done >> all right andy slavitt, thank you for your time. that is all for tonight, the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening chris thank you for being here, happy to have you here. last summer the summer ofevenin. thank you, my friend. much appreciated. thanks for joining thus hour. happy to you have here. last summer summer of 2020 hood county, texas, hired a new elections administrator. hood county, texas, is southwest of ft. worth. population of 60,000 people. and the new elections administrator they hired was a pro. the real deal. she had impeccable credentials. she was a 14-year veteran of elections administration at the county level. she had spent the last five years running elections in a different texas county in that different texas county she had been universally praised by that county's leaders. i mean by all accounts, hood county made a really good choice when they picked somebody to come in and be the sort of

technocrat, the nonpartisan official who would administer their elections. and in fact, when it came time for the presidential election in november of last year, november 2020, things went off absolutely without a hitch. in hood county. now i should mention that hood county is really, really conservative. it is really republican. to prove my point, these were the results in hood county from the november election. donald trump won 81% of the vote there. he beat joe biden by 64 points. i mean, keep in mind, over the entire state of texas, donald trump's margin of victory was six points. in hood county, it was 64 points. absolute landslide by any measure. and so, if you were a trump supporter who fervently believes what trump says, which is that the 2020 election was stolen from him, you might be mad about

that, you might dryer your ire to him about that. you know, somewhere the results don't seem right you to, right? you might have expected trump to win. but biden won instead. you might expect that hood county, texas, where trump won by a 64 point margin, you might expect hood county and the noncontroversial experience professional nonpartisan election administrator, you might expect that and it could be unlikely targets. for the rage of trump supporting republicans angry about the election results. but here we are. the texas tribune has been reporting now on a month's long effort by far right trump supporting election conspiracy theorists in hood county, texas, to get that county

election administrator fired. they have not only attacked her, they attacked any elected leader in the county that supports her. the local republican party in hood county actually put down in writing and passed a resolution threatening necessity would run a negative social media campaign against the top official if he didn't hold the hearing on firing her. the election administrator was forced to sit through a public county meeting. local officials and residents railed against her and demanded she must be fired. and remember these are basically all republicans that we're talking about here. the county that hired her is run by republicans. the county that employed her for several years prior is equally republican. the republican party chair of that county where she used to run elections told the texas tribune, "i can't imagine anyone not giving her anything but a plus as a grade". she's that good. people have to realize her credentials are impeccable. she knows what she is doing. so this experienced election administrator, not a single blemish on the record, high will

you respected by republican party officials in texas. she runs an election in hood county, texas in, which donald trump wins by 64 points. what's the problem? this is from the texas tribune today. "far right conservatives who preach allegiance to trump are demanding that carew's duties be placed under elected county clerk katie lang. she shares stop the steal and impeach biden means and videos. including those produced by popular local far right facebook and youtube show that has claimed presidential election was stolen. it is also called for michelle carew's ouster. that is the founder, mike lange, her husband.

the attacks have confounded michelle whose job is nonpartisan but voted republican primaries for the past 11 years according to public records. i felt alone. the worst part is being dragged through the mud where they don't know what they're talking about. i don't feel like i'm the same person i was a year ago. this county has ruined me. but for now, michelle carew has handed in her resignation. and she will no longer be the elections administrator of hood county, texas. she tells "the texas tribune, when i started out, election administrators were appreciated, highly respected. now we're made out to be the bad guys. you know, one thing we hear from a lot of the folks at the state level who are pushing for the bizarre, you know, trumpy investigations or fake audits of the 2020 results are pushing for changes to voting laws because there is something so wrong with the 2020 voting, a lot of the time they'll say this isn't about overturning the 2020 election. it is absolutely about overturning the 2020 election,

but in a more present danger. it's about them trying to gain control over the administration of the next election. taking the administration of elections out of the hands of nonpartisan technical professionals and putting it in the hands of people who say the last election was stolen. and who say they're going to make sure the right person wins the next time. i mean, that's happening even in the reddest counties in texas, that have the reddest election results you can possibly imagine. and then look at what is happening in michigan right now. this is a remarkable new story from "the dallas news." excuse me, from "the detroit news." republican party leaders across the battleground state of michigan quietly worked in recent weeks to replace incumbent county election officials with newcomers. some of whom have sought to undermine the public space of the 2020 vote. they focus on member canvassing boards. do you remember a couple weeks

