about once-weekly ozempic®. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. if it's tuesday could president biden's agenda actually collapse? democrats are racing to jam through some gar began tomb spending package while trying to avoid a government shut dout an default on the death all at the same time. is this an agenda too big to fail or are democrats too divided to succeed? plus, president biden delivers a message to the world at u.n. headquarters, defending the u.s.'s standing on the world stage, defending the power of democracy and defending the chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan. later new developments in the race to vaccinate the nation and the world as johnson & johnson says a booster shot can significantly raise its vaccine's effectiveness to 94%,

if you can time the shot right. ♪♪ welcome to "meet the press daily," i'm chuck todd on a very busy september tuesday. this is going to be a september to remember politically, that's for sure. president biden wrapped up his first address to the u.n. general assembly this morning, questions about america's credibility and leadership on the world stage, at least trying to answer some of those questions. we will bring you more on his address, the reaction to it in just a moment. we want to start here in washington. the president and his democratic allies are facing a tangled web of legislation, urgent deadlines and there's inter party divisions to navigate. it's not hyperbole, it's just a fact that the biden agenda, the progressive vision, infrastructure, future of the democratic party, health of the economy, fate of a government shutdown they have all been intertwined.

if you're joe pesci from "my cousin vinnie" what do you do you want to put on this truck. seems like leadership is betting they can unify the party by making the agenda too big to fail. you heard that phrase from robert gibbs of the obama era but right now things are too divided to pass. here is how pete defazio who was first elected in the reagan years, summed up the situation in congress to nbc news. i've been here for cliffs and crises and wars, and this is going to be the biggest mashup we have had since i've been here. with the debt limit, with the government shutdown, with reconciliation, and with infrastructure. and i have no idea how it all works out. this afternoon democrats trying to address the two most urgent deadlines that face this congress with legislation to avoid a government shutdown at the end of this month and a debt default that's scheduled to potentially happen at the end of next month, but republicans are signaling they're going to block

it. so what's the plan b? unclear. >> what is the plan b? >> i'm not going to let them off the hook. >> well, the plan b is there's no plan b. you've got to pay your bills. this doesn't acquire debt, this is about paying your bills or not. we go through this dance all the time and it's a dance that's very, very dangerous and in the end everybody i serve with understands that this could be catastrophic if we don't -- if we don't pass the debt bill. >> what's the plan b? >> then that's on the republicans. >> folks, it is not an exaggeration to say that these next few feeks are the most critical ones democrats in congress will have for a long time and the risk facing democrats is they have the ambition of a party with a big majority in congress but their actual majority is as narrow as it can get and as congressman defazio said, we have no idea how this all works out. let's go to our team of reporters, maybe they have an

idea, sahil kapur on capitol hill, kelly o'donnell outside the white house. sahil, let me begin with you. you know, you ask the question sometimes how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time, but this is the question here. everything is now getting jammed up together. the government shutdown and in some ways the debt ceiling standoff is getting in the way of trying to resolve the budget reconciliation standoff which is extra party, the other one is interparty. we know that they don't want to publicly say there's a plan b, but we know there has to be a plan b, so what does it look like? >> reporter: chuck, the plan about b on the debt limit is highly unclear. the closest i have heard is what congressman jeff frees mentioned is he expects republicans to start getting an earful from big businesses, donors, industry groups about the catastrophic harm this could deal to the economy if it is not lifted. as things stand, mitch

mcconnell, the senate republican leader is not budging. he usually does not bluff in situations like this, but he's also not the type of person who is interested in watching the united states default. i think this is going to have to get closer to the brnk before either side blinks because democrats are determined not to put this in reconciliation for a number of reasons, firstly they don't want to set a precedent where only one party is responsible for paying the country's bills and secondly there is a chance that the second ril yags bill is not finished by october when the debt limit will be breached so that could invite a different catastrophe. as things stand no clear resolution but democrats have a bill that would keep the government funded through december 3rd of this year and extend the debt limit through december of 2022 which gets past the midterms. >> sahil, the question i have, though, on this debt limit standoff is that the incentive structure is so asymmetrical i understand what congressman jefferies thinks that somehow business an donors are going to

do this. those aren't the pressure points that move republicans anymore. >> reporter: right. so the question is what if anything does move them, chuck. there is a lot of games that are played in congress but the idea of letting the united states default tends not to be something that most legislators want to do. back in 2011 there was a standoff where the united states got close to the brink. mitch mcconnell had the same position then, the minority leader he said republicans learned at the time that the debt limit was a hostage you ransom but not a hostage that you shoot. those are his words i'm quoting him directly and he still believes that. you have to think that republicans are not going to let this happen or they're going to find some way to do it. plan c, d and e could be extraordinary measures like minting a trillion dollar coin or invoking a constitutional option for the federal government to say this is not constitutional under the test. >> but, sahil, when was the last time we had this debt ceiling standoff where one party technically had all the levers of the house, the senate and the presidency? >> reporter: it's hard to think of.

