that's a message from john bell edwards, i spoke at him at the hospital where i was born, baton rougel hospital, mid city. a place hit so badly by this pandemic that they put up a wall recognizing those who contracted covid and survived. louisiana has the worse rate of new cases per day than any other state. louisiana has the second highest rate of hospitalization per capita after florida. it is the fifth worse vaccination rates in the country. governor edwards told me the situation is absolutely dire and he's urging people to get vaccinated immediately. here is our conversation. >> this is all patients. >> that's right. >> it is amazing. >> thank you for doing this. at one point this wall was not full. >> that's correct. >> this is not the first time baton rouge as a special hospital for covid patients. he had to bring in outside staffing, we had 118 medical professionals we brought in. this hospital system so that they can take care of the patients here, 95% patients here covid, not a single icu available at this hospital. >> there maybe even, i think 95 right now but you had 15 a m

governor john bell edwards warned of significant storm surge in your area.eporter: you see the parish is 65 miles long from the top of the bottom. and our lowest part which goes out toward the gulf. that's it. that's the end of the road. so we have some geographically challenged areas, as you can see. we're separated by the mississippi river on the east bank and the west bank. and as the meteorologist spoke, he did say we are going to see some overtoppings in the breakaway area. so that area is the east bank of our parish. that has been under mandatory evacuation since friday at 3:00 p.m. we think we got a good bit of our citizens out. we had our sheriffs get them notified. we sent out a robocall. so far we haven't even a 911 or an emergency call from anyone. so we're pretty confident that we got most of those people out. >> we were just hearing about how important that communication was. how that was learned as a lesson from katrina. i want to bring in the meteorologist that you were speaking who does have a question for you. >> you go all the way down to v

the governor, john belle edwards, temporarily bringing back their statewide mask mandate for everyone or unvaccinated. and he just spoke with chris, a little while ago. said the situation is urgent. >> the urgency is -- is that we have the highest case-growth rate in the country. and -- and the second-place state is quite a ways behind us. that's not a distinction that we're proud of. um, and the percent positivity is above 13% of all tests coming back positive, and that seems to be increasing which means we have not reached the peak. and we don't know how much further this is going to go. >> and more specifically, in my hometown, the place i grew up, baton rouge, the state's largest hospital has no more beds left. no beds. can you imagine being sick enough to go to the hospital, and being told there's just no room for you? and that's happening, right in my hometown. all of this is happening, as senator lindsey graham, announcing today that he has tested positive for covid, despite being fully vaccinated. put up this full screen for you. the senator says that he has mild symptoms, but

we'll talk to john bell edwards coming up. of course, the third crisis, which has been with us since last year, covid. we'll ask dr. anthony fauci about rising covid deaths, boosters and vaccines for children. >>> let's begin on afghanistan. as we learned the names of the 13 service members kill ed by terrorists on thursday, we are two days away from august 31st deadline to get u.s. service members out of what is sadly the t taliban's turf. this morning, president biden is meeting with families of those americans killed at dover air force base before the dignified transfer of their flag-draped caskets. >>> meanwhile, biden is warning another imminent attack on the kabul airport is highly likely. president biden also pledging the u.s. will continue to retaliate for the attack. the u.s. military has begun leaving the kabul airport though it remains in control there as of now. and is continuing to evacuate people. 2,000 were flown out over a 12-hour period yesterday. joining us now, white house security adviser jake sullivan. tha

that is the message from louisiana's governor john bell edwards. i spoke with him at the hospital where i was born, baton rouge general hospital mid city, a place hit so badly by this papadopo pandemic that they have put up a wall recognizing those who have contracted covid and survived. louisiana has the worse rate of new cases per day of any state. it has the fifth worse vaccination rate in the country. governor edwards told me the situation is absolutely dire and he is urging people to get vaccinated immediately. here's our conversation. >> this is all, what, patients? >> that's right. that's the wall of lheros. >> thank you for doing this. at one point, this wall wasn't full. >> that is correct. this is not the first time we have used baton rouge general mid city as a special hospital for covid patients. we've had to bring in outside staffing each time, sometimes from the department of defense, but we have 118 medical professionals that we brought in on a state contract to augment this hospital system so they can take care of the patients here.

