afrd them. aarp is fighting for americans like larry, and we won't stop. that's why we're calling on congress to let medicare negotiate lower prescription drug prices. >> hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. the news parents and teachers and peds transitionings have been waiting for, that long awaited breaking news on kids and a covid vaccine. the headline? it's safe, and it's most likely coming very soon. pfizer announcing its findings that a lower dose of the pfizer vaccine is safe and highly effective for kids as young as 5 years old. it's an anoup nounszment the "washington post" skpribs like this, quote a crucial step toward the two-shot coronavirus vaccine regimen becoming available for younger scale aged

children, perhaps close to halloween. next steps, pfizer and its partner, biontech, will apply to the fda in coming days to get their vaccine authorized for use in children. the "new york times" underscoring the urgent need for a safe and effective vaccine for kids asap writing this, quote, children now account for one in five new cases, when the highly contagious delta variant has sent more children into hospitals and icus in the past few weeks than at any time other time in the pandemic. it's coming at a complicated moment for kids in schools with classrooms all across this country shutting down or having to revert once again to remote learning just days or weeks into the new school year. doctors in alaska, idaho, and montana are facing what the "washington post" describes as

agonizing ethical questions, forced to ration care for some of its sickest patients as hospitals surpass capacity due to covid surges. the state of alabama revealing their grimmest of statistics, that deaths outpace births in that state last year for the first time in history. on the national hall, a visual representation of the massive loss of life in the united states of america since the pandemic began w the death toll surpassing 675,000 souls. it's a number that at the pandemic's without set seemed impossible to fathom, still does, frankly. but there is new hope on the horizon that our children will soon be better protected inn ever before. that's where we start today, with some of our favorite reporters and friends. dr. michael anderson is back. he's a senior adviser as the children's hospital in

washington, d.c., and our friend, former senator and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskell is here. dr. anderson i am coming to you first. this is something that i think a lot of parents had hoped would have been available and an option for us ahead this third school year to be impacted by covid. you have the end of 19-20 impacted. all kids home. last year impacted. no one was vaccinated for a good 70% of that school year. now we have had to send our babies back to school, under 12, without a vaccine. is the end in sight? >> yeah, the end is in sight. and this is a very important day, monday, september 20th, i think will go down as a really important moment in this terrible time. and we just talked about it last week. when are we going to see the data? and the pfizer announcement today i think really answered three questions. number one, who dose should we use in children down to 5. they use about one third the

adult dose. number two, really important, is it safe? from their release it appears to be very safe with none of the heart inflammation reported in the 2,200 kids. final lesion is it effective? this is their announcement, the efficacy is equal to what the adult shot brings. this is very important data and i think a very historic day. >> can you tell me what happens next, as one of the parents who is eagerly awaiting the day i can call and make an appointment for my son. do you think vaccination sites will start to book child appointments? do you think we should check in with your ped -- what should parents do today? >> the process is going to be this data will be submitted to the fda. they have got a very important task they must do, double-check the safety data, look at efficacy data, make sure that it meets their standards. but i know behind the scenes pediatricians, family medicine docs, children's hospitals, federal, local, and state health

officials have been ramping up to figure out how do we get these vaccines down to age 5. i think, between now and halloween, i hope that that process at the fda can take place. then i think after, that you are right, i think the pediatrician, the family machine, the children's hospital professionals are going to get a lot of phone calls, how can i get my child vaccinated. >> that will happen in a lot of places. i hope that happens every place. because i remember the first time i started seeing images, claire, on social media, and then on local news clips, that were circulating of babies on ventilators in hospitals. and i thought, this is it. this is going to break the fever of all the insane disinformation and b.s. that contaminated the conversation about how to fight a global pandemic and how to protect people here at home. and lo and behold, it didn't have that effect. and i wonder what your prediction is, from a state that struggled in parts of it to convince people that the vaccine was safe.

do you think this will be well received by everybody there? >> well, my hope is that the pediatricians are now going to be a part of this war against disinformation. keep in mind, michelle, that my said -- nicole, every state in the union has a requirement of vaccinations for kids to go to school. and i know my grandchildren go to their pediatricians and get their shots. and then the evidence of that shot has to be produced to the school before those -- before my grandchildren can go to that public school. and so now these pediatricians are all going to be part of this because a lot of parents are going to be contacting pediatricians. they are used to providing shots in order for kids to go to school. that's what's so ironic about this is all these parents beating their chests, about they don't want their children to be getting vaccines.

they have been giving children vaccines every year they were born so they could school. this is no different. >> you can call me michelle or nicole or anyone you want. i wanted to raise this today, because that's true everywhere, but it is especially true in republican-led states. let me share some this reporting. mississippi, which has one of the lowest coronavirus vaccination rates in the nation, has consistently led the united states in childhood vaccinations. a point of pride for its health officials and many of its lawmakers. alabama, similar to mississippi, refuses to acknowledge philosophical moral, or ethical exemptions to mandatory childhood vaccinations. i wonder where they will put consumer right-wing disinformation in that category. and i want to play this again, chris wallace confronting governor ricketts about his state's history about not allowing any exemptions about childhood vaccines. >> it should be a personal

health care choice. this is not something that the government should mandate. and somebody shouldn't have to make the choice between keeping their job and getting a jab in the wrong. it is wrong. i talked to a number of people who told me, if they make me get the vaccine i am going to be fired. i am not going to do it. >> you say it's a personal choice. in fact, to attend school in your state of nebraska, children must be vaccinated against a number of diseases. let me put them up on the screen. they must be vaccinated against dip heria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis b, and chickenpox. why are those mandates that parents in your state must comply with and do comply with routinely -- why is it that they are not so objectionable and such a violation of personal freedom, but biden's vaccine mandates are? >> well, for all those that you just listed, there is a long

history that parents have had the opportunity to see how those things have been implemented. and there is still a lot of people out there who don't know what to trust. >> no, there aren't. there aren't, claire. there are people out there who have been disinformed. led astray by disinformation. >> what people are, is they are being led by the nose. this is in this calcified circle of disinformation in the base of donald trump's republican party where the vaccine has become a political badge. if you get one, then you are not for trump. if you don't get one, then you hate the government and you are all about donald trump. it has become political. now, interestingly enough, this is going to be different if the schools start requiring this vaccine along with a long list of other vaccines they require, which of course they should. it's about keeping kids safe. so i believe that what you are going to have is you are going

to have some of these right wingers now call for the abandon men of the vaccine requirement for chickenpox and for diphtheria and hepatitis and for mumps and rubella. i think that's the next step that's going to happen. and how dangerous that is for our children. >> dr. anderson, i saw you nodding. i have a physical reaction to hear that childhood vaccinations are going to new battlefield in the so-called culture war. among your colleagues, and other pediatricians, are you prepared for this? >> i agree with senator mccaskell. i hope we can take this as far away from the political debate as possible and bring it back to the important relationship that a pediatrician has with a family. let's talk about covid. let's talk about the safety of this vaccine. let's talk about how seriously some kids across this country are being affected. even the notion of going backwards on vaccines send

chills through my spine. i am old enough, i have seen kids die of varicella, chickenpox. we can't go backwards. this is a day for us to move forward. >> can you talk about the risk to children in the low vaccinated states? i know i have sent you some of these articles. we have talked not on tv about the risk to kids under 12 who don't have the choice of being vaccinated. what is happening to kids in states with low vaccination rates? >> there is a couple of really important things. as you point out, if you are in one of the lower quart i will of vaccine states that almost trippest your rate of having to be seen in the emergency department. there is another important constituent. children's hospitals. children's hospitals are a vital part of the fabric of america in health care. right now, they are almost at capacity. the fact that we are going into winter and that could get worse? the last thing you want to do is those terrible stories you showed about remarking or

