person can do anything. >> reporter: one of them was an 11-year-old from louisiana, recovering from kidney cancer. >> so you saw the rocket take off and then you get to speak with them. what was that like? >> that was pretty crazy. i got to talk to people in space. >> reporter: the inspiration for living up to its name. >> do you want to be an astronaut? do you want to go to space? >> i want to be a st. jude's doctor to give back to them. >> reporter: alex, it's no doubt inspired many people who want to be doctors, astronauts, and, frankly, billionaires. it is funded, after all, by a billionaire. >> kendis, we'll check in with you again. we'll be looking forward to splashdown later today. thank you. and here we go with a good day to all of you from msnbc world het quarters in new york. welcome to "alex witt reports."

we have breaking news from washington, d.c. law enforcement is bracing for hundreds of protesters at this rally to show support for those charged in the january 6th riots and there's a counterprotest nearby. haven't seen hundreds show up yet, though. capitol hill is fenced and fortified and police are out in force. >> this is what public safety is all about and i think this is what people expect of public safety. so today is a proud day. hopefully it's going to be uneventful. in the event it's not uneventful, we're certainly prepared. >> national guard troops are on standby. lawmakers are being advised to avoid capitol hill for the rest of this wen. also new today, relatives of ten innocent afghans killed in a military drone strike told nbc news they have yet to get a direct apology from u.s. officials. yesterday, though, centcom general mckenzie made the stunning administration that the u.s. drone strike on august 29th

mistakenly killed adult civilians and seven children, instead of suspected isis-k terrorists. meanwhile, tensions are escalating between france and the u.s. president emmanuel macron is recalling his ambassador to the u.s., after anger for being cut out of a submarine contract. it is a deal that president biden struck with the uk and australia. >> if france wants to be angry at anyone, it should be australia. they're the buyer that chose to go with a different product. australia didn't have to do that. australia said they wanted a better submarine. >> and a big setback for the white house. an influential advisory panel overwhelmingly rejected a plan promoted by president biden to offer covid booster shots to everyone. the committee of outside experts, instead, endorsed a third shot only for those 65 or older or those at risk of severe disease. the fda and cdc will make some final decisions next week. and we're going to begin with the far right rally in dc.

on the ground for us in washington is nbc's yasmin vossoughian and allison barber. allison, you are across from the location of the rally. what are you hearing from the folks that gathered behind you? >> reporter: so walk with me a little and i'll give you a sense of how things are on the ground. there's pretty heavy pockets of police presence, capitol police in riot gear scattered throughout. for the most part the crowd, they're right over here. you have a couple hundred people who have gathered here to be part of this protest, this rally. if we keep walking this way you can get a better sense of how far this goes. take a second, just so we can walk a little better and get a little bit of movement here. yes, by our best count you have a couple hundred people who have arrived at the rally. you have capitol police in a very big show of force, obviously.

remember, this is not something that we saw on january 6th. capitol police have said that they feel like they're well prepared for this. the big point is that they did not want to take any sort of chance or risk because they were not prepared on january 6th. you can see even more down here, just how far and how strong the police presence here is. this stage right here, this is where the rally itself is taking place. at times it is hard to get a good count because there are so many members of the media here. but this is nowhere near the number, at least, that the permit was for. according to the permit that was filed by this group, they said they expected about 700 people to be here. that number, they're well short of that. but, again, you look at this and this is all such a dramatic change from what we saw on january 6th. you have layers of fencing, heavy police presence, police in riot gear and additional fencing on the other side of the water surrounding the united states capitol. one thing worth noting, when you speak to people here, they say they're here protesting the

detention of what they describe as non-violent individuals who were arrested and charged for things tied to january 6th. they brought up someone to speak who said she was the girlfriend of someone who was arrested on january 6th, jonathan mellis. when you look at the indictment for someone by that name, that's not someone that is accused of trespassing. that's an individual who is accused, according to the affidavit, was captured on body camera video using a stick to beat police who were barricading the doors. so it's hard to kind of find anybody here who can give you a specific example of a quote/unquote non-violent offender who is being unfairly detained and still behind bars. you've got 200 people, police, media seem to outnumber these protesters. >> allison barber, thank you for that perspective. let's go to yasmin vossoughian. i know you're n thick of things there. what are you hearing?

