joining me is jason johnson and host of the slate podcast "a word with jason johnson" and adrian, formeraid on the biden harris campaigns thank you both for being here. let me play joe biden, if there is one thing about joe biden, he's optimistic. here he is. >> is there a reconciliation deal, how close do you think you are? >> you know me, born an optimist i think we'll get it done. i have meetings tonight, tomorrow and for the next little bit. >> i know jason is my fell he pessimist. i'll give you a shot on this, adrian is that optimism optimistic? democrats have not gotten through police reform which scott has turned against the ideas. they can't goet through the voting rights. it's dead on a stretcher they'rebarely going to squeak through what is with the optimism? >> we're lucky our president is in inmentally optimistic. here are the things we know. number one, democrats are going to have to rely on each other to pass the agenda. we won't get any new repu republicans, we're certainly not getting new republicans with voting rights. we have to rely on each other. we have to figure out

the beat with jason johnson in for ari starts right now. hi, jason. >> hi. thanks, nicole. welcome to the beat. i'm jason johnson in for ari melber. d.c. is on high alert just hours away from another right-wing rally at the capitol. the rally is in support of january 6th insurrectionists. former president trump expressing sympathy for them. authorities say they're ready and here's why they're taking precautions. one of the jailed rally defendants recently said this. now if the president said, if, you know, well soon to be president mr. trump said hey go to the capitol again you know there might be a large rally. >> you think he's coming back? >> absolutely. people from all sides recognize that man's ability to negotiate. >> how is that possibly going to happen? >> well, if he was able to speak on public platform again then it would absolutely happen. >> i don't know if they believe in trump or the great pumpkin. that rioter seems to believe trump is coming back to power and going to appear magically hours after the rally. trump is asking the georgia secretary of state to de

. >> maybe i will take the question to our experts, i am joined by jason johnson, our msnbc contributor and our katy kay. jason, i would not say george washington was right about everything. i would say science have evolved since then. for at least those who want us to suggest and we have more on this tonight that joe biden is crossing some new lines and doing some un-american, what do you think about a little bit of george to start the evening here and the wider context of who's telling the truth. >> if you are the age over 25 or 30, if you have been to school, you have to get vaccinated. joe biden is not over reaching. joe biden is not pushing anything to the limit. if you can go back to 1905, there are supreme court rulings on these kinds of issues. the fallout is he's putting his foot down. he recognized that without a federal mandate and a vaccine mandate, coming from the federal government, the only way you can get enough people vaccinated so this country can get out of the pandemic. >> yeah, you mentioned carrots caddy, we have enough vaccines to give to bugs bunny. on the policy

"the beat" with jason johnson in for ari melber starts right now. hi jason. >> thank you so very much. welcome to "the beat," i am jason johnson. we start with the fight over voting rights. greg abbott signs into law the worst voting measures in the country. civil rights group immediately challenging the law with three separate lawsuits filed in both states and federal court. this is about voter integrity. >> i would be astonished if a law like this not challenged in court. we see a law happens when ever a law like this passed. no one is eligible to vote would be denied the opportunity to vote. >> the law disproportionately affect people of color. the governor signs the law mostly surrounded by white men, surprise, surprise. s the this is the same law texas democrats fled the state to try to block. the law also limits local control over control over elections and limits voting assistance such as helping able people to vote. widespread voter fraud does not exist. even trump administration found no fraud in the 2020 election. this is part of donald tru

joining me now, david plouffe, former obama campaign manager and jason johnson, professor at morgan state university. david, you're the political guru, not me. i don't know everything about politics, david, but i do know that being the people on the side of covid strikes me as bad politics. are you surprised that republicans have seemed to embrace covid as the precious and trying to get it into every school building, cruise ship, job place, walmart, texaco, everywhere. they're trying to get it in everywhere. are you surprised that that turns out to be not so great politics? >> joy, sadly nothing surprises me anymore. but yeah, last night the recall is the first test post 2020 of how this may play out. and i know everybody says california is unique, the recall certainly is unique. i hope we never have another one. but if you look at what happened. out here they're called no party preference voters, but they're independents. about 90% of them, so the exit polls suggest newsom won them over 2-1. they believe they won over republicans in the bay area by over 20% and did very well down south.