triaging care. god forbid we get to a place where we are talking about that at a children's hospital. we have got to get kids vaccinated. >> eddie, i want to associate myself with the optimism of the senator and dr. anderson, but i think you and i have covered this moment in this country long enough. and i think there is some defiance at this point. and there is some calcification around science and around medicine. i want to show you a superb interview done by jake tapper over the weekend. let's watch. we will talk about it on the other side. >> let's talk about what you and the legislature in mississippi is doing. because i'm sure i don't need to tell you, mississippi this week became the state with the worst number of coronavirus deaths per capita. in fact, if mississippi were its own country, you would be second in the world only to peru in terms of deaths per capita. that's a horrible, horrible, heart breaking statistics. with all due respect, governor,

your way is failing. are you going to try to change anything to change this horrible statistics from what you are doing already? >> yeah, well, obviously, in mississippi our legislature is a part-time legislature. sometimes i wonder if in america if our congress was part-time we wouldn't be in a better position. the president wants you to believe that this is -- the delta variant is only affecting republicans in red states. >> are you going to change anything -- >> that's not true. that's not a fact. >> are you -- >> that's not true. what you are going to see. >> my circumstances you compare yourself to israel. >> you are going to move around the country and you are going to see fatalities rise in other states, here's what we need to focus on, jake. >> what are you going to do to change this. >> the best way that haerns -- the best thing for americans to do, to protect themselves from the virus -- again, we believe in personal responsibility, individual americans and individual miss missians. >> so you are knot going to

change anything? >> make good decisions to take care of themselves. >> a child under 12 doesn't have the responsibility of taking personal responsibility as its savior. a child under 12 needs that guy right there to lead, lead the adults in his state to get vaccinated so that states's icu and that state's pregnant women don't die. >> i am a native of mississippi. i can look in my right arm right now and show you the booster shot i got as a young man as a young child in order to go to school. i know what's happening in jackson county, my own county, how the seeing. >> referee: system is being overrun. in one week, 6,000 kids tested positive for covid-19 at over 30,000 students and teachers and staff have had to go into quarantine because of this. tape reads -- how can i put

this? mississippi has been a disaster for a while. it's almost as if we expect mississippi to be backwards in some ways. right? but it's also this, nicole. those who are committed to science, who are dedicated to their children, they are going to be excited. then there are those who have been involved in this or influenced by this anti-vaxxer movement. they are going to do what they continue to do. we can measure the scale of our irresponsibility as a nation by how we've responded to this spread the delta variant among our children. this is where i am not so optimistic, nicole. i understand it. i hear claire. i hear the doctor. but i am thinking about sandy hook. i am thinking when all those babies died we thought we were going to get something reasonable on gun control. what happened? nothing. and here we have babies intubated. we have babies on ventilators. we have pediatric hospitals overrun. and we still have the likes of tate reeves saying stuff as

stupid as what we heard in that interview with jake tapper. >> is there a point where you think people in mississippi or in alabama, where more people are dying than being born, reject these leaders? or is it too hard wired? >> i have no idea. to be honest with you, nicole, i have no idea. and i just -- the only thing i can do is pray. my mom and dad still live in moss point, mississippi n jackson county. both have comorbidities. i'm scared to death for them. so i have no idea. i can only just pray, i suppose. >> dr. anderson, i wonder if there is an effort or a way to strengthen that direct line between line between parents and pediatrician so you keep all the noise out and you try to maybe get ahead of this before the vaccine is available. is there a way to work with schools, a way to collaborate with centers? what are sort of the pro active

steps the take to keep noise out, the disinformation out, to keep the political leaders out of the conversation and try to protect as many kids as possible? >> i am going to sing the praise of one of my favorite organizations. i have been a member for a very long time, the american academy of pediatrics. they are first and foremost about kids, secondly, about science. i think the american academy of pediatrics has done a wonderful job of trying to get ahead this message. they have been waiting for this day. we can't message about vaccine until we have data, until we have the process. i think the academy has really been turbo charging its members. pediatricians are optimistic people. it is part of our genome, but we've got to take this conversation out of the political arena as best week and bring it back to a pediatrician talking to a family about the life saving vaccine that is going to be here in the fall. i think that's where the conversation has to happen. >> claire, have you had any sort

of visibility into how the white house plans to message this? obviously, the president has done an extraordinary job in terms of distributing, disseminating and promoting the vaccines, the fact that we have supply everywhere and anywhere was unimaginable at the beginning of the vaccine being discovered and approved. but this next step comes at a moment when his vaccine mandates have become very politicized by republicans, at a moment when -- i don't know, it seems like the sort of trip wire of kids being in danger hasn't slowed or stopped any of the, again, indifference is the nicest thing i can say about mr. reeves. what sewer sense of how the white house is preparing for a vaccine for kids under 12. >> jeff sainz is in charge of the logistics of the covid

vaccine. making shuf enough is purchased, make sure it is moved to the right places, make sure there is easy access to communities underserved by health care. i am sure they will be looking at various ways to get kids vaccinated. perhaps using the school setting. since we are back in school. i remember getting one of my vaccinationed in the school gym in my elementary school. and so maybe that's one of the things they will do. i do think they are struggling right now, nicole, because there is some covid confusion out there about booster shots. should you? should you not? can you take moderna? should it be just if you had pfizer? is it only for people over 65? only for people who are immunocompromised? i mean i am over 65, i recovered from breast cancer. should i be going to get a booster right now? i'm pretty well read and i think it is confusing out there.

i think the white house has cleanup to do about the idea of the booster shot, when and who and how should get it. >> i apologize if you saw an image of lindsey graham. you are not dreaming. that was him. it is for a subsequent segment. >> i thought it was a nightmare. >> dr. anderson, claire mentioned booster confusion. we have a preeminent doctor. clear up the confusion for our viewers. >> in september, pfizer has been approved for anybody over 65 to get a booster. i think this is one of the examples. i know people are tired of this, that we it rate on the science, that we update what we know. but as we sit here right now in september, patients over the age of 65, citizens over the age of 65 should get a booster pfizer vaccine. i think this will it rate over time. i just know there is -- the point's well taken. it is not great timing that we have a dust-up or confusion over a booster at the same time we

are rolling out a really important part of the population, kids aged 5 to 12. anyone, we can bring it back to that relationship. i think schools are a wonderful place to help the kids get there. the message comes back to the family medicine doc, the pediatrician, and the family. >> my grandmother can take my son to get their shots, her booster, his first. a cheat sheet. dr. michael and an thank you for starting us off. i wasn't sure this day would ever come. i am glad you are here for it. eddie and claire are sticking around for the hour. when we come back, new details from what the expresident and his allies may have played that could all end with prosecutors. up next, the unintended consequences of trying to overturn roe v wade in the state of texas may be a call for

candidates willing to fight for reproductive rights all over this country. and what could be our last and best hope to protect the right to vote this this country. all that and more when "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. ues after a q. don't go anywhere. trading isn't just a hobby. it's your future. so you don't lose sight of the big picture, even when you're focused on what's happening right now. and thinkorswim trading™ is right there with you. to help you become a smarter investor. with an innovative trading platform full of customizable tools. dedicated trade desk pros and a passionate trader community sharing strategies right on the platform. because we take trading as seriously as you do.