i know you spoke with the organizer. what did he have to tell you? >> reporter: first, alex, tell me tell you, things are really on high alert and i'm going to explain why. so there was an arrest here about 30 minutes or so ago. it was an individual who had a weapon on them. i was told a long knife by a police officer who rode by on his bike. so they're looking for anybody that's got weapons and making sure that they apprehend them. then they had a tip that there was someone else who had tattoos on them with a camel hat, who is also carrying a weapon. so the crowd was kind of gathering because there was a police officer who was combing the crowd here looking for anybody who fit that description to make sure that there was not anybody like that carrying a weapon. so i think it kind of shows how much folks are on high alert, especially authorities, when you look at the security that is in place between the gates, the barriers beyond those gates and then of course the police that are in riot gear behind me, no

matter what happens here, they're ready, willing and able to deal with that. i spoke to matt and he talks about what allison had to say, which is they are here protesting what they believe to be folks that are unjustifiably being charged and held, that protested peacefully, as they put it, here on january 6th. i spoke to him before the rally. i also spoke to him yesterday as well. let's hear a little bit of what he had to say. >> we're asking for a right to recognize that peaceful protest is the way to go. what happened on january 6th should never happen again and we should embrace community organizing, expression of our first amendment rights in our demand for equal justice under the law. many people who participated that day in violence, we condemn that. but in the process we believe many people who were innocent

were swept up and they were over-charged. >> reporter: you hear matt explain the difference between those that broke into the capitol and called for the life of speaker pelosi, to those he feels innocently walked in, not really knowing they were breaking the law. and i kind of challenged him on that. i said do you think these people didn't understand that they couldn't be on capitol grounds, they couldn't break through the capitol doors, seeing those windows broken, those doors open as well? and he felt like they are being unjustifiably charged for breaching capitol grounds. i spoke to the co-founder, someone who has protested her whole life and has been arrested on capitol grounds for protesting and she is here protesting today saying, listen, you can protest, she supports the right to protest, but you have to understand if you break the law, there are consequences. she knows that, going into every situation that she has, and she feels as if the folks that breached the capitol grounds --

the folks that breached the capitol grounds should be justifiably held and prosecuted. so there's a wide array of folks, security very much on high alert. but nonetheless, we're just going to watch and see how this thing develops. >> it's really hard to understand how someone can reconcile going in on the capitol grounds amidst part of a violent mob as being okay, like that wasn't my intention. but i guess we'll see what happens in the courts with those folks. thank you so much, yasmin. joining me right now, arizona congressman, ruben, gallego. thank you for joining me. what goes through your mind as you see those supporting the insurrection? have you heard any republicans denounce this rally today or strongly denounce anything that has happened since january 6th, anyone besides liz cheney or

adam kinzinger? >> look, the problem is they haven't denounced but they now encourage it. you have kevin mccarthy, basically being a total coward and going back on what he said on january 6th and trying to absolve trump of causing these problems, you have members that are actively encouraging this type of action, and kevin mccarthy doesn't hold any of them accountable. the republican party holds no one accountable that was involved on january 6th. you have the president of the united states right now using letterhead, white house former president -- former letterahead to try to force the secretary of state that he won the election. this is purely insane. it doesn't matter how much people show up in 2021, but it doesn't change the fact that january 6th wasn't an insurrection, the people in jail deserve to be in jail. in my opinion, we should be throwing the books at more people and being harsher than anybody. this was a full-on insurrection that was started by politicians