i think back in '09 and 2010 democrats ran the government and they were able to -- they were able to raise this because they had an enormous amount of votes in the senate, i think 60 or close to 60, but the last debt limit standoff i can think of was 2011 where the united states got to the brink and that was divided government. >> right. exactly. and that's what i think is the asymmetrical part of this and what cynically republicans are betting the house on here, sahil thanks for getting us started on capitol hill. let me move to the white house side of things. kelly, the question really is is when is president biden going to basically become the player here? i mean, it's clear he's got to be the closer in some form or another to bring -- to bridge these divides, whether it's on reconciliation or on how to land the plane on the debt ceiling but it doesn't seem like the white house is quite ready to play that role or maybe congressional leadership hasn't invited him in yet. where does things stand from the

white house perspective? >> reporter: what we've been seeing is a distancing, you are right about that, the president has not shown his cards on this yet and if he has the power to be the ultimate closer here it may be at the last minute. washington has been so conditioned to act only on crisis that now we're really facing a period where this is a crisis in a triple-dekker sandwich of just horrible things coming together. that typically does create the kind of incentive to either get to the brink, look over the brink, dwell on the brink and then they finally act. what the white house has been saying publicly is this is congress' job to fix and we've seen from the president he typically spends time working the phones which he does frequently, having private meetings with lawmakers and obviously having allies in the leaders of both chambers is a help. and a long relationship with mitch mcconnell. he understands -- i love the

quote that sahil brought us about the hostage with mitch mcconnell. he is someone who is shrewd strategically on these matters and at the same time he is testing the ground here of a thin democratic majority. this is action from mitch mcconnell that appears more dangerous than we have typically seen for someone who is risk averse when it comes to threatening the country's economic sovereignty with the debt limit. so the answer is the president is tied up with foreign policy at the moment in terms of his public stage, at the u.n., having other meetings, dealing with those things. we have not seen what they're prepared to do behind the scenes, but the biden agenda really has to be set in the first year of this presidency given the midterms coming and given the nier oweness of the majorities. so he's got a lot riding on this and has to be involved at some point. >> during the bipartisan infrastructure talks steve rish ety was the point person from

the white house. do you have a point person on the reconciliation bill that is similar in that small, tight circle of the biden white house team? >> reporter: knowing the players, having the relationships and trying to work it from that -- that point of view, yes, i don't see any change in the roster when it comes to those the president trusts most and those who already have the well-worn pathways to the offices of most note on capitol hill. >> kelly o'donnell at the white house for us. kelly, thank you. let me bring in now one of the key house democrats in all of these spending matters kentucky congressman john i can't remember yarmuth. it's as if you set about, you're trying to remodel and redo the entire american neighborhood and here comes a category 5 storm that can upend everything meaning the debt limit and government shutdown.

how do you sort of diz aggregate this a little bit because it sounds like if you're going to gobble all this you have to deal with it one bite at a time. >> thanks for having me on. it's a confluence of events which is probably unfortunate. we do have a lot to do. we have nine days to keep the government funded. we have a little more than that to do -- to raise the debt ceiling and the build back better act, which is the reconciliation bill is something that we're still working through, there's differences between house and senate on critical issues. so we're trying to work those out so we can get that done as efficiently as possible but ultimately that bill and passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill comes second to funding the government and raising the debt limit. >> you seem to be -- over the weekend you seemed to hint -- and, you know, from my perspective it sounded like you

were being a realist here that, look, at the end of the day the republicans have decided they're not touching this and they've got their own political incentives that will reward them for not touching this, despite maybe what some think that pressure from the business community and things like that. and that democrats have to accept the idea that, hey, the reason you got the majority is that there's a group of voters here that may not like the democrats or the republicans, but they view the democrats as a more responsible party so you have to be the more responsible actor here. do you feel as if you're sort of stuck in this role of having to do this on your own since they're incentivized not to help? i mean, that's the part of this, there is no incentive on their end politically to help. they get rewarded for this. >> well, that's one of the problems we have throughout our political system right now is that neither side is generally held accountable for what they do or say and i don't know how we're going to rectify that. meanwhile, we have a