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it has been 243 days since the disgraced, twice impeached expresident left the white house. who is counting? but his efforts to push a big lie about election fraud continue. late last week donald trump sent a letter to georgia's secretary

of state brad raffensperger once again claiming there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election in georgia. of course, there was none, but he's still demanding that raffensperger dessert phi the election result which he cannot do and of course there was none. this fraud claim is traced to a group of pedlers claiming to be news states. the latest letter is coming from one of the two people that we are aware of who are being investigated for election interference in georgia that probe by the fulton county d.a. is also investigating south korea senator lindsey graham for a call he made to raffensperger back in november asking him to toss out mail ballots in certain counties n a state he doesn't live in. graham denies trying to interfere with the election. what we are learning more about graham's role in the campaign by trump to overturn the election

thanks to reporting in the new book "peril" by wodward and costa. the authors report on graham and mike lee's investigation of trump's claims of fraud, quote, they took the claims of frauders isly enough to get briefed on the details involve their sister staff and make calls throughout the country. privately, graham said they were suitable for, quote, third grade. neither senator disavowed trump's election fraud claim until after a mob of trump supporters stormed the capitol on january 6th. eddie and claire rejoin us. eddie, what did mr. graham and mr. lee think that bill barr couldn't? >> i don't know. i mean, it looks as if we have

more evidence of those actors who were enablers for the big lie. and you know, the more evidence we get, nicole, the more we are confirmed in what we saw in real time, and the effects. i think now the conversation is not simply a kind of confirmation of what we already know, right, but rather, the effects of all of this, because i think at the ends of the day, the letter to raffensperger, all of this is about, in some ways, undermining trust in the electoral process. so we can reveal detail after detail of what has happened. but it seems to me as long as we continue to take this stuff -- as long as we continue to address it, we need to address the consequence, the really dangerous consequence. and that is the undermining of legitimacy and trust in the electoral process. senator lee and senator graham were complicit in that, as we

now know. >> yeah. and i mean, claire, i think the reason these stories and these revelation remain important to understand and really highlight and, you know, they should be part of the annotated history of the current republican party is that they are using them to fuel voter suppression laws across the country. there are close to 400 of them. they are whizzing through on the sort of false purpose of being there for election integrity. this was the most secure election in our country's history. you can change the laws but don't pretend they are about election integrity. and i want to ask you about this investigation. i mean, it's a criminal investigation. and here's -- here's some of what i wonder is evidence. this is more of trump's call to raffensperger. he is looking for a very specific number of votes. >> you can't let it happen. and you are getting it happen. you know, i mean, i'm notifying you that you are letting it happen.

so, look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, custom one more than we have, because we won the state. >> so, claire, trump didn't even pretend to be looking for the votes that he thought were rightfully his. he wanted 11,670 specifically, to be manufactured. is that a crime? >> it depends on the facts and circumstances. but evaluating whether it's a crime is a job for lawyers. that's why i think this reporting is really a big deal, nicole. i think we've gotten so numb to all of the nonsense around the big lie. because, you know, trump -- trump embraces dishonesty. his way of life embraced cheating, and dishonesty. so this is nothing for him. this is his playbook, his go-to

playbook throughout his adult life. so the fact he is using dishonesty and trying to cheat should not shock anyone. but this reporting says that at a crucial moment two lawyers went into mark meadows' office and were briefed by rudy giuliani and were given a legal brief, and they evaluated that legal brief. and these were two big trump supporters. i don't think anybody did a better job of carrying donald trump's golf bag than lindsey graham. when lindsey graham looked at this memo, he said, you know, this is nothing. this is nothing. in his speech he gave on the floor after the insurrection mob tried to gouge the eyes out of police officers with flag poles -- that speech he gave, i wish we could play it every hour. because he stood up in front of them and said i have had enough. i am not going to be part of this anymore. i looked at it serious three.

there is nothing there. and both of these lawyers voted to certify the election. but that doesn't have any impact today, whatsoever, on the trump supporters that right now, in my state, if i walked up with a microphone to bunch of people in rural missouri they would say oh, dead people voted. it was a cheat. it was a frauds. dead people voted. they manufactured votes. dead people voted. that's what they believe, because donald trump is their guy. >> dead people voted for donald trump. you should tell them, claire, i will send you the clips. you can have them in your pocket. i want to follow up. the conduct of two sitting senators seems like an equal flashing red light in terms of damaging the democracy they pretend to serve in. and the white house we don't play that lindsey graham speech every day -- because i agree it was markible, as was mitch mcconnell calling for trump to be criminally prosecuted is because they have gone to all five sides of the hexagon of

election fraud, and mitch mcconnell and mccarthy and graham are the reason there was an suction. because if donald trump had been checked in november, in december, in early january, there might not have been an insurrection, you might not have had police officers mutilated with a flag pole. senator lee made phone call after phone call to officials in states, such as georgia which he doesn't represent, pennsylvania, which he doesn't represent, arizona, which he doesn't represent. senator lee told superintendents about this memo in a town hall. where is the line about what a sitting senator can do in terms of furthering a lie about election fraud? >> this is most of what have i think mike lee did you would chalk up to him trying to figure out if there was going to be a certification of any other electors. because he seemed to be focused

on the bogus assertion by some pretend constitutional lawyer that somehow mike pence could just overturn the election. i think the thing that we have to remember is that all of these republican senators wanted to have it both ways. they wanted to somehow stay true to the constitution, but, boy oh, boy, they didn't want to make the trump supporters mad. so they tried to be quiet. they tried to hide. and they do it to this day. to this day, nicole, they are hiding. they are not stepping up. they are not saying what they should say in order to protect our democracy, in order to make sure that we are not traveling down a path that's going to get worse before it gets better. >> well, speaking of getting worse before it gets better, eddie, this is the republican party. this is what mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy and mike lee have ushered in. the republican party that touts

this marjorie taylor green ad. with their efforts to purge liz cheney from leadership for calling the insurrection an insurrection and saying donald trump incited it. -- all this is what they have ushered in, marjorie taylor green putting a gun at a car with "socialism" on it. ♪♪ >> joe biden abandoned americans in afghanistan, got 13 of our best soldiers killed, gave a kill list of americans to the taliban, and armed an islamic terrorist nation with $83 billion in weapons like this one. biden should be impeached. now i'm doing a gun giveaway of my own, but for americans only. i want you to win this

50-caliber rifle that democrats will ban if they keep the house next year. while joe biden broke america's pledge to never leave a man behind, nancy pelosi is sneaking the green new deal into the $3.5 trillion budget. in 2022 i am going to blow away the democrats' socialist agenda. >> mitch mcconnell did that. kevin mccarthy did that. republicans did that. this is who we are because of them. >> i mean, look at that. i mean, it's just -- i'll be damned. you know? i mean, that's ridiculous. and it's stupid. and it's dangerous. and this is why i began -- why i answered your question initially the way i did. we know who the enablers are. it's not only mitch mcconnell. it's not only mccarthy. it's not only lindsey graham and

senator lee. it's josh hawley, it's ted cruz. right? we can go down the line. we know he was impeached twice. who has been held accountable? ever? liz cheney. >> all along they are passing their voter -- liz cheney, right. they are passing laws across states to suppress voters. they are delegitimizing the democratic process. so we can reveal the details, which is important, i think, to remember who these actors are. but it's all in the service. that tweet about the letter sent to the secretary of state of georgia has nothing to do about whether it is legitimate or substantive. it's just the latest salvo in trying to blow away our democratic system and then you get an it yot like marjorie taylor green doing that. i mean, it's just dangerous. and decidedly so, if that makes sense. >> and again, it is about who

the republican party has skied to align themselves with. they chose her. they chose her. >> yes. >> and they purged liz cheney. eddie, thank you for spending time with us. claire is sticking around. coming up, the fear of the near total ban on abortion could spread nationwide. that fear is spreading nationwide and it is mobilizing democrats to trim their folk to us the midterm elections. we will talk about how the conservative supreme court might be reshaping the upcoming political land skachlt that's next. next r home . and there's no place like wayfair to make the bathroom your dream spa. now that's a spa day. make the new light, make the room. and even make the kitchen sink, the entertainment center. however you make it, make your next project like no other.