any minute now we expect to hear from louisiana governor, john bell edwards.ator to talk about the aftermath. the chief resilience officer joins us. let me start with you. give us a sense of what things are like there this morning? >> reporter: this is one of the many communities in this area not expected to have clean water for days, and electricity for weeks. as we widen out the shot a little bit you will get a clear understanding of why. the main power transmission line into the town was knocked out by the hurricane-force winds, and that's not factoring in what you see here. the fact that you have power lines down, and many trees down and sometimes into peoples' houses, and you see debris from branches all over. that's what folks are dealing with in the community, and it becomes more powerful when you consider the idea that so many people here stayed and were here in their homes as the storm went through, and that includes a gentleman by the name of chuck that i spoke to just about an hour or so ago. he said he rode katrina in his home and stayed for this s

tonight, louisiana's governor, john bell edwards, is requesting a presidential major disaster declaration due to the severe impact of the storm. this hour, we learn that the power is out in all of new orleans due to catastrophic transmission damage to facilities from entergy. the new orleans sewer and water district has lost three power lines from entergy to run some of its drainage pumps. we'll keep an eye on that as well. plaquemines parish, we're hearing the levees on the east bank have overtopped. this area is currently under a mandatory evacuation. but any remaining residents are urged to seek higher ground. again, they have overtopped. we do not have word they have been damaged or breached. as you know, this afternoon, ida made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near pourt fourchon. it was a strong category 4 with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. tonight, ida remains extremely dangerous as it makes its way through the bayou state. we're seeing the kind of damage along the gulf coast we expected from such a storm. it ripped the roof off the lady of the sea hospital in galliano

tonight, louisiana governor john bell edwards is requesting a presidential major disaster declaration due to the severe impact of the storm. and just this hour, we're hearing reports that the plaquemines parish levees have overtopped with 150-mile-per-hour winds, hurricane ida made landfall as a category-4 storm near port fourchon this afternoon. the storm surge has reached four to seven feet in southeast louisiana and coastal mississippi. water has engulfed roads, homes, businesses, and marinas. right now, ida is holding strong as an extremely dangerous category-3, as it makes its way through louisiana. nbc news is continuing to obtain dramatic video out of the gulf coast. here is the roof being ripped off lady of the sea hospital in galliano. stream flow on the mississippi river by bell chase, louisiana, reversed for approximately three hours on sunday, according to data from the u.s. geological survey. in the past, the mississippi river has reversed flow locally during other hurricanes, including laura, isaac, and katrina. the eye of the storm is currently approaching baton rouge a

i'm going to turn this over to john bell, governor edwards of louisiana. give us your assessment of what you have and are seeing out there? tell me what you're hearing and anything you need that we have not gotten to you? >> thank you, mr. president. you could not have picked a better person -- we look forward to working with him. let me thank you for signing our request for pre-lim for request for a declaration. hurricane ida came on shore with everything advertised. the surge, the rain, the wind. the good news first, all of our levee systems, particularly our federal levee systems and flood reduction systems worked. they were not overtopped, a number were breached. even some paid for with state and local funding performed extremely well. it will be a different story altogether had any of those levee systems fail. having said that, damage is still catastrophic. it was primarily wind driven, we know there are some areas that received tremendous rainfall as well. we are going to be dealing with this damage for quite a while. you mentioned the power outage,

the highest number of daily cases infections since february. , on monday, louisiana governor john bell edwardse-imposed a state-wide mask mandate, as his state set a record for new infections and hospitals become overwhelmed with covid patients. governor bell edwards: we are the worst in the country with the delta search, and the fact is not enough people in -- have been vaccinated here in louisiana. nermeen: on monday, county officials across the san francisco bay area ordered new mask mandates indoors, even for vaccinated people joining los , angeles which re-imposed similar measures last month. here in new york, mayor bill de blasio urged unvaccinated people to wear masks indoors but stopped short of a ordering a new mandate. meanwhile governor andrew cuomo said tens of thousands of new york transit workers must show proof of vaccination or face weekly testing. at the white house, jeff zients, the white house coronavirus said monday similar rules will response coordinator apply to , some 4 million federal workers. jeff: any federal employee who does not test, or is not vaccinated, will be r