constitutional obligation to acknowledge the obligations of the federal government and for mitch mcconnell to say that he grants that this has to be done but he's not going to do it is like a mother saying i know i have to feed my child to keep her alive, but i'm not going to give her anything to eat. you have 46 republicans in the senate who have basically signed a pledge to default -- to vote to default on the federal debt. it's unprecedented, unheard of. i can't imagine they won't pay a price if all of a sudden the dow jones tanks several thousand points, it almost did yesterday, partially because of uncertainty over the debt ceiling. so -- but you're right, i think the base of the republican party right now probably agrees with republicans and that's sad. >> and are you -- do you feel like at the end of the day you guys have to make sure you don't default even if they don't help you. i know nobody wants to talk

about a plan b but can you imagine standing there letting this happen to prove a point? i can't imagine that's a scenario, can you? >> we have to do whatever we have to do to keep from defaulting and sahil kapur talked about the problems with doing this through reconciliation, doing it with only democratic votes but also you basically set up a scenario in which you raise the debt ceiling by a couple trillion dollars and you are back in the same situation six months from now where political gains keep getting played. because to do it through reconciliation you have to specify an amount you're raising the debt ceiling by, you can't just say we're going to suspend it for a period of time, which is by the way what we did for the republicans just two years ago. >> since we -- since this debt ceiling is a made up issue, a made up problem, would you prefer to see president biden just unilaterally mint the coin as they say, do it with an

executive authority and test it that way at this point? i mean, this entire debt ceiling thing i think is -- i think the public rolls their eyes, it's obviously nothing that is taken very seriously anyway, so what's the point of it? mint the coin, right? >> there isn't a point to it, we are the only country in the world that has a debt ceiling that operates this way. we've raised it nearly 100 times since it was put into effect 100 years ago. it hasn't had any impact on the debt. the debt was $9 trillion when i entered congress in 2007 and it's now $28 trillion so it's tripled in that period of time. so the statutory debt ceiling is stupid. we need to get rid of t i suggested to the speaker half tongue in cheek that we raise it to a gazillion dollars so we never get there. i don't think she's favorable disposed to do that but we need to do it away with it. again, the only thing it does is allow either party to play

political brink plans ship and right now we're playing with fire. >> let's move to the reconciliation bill and the price tag here and the dear colleague letter that the speaker sent around last night. preparing for adjustments, this number is getting lower, we just don't know what the number is. is that the best way to read the speaker's dear colleague letter from last night? >> i think she was preparing house members for the idea that the total gross investment is not going to be $3.5 trillion. i think we're very strongly supportive of that number. we feel that -- we being most of the progressives and most of the caucus feel we've already compromised to a significant extent that we're already going to have to cut back on the types of things that we know we need to do for the american people and we don't want to do that any further. we think that what we're doing is absolutely necessary to make

sure we have a vibrant economy and a healthy society a decade or two from now. we're going to keep fighting ultimately, we can't lose one vote in the senate, we know we lose three in the house so compromises may have to be made. >> look, you are a committee chairman and you brought up the fact there have also been progressives since the day you walked into that place, i don't think anybody would accuse you of being a squishy democrat, things like that, but you seem to think that holding the bipartisan bill hostage you don't seem to think that that's good politics or do you? >> no, i don't think it's good politics. i think the vast majority of the democratic caucus wants to pass both these bills. i don't know many democrats in the house who are not for expanded child care and pre-k education and paid and family leave and free community college and access to -- for seniors to home health care.

just right now there's a lot of posturing going on and for the last four months or so my job has been to herd cats and i have told everybody go ahead and posture, say what you're for what your priorities are but recognize you're ultimately going to have to vote for both of these bills and by the way, have you met nancy pelosi? >> right. congressman john yarmuth, democrat from kentucky, louisville area, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us, i appreciate it. >> thanks, chuck. a chick programming note hear the latest news and updates from us and your other favorite msnbc shows anytime anywhere on any device with tune in, so go to tunein.com/msnbc2021. sign up. up next, president biden addresses the united nations as the white house does damage control with key european allies and calls for a global alliance to defeat the pandemic. you're watching meet the press daily. pandemic you're watching meet the press dail y. i became a sofi member because i needed to consolidate

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welcome back. while president biden's domestic agenda remains in limbo and the focus of lawmakers on capitol hill, the president himself is focusing on some foreign policy challenges though some of them actually are kind of domestic ones, too, when you think about covid and climate. he addressed the u.n. general assembly this morning for the first time as president of the united states. >> we stand in my view in an inflection point in history. instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes on devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future. ending this pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, managing the shifts in global power dynamics, shaping the roles of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber, and emerging technologies and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today.