joining our conversation, jason johnson of oregon state university as well as contributor to the griol here jason johnson, make sense this for me >> it's hard to do look, i love president biden's optimism where he is like we just have a couple things to do. we need to make a four leaf clover salad and find a needle in a hay stack and get all of these people to work together. this is actually a really difficult week this is extremely complicated because you have well-meaning forces both in the house and the senate who don't trust the other side to get a bill passed. i agree with the progressive caucus in the housesaying look we are not going to vote for the infrastructure bill unless they are going to be able to pass the sort of human infrastructure bill with reconciliation that is a legitimate fight that is the kinds of thing joe biden is trying to take care of right now. i don't know if he's going to be successful we have seen debt crisis and raising the ceiling, we have seen that happen before. i think that will get fixed. but the legislative issues -- i don't know where the middle

the beat with jason johnson in for ari starts right now. hi, jason. >> hi. thanks, nicole.elber. d.c. is on high alert just hours away from another right-wing rally at the capitol. the rally is in support of january 6th insurrectionists. former president trump expressing sympathy for them. authorities say they're ready and here's why they're taking precautions.

"the beat" with jason johnson in for ari melber starts right now. "the beat," i am jason johnson. we start with the fight over voting rights. greg abbott signs into law the worst voting measures in the country. civil rights group immediately challenging the law with three separate lawsuits filed in both states and federal

joining our coverage, jason johnson, he's in california observing and reporting on the recall. and nbc news correspondent jacob soboroff near a polling site in san francisco. jacob, you've got news? >> reporter: hi, nicolle. i can confirm what you said which is not a single ballot has been counted in california. polls don't close until later this evening. when i talked to larry elder yesterday about this election, whether or not he would accept the results and he declined, the next question i had was what would governor newsom do in response? now we know. we've had the opportunity to catch up with governor newsom up here in san francisco. he traveled from down south in southern california up here earlier this morning. and i spoke to him about what larry elder said and what he would do in response. here's his answer. >> i spoke to larry elder yesterday and he refused to commit to accepting the results of the election. i'm curious if you heard what he had to say, what do you make of that -- >> i'll take my mask off on that one. just think about what you just said to me. donald tr

but i want to see a jason johnson show. that's what i'm thinking about. let's work on that. >> interesting idea. yeah, yeah. >> i like this idea, okay. i'm going to noodle on it. but first i'm going to do a show for an hour. you have a great weekend. good evening, everyone. we begin the reid out tonight with the gop's self-emulation in the name of the big lie. last night anthony gonzalez the two-term republican congressman from ohio announced he's retiring in 2022. he told "the new york times" politically the environment is so toxic and called donald trump a cancer for the country, adding i don't believe he could ever be president again. most of my political energy will be spent working on that exact goal. gonzalez was one of the ten republicans who defied the cult and voted to impeach trump, an act of conscience that earned him death threats from the most rabid members of the party base. his retirement is now yet another example of how the big lie is destroying the republican party from within. just three years ago in 2018 gonzalez was a prized recruit f

joining me now is capitol hill correspondent leeann caldwell, jason johnson professor of politics and morgan state university and jennifer ruben, washington post opinion columnist and author of the book, "resistance how women saved democracy." leeann, i want to go to you first. what is the status of the democrat side of trying to decide what they can get done by october 1st? >> reporter: joy, this is -- i've been covering the hill for a long time and this is one of the most complicated trapeze acts that speaker pelosi and leader schumer are trying to nav gate. they have president biden of their side, of course, so by october 1st, they're trying to pass a bipartisan traditional infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill, keep the government open and lift the debt limit or at least suspend the debt limit. all of these things are colliding into each other and how they get out of it, it's not completely clear. as you mentioned, a lot of lawmakers are at the white house today talking to president biden who is finally engaged in these discussions and the little readout

the leaders are joined by budget committee ranking member jason smith and appropriations chair kay granger. mr. johnson: thank you all for joining us today. i'm mike johnson, chair of the house republican conference. i'll kick things off. our country should be on the rebound right now. when they took office, president biden and house determines inherited a turning tide, an economy rebounding from the pandemic and a country yeager t. today it's a very different thing. it's hard to imagine how much worse they could have botched our country's recovery. in a time ha that should have been one of hope and optimism and recovery, our country faces a multitude of crises. we have economic stagnation at home, a raging border crisis close to home and now we have foreign policy crises around the globe. in the face of all this, the democrats in this house are doing everything they possibly can to push through a $5.5 trillion spending package. it would be higher taxes. higher spending. spread over two bills that are linked together by the house democrat leadership. the first is called an infrastructure bill and it's