. >> louisiana governor john bell edwards telling me the same thing trying to talk sense into people. >> what every individual does or doesn't do doesn't just have an effect on them, it has an effect on everybody. which is the big i think disconnect between so many people in our country right now is that they want to prioritize their individual right to do and not do something but you cannot manage a public health emergency in that regard. >> so here is the reality. these are the facts. nearly every covid patient hospitalized, you listening? nearly every covid patient hospitalized right now around the country is unvaccinated. that is the case in my home state. it's the case in yours, too. now i'm really not sure how many of you viewers out there listening to me are unvaccinated. before this week i would have thought most of you probably were but now i'm not so sure. so if you still aren't, you don't want to listen to me, listen to jim. him and his brother. remember? listen to maxine. having to tell her four kids she may not make it. and to brenda, to get vaccinated. and if you are, i

. >> your state's governor, john bell edwards, issued a new mask mandate and put it into effect this week. was that the right move? >> now i'm going to speak as a doctor. if you have a large percentage of your population which is not vaccinated and your infection rate is going up, you've got one or two choices. if you're inside, you're vaccinated or have to wear a mask. otherwise, you're at too great a risk to further spread infection, to further pack those emergency rooms, to further prevent people who have terrible accidents from getting cared for there is a choice. on one hand we don't want mask mandates, get vaccinated, the mask mandate goes down and you don't have a mandate. >> sounds like you're saying that's a yes. >> as a doctor, you have two choices to stop that infection, get vaccinated or wear a mask. >> some governors, like ron desantis in florida, greg abbott in texas, they're blocking local officials from imposing restrictions like mask mandates. the virus is surging in those shouldn't local officials be allowed to make decisions like mask mandates if they believe that'

louisiana's governor john bell edwards announcing he's temporarily reinstating the mask mandate for vaccinated many state hospitals are getting overwhelmed. >> it has become an extreme hi clear that our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with louisiana's fourth surge of covid. in fact, nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension this is just another surge. we've already had three of these. this is the worst one we've had thus far. >> i'm joined now by the emergency room medical director at our lady of the lake medical center in baton rouge, which is my hometown. doctor, thank you very much. this is important. appreciate your joining us. you're on the front lines of this new wave of cases in louisiana. how bad is it? >> well, thanks for having me, don. it's pretty bad. this is, as i've been telling people, this is the fourth round we've been going through this and the worst round so far where the health care team is tiring out trying to battle this and it seems that all the things we were experiencing back in march of 2020, april of 2020, we're not doing

. >> and joining me now to further discuss is louisiana governor john bell edwards. thank you for joining us, governor. what can you tell us about the power situation in new orleans parish? >> well, it tough all over southeast louisiana and about 45 minutes ago, it was reported that the entirety of orleans parish went out. there is still isolated places with generators and the turbines are still working to operate the pumps but the entire parish of orleans went out in terms of the power that's being provided there. but that's true for most of the southeast louisiana. we're up to getting close to 800,000 outages. not unexpected when you have winds that come in at 150 miles per hour. and so this storm, as you mentioned, is everything that was advertised in terms of the wind, in terms of the storm surge and quite frankly, the rain that's falling, as well. so this is a very devastating storm. >> yeah, in fact, last hour i spoke with the president in jefferson parish and she told me people were reporting water up to their chest inside their homes. what is your reaction to

>> well, i'm proud to say that here in louisiana, at least our governor john bell edwards issues a mask mandate one week ago today, so all children 5 years of age and up, teachers and staff in the schools are required to wear masks. i think that's a common sense measure. it makes perfect sense to me. i wish that governors across the region would have the courage to replicate that approach. that's the very least we can do. i think bringing together large numbers of children congregating them in classrooms with masks being optional or worse yet, even forbidden is just a formula for disaster. this virus that we're dealing with now is a game changer and it's just so easily transmitted from person to person that this could truly cahave an explosionf cases across the region. >> thank you very much. appreciate you appearing tonight. >> thank you so much. >>> he responded to the insurrection on capitol hill and a few days later he died by suicide. i'll speak with the widow of d.c. police officer jeffrey smith in her first on camera interview. you don't want to miss it. it's next. honey! scuff d