>> amid some notable divisions between the u.s. and its allies the president emphasized unity and collaboration to tackle two of the greatest challenges facing this planet, covid and climate change. >> we're mourning more than 4.5 million people. people of every nation from every background. each death is an individual heartbreak. but our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will lining on our ability to recognize our common humanity and to act together. when we meet the threat of challenging climate, the challenging climate we are all feeling, already ravaging every part of our world, with extreme weather, or when we suffer the merciless march of ever worsening droughts and floods, more intense wires and hurricanes, longer heat waves and rising seas.

>> and just three weeks after the u.s. completed its withdrawal from afghanistan the president defended the end to america's longest war. >> i stand here today for the first time in 20 years the united states not at war. we've turned the page, all the unmatched strength, energy and commitment, will and resources of our nation are fully and squarely focused on what's ahead of us, not what was behind. >> so i'm joined by nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea gremer and alan bremer. quickly one of my favorite morning newsletters that i devour every morning, mr. bremer. andrea, what struck me is how in many ways the president's challenge as leader of the free

world is actually not dissimilar to his challenge here in this country. we've got a bunch of division globally that we have to figure out a come together, we have two massive issues that seem to be dividing us that we have to figure out how to confront covid and climate, you could say the same thing domestically and he sounded like joe biden circa campaign 2020. we have to turn the temperature down and focus on these issues. i thought it was a well-crafted speech and a well-presented one. was it effective? >> that remains to be seen because unfortunately for the president some of the last few weeks have been difficult to say the least. not only afghanistan but now the flap with the french, though one hopes get over it is certainly the white house underestimated the fury in france of losing a $60 billion contract and a lot of jobs in an upcoming election, in a tough election fight, in fact, with a far right challenge. so there was -- in talking to

the french and and the former ambassador an hour ago on our show he called it astonishing how this came about. that said, the president's speech itself was certainly a sharp contrast from the trump years in speaking about the alliances. there will be those saying that it sounded hypocritical taken what has happened in afghanistan with the timetable for the withdrawal that the g 4 administrators were stoutly against and the president was insistent on going forward with his own schedule. it was certainly talking about alliances, talking about not using military force as a first but a last resort. that is welcome. speaking about climate, very aggressively, that is not trumpian and also covid and the pandemic. the long-range challenges, the future challenges which are implicit and i should say explicit in the embodiment of his giant infrastructure and

reconciliation programs, but i think everything now depends on the domestic agenda on getting those through and you know it's like threading a needle over and over again and if he can do that and avoid a collision on the debt ceiling he goes to the g 20 in a much stronger position and meets president xi on his own terms. >> ian, andrea did a terrific job of segueing how i wanted to get you to respond here. how much does the president's credibility on the world stage get enhanced if he can get through this current rough patch that he's in right now managing the domestic challenges he's facing in this country? >> it was a good speech and certainly you will remember both of you that, you know, trump has given speeches at the general assembly and people were laughing. no one was laughing at biden's speech today, they take him seriously and recognize that he is a committed multilateralist and he wants the united states

to reflect its values internationally, but that is not where we are right now. it's not just about a good speech and it's not just about a guy that wants to do it right but it's about what american is getting done. the thing that i found profoundly interesting about this speech, 30 minutes long, china was not directly mentioned not once. did he say he doesn't want a cold war but the fact is -- >> ian, it was never -- let me because you there. it was never mentioned but it felt like it was constantly implied. like he was talking about china almost implicitly on every issue even though he never said the name. >> right, and yet when you talk about responding globally to covid and you talk about responding globally on climate and the chinese leadership tells john kerry there will not be an oasis on the desert, there is no coordination between the two largest economies, no trust, they have no idea how to get