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. i will say this again to every woman watching tonight. i will protect your rights. i believe a woman ought to make a decision about your own reproductive rights. i am terrified today about what's happened with the trump supreme court. i am terrified today that they will roll back roe v wade. >> that was virginia democratic nominee for governor terry mccullough making it clear that reproductive freedoms, abortion, are one of the top issues of his campaign. he's not alone. democrats are leveraging the anger and fear that women all across the country are feeling after texas's near total ban on abortion was allowed to stand by the supreme court. the "new york times" writes, democratic leaning and independent female voters express fear and outrage over the supreme court's green light for the texas law. many said it intensifies their desire to elect democrats.

even a number of women who said they favored republicans noted they also supported abortion rights. new polling shows how problematic this issue could become for republicans. a majority of all americans, 54%, disagree with the supreme court's decision to let the texas law stand. and 62% support abortion with few restrictions. that's according to polling from monmouth university. joining us, kim -- of the "boston globe." it doesn't -- here we are. >> here we might be, i think i want to say, nicole. i think i want to raise a little skepticism wills there is a concerted and sustained effort in this place. just as eddie pointed out before, we thought that sandy hook would result in a wave not

just in legislation on gun control, but in public outrage that would force and push law makers to make a change. and that didn't happen. you have seen over the past two years as we thought there was an inflection point in the black lives matter movement where people would demand that policing laws be reformed. we are still waiting on that to hamilton we are barely getting a voting rights bill. i hope that people do realize, particularly at the state level -- this isn't just a federal problem. state legislatures can pass roe acts that codify the protections that were in roe v wade knowing that it is in peril. they can push their state lawmakers and their federal lawmakers on this. i hope that happens but we have seen too many times that it hasn't. i think we will wait and see. >> claire, i rarely carry the mantle of the optimist on any panel but having worked in

republican politics it is dead weight to be extreme on this position. this is so extreme. this is a ban on 85% of all abortions if this texas law stands and is emulated from coast to coast. and it has no support in terms of mainstream american thinking. >> yeah, the key word there is extreme. extreme doesn't work for building majorities. extreme may feed a base. it may keep, you know, 20% of the electorate happy on either side, but it doesn't get that critical mass of voters. on this, the republicans are very extreme. i am optimistic, too. and this is why. i understand the valid points that have been made about sandy hook and the valid points that have been made about police reform. but what's going to happen in states like mine and other states if the supreme court after the arguments on december 2nd overturn roe v wade?

they have already codified very extreme laws in many states, including mine. the day after the supreme court does away with roe v wade in missouri, it is really questionable whether or not a women can be arrested for using an iud. whether or not couples will be able to participate in invitro fertilization in order to have a family. it will really be a question of whether or not they can actually have the morning after pill for rape victims in emergency rooms when they come in to have a rape kit done after they have been physically assaulted by their rapist. all of those things will happen because this extreme element is in control in many states. and the more extreme they are, i think, the better it will be politically for the democratic party going forward. >> you know, kim, i take your point. i mean, there is not much to suggest that there is a bottom, right, on the right.

and even what claire is describing will damage so many young women, will destroy the lives of so many young women, or at least detour it dramatically, and hopefully not in a physically debilitating manner. but we are talking about policies that take this country back to a reality for women and men -- i think in some instances men aren't part of the solution but in some instances they want to be. it is possibly a break-glass moment because people are paying attention to at least watch who a making our laws and sort of read in and pay attention. no? >> yeah. i don't disagree with anything that claire just said. this is an urgent existential moment. i feel like we have talked about so many times about urgent existential moments on this program. but they really all are. all the perils were access to

basic health care that have nothing to do with abortions could now be criminalized. i think that is absolutely true. what i am saying is a lot of this push on preelection push, how it could be a boone for democrats focuses on things like well this could motivate middle class women to get out and vote. we have been waiting fo on middle class women to save america for a long time. a lot of them voted for a lot of folks who are pushing some of these policies. i think it is unfair to put that burden on women all the time. this affects all, all families. it isn't just affecting women. it is all about an extreme rhetoric, which we have seen be successful. people saying it is about life, when it really isn't. it's about control. it's about pushing the most -- it is an extreme policy. but it's being done in a way that is furthering this idea that could -- let's make no mistake.

it doesn't just end of the abortion. if we are taking away the rights that the supreme court have previously said flows from the constitution, our constitutional protections, that's the same type of reason -- not the same exact reason, but the same type of reason that we have supreme court decisions that outlawed interracial marriage even though that's not in the constitution, that granted the right to same-sex marriage even though it is in the in the constitution. this is the beginning of a slippery slope. i hope this is the place where voters draw the line but i have to have some skepticism based on the last four or five years alone that there was a great hope there would be this electoral swell, a big blue wave in the last election that never came. i have to look at it realistically. we will see what happens. >> i have said hope is the gateway to despair. i want to ask you to stick around because the only thing with more consensus is americans

revulsion for vigilante laws. we are talking about 80%. i will show you those on the other side, with kim and claire. don't go away. n't go away. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein.

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are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. hi, my name is cherrie. ari'm 76 and i liveive? on the oregon coast. my husband, sam, we've been married 53 years. we love to walk on the beach. i have two daughters and then two granddaughters. i noticed that memories were not there like they were when i was much younger. since taking prevagen, my memory has gotten better and it's like the puzzle pieces have all been [click] put together. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. we're back with claire and kim. so, claire, banning 85% of all abortions is unpopular because it deprives women of their reproductive liberties, but here's the other thing that's even more unpopular than that. vigilanteism. 80% of americans disapprove of a

$10,000 legal award to people who sue women who get abortions or those who aid and abet them and 70% disapprove of private citizens enforcing the texas near total ban on abortions. so, maybe vigilanteism snookered the united states supreme court but the voters aren't really that into it. >> yeah, i think people are very worried about the idea that, i mean, if you think about what the decision to terminate a pregnancy is, it is the most personal and private and painful moment, perhaps in a woman's life. and the idea that you're going have people snooping around and trying to find someone who has made this decision in order to cash in on their very private circumstances is offensive to americans, and it should be.

these vigilante laws are popping up all over the country, a little bit like voter suppression laws, nicole. we have one in missouri where you can get $50,000 fine against a local police officer for cooperating in a federal task force. because they want to make sure that the federal gun laws don't impact everybody's right to carry the qanon lady's kind of guns around. so, i think the vigilante thing is a big mistake for the republican party. i think for this to be the law that is getting all the attention has got to make some republicans in purple states very uncomfortable. i wouldn't want to be them right now. >> let me ask you sort of a brutal truth question. if the united states supreme court has just green lit vigilanteism as a go-around for banning abortion and overturning roe v. wade, do you think it creates an uneven playing field if republicans are willing to take on the political water that vigilanteism is unpopular but go ahead with their ban on roe, do

you think that just creates another place where republicans, because they have no shame and they have such a powerful lock on their most extreme base is able to run roughshod regardless of public opinion because the supreme court gave them the green light to do so. >> it will be interesting to see. i can't tell at this point. if they go ahead and do it, for example, on immigration, if they put a bounty on the head of any employer who hires a worker who does not have legal status in this country, i mean, there's a whole lot of businesses out there that are existing on using workers that do not have proper documentation, whether it's in agriculture or hospitality or other fields where there's a real shortage of workers. if you start putting a bounty on the heads of businesses that do that, then you're really going to start seeing a backlash in the part of the republican party that would hurt the most, especially to a guy like mitch mcconnell. >> imagine that.