and it was aided by malitias, and the fact that we only have a couple hundred people in jail is a danger. there should be many more people in jail and more organizations that should be listed as threats to this country. >> so a couple questions here. has the threat of violence grown since january 6th, and how likely is it that this movement outlives donald trump's influence, or is this what defines his influence today? >> this was there before donald trump, this movement existed during the tea party movement. this was a myth that the tea party was about economic anxiety, if you remember that term. i actually was at the first tea party rally as an observer and i told people from day one this is all about white angst, anger and racism and i was laughed at because, of course, that couldn't be the case. the republican party then basically weaponized it and then it came to donald trump and donald trump perfected it, knowing how to really weaponize

and use it and turn it into a violent mob. so this is going to stick around even after donald trump stops existing in politics or in whatever manner, because the republican party itself at its core can't live without this base. this base is the only reason they are allowed to even exist as a party because they have no other ideas that are popular, so therefore they have to use and stoke this anger to get the vote out. they do it every year, whether it's scare tactics when it comes to women's rights or immigration or race issues. there's always going to be somebody they pick on in order for them to stoke the base. other than that, they have nothing to sell america. >> let's switch topics and talk about the pentagon's stunning administration that the u.s. drone strike targeting terrorists in afghanistan, accidently killed ten civilians that includes seven children. how does something like this happen? first of all, was there pressure to take quick action after 13 of our u.s. military members were killed at kabul airport? what kind of accountability

should we see from this and will we see any? >> number one, i don't know if there was pressure or not. i believe there was pressure in the sense that they believed isis-k was going to conduct another strike and that may have led to the conclusions of what they did, they were looking so hard for a target that they probably in my opinion just did a horrible call. i think there needs to be a full investigation, not just who made the decisions but what was the actual thought process, what was the intelligence gathering, how was this all collected, and why it was done in this way. so once we view that, we have to see accountability. we need to hold somebody accountable. there are ways to do that within the uniform code of military justice, but like anywhere else, and had i been in this situation and when i was in iraq, if we were involved in this type of action and then, unfortunately, this happens a lot in these types of wars, there's always an

investigation and there always should be accountability. more importantly, these types of decisions need to be made at the higher level by secretary austin and not the command level. i don't think they have the full scope of view of the war to make decisions like this. >> interesting. stay with me, if you will. we're going to get an update on the situation at the u.s.-mexico border and i'm going to come right back to you. we have this breaking news. the biden administration is working on plans to deport thousands of haitian migrants from the southern border and nbc's morgan chesky joins us from del rio, texas, with the latest. morgan, how are officials managing this incredible increase of migrants at the border? are they doing so successfully from what you can see? >> reporter: i think success is relative, alex. right now you've got a group of at least 10,000 migrants, mostly from haiti, under the bridge about a quarter mile behind me. the temperature is rising to

nearly 100 degrees today, and these efforts to move them to processing centers or potentially back to haiti is just really getting under way. and it might not really begin for another day or two. we've heard this plan from dhs. they're going to increase the frequency of those deportation flights. that will alleviate some of the overcrowding. and we do know there are hundreds, if not thousands, that will be bussed or flown to other u.s. processing centers along the u.s.-mexico border where they can make those asylum cases there. keep in mind that they're saying the majority of the people under this bridge, alex, are not those who immediately came here straight from haiti, but have instead been living in south america, some for the past several years, and upon feeling, i guess, comfortable enough to make the trek at this point in time or believing they may have a better shot at crossing into the united states, have ended up here at this port of entry that

right now the federal government has shut down the bridge going into mexico, all traffic, and that's anything from day-to-day business, is being relegated down to eagle pass, texas, about 53 miles away from here, so that is the situation as it stands. i want you to hear what homeland security security mayorkas had to say about what's happening here in his own words. take a listen. >> a new government took power and the situation is more stable. we're very mindful, of course, of the tragedy of the earthquake that occurred. that earthquake occurred in a particular area of the country. it was distinct from the tragic january 10th, 2010 earthquake that the country experienced. we're very mindful of the situation, but, frankly, feel that individuals can be returned to that country at this time. >> reporter: you can hear him