there. i thought the more important speech was not biden's today it was the secretary general's earlier where he described the world, the world's leaders and that's first and foremost biden, of course, as sleep walking towards the abyss. now, to be fair that's not very fast and it's not with intentionality, but it's very clear that a speech, a perfectly good speech by the united states that may maintain the status quo it's not moving the needle in a way that on these issues, these global crises we are talking about, we increasingly desperately need to show that leadership. >> i want to stick to climate here. andrea, you've been tracking john kerry's job here, he's basically the secretary of climate, you know, if you will, whatever we want to describe this position, it's sort of a czar position but he's been traveling the world, he's a former secretary of state, former nominee, so he's got -- he can go leader to leader type of conversation.

it does seem as if he's hit a lot of brick walls. >> china is the worst of the brick walls but there's also india. these countries have to step up and if they don't whatever the u.s. and europe does and the u.s. is not doing as much as many in europe including boris johnson would like the u.s. to do, but this president is certainly committed to it and taking every step and trying to put it in his legislation. yeah, china and india are a big push back and russia not far behind with its fossil fuel economy. it's urgent and i think our colleague is absolutely right, he is right that the secretary general's speech was the call to action today and i hope it doesn't -- i hope it gets as much attention as it deserves. >> where does this leave us for the climate summit that's upcoming? you know, i know -- is this going to be another summit where

we talk about doing something or is this going to be a summit that might actually say, okay, this is the plan and we have more than just pledges this time to try to make this work. >> biden hosted an informal climate summit this past weekend almost no other heads of state showed up. that wasn't good. as andrea says, the united states is not doing enough. biden cares about this more than any other previous sitting president and yet the 2050 net zero commitment that the united states has made, we don't have a hard plan on how to get there. furthermore the trust, it's not as you mentioned it's not just china, it's india, it's the entire developing world. the wealthy countries of the world committed a minimum of $100 billion a year so that we could help them actually move towards renewable energy since they aren't the ones that have done most of the historic emissions and they're much poorer. we haven't come close to that number, that bare bones commitment in the same way we

haven't come close to the export of vaccines. while we're talking about rolling out boosters to our own citizens and that level of mistrust among the poorer countries in the world is only growing every day and that was true under the trump administration but very sadly it's true under the biden administration as well. >> and, chuck, as ian points out that's all only being reinforced by the pictures from the border today on horseback. >> look, at the end of the day -- at the end of the day on climate we're going to sell the develop world we have to walk to walk is essentially what it sounds like you're saying, ian, domestically. he's got to tackle covid and climate domestically if he hopes to tackle it successfully globally anyway. andrea and ian, i appreciate both of you. ian has a great morning newsletter that g zero media group, seek it out and subscribe. coming up, good news from johnson & johnson about the effectiveness of a second dose

amid the grim news that the u.s. is averaging more than 2,000 covid-19 deaths every day now. you're watching "meet the press daily." now. you're watching "meet the press daily. [fast upbeat music begins] [music stops] and release. [deep exhale] [fast upbeat music resumes] [music stops]

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many japt bodies and that's not all. a new real world study showed johnson & johnson's single-shot between was 79% effective in preventing all covid in the united states. the company said efficacy showed no signs of waning during the five-month study even when the delta variant took hold across the u.s. that's the good news for a pandemic that's now taken the lies of more than 2,000 americans every day. all this have comes on the heels of good vaccine news because yesterday pfizer announced a smaller dose of its vaccine for children age 5 through 11 was safe and produced a, quote, robust response. pfizer expects to submit its vaccine data for children by the end of the month. joining me is a practicing physician, msnbc medical contributor and former policy director in the obama administration dr. kavita patel. i want to start with the johnson & johnson news because to me the fine print of this study is the

two month issue. >> right. >> does it turn out that basically the johnson & johnson vaccine like the pfizer, like the moderna was best designed as a two-dose regimen but we just went with the one dose for now? >> yeah, chuck, that's actually exactly how i would kind of take that data, granted as you mentioned they will be submitting this data to the fda. it will be interesting to see if they actually offer that two-dose regiment as the initial series of vaccines to your point and then they did also release data today that showed that five-month after a single dose it produced even 12 fold higher antibodies than that first original dose. you can imagine dose one, two months later dose two and then let's say four to six months later a, quote/unquote, booster dose. but i think, chuck, you're right and by the way that maps to what we do with other types of viral vaccines that we have two doses