after the 2020 election there was a brief crazy moment in wayne county, michigan. that's the largest county in the state, that's where detroit is. and these are bipartisan boards. board of canvassers. the two republicans on the wayne county board of canvassers actually, initially voted against certifying the results of the presidential election in wayne county. you know, because there must have been all this fraud in detroit, right? the board of canvassers deadlocked saying they wouldn't certify. that means wayne county couldn't certify the results. president trump personally called the two republican members of that county board that night. and that was going to be this big very consequential win for trump's efforts to overturn the election. well, the way that resolved is ultimately those republican officials in wayne county michigan ended up -- changing their mind.

reversing their votes. and they did allow the certification of biden's win to go ahead. what is happening in michigan right now, quietly under the radar, is that republicans have decided they're not going to make that mistake again. one of the members who briefly blocked the certification of biden's win in november, she wanted to continue on that board but local republican leaders will not renominate her for the position. she said it's absolutely because she voted to certify the vote for biden's election. one people that they nominated to replace her on the board of canvassers is one of the witnesses rudy giuliani dug up to support his fake claims of election fraud during his particularly crazy pence appearances before the michigan legislatures, last december. one of the witnesses is going to replace the woman that was

elected to certify and then didn't certify. for the board of canvassers, republicans nominated a woman that said last year that president trump should not only suspend meetings of the electoral college, what does that even mean? she said that trump should have military tribunals investigate claims about election fraud. local republicans are now putting her up for the board of canvassers in the third largest county in the state of michigan. "the detroit news" asked this woman if she believes the 2020 election was stolen from trump. she responded, "i do not not believe it." in another michigan county republicans nominated the wife of a conservative radio commentator who recently moderated an even with the my pillow guy about how the supreme court is about to put back into office. here's that radio host today at a rally on the steps of michigan state capitol. >> here's the truth. you need to get ahold of your state rep and your state senator

and tell them if they don't do an audit, you will not put up signs. you will not knock on doors. you will not give them money. and you sure as hell won't vote for them next year! if the fix is in, if the fix is in, the democrats are going to win anyway, right? they won't get rid of these machines. and guess what. give the power to the democrats. let them run it in the ground and we're kick they're butts in '24. >> he's a local public intellectual in michigan. his wife has just been nominated by their local republican party to become republican member of the county board of canvassers which means she'll be in charge of deciding whether election results are certified in that county or not. the gentleman was speaking at a

pro-trump rally at the michigan state capitol today. count michigan. count michigan. demand a transparent forensic audit. and when you heard that gentlemen say there is that the new republican platform should be based around this. which is basically true, right? this is what the republican -- the republican county or statewide elected officials of your choice is likely running on next year. if you want to get votes from the trump supporting base of the republican party, you have to support there being these investigations of the last election. you have to do one of the fake audits. you have to commit to the idea that the 2020 election was fraudulent and stolen. and you'll stop the next election from being stolen. because, otherwise, why vote, right? if the machines are all hacked by democrats and, you know, dead economist dictators. what's the point? we'll all stay home unless you

republican candidate commit -- commit to the fantasy that trump somehow secretly won the last election and it's all by big cover-up. meanwhile, republicans across michigan really are very quietly stacking local elections boards with people committed to that cause, who will make sure things will go the way they're supposed to the next time. and it's no the just the local levels. the state level too. the first speaker at today's rally was the trump endorsed republican candidate for secretary of state who will become the state's top elections official. she spoke at that event today. here by the way is how today's rally ended with this prayer. >> god, that this election, integrity, everything, lord, god will be turned around in jesus' name and for your glory. amen. god bless you. go with god. michigan shall be saved! the election shall be rectified in jesus' name.