kim atkins stohr, claire mccaskill, thank you so much for spending time with us. the next hour of "deadline white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started. k. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started hef. but the thing they'll remember forever? watching the game together once again. the time for getting back together is now. find it on vrbo. jeff's been to the bottom of the ocean. the tops of mountains. and wherever this guy runs off to. a life well lived should continue at home. with home instead care, older adults can stay home, safe, and happy. home instead. to us, it's personal. [uplifting music playing] home instead. ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪

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right to vote. >> hi again, everyone, it's 5:00 in new york. senator amy klobuchar yesterday who just last week introduced the freedom to vote act, underscoring the urgent need for federal voting rights legislation because never before has an electoral defeat at the presidential level ushered in a state-by-state campaign to engineer the electorate based on a lie about election fraud. there was no election fraud. just ask bill barr. just ask mitch mcconnell. but despite that inconvenient, well-documented truth, more than 400 bills have already passed this year that restrict access to americans' constitutional right to vote so the freedom to vote act which could come to the senate floor as soon as this week is a last-ditch attempt to protect voting rights after republicans blocked the more sweeping voting rights legislation, the for the people act, back in june. now, this second iteration is a

compromise, crafted by a group of democratic senators, including joe manchin, who did not support the first bill. about it, politico reports, quote, the latest legislation would establish some federally mandated voting rules such as requiring early voting options and expanding access to mail ballots but is more scaled back than an original version that would have broadly remade the election process. but just like its predecessor, republican opposition to the new bill came swiftly. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell described it as a, quote, solution in search of a problem. and as of right now, not one senate republican has voiced support for it. which brings senate democrats back to the exact same dilemma they faced a few months ago, either do away with the filibuster, enable the legislation to pass with a simple majority, instead of needing to reach 60 votes, or see voting rights legislation die. in a new plea to senator

manchin, "the new york times" editorial board asks him to create the harsh reality of the republican resistance and pass a law that includes provisions he demanded. the editorial board writes this. if his earnest outreach to republicans fails, where does the senator go from there? will he simply shrug and sacrifice voting rights on the altar of bipartisanship? will he bow to a minority party? when voting rights are being ratcheted backward by one party, bipartisanship can't be an excuse for inaction. the "times" editorial board requests urgency and action from president biden as well, quote, now, mr. president, is the time to act boldly. make those calls. set up those oval office chats with mr. manchin and any other democrat who might still need persuading. bring all the powers of persuasion and the weight of the office to bear on is this issue

before further damage is done. the clock ticking on what could be the senate democrats' last hope to protect the right to vote in america is where we start this hour. jackie is here, "washington post" congressional correspondent and author of "the early 202" newsletter. basil smikle is back, democratic strategist and director of the public policy program at hunter college, and nick is here. nick, i wanted you here because you have this granular understanding of what the voting restrictions have ushered in. we talk about texas and georgia. last time you were here, you reminded me there are others we don't pay as much attention to. what has happened since january in terms of states pushing through voting restrictions, masquerading as election integrity measures, predicated on the big lie? >> well, on the totality, there's been 18 bills in 30 states. i'm sorry, 30 bills in 18 states that have brought in new restrictions to voting and yes,

there's the big bill in georgia that not only restricts access to drop boxes and the absentee ballots but also deals with election administration itself, and the possible partisan takeover of county election boards, stripping the secretary of state of power. and we've seen similar efforts in texas succeed where they are blocking new changes to voting that came out in 2020, such as drive-thru voting, 24 hour voting, also looking at trying to greatly empower partisan poll watchers so it's this whole of voting approach that we've seen in state after state. there are states like iowa, which was actually the first one in 2020 to pass new voting restrictions, and they even got rid of an hour of voting on election day. so, there's been changes in swing states like georgia. there's been changes in red states that have been leaning more blue like texas. there have been changes in states that have been leaning more red like iowa and florida also passed voting legislation that is also taking aim at

absentee ballots so we're seeing it everywhere and it's kind of coming in very specific ways. they saw a big change in vote by mail by democrats. it used to be somewhat more predominantly republican especially in states like georgia, and democrats embraced voting by mail across the country in the coronavirus pandemic. now, in all of these different states, there's been different ways of trying to restrict voting by mail. the same thing is true with the election administration in states across the country. there's now going to be more partisan control over elections. it's no longer just some of your county officials who have been nonpartisan, clerks of elections for years. now there's going to be a little bit more partisan influence. so, when you look at the kind of totality of how they've looked to both restrict voting and overhaul the administration of elections, it kind of leads to just one grand restriction that the only solution from democrats' point of view is federal legislation. >> so, i didn't want to put this up while you were talking but we pulled from some of your

reporting and other local reporting, sort of a summary of everything they'd done and a lot of it, as you said, is focused on the mail-in vote and i'm so old that when i worked on campaigns, republicans were the ones who voted by mail. they now, as you said, saw democrats roll out a better vote by mail strategy so the laws shorten the window. they do all sorts of things to make it harder to vote by mail, to make it harder to drop a ballot in a drop box. now, nick, if you could just for me, explain whether or not there were any massive voting fraud scandals in the ballot dropbox voting way of voting or in any of the mail ballot programs in alabama, arkansas, georgia, iowa, kentucky, or oklahoma? >> there were not. there has been no evidence of, you know, any kind of widespread fraud in any state across the country. we did a big investigation on the heels of the 2020 election,

spoke to every secretary of state, except in texas, and they confirmed they had not seen any widespread fraud. what you have seen in rationalizing a lot of these new laws that have led to restrictions in voting has been twofold. one, they point to very isolated incident. so, in new jersey, for example, there was a local municipal election where there was some issues with ballots in mailboxes. they came rubber band. but they were prosecuted. the system worked. the very few people who did try and cheat were caught. so that's one argument that you hear a lot is these very isolated incidents being used to say, this must happen everywhere. the second argument is the thought of restoring confidence, and they'll say, we need to make sure that people trust the results again. but the real drive behind why confidence and trust in elections is on the down slope in america is because of these lies that have been told about the election and the effort to overturn the election. so, both reasons kind of for

these new restrictive voting laws are sending either, using one example and trying to extrapolate it into a false sense of, voter fraud is everywhere, when it clearly isn't, or what happens when you tell that falsehood over and over again, the kind of crisis of confidence that now we see very deeply in the republican base. >> you know, i mean, basil, the republican party is all about chasing things that aren't real. the ghost of personal freedom as opposed to ending the coronavirus pandemic. chasing fraud that wasn't real. i think most of the -- even the isolated examples that nick's talking about, most of the examples i've seen are dead people who voted for donald trump. so even the isolated examples typically aren't votes for joe biden. and the democrats seem torn between accepting this new reality, that the republican party has convinced their base to chase the ghosts of personal freedom instead of fighting the pandemic and of voter fraud that

doesn't exist that they know doesn't exist. and i want to put up what's in the new bill. it's a good bill. it would enact automatic voter registration. it makes election day a public holiday. it ensures access to 15 consecutive days of early voting, establishes same-day voter registration, sets standards for vote by mail and drop boxes, sets national standards for voter i.d., something republicans have been clamoring for for decades, protects against state election subversion efforts, this voter nullification stuff that nick has reported on. this seems focused, noble, and worthy of putting aside the filibuster. where do you put the odds that they'll do that? >> in my mind, they're not terribly strong. and this is what's concerning. in many ways, i feel that democrats are often playing on defense, and we have to come to an understanding, not just at the grassroots level, but among