we are grateful that our governor john bell edwards issued a statement, and it pertains to children as young as 5 and teachers and staff members, and i feel very strongly that a mask mandate in the schools is just a common sense public health measure. when governor desantis says that they haven't seen widespread transmission of the virus in kindergarten and first grade and so on, he's not talking about this delta variant that's so much more transmissible. >> dr. manuel, what about masking in general? some saying cloth masks give 20% protection and medical masks, 40%. should everyone be wearing n95? >> you can get them foldable and get them like in the screen, a cup version and you can get them in the duck bill version and they really do make a difference. they're not very expensive. they're reusable, and if you're going inside, i do think we have to up our ante. wearing gators or simple cloth masks are not good enough and getting n95 is good. it's also important to make sure you are getting an n95 that's nya approved and there are a lot of fakes out there. 60% appear to be counterfeit

well, if you ask the governor, john bell edwards, he says, get vaccinated, pleading with people to take the vaccine. he is also saying, you know what, we have a mask mandate again because we can't seem to get it together. that mask mandate officially enacted today. it also led to lsu, just around the corner from here, saying that for the upcoming fall semester, students will have to prove that they're vaccinated or they'll have to take a monthly covid-19 test. that just released today. alisyn? >> i'll take it. nadia romero for us, thank you so much. let's turn now to dr. hotez, a professor and dean of medicine at the baylor college of medicine. he is also the author of "preventing the next pandemic: vaccine diplomacy in a time of anti-science." dr. hotez, welcome back. let's start here. the growing percentage of children who are the new case of covid, we're hearing it anecdotally and seeing it statistically. is that because most kids are not eligible for the vaccine, or is there some increased susceptibility that we're seeing in children? >> yeah, well, we don't really know, victor. you

. >> your governor, john bell edwards, said he's seriously considering putting a state-wide face mask mandate back in place. do you think that needs to happen? >> i think that's a prudent strategy as we're seeing right now as was mentioned earlier. the fact that you have a collection of vaccinated sbun vaccinated individuals together in close quarters allows for that transmission to occur. therefore in the city of new orleans, the mayor has reinstituted the mask mandate for indoor activities and i think that would be prudent across the state. >> what do you think about a booster shot for older americans or for the vulnerable? >> at the moment cdc and fda are l looking at the information for booster shots. pfizer has some information out there as well as the information that is being done in israel. that may be what we come to in certain populations, but we really don't have great guidance yet in order to be able to do that on a regular basis. >> this is what people are talking about, which is why i asked you. they want to know. they're hearing from pharmaceutical companies. they're he

governor john bell edwards urged residents to stay where they are. all of this, as we're hearing that levees across the state are strained. some have been overtopped. many have withstood the rising waters around new orleans. unfortunately most of new orleans is without power. on the ground there, nadia, tell us how those levees are holding. >> reporter: the street to my right is the french quarter. we're finally get ting an idea f what happened. the aftermath of hurricane ida. you can see the destruction behind me. let's take a walk as we go down the street, which is normally a very nice neighborhood, but it's just been trashed by all of these trees. and this here, you can see this lamp here that's slanted over on top of this car. you can also see these power lines. this is the reason why we have more than a million people without power all across louisiana. and it's also why many of them will remain without power for a couple of days, if not weeks. there's an order of how they have to do things. first you have to wait for the storm to pass. we've ma

now, governor john bell edwards is starting a mask mandate.e announced on monday, but today is the official start. when i walked around and talked to different business owners, store clerks, i had one convenience store clerk throw his hands up, don't ask me about that because he's on the front lines of having to enforce this mask mandate. none were provided with new guidelines or messaging from the state telling them how to enforce this mask mandate and we all remember the heated and at times violent exchanges from store managers and from people who refused to wear mask. here we go again was the sentiment i received from so many people across the state of louisiana. john? >> people only get vaccinated we don't have to go here. thank you so much for your reporting. appreciate you being there. >>> so just in, "the new york times" reported moments ago that former president obama is canceling his huge 60th birthday bash that was scheduled for saturday on martha's vineyard. that's as new covid cases surge across the country. "the new york times" wh