>> michigan shall be saved. the election shall be rectified as rallygoers flew upside down american flags and the skull flag from the three percenter militia. we are everywhere. the one disappointment is there was no appearance from donald trump himself. at one point during the event there was this expectation he was supposed to be called in, but he didn't. i guess he canceled. he certainly promoted the event. a few days ago, big michigan rally coming up on october 12th on the capitol steps in lansing. they will demand a forensic audit. the voter fraud is beyond what anyone can believe. anyone that cares about our country should attend. because unless we look to the past and fix what happened we won't have a future or a country. let's go, michigan. don't let us down. just in case you thought donald trump might be shying away from encouraging his supporters to

rally at capitol buildings because otherwise we won't have a country anymore, in case you thought he might think better of messages like this, after what happened with the january 6th rally. everybody needs to come to d.c. the it will be wild. not shying away from it now. right? why would he shy away from anything now? they get stronger and stronger, even as supporters get to work on taking over the elections infrastructure in key states, even as he calls the supporters to rally on the steps of state capitols, his support from the mainstream and republican party in all of this is only growing and becoming more homogenous. he held this rally in iowa this weekend. rolling out his greatest hits about election fraud and forensic audits and election being stolen from him. just as nuts as ever. only now it's not just the my pillow guy and rudy giuliani with the hair dye running down his face. and ms. kraken with him, now, it's been the governor of iowa, and republican senator chuck

grassley, the longest serving sitting republican senator, all sit there right there with all, nodding along with all of it. going along with all of it. and then the next morning on the sober sunday shows, there is steve scalise, the number to republican in the house of representatives earnestly talking about the theory about the voting rules were rigged and biden's favor in states like pennsylvania and so therefore biden's win was somehow not right. that was this weekend. in pennsylvania this weekend, in pennsylvania, trump adviser steve bannon spoke at a gun cult event about how pennsylvania must have a full forensic audit and new canvas of the 2020 vote. and when i say this was a sort of cult event, i'm not being flip about. that literally this is the event by the mooneys, the son of the mooneys who is the guy that proclaimed himself the masaya. he and his brother now run a gun factory and church in pennsylvania where the people who worship in the church are

expected to hold their ar-15s while they worship, and he does wear a crown of bullets. you see what he is wearing on his head? it's a crown of bullets. and, yes, he was part of the january 6th attack on the capitol. that's where steve bannon spoke this weekend at this event talking about how pennsylvania needs a full forensic audit now, too. it is a slippery slope. listen to the trump endorsed candidate from michigan attorney general today riling up the crowd against the current attorney general in the state of michigan as the crowd demands, lock her up. lock her up. >> i've been threatened by dana nestle. she thinks people that support election integrity should be criminally prosecuted. i have been today, in fact, demanded by our elected officials to stop talking about this issue. i have been told to stop talking about america first values.

i stood up to try to vindicate president trump. dana nestle doesn't value your rights. but we need an army to fight. >> we need an army to fight. we need an army to fight. dana nestle doesn't value your rights. lock her up. joining us now is michigan attorney general dana nestle. madam attorney general, i imagine this has been a weird day at work for you at work and otherwise. thank you for being here tonight. i really appreciate you making the time. >> thank you for having me. >> so this is a trump endorsed candidate who wants to be the next secretary of state of -- excuse me, wants to be the next attorney general of michigan. leading this rally and chants about you today. lock her up. lock her up. saying they need an army against you. i just have to ask you, hearing that, knowing that happened today at the state capitol, i'd

like to get your response. >> honestly, it's terrifying. and it's hard to believe this is the democracy that we know and love in this country and how quickly it's deteriorating. and knowing that -- i believe mr. deperno when he talks about prosecuting me in the event that he's successful and he defeats me in 2022. i believe him when he says he will prosecute me and prosecute people like me. i think he'll prosecute our governor and our secretary of state and anyone else who he believes in any way shape or form has not supported donald trump. and that's exactly why donald trump supports him for the position of michigan attorney general knowing how crucial that position is as a swing state ag and the role that swing state ags play in presidential

elections in upholding the rule of law and ensuring the person who actually received the most votes gets our electoral votes. >> it feels like over and over again michigan has been sort of -- unfortunate metaphor, the tip of the proverbial spear in terms of the invocation and violence. and the bleed over in right-wing politics and mainstream republican politics. i have to ask if with, you know, the kidnapping plot against governor whitmer, with the violent and threatening protest s outside people's homes, with