describing the situation for us in haiti right now. there is pushback from lawmakers about sending these migrants back to their home country, that island nation that is still in such disarray following that earthquake. as of right now there are planes in place for those flights to resume, deportation flights. each plane carrying about 135 migrants. when you consider the size of this group, there is still a lot of work ahead. >> absolutely. morgan chesky, thank you so much for that. we're going to bring back in arizona congressman gallego. congressman, what is this posing for the biden administration, particularly at a time when it intends to bring in thousands of afghan refugees? what's your assessment? >> there are different refugee programs and refugee statuses. the afghan refugees are not the same refugees that are coming through the southern border, right. >> true. >> so it's not illegal

immigration, it's a whole other system, and it has a process. this is challenging for the biden administration and it's challenging to any administration when you have this many people show up at your border asking for asylum. i do think the biden administration is actually doing the right thing. they're going to give these people their opportunity to request asylum, and if they meet all of those requirements then they will get that status, refugee status. now, if they don't, then by law then they have to be deported back. and i know it's hard for people to accept that, but at the end of the day we don't have -- we don't follow these refugee processes, it's going to make our processes even more dull and less -- less useful in the future. and so i think the best thing that we can do is to make sure that we have the right judges down there with the right advocates to help the haitian migrants make their cases and then those that fit the requirements for refugee status, we gave them refugee status.

for those who don't, unfortunately we have to send them back. we should be giving more aid to haiti, we should be helping redevelop haiti, but this is unfortunately just a case that's happening all over the world when it comes to refugee flows. >> indeed. congressman, thank you so much. appreciate that. why haven't republicans generally not condemned today's far right rally? i'm going to ask washington post columnist george will about that. we'll discuss his new book "american happiness and dis contents" and his outlook on where this country is headed. catch! mio. thank you! water tastes like, well...water. so we fixed it. mio. did you know some deodorants may not last all day? secret works immediately! so we fixed it. and is designed to last for up to 48 hours. with secret, keep it fresh. available in over 10 amazing scents and aluminum free.

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we are back with another live look at what organizers are calling the justice for j-6 rally in support of the january 6th defendants. the crowds looking far less than the hundreds expected earlier this week. despite that, capitol police are on high alert in order to avoid a repeat of january's stop the steal rally. we're going to have more in a

moment. first, some new revelations that mike pence initially sought a way around counting the electoral college votes on january 6th. according to the new book "peril", mr. pence made a previously unreported call to former vice president dan quayle in late december seeking advice on trump's demand that he refuse to recognize the election results. quayle told pence, quote, you have no flexibility on this, none, zero, forget it. joining me now is pulitzer prize winner george will, also the author of a new book "american happiness and discontents". wonderful to speak with you. thank you for joining me. we are going to talk about your book shortly. first let's begin with the revelation. what do you make of the notion that mike pence called dan quayle and quayle restored order? >> well, if quayle had been

there, he had been vice president, and the odd thing is mike pence was praised after this january 6th episode for not exercising a power a person believes he had to exercise. so it's a weird dance here. what in the world mike pence thought he needed to call a former vice president to be told the obvious, i do not know. >> so the praise you speak of, how much does this revelation impact that image and reputation from mike pence? >> well, it's hard to know where mike pence goes from here, because on the other hand, he's joined at the hip as former vice president to donald trump. on the other hand, if he makes the slightest attempt to put distance between himself and the former president, he will be excoriated. mike pence in a way is a microcosm of the entire republican party's problem, because it lives in terror of a man who may have a future, may not have a future, but have