. >> the latest of ida's path with louisiana's governor john bell edwards. >>> plus, more misery as kids head back to school with no vaccines. the u.s. may not have a handle on covid for months. >> enough is enough. we just have to get people vaccinated. >>> what's the latest on shots for children? dr. anthony fauci joins me, ahead. >>> clear and present danger. kabul fights back as the president warns another attack may be imminent. chris murphy and two women with firsthand experience in afghanistan join me in moments. >>> hello, i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is facing a triple threat of emergencies. new this morning, an explosion in a kabul, afghanistan neighborhood. beal give you more information as we have it with two days before the deadline to pull afgha afghanistanis and americans out as the taliban tries to take over the country. >>> also we have the pandemic which at this point should be almost preventable, with the u.s. averaging 150,000 daily deaths again, unlike back in march when the pandemic was going into first gear. >>> and hurricane ida stren

and we do anticipate that governor john bell edwards will reinstate some sort of statewide mask mandate. that coming in shark contrast to what we've seen in the states of texas and florida, where the governors have made it clear, there will be absolutely no mask mandates going forward. and this comes as louisiana struggles under an onslaught of new cases, where about 90% of people admitted to hospitals are unvaccinated. this is outside the largest hospital in the state, our lady of the lake medical center, where we had the opportunity to walk into an icu, last week, there were only one or two covid patients, today, every single room is full. and one of the best concerns from doctors and nurses here are the age of patients they're seeing. they say about 50% of their patients admitted are under the age of 50 and contained within this group is also a number of teenagers, children, and in some cases, the youngest patient here, a 4-week-old infant that's having to be treated. some of the children here in intensive care having difficulty breathing. we are seeing vaccination rates start to go

i was very proud of our governor, john bell edwards, who announced on monday a statewide mask mandatels for all children 5 years of age and up, as well as teachers and staff members. i think that's a model for what other states should be doing, frankly. masks do work and as an interim measure, until we get more people vaccinated, i think it's absolutely key. >> so mask mandate in louisiana for children 5 and up, teachers and staff members. i don't envy your task, but i appreciate that there are hospitals like yours where children can go. i'm sorry that you're so overwhelmed, but hopefully we can stem that tide quickly as more people start getting vaccinated. dr. mark kline, thank you very much. >>> airplanes have lots of safety measures. and apparently duct tape. that's what one flight crew apparently used to restrain a passenger. air employees say they're fed up with how some of them treat us on the job. we'll get into that with our saturday night panel, coming up. we'll get into that with our saturday night panel, coming up. and of a company watching out for you. this is the sound o

we are listening to louisiana governor john belle edwards updating everybody on tomorrow.s is definitely not a storm to be taken lightly. right now it is a category 2. it could strengthen as it turns toward louisiana. the governor there saying they have boats and helicopters ready for search and rescue efforts. hopefully those won't be needed, but they will be activating their emergency levy system. we will be staying on top of ida and tracking it throughout the program. >>> we want to turn to a big story of what is happening, and that is what is happening on the ground in afghanistan. president biden is warning that last night's drone strike against isis-k that was condemn by the taliban a short time ago will likely not be the last, and this is within hours, the final hours really of the u.s. evacuation. we want to go to nbc's dan de luce. let's start with the drone strike that was aimed at isis-k. who was targeted? >> the pentagon is saying they tarringed two planners or facilitators with isis-k, and those two individuals were killed. another was wounded. they didn't giv

louisiana governor john bell edwards is scheduled to hold a press conference. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. first, the latest on afghanistan, nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander and pentagon correspondent courtney kube. >> as you noted that number of americans just shy of 200, but the number of afghan allies likely tens of thousands and the president in a statement and we'll hear from him around 2:45 this afternoon. he said there was unanimity. there was a unanimous agreement that the u.s. should stick to that august 31st departure date, deadline date as opposed to extending it. he said among other things and the fact that the responsibility going forward now is going to be shared, it is going to be working with international partners to try to hold the taliban accountable for its commitments according to the president to help allow for the safe passage in that process. obviously, that requires a lot of belief in the taliban's desire to help and there have been aid organizations and others right now saying that the taliban is i