right-wingers bringing assault rifles into the state capitol last year. with the kind of thing that we saw today at the -- with the 3% militia flags and the, you know, threatening to lock you up and the threats of violence at this event today. is the entire republican party radicalizing in this direction? or do you think that this is turning off some people who are otherwise sort of common sense republican voters who may feel like they don't have a home in michigan politics. they may not identify as a democrat but things are getting weird enough in michigan republican politics. that it's isolating some people who may have previously been their supporters? >> well, i think certainly there are a lot of voters that are turned off. but if you look at highly populated areas like oakland county or kent county, i think a lot of voters there that traditionally voted republican, they definitely are turned off by this. unfortunately, the members of the party and those who run for positions of elected leadership in the party are totally beholden to trump. and if that means coalescing behind this very violent message

of demagoguery, then that's what they're going to do. and what we've seen is what we've seen all over the nation is that more moderate members of the party seem to drop off because they know that they have no hope of becoming the nominee for whatever position it is. and you end up with these extremists and i'm just going to say those who espouse, you know, fascism or autocracyautocracy, the people that are willing to undermine democracy and don't care if we have minority rule in our state or the country. those are the ones that end up as the nominees for the republican party and there is literally no room for anyone else at this point. >> michigan attorney general dana nessel, as i said, i know this day has probably been a trip for you, and an unpleasant one at that. thank you for keeping us updated. nice to you have here. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. we have much much more ahead tonight. stay with us.

it is something that human beings have been working on for more than 100 years without success. and as a matter when you spend more than 100 years trying to do something and it doesn't work, it won't work, it won't work that, is a determined signal from the universe that it won't work. no matter what you do. but in this case, nobody ever wanted to give up because the thing they were trying to do for more than a century, the problem they were trying to fix for more than a century, was such a terrible problem it was worth keeping at it year after year, generation after generation just in case something might work some day. whatever is you get from mosquitos. it's a parasite carried in some parts of the world. malaria kills a half million people every year. it's been killing people for

generations and generations, particularly kids. the vast majority of people that die from malaria are kids. the vast majority are kids under the age of 5. and so scientists have literally been trying for 100 years to develop a vaccine to protect people from malaria without success. you would only keep trying something for more than a century without success if it was so important to do it, if it was so potentially transformative that it was still worth it. you had to keep going and trying. now more than 100 years down the road all that work is finally paying off. the world's first ever vaccine against malaria. actually the world's first vaccine against any parasitic disease of any kind. they thought it was impossible to create a vaccine against a parasite. they have done it.

it's made by glaxosmithkline. it's not perfect. it is moderately effective. it's not 100% effective. you have to get multiple doses which is it a pain. it is the first vaccine we have ever had. it is effective enough that they think it will save the lives of at least tens of thousands of children every year. as soon as it's put into place. the world health organization just approved it days ago. the pilot programs that tested it in malawi and ghana and kenya are seen as really big successes. they're going to build on those. thanks to researchers and scientists and drug development, human kind will start to throw our first ever punches that is killing kids by hundreds of thousands for all the years that manufacture us have been on earth. which is something. and this is something farther off but also good. you know the kind of vaccine that pfizer and moderna have made against covid, the same mrna technology they used to be

able to make those so quickly? well, next month, they're starting clinical trials for a new candidate for hiv vaccine. hiv the virus that causes aids. and it's the same mrna technology. it is a moderna vaccine candidate against hiv. it is going to take a long time to know if it is the one. it is promising and again, trials start in that next month. and also just this week, merck is considering asking giving emergency use authorization to an anti-viral pill to use as a covid-19 treatment. now as you know, there is no cure for covid-19. i know what you heard on facebook might tell you differently. there is no cure for covid-19. bizarrely the right-wing in this country has promoted a series of things that really don't even help treat covid as if there are cures. if you strip away the nonsense, what actually is in the arsenal

for treating covid is basically the antibody monoclonal drugs which do work quite well to keep people out of the hospital to keep people from dying if you can get the drugs to people soon after they're infected before they're sick enough they have to be hospitalized. we talked about the antibodies on the show a lot. as you know, they have a big downside. they have to be taken as an infusion or a series of injections. that means they're hard to administer even though they're effective. this new drug, this new pill from merck, if the fda approves it, it's a pill. and it would mean that people with mild to moderate covid-19 symptoms could literally take the pill for the same kind of benefit that we're seeing from the mon known clonal antibodies. hopefully, the same level of benefit. what was tested in clinical trials was a five day course taking several pills a day and it cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 50%. among people with mild to moderate covid-19. at high risk of proceeding to