paralyzes them until he decides. >> so this rally near the capitol in support of the hundreds of people charged in connection with the january 6th attack, what do you see there? who are these people and is this the result of a donald trump presidency? >> look, this is an example of two pandemics that have nothing to do with disease. some americans are experiencing a pandemic of furiousness. they're mad at everything. these people here to support the people arrested on january 6th are probably less numerous than the people arrested on january 6th. i'm sure there are more journalists there than these people and the security personnel probably outnumber them 20 to 1. but we got prepared for this by putting that ridiculous fence around the capitol that makes our country look like a silly and fragile country. it's disgusting that we overreact like this. but, again, just as some people

are addicted to fury, others are addicted to hysteria. i write about this a lot in the book because i don't know what it is, how much social media has contributed to this, but there is rivers of passion flowing through people today that make absolutely no sense. >> so can you make sense, then, as to why more republicans have not denounced these efforts, those like the ones represented in this rally? hardly any have and they've not mentioned january 6th. you've got liz cheney, adam kinzinger. why not more? >> well, it has become part of the republican, post-trump republican -- to say they might have been legitimate but you just can't tell.

that's about as far as these people will go, because they live in terror of one disapproving opinion that can turn 30% or 40% of their most devoted voters against them. it can be a career-ending episode. a few people, kinzinger, liz cheney and others, have shown us what courage looks like. you have to be ready to lose an election in order to be worthy of winning an election. >> you're a lifelong republican, george. you've been anti-trump from the very beginning. tell me what set you off on that path and what you think it's going to take for the party to break off from trump. are you at all confident that it will? >> well, i departed the republican party about ten hours after paul ryan, who i like and respect, and think is exactly the kind of person we need in public life, but he endorsed donald trump and that convinced me that the republican party was still under the illusion that they could domestic indicate and normalize this man.

so i haven't been a republican for more than five years now. the future -- i tend to believe, and this might be the wish, but i tend to think that donald trump is going to become a bore. he's an entertainer and the one thing an entertainer cannot be is predictable. and he hasn't had a new thought in 30 years. >> no. >> let me correct that. 30 years ago he said china was -- japan was going to eat our lunch. now he says china is eating our lunch. wrong both times. but leave that aside. essentially he is a johnny one note and i do not believe -- and this is going to travel well. if you look at some of his rallies, they are smaller, less enthusiastic, because they've seen and heard it all before. that is not a recipe for success in our nation that loves novelty and difference. >> something we witnessed this week in the state of california

where essentially gavin newsom beat back the recall lekds by a landslide and in essence it could have been seen as a repudiation of donald trump and his principles and policies and rhetoric. let's get to your book, which by the way, this conversation will not even begin to do justice to, given the depth of writing and the perspective that you offer. that said, in a recent nbc news poll, 63% of americans said this country is headed in the wrong track. you write about the current division saying too many people think and act as tribes and define their happiness as some other tribe's unhappiness. how much are attitudes and divisions in the country tied to donald trump and what do you think is the way out from it? >> i think they're tried to donald trump in that he has a feral idea about how to exercise these passions. my columns are full of

references to history. it was bad in the 1790s when we were just beginning to have a party system and learning how to have the ethics of loyal opposition, terrible in the 1850s when a congressman went onto the floor of the senate, preston brooks, and almost beat to death the senator from massachusetts. we had crazed passions shortly after world war i when attorney general palmer launched lawless raids on leftist liberals. we've been here before, but this is a fever we're experiencing and fevers generally burn themselves out without killing the host. that is my host, is that sooner or later people are going to get tired of this and some candidate is going to come along and say, americans, relax, calm down, and people are going to say, that's a good idea, i would kind of like to calm down, i think the country is suffering trump fatigue and will relish a chance to have something else.