separated by several months and then a booster a month later. so that maps to what we know. remember, johnson & johnson is unlike the moderna and pfizer vaccines the messenger rna vaccine uses that kind of viral vector technology that is much more familiar with other vaccines we have. >> dr. patel, the pfizer and moderna never attempt to do it as a single dose, were they always going to be two dose? it felt like their trials were two dose where it seemed like johnson & johnson always wanted to see if they could find a one dose. it looks to me in hindsight that obviously it tushs out needs to be a two dose. could pfizer and moderna does the same thing and we could have made those one doses temporarily? >> no and that has to do with a reminder even though we talk about the mrna vaccine this is the first approved vaccine for humans, we actually have other examples of mrna vaccines. we're building on decades of

understanding that technology a bit better and the two doses make sense. i think what people are asking with two doses of the moderna or pfizer is should they have been spaced apart even nor more and the j&j data if you want to extract analogy points to that. maybe we should have spaced one and two instead of three and four weeks, maybe we should have spaced them out even more. that's how the uk approached their vaccinations because they delayed a second dose but they found robust levels of immunity based on spacing out the two doses of a different vaccine of course. >> let me ask you about a question that i asked dr. fauci on sunday. what is the delay in getting a better understanding of how long natural immunities last with folks with covid and more importantly how to use that data to maybe say if you have had covid you only need one shot, not two shots or you only need two shots not three shots. it does seem 18 months to the

start of this pandemic we still don't have a good sense of how people who get covid and get the covid antibodies naturally how that works in the system and how that should be meshed with vaccines. >> great question and honestly it maps to something you and i have spent inordinate amounts of times discussing which is our lack of progress on rapid testing as well. so when you think about 18 months into this how is this so impossible that we can get people affordable free even rapid tests. they exist and those technologies exist, but all of them have been delayed and they're still under emergency authorization for the most part. same can be applied with antibody testing it's not just a swab in the nose that we have, we actually usually have to draw good, not a pinprick on the fingertip. it's a little more involved, but that's not an excuse. that's also to say that we don't even have reference standards in general for how to say chuck todd's antibody level is this

and we know that that confers to a certain amount of protection. so to your point delays, i think, in just looking at this from a real world evidence and then don't forget for many months especially in the beginning many americans had covid but didn't even know they did. so we have to then do a lot of backtracking to understand what was your initial time of infection. those are knowable answers i'm just going to be blunt. we don't have limitless resources and we decided with the development of these vaccines in november of 2020 the shift would be let's get everybody immunized building on data we have from other diseases where we know if we get infected with something else we still encourage vaccinations. so i think that's why you have not seen as much attention but look at what europe is doing and italy. if you have had a natural infection you get one of those pass cards to say that you don't need to show proof of vaccination. that's going to become more of an issue as we move forward with opening up borders and travel into and out of other countries.

>> look, if we get the testing done right it may actually get more people like, okay, so you're saying i can just get one dose. i mean, it might improve the issue on vaccine hesitancy. dr. kavita patel, as always you are straightforward with your answers with us and that's why you are an expert we love to have on here. so thank you. up next, what the head of the fbi and the dhs are now saying about the nation's biggest security threats 20 years after 9/11. you're watching "meet the press daily." ter 9/11 you're watching "meet the press daily. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this before. i've never woken up like this before. crafted with clinically studied plant-based ingredients that work naturally with your body. for restorative sleep like never before. without my medication, my small tremors would be extreme. i was diagnosed with parkinson's. i had to retire from law enforcement. it was devastating. one of my medications is three thousand dollars per month.

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a little preparation will make you and your family safer in an emergency. a week's worth of food and water, radio, flashlight, batteries and first aid kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com welcome back. the heads of the fbi, department of homeland security and the national counterterrorism center all of them were on the hill today to testify on threats to our nation 20 years after 9/11. the threats are wide ranging and exist in new arenas including covid, cyber attacks, extreme weather. but they all agree that one of the most pressing and fastest growing dangers this country faces sadly a domestic violent

extremism. >> the most significant and persistent terrorism related threat facing our country today which stems from both homegrown and domestic violent extremists who are inspired by a broad range of ideological motivations. >> domestic violent extremists radicalized by personal grievances ranging from racial and ethnic bias to anti-government, anti-authority sentiment to conspiracy theories. since the spring of 2020 so the past 16, 18 months or so we have more than doubled our domestic terrorism caseload. >> the administration's national security official also made clear that although some threats to the u.s. come from within, they have not taken their eye off of terrorist threats from abroad highlighting isis-k and al qaeda as well as the cybersecurity threat that stems from china. >> protecting our nation's innovation, we're opening a new