very dangerous covid. a pill to take for covid-19. a vaccine against malaria and maybe against hiv. this is kind of a big week. for all the other things that are wrong in our world right now, scientists and medical researchers are out there slaying dragon after dragon right now. and we are heading this week into what is about to be a whirlwind of decisions and announcements from the fda and cdc on yet further developments, pfizer is expecting approval of its covid vaccine for kids. the white house put out advice to governors to get ready in all the states to rollout vaccines for kids age 5 to 11. elementary school age kids. on thursday and friday, this week, the fda advisory board is going to give data and decisions on booster shots for people who have the moderna covid vaccine and the johnson & johnson vaccine, they're also interestingly going to hear data

on what happens if people mix and match two different brands of vaccines for their boosters. that's all going to happen at the fda advisory panel this week. all this is going to come soon. and the people that say science is scary. these folks will continue to be weird about all of it, absolutely. but focus on that a lot. and i think there's call to not let the reaction of the weird fringe always loom too large. if you don't let that rump rudeness change your vision, we're really having a housian moment for science for researchers putting their work to practical effect saving human lives in ways we never thought would is possible. yes, with he have to figure out how to get access to these things. we have to figure out manufacturing and pricing and fairness and need to deal with the crazy conspiracy theories and covid denials and all the

rest of that is worth more than a silver lining. that is worth spending some time with. joining us now is have vin gupta, clinical care pulmonologist from part of the university of washington. dr. gupta, thanks for making time to be here tonight. >> good to see you, rachel. thanks for having me. >> i talked about a bunch of different thing there's. first i want to ask you what you think about the promise of this new anti-viral pill against covid-19. doctors don't have all that many pharmaceutical treatment options for effectively treating covid-19 or keeping people out of the hospital. from keeping people from dying from it. are you encouraged about the data you've seen so far on that antiviral pill? >> so, we're learning more, rachel, about this pill.

i would say for all of your viewers, think of this as tamiflu, which is something we prescribe for flu. if you get diagnosed early with mild symptoms of flu, you take tamiflu in the fist 48 hours after diagnosis. something similar with this pill for covid. if we diagnose you early, that is the critical step in early diagnosis, mild to moderate symptoms, we can give you a five-day course of this pill, maybe it will keep you out of the hospital. a 50% reduction in the likelihood of hospitalization. i will say this is a medium to longer term solution. great for global health. it's easily scalable. we can get it to places where vaccines are hard to deliver. but if you're an unvaccinated individual watching us right now, we're dealing with vaccine that's have 90% effectiveness in keeping you out of the hospital. please don't view this as a great concerns policy. get vaccinated. >> in terms of vaccinations, if

the pfizer vaccine is approved for kids age 5 to 11, we saw advice go out from the white house today, telling governors around the country, get ready. we're going to have to be ready to roll out vaccines for elementary school age kids. that is different rollout than any vaccine we've seen thus far. how do you think that might change the dynamics of the virus? how do you think that may change the dynamics of our epidemic heading into the winter if kids can get vaccinated over age 5? >> there is still not a lot of kids in pediatric hospitals and icus due to severe covid-19. that is a relief. in some cases we're seeing 4% of hospitalizations in places like idaho represented by pediatric cases. but that is the rare exception. that is the great thing. it is going to help reduce the amount of transmission of covid, the virus that causes covid in our communities.

we know that toddlers, young children can transmit this virus as easily as older kids. i'll caution, caution here. we're still plateauing. with the deaths day to day. we need to still remain vigilant. >> dr. gupta, i just want to ask you, the last time we spoke, you were deployed as part of the service in the air force reserves working as an icu doctor. you were just starting that work. you were doing your training. i want to ask you how that went if can you tell us at all how the deployment went. >> absolutely. you know, we were actually stationed in southern cincinnati, southern ohio. we were actually physically moving patients that needed ecmo, from places like tennessee all the way to the cleveland clinic.

it was a heroic effort on part of people that did this for a living. i just deployed there for a matter of a few weeks. and then somebody spurred me. but this is what is happening in progressive military of our covid response. we're using military assets as we talked about, rachel, to actually fill short gaps because the biggest limiting is not lack of ventilators, it's the advanced therapies. you'll see a lot of this movement critically ill patients from point "a" to point "b." hopefully we won't see a lot more of it. i suspect we will in the coming months. >> right. as an important thing that we don't see as visibly we see the military teams and the federal response teams turning up in rural hospitals in hard hit states around the country. but the other part is the military transport assets developed and the combat context but being used for american civilians needing to be moved to care within our country. dr. gupta, i really appreciate you being here as always. thank you for your service. thank you for your time. >> thank you. all right.