>> george, you offer a rather comprehensive examination of multiple facets of the last 13 years in this country, speaking about the history, of course, but focusing so much on that. how has this nation changed the most since 2008? >> i'm going to surprise you here. i think i'm most interested in the change of parenting and the kind of children we're raising. when the noun parent became a verb and parents believed in parental determinism, that they could shape children, make every child awesome and all the children will be above average, we've taken to hovering over our children, no unsupervised play, no spontaneous life for them to make mistakes and learn how to cope with mistakes, which is the essence of growing up. and these overprotected children, these bubble-wrapped children then go off to college where the first thing they want

is not freedom of speech, but freedom from speech. they want safe spaces where they can be safe from micro-aggressions and they need trigger warnings to protect them against a bad passage in a particular book. i think these people have a way of then drifting into the electorate and becoming citizens and they are, again, susceptible to panics and hysteria. something is happening that we're not having people grow up, and worse, we're having infantile parents. probably the column in that book that has received the most denunciation over the years is my denunciation of blue jeans and denim. sitting in an airport concourse, a man goes by a 40-year-old father and his 12-year-old son and they're both dressed exactly alike, running shoes, blue jeans, t-shirt. if his mother is there, she's wearing blue jeans.

there used to be a time when we marked the stages of life, of growing up, of leaving infantlism behind and gaining adult responsibilities by changing the way we dress and present ourselves. not anymore. >> it is an interesting commentary you make. as the parent of two children, i personally believe if you're lucky enough to be a parent, there is no more important job that you will ever do than rising those two or more kids. the book is "american happiness and discontents". george will, it is extraordinary as i look through it. in two or three pages these various vignettes that you share, there's a lot to be learned and i wish you much success with the book. thank you for your time with me. >> glad to be with you. as the u.s. hits a new sobering milestone in the battle against covid, there's rising alarm in a state with one of the highest rates of infection and lowest vaccination rates.

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the coronavirus pandemic. there are over 42 million cases in the u.s., and 676,000 deaths, and that means roughly 1 in 500 americans have died from the virus. meanwhile, an fda advisory panel voted against recommending a third shot of the pfizer vaccine to eligible americans at large, but they are recommending it for adults 65 and older and those considered high risk. this comes amid concerns by the cdc that the protection provided by the vaccines may be waning. in a new report, it shows it drops in efficacy after four months, and moderna has relatively the same efficacy rate, 92% to 93% after 120 days. there is a surge in new covid cases across the country and those are straining health care workers and limiting hospital resources in states like

tennessee, according to the cdc tennessee is a state with one of the highest rates of new infections and that's where we find nbc's liz mclaughlin joining us from knoxville. welcome to you. how is the hospital staff handling the increase in covid cases there? >> reporter: alex, not just in tennessee, but in a growing number of states hospitals are having to prioritize care. here in eastern tennessee, it's been hit especially hard. tennessee now tied with west virginia for the worst covid outbreak now, the most number of covid cases per capita in the u.s. now, here in eastern tennessee they had a surge over the winter, but now we're seeing numbers beyond that. not just more patients, but more patients that need hospitalization. more patients that are sicker. they need to be on ventilators and in the icu. that's causing staff, especially staff with specialized skills such as icu nurses, to be overwhelmed. they have to control the influx of patients and arrange for that

flow of patients by doing things like canceling procedures. some nurses are even quitting here and the national guard has been called in to help here at the university of tennessee medical center. more national guard members showed up just yesterday. and i actually spoke to a doctor here, the chief operating officer and senior vice president, and here's what he had to say. >> one of our biggest challenges right now is related to intensive care. what we're seeing with this surge is definitely more patients in the intensive care unit, more patients on respirators, and staffed icu beds. that's a very high level of expertise. and so trying to make sure we have an adequate number of staffed beds to do that. that's been a real challenge and it's really something we're managing minute to minute, hour to hour. >> reporter: the doctor is on a

community capacity call three times a week at about 1:00 p.m. with other health care leaders in the state and he says austin in the past few weeks, he's had to say that there are zero icu adult beds available. zero. and statewide and in the region it varies between 2% and 6%, but that's a very low number. it's unsustainable, in fact. and those that are getting freed up are in some cases, from a surge of covid-19 deaths, the majority of those are unvaccinated patients. >> it is absolutely stunning what this country continues to go through. liz mclaughlin, thank you so much. getting through to joe manchin or getting around him, whether there's anything president biden can do after a meeting that went absolutely nowhere.