elected officials of this new reality where republicans are going to do anything at all costs and smile and while they're doing it to you, or maybe not. but you know, just doing what they want and attempting to sort of run over us and over average americans. if you really think about this fight, it's not just about the filibuster reform. there are multiple fronts where we have to fight. think about the states that you -- where you elect secretaries of state that have authority over election policy. donald trump is currently campaigning for those candidates, so we have to be able to mount this fight on multiple fronts, number one, and number two, when you look at the earlier point, when you look at all that's been done in florida to restore rights to the formerly incarcerated, it happened in virginia as well, there were more and more people,

and clearly there are states around this country that want more and more people to have more access that clearly is going to have a -- that's going to matter to how policy ultimately gets designed and shaped and implemented, and it's clear that there are republicans that are very concerned about that, upset about that, and will do anything at all costs to prevent that. so we have to, you know, we have to have a message that says that we can't be a party that is pro-incumbent, pro-elite. it has to be pro-voter. and if you look at 2013 -- if you look at, you know, 20 years ago, democrats had a reason to be upset after the bush loss, but the help america vote act was a bipartisan act. that actually improved our system. and we can't seem to come together to do it again. >> jackie, i want to play you something that john legend said

on my colleague's program last night. >> i think democrats sometimes can be afraid to get in the trenches and do the fighting that we need to do to actually win these battles. i can promise you the republicans don't have any scruples about getting dirty, doing anything they need to, to win these power struggles, and we have justice on our side. we have right on our side. we have equality on our side. and we should be willing to fight for those rights. we should be willing to fight for every american to have a voice in our elections. we win when the elections are fair, when we have high turnout, when democracy and suffrage is experienced to the fullest extent. we win. so we should be willing to fight for that. we don't have to be dirty, but we do have to fight. we have to get in the trenches and do the fighting. >> jackie, i play that because i think he puts it as plainly as

it needs to be put to democrats. i mean, republicans would not be having this conversation. they would have done away with the filibuster back in february and their whole agenda would be enacted and you would have roe codified ahead of the supreme court examination of the texas law and the mississippi law. republicans would have federal voting rights legislation passed and signed into law if they controlled the house, the senate and the white house. i mean, republicans would not be wrapped around the axle of process, and i wonder if that is a reality accepted by democrats, denied by democrats, you know, oh, but we're different? how do democrats see their differences? do they see them the way john legend articulated them there? >> it's certainly something that i know democrats are trying to remind their democratic colleagues who have been more reticent to scrapping with some of these procedural hurdles in order to get voting rights done. i have a little sneak peek of the early 202 tomorrow, we interviewed senator alex

padilla, who's been integral to this bill in the freedom to vote act. who said that, you know, he didn't express much optimism, i would probably describe it as milquetoast optimism. but he called it the final straw and he thinks that it should be viewed as the final straw for his colleagues and he's been spending time reminding his democratic colleagues that the republicans didn't support the for the people act, they didn't support creating a select commission to investigate the january 6th insurrection, and they're very unlikely to continue to support most democratic initiatives, especially everything that's on the table right now from the debt limit to reconciliation to voting acts, and padilla sort of communicated that he senses joe manchin is picking up on that but it's going to be a conversation. that urgency, though, i think

we're seeing more urgency than we've seen previously. there is a new timeline that several senators are repeated time and time again and that's the deadline by the end of october getting something voting rights related done because although the new compromise bill does cut out a number of the provisions previously included in the for the people act, it does ban gerrymandering and that is going to be starting up pretty soon, which is why democrats have created this new october deadline, but padilla said that he also would like to see more from joe biden. i think that there's been this feeling that biden can't ultimately persuade people like joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, that this is all incumbent on senators to change their minds but padilla dismissed that notion and said there's nobody better at relationships than joe biden, and when they need him to come in and have those difficult conversations which he said vice president kamala harris is already doing, it's going to be a welcome force from the president.

>> nick, federal voting rights legislation is not passed. what is still on deck? what is working its way through state legislatures and soon to be passed by the end of this year or ahead of the midterms? >> well, in terms of legislation that might restrict access to voting, michigan is currently trying to do a work around of a likely veto by governor whitmer that would have a hole new host of restrictions, things like absentee ballots, looking at election administration, kind of similar to what we've seen in other states but they are now able to go out and try and collect petitions if they can get enough petitions, i think it's like 314,000, then they're allowed to bring it back to a vote and they can work around the veto so there might be a new bill in the very critical swing state of michigan that's still coming and it's also, as jackie mentioned, we are in the beginning of the redistricting process, and this is going to be the first redistricting process without the protections of the vra, without preclearance, and if you look at a state like

texas, which is meeting right now to kick off their redistricting process, and the early first draft of a map that came out over the weekend regarding the state senate and you can see the republicans are planning on playing hardball here. they drew a map that definitely helped their incumbents, probably would help them gain a few seats in the state senate where they already control it so in terms of voting legislation at the state level, it's going to keep coming in michigan. we still don't know what's going to happen in arizona following whatever the lease of the partisan election review led by cyber ninjas is going to come out so that could change and every state has to draw new lines and clearly that's at the top of mind of democrats in congress. >> there is nothing redeeming about the current sort of post-trump, trumpified republican party, but hardball is all that they play. i hope that's on the mind of democrats this week. jackie, basil smikle, nick, thank you so much for starting us off this hour. when we come back, the big

lie about election fraud metastasizing all across the country as we've been discussing, republicans running for office are preemptively making false claims of voter fraud before any votes have already been cast all in a cynical attempt to discredit elections that don't go their way. plus the ruby red state where deaths are now outpacing births all because of covid and the very high percentage of residents there who still refuse to get vaccinated. and later in the hour, how first lady dr. jill biden is trying to make good on her husband's most elusive campaign promise so far, uniting this country. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. nues after a quick break. don'got anywhere.

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to my gop colleagues, the time is now to speak up. i know some of you desperately want to win a senate primary. i know some of you need the title, and i know some fear your own base, which in and of itself is an incredible and sad thought. this authoritarian and truth-starved party will not get better unless you stand up. will you allow the former president to continue his absolute lies? >> wow. that was congressman adam kinz with a message to his fellow republicans in light of the retirement of his colleague, anthony gonzalez, who was one of ten republicans to vote to impeach donald trump for inciting the insurrection. congressman kinzinger urging republicans to reject donald trump and the lies he's telling of a stolen 2020 election. his plea comes as there are signs that the big lie is

spreading with republican candidates in the 2022 midterms embracing baseless claims of voter fraud in their own future elections. more than a year before anyone votes. politico puts it like this. "trump may have started the election truther movement, but what was once the provenice of an aggrieved former president has spread far beyond him, infecting elections at every level with vague, unspecified claims that future races are already rigged. it's a fiction that's poised to factor heavily in the midterm elections and in 2024, providing republican candidates with a rallying cry for the rank and file and priming the electorate for future challenges to races the gop may lose." joining our coverage, frank figliuzzi, host of "the bureau" podcast and former republican congressman david jolly is here, both msnbc contributors. david jolly, i want to read you something that ben ginsburg

wrote, long-time republican election lawyer says this, "the fever has not broken," said benjamin ginsburg, an elections lawyer who has represented past republican presidential nominees. "if anything, it's spreading. people i knew as rational and principled feel they have to say our elections are not reliable because polls shows this is the ante for contested republican primaries and motivating the base in general elections. california recall results aside, it comes at the expense of the principle that our leaders should not make allegations that corrode american democracy without any credible evidence." >> yeah, nicole, the ginsburg comments and the kinzinger comments are just one more time stamp in the devolution of the republican party. it's never tee late to ask people to amplify the truth but the litmus test was in 2015 and