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dispatchers from the federal appeals court in texas today. an abortion provider in houston cried with her first patient after texas' abortion ban passed. the patient had detectable cardiac embryonic activity on the day of her scheduled procedure after having none the day before. of she was not able to get an abortion. a patient with five children, two of whom have disabilities had activity at just five weeks four days pregnant. the patient frantically pleaded, what am i going to do? what is going to happen now. one provider had a patient who said she, quote, put oils in her vagina to try to terminate her pregnancy and worries the abortion ban will force people more into back alley ways. a provider spoke of a 12-year-old patient who came in with her mother, a single working mother with other children. the mother said they could not travel out of state. they barely made it to the texas health center.

the 12-year-old said, mom, it was an accident. why are they making me keep it? she's 12. one patient suffers from a chronic disease for which she's unable to get medication for eight months. she fears the stress of the pregnancy will kill me. she was relieved to secure an out of state abortion but was worried because of the law in texas, they would be waiting to drag me off to jail when i got here because i'm from texas. had the woman not been able to get an abortion she would be looking online to see if there is something i could eat that would terminate the pregnancy or throw myself down the stairs. a handful of planned parenthood clinics in texas filed this brief with the fifth circuit u.s. court of appeals. the court that is currently considering whether or not to allow texas' abortion ban to stay in effect while the u.s. justice department continues to challenge it in court. joining us now is dr. kumar. he provides abortion care at planned parenthood at houston,

texas. dr. kumar has witnessed stories like this first hand over the last six weeks, since this ban has been on and off, in effect. dr. kumar, i really appreciate you taking the time to be here tonight. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> this is a 17-page brief filed with the federal appeals court in this case. it's tear rowing harrowing. i have to ask if any of this resonates with you if any of this tracks your stories in texas since the ban was allowed for the supreme court to go into place last month. >> yeah. what i would say, rachel, these are stories that we hear every day. i've been providing abortion care in texas for 6 1/2 years now. and the stories are perhaps surprising to a lot of people. each story has their own story whether they're already mothers, whether they're teenagers, whether they struggle to get to the clinic. whether they are having

financial difficulties paying for the care they need. they all have their individual stories. it is really the stories that drive us to do the work. i can speak for myself and stories that drive me to continue doing the work when things are very difficult. and certainly, over the last 42 days since the law has been in effect, since september 1st, it's been very, very difficult. while we have the capabilities, while we have the physicians, means to provide this care for people, we're being denied the ability to care for people. we're looking them in the face. we hear their stories. we hear their pleas and we have to say no. we have to say you have to go out of state and oftentimes, folks tell us that is not possible. they can't make it out of state. it was very difficult for them to get time off to make it to the clinic that day let alone travel and a global pandemic to another state where they don't know anyone or they don't know the health center, may not have support to get there whether it is financially or another person to drive them there. it can be very, very difficult for them. so, it is taking a toll on all of us who provide this care for people and also for the people who need access to this care.

>> i think that in the abstract, thinking about roe versus wade being chipped at and it being essentially negated the way this texas ban has done, i think in the abstract was that eventually if enough states started to ban abortion or effectively make it impossible to get. that women would start to turn to very dangerous and illegal means, what we used to call as back alley abortions, kind of horror stories. that we know from the pre-roe era. that will happen eventually. once it was many states that had a h. these kinds of bans in effect. i think what put my heart in my throat today reading this brief was to hear the direct quotes from so many patients saying that immediately they are