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this country, have been basically cut out of the deal. we're going to continue with an economy where the overwhelming share of the benefits go to big corporations and the very wealthy, or are we going to take this moment right now to set this country on a new path? >> president biden there on thursday making a new push to pass his $3.5 trillion economic passage through both chambers of congress, after an aggressive week of talks with a number of democrats, starting with senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. on wednesday that happened, it was followed by a private meeting with house speaker nancy pelosi and senate majority leader chuck schumer on thursday. let's bring in the white house correspondent for "usa today." welcome to you. what have you heard about these meetings? >> yeah, i mean we really saw the president try to step in the fray this week and apply some pressure, as you mentioned, he met separately with senator sinema and manchin, who are two

key votes standing in the way of passing this $3.5 trillion domestic package. the president tried to convince manchin, who has said he's not willing to support this number, this price tag. he's someone who spent years in the senate and that's something his aides had pointed to in his ability to try and persuade these more moderate senators who have voiced hesitation, and as you mentioned, he spoke with nancy pelosi nancy pelosi and senator majority leader chuck schumer with how they plan to smooth out the details of the spending package. there is a lot on their plate. white house press secretary jan psaki told us it was a productive meeting and she said this is just the beginning of the negotiations the president plans to have with individual members of both the house and the senate, both progressive and moderates on passing this

reconciliation package, which, again, will need all 50 democratic senators. he can only spare to lose three votes in the house in order to pass it. >> let's just focus on joe manchin for the moment. i mean, if these reports are true that the president failed to get through to him, is there any way to get around him or is this package then basically dead on arrival without manchin? >> well, i think that the president understands that they're on a time crunch here, but i think he's confident that he can convince joe manchin to come over. maybe the number is not $3.5 trillion. there he runs into issues with the progressives in the house who had vowed to torpedo the trillion dollar bipartisan senate infrastructure plan if they do not have assurance that that $3.5 trillion package reaches joe biden's desk. but right now i think they're

fixated on trying to bring joe manchin to the table. >> during the president's speech about the plan, he made it a point to speak directly to the working class. what is the strategy behind those remarks? >> well, i think he was speaking directly to republican criticism of how the democrats plan to pay for this social spending damage. we saw him lay out how they plan to pay for such sweeping changes, including raising the tax rates for high income earners from 37% to 39.6%, and on corporations from 21% to 26%. he said that's revenue that could make it possible to invest in america. we saw him really frame it up as continuing with an economy that overwhelmingly supports the wealthy and corporations, or, you know, taking a moment at this inflection point that he

referred to about changing the trajectory of america to focus on the middle class. so i think that was a direct response to some of the hesitation about how they plan to pay for this. >> "usa today," thank you so much, courtney. the three things to watch today about the capitol rally and what those could say about the country's future. nage bloods s and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost today. ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa. ♪ pepto bismol coats your stomach with fast and soothing relief. and try new drug free pepto herbal blends.

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as capitol police have braced for all the possible outcomes of today's event in d.c. my next guest says rallies in support of january 6th rioters will provide clues to this country's future. frank figliuzzi is the writer of this opinion piece joining me now, former assistant director to counter intelligence and now security analyst. give for me your assessment where things stand at this hour. we haven't seen that many people

show up, so are you confident that law enforcement took the right steps even if there will be those who interpret everything as being overly prepared for anything that could have happened today? >> well, if i can shamelessly borrow a phrase from a t.s. elliot poem, this is how the rally ends not with a bang but a wimper. it seems it is wrapping up with not quite everybody going home yet, but seems police did exactly the right thing. they had some conflicting intelligence. they erred on the side of caution. that sent the right message. the group that organized today's rally is called look ahead, so let's do that. we had minimal presence today from anybody motivated to spend their cash on bus tickets, train tickets, airfare. they didn't come. what does this tell us?

