> yes, anne. >> reporter: there's one more thing. nbc news has confirmed that the fbi fired that agent who originally interviewed mckayla maroney. they did so last weekment it's very unusual for the fbi to fire an agent and the man who was the agent in charge of the indianapolis field office, he retired several years ago. >> well, whether he's retired and the other one is fired, i have a feeling they still need to answer some questions. anne, thank you so much. also developing, the department of justice has asked for an immediate court order to stop texas from enforcing its new law banning most abortions. julia ainsley covers the justice department. help me understand this. the supreme court did not intervene in the case, so does the department of justice have a leg to stand on at this point?

>> reporter: yeah, stephanie, new day, new challenge. what the supreme court did not intervene on was a challenge from advocates, abortion rights advocates in texas that challenged s.b. 8 and when the supreme court ruled, they said they would consider future challenges if they answered certain procedural questions. now it's the justice department's turn. as we know, last week they started their own civil lawsuit in the western district of texas challenging the law. now they're asking that same district for an emergency stay to try to stop this law right where it is, allow these providers to provide these procedures for women while the courts decide whether or not this law should stand, and let it play out through the system. now, this is known to be a very conservative court. it would then get kicked up to the fifth circuit, a conservative circuit, probably the most so in the country. so if it did come to the supreme

court again, we could expect the supreme court to be weighing in now not on the challenge from the abortion rights advocates, but now from the justice department, the federal government of the united states. and that could play out differently, especially when you read into the language from those justices. >> former president trump appointed 200 federal judges. it's something we often don't pay attention to when we vote or in our everyday lives. but those judges impact almost everything in our everyday life. thank you so much. we're going to leave it there. coming up, florida governor desantis now threatening to fine businesses and counties millions of dollars over enforcing vaccine mandates, as hospitals across the state are reaching capacity with covid patients. and new details about when we could see a vaccine approved for kids under the age of 12. it could be sooner than you think. that's next.

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now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic new details on when vaccines may be approved for kids under 12. pfizer's chief executive says the drug company expects to release clinical trial data as early as the end of october on how well its vaccine works on 6 month to 5-year-old kids. it says vaccine data for kids between 5 and 11 will come a whole lot sooner, potentially ready to be submitted to the fda by the end of this month. overall the united states now averaging more than 1,800 covid deaths each day, since the pandemic began one in 500 americans have died from the virus. joining us, the co-director of the center for vaccine development at texas childrens' hospital. dr. hotez, what do you make of the latest vaccine timeline for kid under 12 no how soon might

we see a vaccine for this age group get authorized? because that's one of the big things that's holding so many people from going back to work, from sending their kids to school. their kids are still at serious risk. >> yeah, that's right, stephanie. so i think we're probably looking at, if everything goes well, maybe by october we'll have emergency use authorization for the pfizer biontech vaccine in younger kids, school age kids 5-11, and a little lagging behind might be the moderna vaccine for that group, maybe in november. in israel they're already vaccinating vulnerable younger kids that age, so we'll have safety data on those children from israel. so it seems like we'll have the green light. what the compliance is going to be and the interest in vaccinating younger kids will vary by region. in the northeast where there's enthusiasm for vaccinating teenagers, i think they'll move

quickly. for here in the south, we're only about 25%, 30% of the teenagers are vaccinated, parents are still holding back and i think they'll continue to hold back for the younger kids as well. >> businesses that are fighting back against this new vaccine mandate from osha, they're few and far between. they're on the fringe. the overwhelming majority of fortune 500 companies are thrilled about this mandate. help us understand what in the world the republican governor, ron desantis, in florida is doing. he's now threatening action against those businesses who follow through with the mandate, while he's got a record number of people with covid in hospitals in his state. who is he even doing this for? >> reporter: he says he's doing it to protect florida jobs, stephanie. but it's not just businesses he's going up against, it's counts and cities, the action he's taking in the form of

thousands of dollars in fines. he says it could amount to millions of dollars coming into the state because the law he signed back in may says we cannot enforce proof of vaccination. so he's going to fine cities and counties, local governments up to $5,000 for each employee that could otherwise lose their jobs if they don't get vaccinated. this is something just the latest political thing that he's doing to strike back against covid-19 safety precautions. here in orange county, it's one of three cities and counties that have those vaccine mandates in place. the governor says that the enforcement for these fines will go into place starting tomorrow and so that's something that orlando and orange county is going to have to grapple with. the mayor defending his decision to put these vaccine mandates into place. he says he's not going to do anything that's going to adversely impact the safety of his residence and says that the governor is making political decisions yet again when it comes to these enforcements on

those fines. this comes as in florida and across the southern region one in four hospitals has less than 5% availability when it comes to icu capacities. in this area and orlando they're maxed out and overbrimming when it comes to those icu beds. they're out of availability and that's because the doctors say they're emotionally fatigued because these patients are unvaccinated. >> again, the jobs aren't going away. the jobs are available. nobody is losing them. you just have to get vaccinated or get tested twice a week. the governor could save lives and keep jobs in place. dr. hotez, help us understand, the undermining of the covid vaccine and now the broad support it's getting from government leaders, are we at risk that we could start to lose support for the vaccines we've been taking for years, the ones we get as babies and when we go to school? the anti-vaxx community always