already trying or looking for or expecting to try ways, you know, home remedies, things they read on the internet. things they heard from friends may be a way to terminate the pregnancy including a woman talking about throwing herself down the stairs. people are talking about going to the remedies. >> yeah. absolutely. what i would say is that roe is the floor. in a state like texas and so many states in the south, we have so many abortion restrictions that we're already navigating. access is already difficult. the stories that you're hearing are not only in light of s.b. 8, i think they're coming to surface. they're more jarring in this moment. but these are things i heard from people even before s.b. 8. access to abortion was already difficult. people have already sought to find things on the internet, take pills, medications, herbs, try to put things inside their vagina, physical abuse whether doing it themselves or partner. there is already desperation in accessing abortion in the south. it is concentrated. there's a lot more tension on these stories which is certainly

warranted, but this is not new. access to abortion is already been under threat. these things are happening not only in texas but in so many other states. and that's exactly why providers like me provide abortion care. we want people to access care in a safe way. we want them to have the care they need when they need it. and we want them to have the ability to end a pregnancy safely and with dignity. that's what this is all about. >> one of the things that has been unusual here and it's because of the way that texas wrote this law to try to evade federal judicial scrutiny, is that we have had the law turn off and turn back on. we expect that may potentially even happen again before this is ultimately resolved. has that been -- i mean, obviously you want the ban to not be in effect even with all of the other difficulties that were there pre-s.b. 8. but having this uncertainty around whether the law is in effect about whether or not there might be retroactive

civil lawsuits brought against people who help people get abortions or provide abortions to people while the law was under injunction, that uncertainty has to make things that much harder for you and your colleagues and also for your patients. >> yeah. absolutely. it really feels like a roller coaster. and, of course, this is happening with s.b. 8. it is also happening before. this is not the first lawsuit that can determine if how we can provide care. especially when it comes to abortion care in texas. we went through something like this last spring when the governor issued an executive order banning abortion and we even opened or closed our clinic during that period eight times. you can imagine what it's like to open and close a clinic which decisions are coming down sometimes in the middle of the day. sometimes in the evening. for example, the decision from the federal court came down on friday at 9:00 p.m. and so what that means for us is that we're having to go into action very, very quickly with very little warning. we're having to call patients to either schedule or cancel appointments. things can be scheduled and

things can be turned over to the next day, we're having to cancel those appointments again. so it's a tremendous amount of work for us and our staff and it's also very, very confusing to patients. they are desperate to get the care they need. these laws and decisions don't make any sense for them. they know they are pregnant and they are asking us for help. they don't care what the court says or what the judge decides. it does not make sense to anybody. just imagine, anytime you need health care, you go to a health care clinic, you go to somebody who can help you and you expect them to help you. >> dr. kumar, a planned parenthood doctor from houston, texas. dr. kumar, thank you for being here to talk about this. i know it's a difficult time. >> thank you for having me. >> we'll be right back, stay with us. ♪ 'cause it's the only thing i wanna do. ♪

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this is the head line that

so bothered the senator in "the new york times" this weekend. the head line is kyrsten sinema wants to cut $100 billion in proposed climate funds, sources say. her latest demand to cut down president biden's agenda in congress. cut $100 billion out of the climate stuff says senator who began her career as an environmental activist in the green party, who told her hometown paper last month that climate is her top priority for what she wants to get done in congress. senator sinema's office strenuousedly denied the "times" reporting. what are her demands? the negotiations over the president's bill are stuck in a holding pattern, senator sinema and manchin are still trying to shrink it or block it but they won't say what they want. this is what it looks like outside the white house today. climate protesters gathered for the second time of what they say will be five straight days of direct action in d.c., over 150

protesters were cited yesterday on indigenous peoples day. many of the protest leaders are native-americans. the organizers of this protest called themselves the build back fossil-free coalition. they're demanding that democrats essentially break this holding pattern and actually start doing something to fight climate change. these two centrist senators, sinema and manchin, are the impediment to fight climate change. they keep playing coy of what it's they want. it seems like this means the pressure on them does keep mounting. watch this space.

all right, that's going to do it for us tonight. i will see you again tomorrow. "way too early" is up next. ♪♪ clearly, governor abbott knows the federal rules supersede the state, why do you think he did this? >> politics. i think it's pretty clear, when you make a choice that's against all public health information and data out there, that it's not based on what is in the interest of the people you are governing. it's perhaps in the interest of your own politics. governor greg abbott's ban on vaccine mandates is setting up a clash between the state of texas and the biden administration, with many companies stuck in the middle. the question is, will businesses comply with the governor's order? or federal requirements?

plus,