maybe the disinformation and conspiracy theories aren't resonating enough to motivate the general population to show up. we did see the presence or any number of known domestic violence groups, three percenters. the january 6th investigation with over 60 arrests, six guilty pleas, proud boys chatter i've heard have said we don't want to get arrested. it's a trap. they're going to arrest all of us. and lastly i was looking for radicalizing rhetoric. who's at the podium. we didn't have any high profile people. we had a message from the former president donald trump yesterday saying hearts and minds are with those being persecuted unfairly january 6th. was he trying to be at the rally without being at the rally? yes. what's the message here? this wasn't the cause you think

it was. if you're in the gop thinking i'm going to get behind this unfair persecution nonsense, that's not working for people. that's the message from today. i think it's a positive message moving forward. >> so our colleague was on the ground and said there have been an arrest there by somebody who was there with a long knife weapon. they were looking for somebody else who had a description and was supposed to have been there with a weapon as well. overall you have dhs saying in a memo that was obtained by "the new york times" that individuals can mobilize to violence with little to no warning and likely use of encrypted platforms could challenge law enforcement's ability to disrupt potential plotting. so is this in your mind a major challenge, or do you think dhs is going to have access to closely monitoring any online activity? >> yeah, i am still very concerned that the rules of the road have not changed for law enforcement, fbi, dhs. remember we still don't have a domestic terrorism law in the

united states like we do have international terrorism. that means the investigative techniques are still not there. you always have to wait for somebody to say i'm moving toward violence before you can open the case, get the undercover agent in the chat room, get the wiretap. the rules haven't changed there, so, yes, encryption is a challenge. and one of the concerns today with the decision to show force was are we missing something? have they gone deeper now? and they're not planning online. i also think the challenge ahead is local. the local county police departments can't do the show of force we saw today at their state capitols. there are local rallies throughout the united states today and next weekend. that's the thing to watch next going locally. >> you've been sounding that alarm for a few weeks now about what would happen potentially in state capitols. you wrote about the framing of this event, frank, the false notion somehow the january 6th aelection was a nonviolent

protest and those involved were patriots. and describing those involved as political prisoners, what surprises you most about this narrative other than it flies in the face of the video supported common sense? >> yeah, i think what the signal is here is how divided we are in terms of where we get our information and what we're being told. so context is really important. where thousands of people at this rally who did not act out violently, absolutely. are we talking about 800 people who breached security and only 800 people, yes. and only a handful that assaulted officers and did $30 million of property damage, yes. if you watch your news from certain platforms you're not even hearing or seeing any of those disturbing videos. so this -- if you're not looking at facts 60 people have pled guilty saying, yep, i did it, you got me, that's important to know. then a judge has held, what, a

couple dozen people at least for being too dangerous to release because they were there to assault police officers. they were ready for it. so you've got to find the truth here. that's the most disturbing part of this myth that it wasn't violent and that people are being somehow persecuted. >> okay, frank figliuzzi, thanks for your time and always bringing the facts to us. appreciate that. it was a deadly mistake but how could it happen and why did it take weeks for the pentagon to correct almost everything it had said about that tragic drone strike misfire? i'm going to speak with the house armed services committee about that in just a few minutes. d services committee about that in just a few minutes. get outta here. i'm leaving with my gold. it's not crazy. help me, mother. it's an omelet. just crack an egg. it's an omelet. it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer.

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welcome to all of you to alex whit reports. here's what's happening prelicely 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. pacific time. we've got this breaking news. right now this rally somewhat under way or actually breaking up now. it was in support of the hundreds of people arrested and charged in the january 6th attack on the capitol. we're going to get an update on the ground. a bit earlier today democratic congressman ted lou giving me his reaction to those people taking part. >> the people who showed up on january 6th and assaulted our capitol, they're not heroes. they're traitors. they're insurrectionists, and anyone showing up today to support those people also are of