2016 and 2018 and 2019 and 2020 and as much as i love adam and i love ben's writing, it's never coming back. i think it's because an element of what ben wrote is absolutely true. even the republicans that don't believe the big lie need the big lie constituency to win. so you see the silence of otherwise somewhat rational republican members willing to accept that big lie constituency because there is no winning republican coalition without the big lie constituency. and as a result, republicans own trumpism within their own base, and i think that the final point i would make on this, nicole, which is probably the most damning and critical, and it paraphrases a little bit gary, the political activist, former chess master from russia pointed out, the point of all this misinformation is not simply to misinform. it's to exhaust your critical

thinking and get you to give up. the traditional elements within the republican party have given up. >> but david, are you just -- the misinformation isn't the end. it's a means to an end and what ben describes and what you're talking about is a policy of appeasement. appeasing what? what is the end game? >> it is their only winning coalition, right? we know that. we know the coalition republicans have chosen to cobble together is a minority of the nation, and so you have to win by cheating and by misinforming, and so we're seeing that through to the redistricting process, the dark money process, the opposition to the voting rights bills on the hill and the furtherance of voter restriction legislation in the states and we're seeing that in the furtherance of misinformation because this angry populist constituency that donald trump has cobbled together is now part and parcel of any republican winning strategy, and so that is the end. that is the end game for republicans is to keep this raucous coalition of largely truth deniers together, those

who deny democracy, deny the election of 2020, they deny data, science, the pandemic, they deny all this, but it is the only constituency that will allow republicans to regain power two years from now or four years from now. >> but frank, raucous is the wrong word for them. one-third of gop house or senate candidates claimed voter fraud in 2020. 136 house republican members voted against certifying president joe biden's win after the deadly insurrection in which law enforcement officials were mutilated with flag poles and other weapons, endured hand-to-hand combat. lawmakers attended the insurrection. that's according to reporting in the "washington post." it's not just a raucous, you know, like raucous as in keg party wild fun. it's dangerous. it's aligned with and intersects with a current threat of domestic violent extremism in this country. >> make no mistake about it, disinformation is deadly. and as you've cited and there's

plenty more examples, including qanon adherents who actually went out and killed people because of disinformation, because they accepted a lie, it's deadly, both literally and figuratively. figuratively, to a democracy that can't sustain itself if its citizens consume, in large amounts, every day, lies and disinformation and seem not to discern the difference or care to discern the difference, and if you think it's bad now, and it is, look forward to the future in terms of where we're headed with artificial intelligence and what's called deep fake technology, which synthesizes media and comes up with videos and sound that makes it look just like your elected candidate or your elected official or your candidate for office is saying something that he or she has never said and never been in that place. but enough clips exist of their voice, of their imagery, that artificial intel, particularly

when powered by a foreign adversary who has resources and money, will literally have us thinking that a candidate did something, said something that we can't stomach and we can't possible vote for. the law has not caught up with this technology. we're in for a period of time where we are going to be the -- as the new normal, having to figure out what's truth and what's not. only three states that i'm aware of so far even tried to tackle deep fake technology. two of them involve artificial pornography that's aimed at hurting someone by faking imagery. a couple have begun to address election fraud using deep fakes, but we're way behind the curve, and i'm afraid this is the new normal. >> where would people see stuff like that, frank? where would they consume it? >> well, look, just in the last few days, we have seen on tiktok a heavily edited video of

president biden alleging that president biden side everybody should take the vaccine to prevent hurricanes. well, if you look at what he actually said, he said, if you have to evacuate during a hurricane, you want to be sure not to be in such close contact that you're going to have a fear of covid so please take your vaccines now to prepare for hurricane season. that was heavily edited. it had to be called out as a fake. that is nothing compared to what we're about to see. so where are we going to see it? you name it. facebook. pick your platform. facebook, tiktok, instagram, telegram, all of that is going to be used and then put it on steroids with foreign intelligence services behind it, and we've got a challenge ahead of us. >> well, frank, my only point was, if platforms are regulated, i mean, you know, there are libel laws that govern people at fox news, nbc news, i mean, we should have the conversation next time you're both here about a moment of truth for the social media platforms which seem to galvanize every malign influence

in this country and leave us more susceptible to exactly what you're describing, right? >> yeah, until how we pick our candidates for office now is, sadly, we get our information from these rabbit holes we go down in social media. so, we need congress to call this out. they're studying the issue, which is good. but you know, fixing to get ready isn't going to help us right now, and this is the future. the big lie is causing people to move toward violence. every weekend right now, particularly in the pacific northwest and west coast, the proud boys are out looking to hurt people. why? because of a big lie. why did january 6th happen? because people bought the lie that the election was rigged. it was stolen. it's still happening today, and unless we have people like, for example, john mccain, who famously stopped a town hall meeting, as you know, when a woman tried to push disinformation about barack obama, he stopped it, he said, that's not true, we need people like that. stop it, call it out.

i don't see those people right now on our screens. >> and the reason we miss them is because there aren't any. frank figliuzzi, david jolly, thank you so much for spending time with us on this. when we come back, we'll find out what's going on in alabama where deaths are now outpacing births for the first time in history, all due to covid and a high level of residents there who remain unvaccinated. that's next. nts there who remain unvaccinated that's next. >> 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. ♪ we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality

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now to a sad milestone that underscores covid's human toll in states where vaccinations are still lagging. because of covid, the number of

deaths in alabama surpassed the number of births last year for the first time ever. and experts warn it could be happening again this year with an average of 60 deaths from covid every day. according to the health department, all but two counties in the state are labeled as having the highest level of community transmission spread. as people choose not to get vaccinated, only 41.3% of alabama has chosen to get fully vaccinated. just barely ahead of west virginia, idaho, and wyoming. here was the state's health director over the weekend. >> our state literally shrunk in 2020. we have data going back to the first decade of the 20th century, so more than a hundred years, and it's never -- that's never happened before, nor has it ever even been close before and it's certainly possible that could happen this year as well if we continue on the same rate that we're seeing now. >> alabama is literally

shrinking. today, the mayor of montgomery saying in a tweet, "this should put all the debates around vaccines and other covid-19 safety protocols in perspective." joining us now is montgomery, alabama, mayor steven reed. mr. mayor, thank you for spending time with us today. tell us how you're doing, how your city's doing, how the state's doing. >> well, thank you for having me. the state still has challenges as it relates to getting people vaccinated. we have those challenges here in the city, the county as well. we're the third lowest vaccination rate in the country. that's not very good when we're sitting at 41%, and unfortunately, we're still having to battle a lot of misinformation that's in the public throughout our city and throughout our county, and i think what we're seeing is people who are concerned about access to quality healthcare, people who have challenges to their own health issues right now, and then people who are

wondering what to believe and what not to believe as it relates to the covid-19 virus as well as the delta variant. >> mr. mayor, i want to read something from your newspaper there, the montgomery advertiser. alabama hospitals on thursday reported 2,223 total covid patients, including 53 children. hospitalizations neared 3,000 earlier this summer. alabama state health officer dr. harris said the drop in cases is on one hand a good sign, but much of the decrease is due to sustained high numbers of daily deaths with hospitals across the state reporting up to 40, 50, 60 deaths a day. so, my understanding of this is that the hospitals are only able to continue to take patients because so many people are dying. and there are 53 kids hospitalized. does seeing one's friends and neighbors die and seeing kids in the hospital change anything?