china counterintelligence investigation every 12 hours. >> mayorkas was pressed on the crisis at the southern border as haitian migrants gather by the thousands. photos showed border agents using some whips around migrants at the border. >> we commenced an investigation at my direction immediately, the office of professional responsibility within the department of homeland security's u.s. custom and border protection, number one. number two, we alerted the inspector general of the incidents. number three, i directed that the office of professional responsibility be present on site in del rio 24/7 to ensure that the conduct of our personnel adheres to our policies, to our training and to our values. i was horrified to see the images. we do not tolerate any mistreatment or abuse of a

migrant. period. >> we're going to have more on this testimony, the new threat landscape facing this country 20 years after 9/11. we will do that next. we will take a break, though, you're watching "meet the press daily." , though, you're watching "mt eethe press daily. - oh...oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ oh! are you using liberty mutual's coverage customizer tool? sorry? well, since you asked. it finds discounts and policy recommendations, so you only pay for what you need. limu, you're an animal! who's got the bird legs now? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (vo) at t-mobile for business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently,

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country. who better to help me break this down than former fbi special agent clint watts. clint, in some ways, what we heard domestically is not new, at least in the last year and a half. i think it was interesting to me that christopher wray made note that starting in about march of 2020, they've been recalibraing a little bit more focus on this domestic terror threat. but i want to start international. on the cyber realm and on stuff with isis-k and with al qaeda, how would characterize those threats? is it sort of the same level of threats we've been dealing with over the last decade, or is that going to increase? >> chuck, i think for the most part it will be about the same as what we've seen over the last decade, and we're going to have home-grown violent extremists, you heard director wray talk

about that. they'll continue to say they have some elitist cause over isis. what we've seen in the taliban and the u.s. as we were trying to exit the country, there was incentive to strike the united states. especially after bin laden and isis later on, the idea was to center that group in the international landscape, so we'll have to keep an eye on that. in terms of the cyber threat, cyber is everything right now, and i think china is just remarkable about how much that's going to become our biggest concern, whether it's cyber where they've been stealing our intellectual property for at least a decade, all the way to internal espionage in the united states. there was a quote in there about internal repression or suppression of -- what i think they're talking about is chinese members inside the united states. this is where the chinese influence is different from,

say, russia. russia was trying to go and infiltrate the u.s. to win an election. china actually goes and tries to repress them. i think those will be major new trends we need to look at. >> it was interesting to me they talk about climate change as a threat. it makes sense to me, but i'd like you to help viewers understand why it does. the issue of climate change is going to change migration patterns all over the world. that in turn is going to create border fights. we're going to have fights about access to water, basic needs. this is a different type of thing we face. how would you categorize it? it's not necessarily terrorism, but it is sort of going to be climate-driven, i guess, conflict. so how would you classify it? >> in some of the discussions i've been around, the only countries that should be building a wall on the southern

border is canada. because the migration patterns alone that will take place over the next 20 years, if projections are what they are, is going to be dynamic and catastrophic in a lot of ways. we're talking about pitting different ethnic groups against each other. there is a strong case to be made about the syrian civil war we've been talking about over the last decade, which prompted a major migration into europe, which prompted things we've seen in hungary, greece, which have brought on external migration in the country. what it is is climate change sort of impulse that pushes on all these threads and brings everyone under tension and brings nation and people inside nations under conflict. >> just look at how some on the far right are using so-called replacement theory as a way to gin up grievance which, of course, is connected to the migration patterns we're now

seeing. anyway, clint watts, i appreciate you putting the issue of climate and terrorism, frankly, and framing it a way that folks understand. thank you all for being with us this hour. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily," but msnbc coverage will continue right after this break with my friend jeff bennett. f bennett. nyquil severe gives you powerful relief for your worst cold and flu symptoms, on sunday night and every night. nyquil severe. the nightime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine.

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it is great to be with you. i'm com jeff bennett. i'm coming to you from new york today. the united states is no longer at war with afghanistan, but laying out the monumental challenges that confront quite frankly every country on the planet, president biden pointed out these wars cannot be won or lost in the old ways