johnson. the policy center posted this one hour event. jason: well good afternoon. i'm jason gourmet, the president of the bipartisan policy center. real pleasure to welcome you to today's discussion, reflections on 9/11 and threats to the homeland. we find ourselves in a pretty profound inflection point at this moment, i think as most people are aware in 10 days, we will honor the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy which took the lives of 2997 americans and i think changed our nation in many significant ways and we are honored to have two bbc stalwarts, tom daschle and trent lott with us here today for an initial discussion, both thinking back to their own experiences but also what it means for the nation. yesterday the united states ended its military presence in afghanistan, which raises critical questions about the changing threat environment, which are only compounded by the increased domestic radicalization that our nation is grappling with. and just delighted susan page will be leading a discussion with secretary jay johnson and phil zeliko who can share so

jason carroll has more. >> reporter: an encouraging development for the nearly 15 million americans who have received the johnson & johnson vaccine. the company now says that adding a second dose of the shot provides 94% protection against symptomatic infections. it's a big day for pfizer as well. fda authorization on their booster shot for some people could be coming at any moment. this as it looks more and more likely the pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 could come as soon as halloween. >> we've had 225,000 kids with covid. it's a serious issue among children, and the best way to protect them is with this vaccine. >> reporter: many hospitals seeing an increased number of children infected with covid-19. doctors had to put up a tent outside an emergency room of a children's hospital in pittsburgh to help meet the demand of patients. the hospital's chief of emergency medicine writing on social media, the number of children coming to the emergency don't at u.p.m.c. children's is historic. >>> it is over 6% full in six states. >> we've implemented standards of care. this means the ability to deliver commun

johnson. the bipartisan policy center hood listed -- hosted this one-hour event. jason: well good afternoon. i'm jason gourmet, the president of the bipartisan policy center. real pleasure to welcome you to today's discussion, reflections on 9/11 and threats to the homeland. we find ourselves in a pretty profound inflection point at this moment, i think as most people are aware in 10 days, we will honor the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy which took the lives of 2997 americans and i think changed our nation in many significant ways and we are honored to have two bbc

jason riley. he will discuss his book "maverick." a biography whose writings on economics and education have inspired conservatives and libertarians for half a century. afterwards, boris johnsonnswers questions before members of the house of commons. then later, the virginia governor torry of debate. -- gubernatorial debate. ♪ >> the whole notion that the family has been disintegrating, this goes back to 1925, going all the way back through the era of slavery. it's

johnson. but, look, medical experts say when it comes to getting vaccinated, they say it's best just to go out there and get vaccinated. and any of the approved vaccines will do. jasonobal health college, she joins me now from geneva. what do you get from those recommendations for the booster? >> i actually agree with this decision. i think that it is dictated by the data which shows that there is very good protection still conferred from the vaccine that is -- has been previously given. so it's actually the decision has been because there's still a good amount of protection forevefor healthy people under the age of 65 which vaccine waning. and that's been a key metric to take into consideration here. so -- >> can i just jump in -- >> so the question is what degree of effectiveness -- >> sorry. i just wanted to -- yeah, there's a lag there. i just wanted to jump in when you talk about the data because there was data from pfizer saying immunity waned after six months. israeli scientists presented evidence, supporting the need for boosters. that wasn't enough? >> so that waning was a cross vector. and it's showing people who had a response, people who are immunoco imm

jason carroll has the latest on that and the timeline of when 5 to 11-year-olds might start getting vaccinated. >> reporter: today, an encouraging development for the nearly 15 million americans who have received the johnsoncine. the company now says that adding a second dose of the shot provides 94% protection against symptomatic infections. it's a big day for pfizer as well. fda authorization on their booster shot for some people could be coming at any moment. cdc advisors will meet on the matter tomorrow. this as it looks more and more likely the pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 could come as soon as halloween. >> we have had 225,000 kids with covid. it's a serious issue among children, and the best way to protect them is with this vaccine. >> many hospitals seeing an increased number of children infected with covid-19. doctors had to put up a tent outside an emergency room of a children's hospital in pittsburgh to help meet the demand of patients. the hospital's chief of emergency medicine writing on social media, the number of children coming to the emergency department at upmc children's is historic. in all, icus are still over 90% full in at least 6 states. >> currently, across the state, w