existed on the fringe, but now you have leaders talking about this stuff. >> yeah, that's right, stephanie. the anti-vaccine groups are more empowered than ever and now it's been full-on adopted by the extreme right, the political right. and with that brings political action, committee money, we have anti-vaccine pacs in the south, including texas. they're stronger than ever. here's what's going to happen. we have a big decline in childhood vaccinations last year because of all the social disruptions and parents weren't taking their kids to the pediatrician like they were, so there was a steep decline in measles, muscles vaccinations, hpb vaccinations and now it's starting to rebound. but my worry is it's not going to come back to baseline because there's going to be spillover of all the anti-vaccine aggression that's been going on, and so the

thing that i'm holding my breath about is this coming winter and spring, historically that's when we had measles epidemics and it's worried that's a possibility on top of all of the other heartaches we've been facing. >> dr. hotez, maura, thank you so much. we've got to turn to a bizarre twist down in south carolina. a shooting mystery we have been talking about really for years. authorities say prominent attorney alec murdock arranged for another man to kill him earlier this month so his son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. we have the shocking new details. katie? >> reporter: overnight south carolina law enforcement announcing an arrest in the bizarre shooting that left prominent attorney alec murdock hospitalized, part of a plot police say murdock admitted to organizing himself. law enforcement arresting curtis robert smith, charging him with

assisted suicide and insurance fraud. documents reveal murdock instructed smith to shoot him in the head and gave him the firearm to do it so murdock's son could collect benefits on a $10 million life insurance claim. on tuesday, admitted to being present during the shooting and disposing of the gun, adding more charges are expected. police documents describe murdaugh as a co-defendant, in an exclusive statement obtained by nbc news, murdaugh's lawyers blame the shooting incident on people feeding his addiction to opioids, adding these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs. one of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take alex's life by shooting him in the head. the shooting occurred one day after murdaugh resigned from his law firm, amid accusations of financial misconduct, which authorities are looking into. three months ago murdaugh told

police he found his wife and son fatally shot on their property. there have been no arrests related to their deaths. they say their client is fully cooperating with sled in their investigations into his shooting, opioid use and the search to find the person or people responsible for the murder of his wife and son. >> the story is strange. that is catie beck. his lawyer says his client is recovering in a drug rehab program. he spoke on the "today" show earlier this morning. >> alex is totally cooperating. we called sled. they didn't call us. and gave them the whole statement, indicated he called this guy, who met him on the side of the road, agreed to shoot him in the head, and fake the car breakdown. 30 minutes later, this guy shooting him in the head, didn't try to persuade him not to do it, didn't hesitate at all, and he did, there was an entrance and exit wound, it was -- and

alex indicated he collapsed, he was blind for a while, before he was taken to the hospital. so it was an attempt on his part to do something to protect his child. >> protect his child. that would be fraud. as of this morning, murdaugh has not been charged with any crime. authorities say additional charges in the case are expected. coming up, the first space launch with no professional astronauts on board. just four private citizens set to blast off tonight. that's next. set to blast o tffonight that's next. if you're 55 and up, t- mobile has plans built just for you. whether you need a single line or lines for family members, you'll get great value on america's most reliable 5g network. like 2 lines of unlimited for just $27.50 a line. only at t-mobile. >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple was on a camping trip... ...when their windshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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for dragon capsule last year. how is this mission different from what we saw with richard branson and jeff bezos? >> it is a much more complicated mission. they're going a lot deeper into space. if you look at what branson did, he went 53 miles into space, bezos, 68 miles into space. this will go 357 miles above the earth into orbit. no professional astronauts among the group, will orbit the earth for three days. we expect 15 orbits every day, that's higher as i said than the international space station, this will go deeper into the space than any american has gone since the mission to the moon. spacex is the source for nasa. only way to the international space station. they're professionally doing this in a way that the other folks that you mentioned are not. this group is what makes this mission so interesting. it is called inspiration4.

it is certainly a different looking crew, we expect launch to happen tonight between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., that's the current launch window. >> where is elon musk? spacex is his baby. >> yeah, you know, it is interesting, he's not going up and part of when you look at jared isaacman, he's very socially active. he's one of the people who can carry an interview. that's not elon musk. he doesn't have the social skills. you wonder if that was part of the calculation here. >> i don't know. he's certainly a social media star. why isn't elon musk on that trip? i want to know. cal perry, thank you so much. >> i suspect he'll be around, though. >> i'll be watching that launch in a few hours. that wraps up this very busy hour. i'm stephanie ruhle. hallie jackson picks up coverage on the other side of the break as the high profile gymnasts including simone biles are set to testify on capitol hill any minute. don't go anywhere. serious questions need to be answered. e. serious qutiesons need to be answered

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as we come on the air, a blockbuster hearing is set to begin any minute on the left side of your screen there. you'll see four of the world's most elite gymnasts, names you know, testifying about the abuse they suffered under coach larry nassar. and the mishandling of the investigation against him. we're learning overnight the fbi agent in charge of that case has been fired, with the fbi director also in the spotlight