>> one would think so, but you know, at the same time, we would hope that it wouldn't have to get to that point and the members of our covid-19 task force, a group of medical experts from around our city and around our region, they're telling us exactly what they're seeing in hospitals here and it's not just older people who have preexisting health conditions. these are young professionals. these are people who are coming in healthy with no conditions but for covid and getting to a late stage where they can't recover. and so, that part still is a challenge for us here just because there's been so much rancor around getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and taking the necessary safety protocols that we can do with anything else. and that's unfortunate. >> your governor, governor kay ivey, banned vaccine mandates in schools. right now, there are six children in alabama on

ventilators, 2,900 school-age children had tested positive for covid last week. 300% higher than a year ago. are the bans on vaccine and mask mandates in parts of the state -- are they working? for whom are they working? who are they serving? >> well, i think that the lack of a coherent message from state and local leaders, not just elected, faith, community leaders, business leaders, is hurting us as a city and as a community. and that's, again, something i think is avoidable. i think when governor ivey mentioned a couple of months ago that more people should get vaccinated, that was the right message to strike. i think when we have other statewide elected officials pushing back on the biden administration, trying to get vaccines mandated, that's an issue. and so, again, people are not understanding, and unfortunately for us, we see it in our hospitals. we see it in our healthcare

system. we see it in our schools, and we see it in our community. and we're the real losers in all this because leaders can't get the politics out of something that should not be political at all but should be around -- focused around the health and wellness of our residents and our citizens. >> month mayor steven reed, i know you're dealing with a lot. thank you very much for spending time to talk to us about it. we're grateful. when we come back, president biden's bid to make good on that most elusive of campaign promises, uniting our country. our friend john will be our next guest after a quick break. don't go anywhere. r next guest after a quick break. don't go anywhere. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! [sighs wearily] here, i'll take that! woo-hoo!

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and we are going to partner with you because we can't always know what the future holds, but we do know what we owe our children. we owe them a promise to keep their schools open as safe as possible. we owe them a commitment to follow the science. we owe them unity so that we can fight the virus, not each other. we are committed to working as hard for your children as you do. >> in the 879 days since joe biden and his wife, dr. jill biden, launched a campaign for the presidency, it is something that they've stressed week after week, month after month, unity.

that we are more than the sum of our parts, that in solving problems big and small, our country is better together. what a departure from this president's predecessor, but as "the new york times" points out, that quest to unify a very divided american people is easier said than done. "times" report says, "eight months into mr. biden's presidency, both husband and wife are finding that winning the battle for the soul of the nation is perhaps his most elusive campaign promise. in washington an outrage-driven approach to politics has replaced mr. biden's rose-colored belief that deal making can be an art form. as he tries to prove this is still possible, his wife is not a bystander." joining us now, historian john meacham. john also occasionally advises this president, president biden, and his new podcast, "it was said sports" features some of the most pivotal and inspiring

sports speeches throughout history. next time, i want to listen to some of that when you're here, john, but this is from some reporting that the "new york times" has from an interview that dr. biden has given to katie rodgers and i want to read some of it. she says this, quote, i love him. and it's hurtful, jill biden said in an interview, the first she has granted to a newspaper since becoming the first lady. i do feel the sting of it. i wouldn't be a good partner if i didn't. we may not spend enough time acknowledging a spouse, a partner, endures and in some instances feels the sting longer than her partner. we've only had male presidents so far, so i'll leave the spouse as her partner. dr. biden, though, is a force to be reckoned with, not just working but carrying this message of unity the "times" interview talks about her being drawn to president biden's detractors and trying to find understanding. she seems uniquely qualified to do that. >> she does.

and yeah, as you know, there's a long history of this. nancy reagan kept score for president reagan, crossing george h.w. bush was never a good idea. crossing barbara bush was fatal. and i've got a couple of bruises still from various moments. and so, yes, you know, as you know, in the dialectic of power, often it is the spouse who feels this most deeply. partly because i think, a, they love the primary actor more than anybody else in the world. and b, they absorb it all, but they don't have quite as much agency in fighting back. you know? the primary -- because we can dismiss it as, well, that's the wife or that's the spouse, and so i think there's a perennial struggle there. i think president biden's incredibly lucky that someone like dr. biden is there, and that may sound puffy or sent

mental, but this is a woman who goes out, teaches, grades scores of papers every week. she's actually living the kind of country that president biden and a -- the fellow democrats want to create. i don't think we should minimize that. she's trying to live out a life where you create opportunity for people. the community college part of the world is a very interesting element in all of this. it's easy to talk, and i usually do, at this overly grand level, but access to community college, a program that started with a republican governor in tennessee, the one time barack obama came to tennessee as president, was to praise haslem and try to has that program nationally. it's an interesting test case for this machinery of perpetual

conflict that shapes the country. are you against creating opportunity, where it's a kind of g.i. bill, where anybody can at least get that head start in higher education? yet, i'm sure if we were on another network, they would end up opposing it or calling it creeping statism. i think that's one of the things that's essential here as we enter this incredibly difficult fall, is to remember why joe biden is president. he's president because he's not donald trump. he's president, because he represents the possibility of government actually working for people, and not simply being a sort of self-congratulatory and self-fulfilling conflict. i think on that measure, the focus of this administration, as i'm getting shots in affirms,

convincing people who are distrustful of him, most who remain vaccine skeptical, walking the walk, but i think that framy the early day where he garnered bipartisan port with the covid relief package, bipartisan support for infrastructure, i wonder if you think that sort of has been replaced by the crises that the country is facing. i wonder what your private conversations and what you glean from what this white house feels about this fall heading into it? >> without revealing anything, self-evident reality is self-evident reality. he was above 50% where democracy was at its greatest risk as soon as fort sumpter.

let's be clear on that. it's been the most assault on the country since fort sumpter, so biden could speak the vernacular of constitutional democracy. you could disagree with him, god bless you if you disagree with him, but at least you're part of a coherent conversation. what the other side was trying to do on january 6th was end that conversation. if you want to fight community college initiative orb infrastructure, or if too much money is spent on a reconciliation package, that's a conversation we're supposed to have. if the republican party does not find a way to be a functional element in a constitutional democracy, then they don't really have the right to argue on those numbers. directly to your question, absolutely, history always happens.

presidencies are about -- that's what presidencies are, right? it's about dealing with the unexpected, it's about learning from mistake, but the guy got 68 votes for infrastructure, this is like 98 votes if laws of gravity apply, right? the one phrase in that "new york times" piece i agree with is the rose-colored view that biden has of dealmaking? it's a little overly glib. we have to find a way to govern. >> look, i sense -- i tried to check in with the white house every day. i think it is the least bad option. >> yes, you sand off the options, but what is the alternative. the last guy did -- jon, we have so much more to talk about. i'm going to ask you to come back tomorrow and listen to some of your sports podcast. that sounds much better than

this. the good news is you get to hear doc rivers and not him. >> it's a deal. >> it's a twofer. a quick break for us. we'll be right back. a quk icbreak for us we'll be right back. you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean now helps the places you go too. look for the ecolab science certified seal.

♪ ♪ now helps the places you go too. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [uplifting music playing]

♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ an update on a story we brought you earlier. the first doctor has been sued under texas's new restrictive abortion law. dr. alan braid, who came forward to say he provided an abortion to the woman who was beyond the six-week limit was sued. he was convicted on federal tax evasion charges in 2009. the former lawyer who brought the suit says he's not opposed to abortion, but wanted the law -- we will be watching that case very closely. a quick break for us. we'll be right back. y closely. a quick break for us we'll be right back.

you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean now helps the places you go too. look for the ecolab science certified seal. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've honorably served. no matter their rank, or when they were in. a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join.

thank you so much. we're grateful. "the beat" starts right now. hi, jason. >> hi, nicolle. welcome to "the beat" in for ari melber today. new details on how concerned the nation's top general was, about an unhinged lameduck trump. >> what chairman