louisiana governor john bell edwards said that time is very quickly running out. >> the window of time by the time you go to bed tonight, you need to be where you intend to ride the storm out and you need to be as prepared as you can be. >> to that point, it may be too late. ida may be the strongest storm to hit anywhere in louisiana since the 1850s. ida could hit the state especially hard with life-threatening storm surge and potential catastrophic storm damage and flooding rainfall. all of this comes almost exactly 16 years after hurricane katrina slammed into new orleans, prompting renewed concerns over whether those since improved levee systems will, indeed, hold against ida.

and in indiana governor john bell edwards just ordered an indoor mask mandate.ere cases have risen by more than 165% and hospitalizations break new records every day governor ron desantis continues to down-play the virus focusing instead on make sure schools don't require masks. in texas where cases and hospitalizations are also surging, governor greg abbott is going on fox news to complain about the biden administration's draconian safety precautioning while blocking local governments from instituting even basing steps like mask requirements. well, today president biden called out both governors to start taking covid seriously or get out of the way. >> just two states, florida and texas, account for one-third of all new covid-19 cases in the entire country. just two states. look, we need leadership from everyone. if some governors aren't willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it. i say to these governors, please help. if you're not going to help at l

. >> reporter: but louisiana governor john bell edwards supporting the science. >> you cannot keep schoolsnd children safe today without masks. >> reporter: nadia romero, cnn, miami. >> thanks to nadia for that report. >>> the rate of covid cases among kids is surging. cdc says the rates of hospitalizations for children are at their highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. >> kids are heading back to school. there is this debate, as you just heard, that is raging regarding the mask mandates. in florida, governor ron desantis is threatening to withhold funding from schools that require masks. here's cnn's evan. >> reporter: this tampa 11-year-old had a strange first week of middle school. >> in two classes i had like five kids quarantined. >> that seems like a lot. >> it is. >> was it scary? >> no. but one of my friends said everyone around her was quarantined so i am pretty much she was scared. >> are you worried you might be quarantined? >> maybe. >> at least 15 states have now mandated universal masking inside school buildings. following cdc guidelines for safer reopening amid

louisiana governor john bell edwards said that time is very quickly running out. >> the window of time is closing. it is rapidly closing. and just like we said yesterday, by the time you go to bed tonight, you need to be where you intend to ride the storm out and you need to be as prepared as you can be. >> to that point, it may be too late. ida may be the strongest storm to hit anywhere in louisiana since the 1850s. ida could hit the state especially hard with life-threatening storm surge and potential catastrophic storm damage and flooding rainfall. all of this comes almost exactly 16 years after hurricane katrina slammed into new orleans, prompting renewed concerns over whether those since improved levee systems will, indeed, hold against ida. joining me now meteorologist michelle grossman who is, of course, tracking this storm. michelle, good day to you. very busy day. very concerning day. tell me how much more this storm could strengthen before making landfall. yesterday category 1 and we were speaking with you about that and then moves to category 4 in 24 hours. >> i know. hi, al

louisiana governor john bell edwards told nbc's “today” this morning that the human toll may not be clear while. >> i'm certain that as the day goes on we will have more deaths. we were getting calls for help. we know that for example some apartment buildings collapsed partially in certain areas. this happened during the height of the storm and there was no way to go out d respond to those calls. >> yang: president biden met with officials from the federal emergency management agency this afternoon after declaring ida a federal disaster. he said more than 5,000 members of the national guard had been activated for search >> we know hurricane ida had the potential to cause massive, massive damage, and that's exactly what we saw. we will stand with people in the gulf until you're back on your feet. >> yang: hurricane ida hit as louisiana's hospitals are already stressed from a resurgence of covid-19 because of low vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant. after spending 16 hours as a hurricane over land, ida was downgraded to a tropical storm as it churned toward mississippi

yesterday, here was the message in the week -- earlier in the week from democratic governor john bell edwards to those against masking. >> do you give a damn? i hope you do. i do. i've heard it said often, louisiana is the most pro-life state in the nation. i want to believe that. it ought to mean something. >> let's bring in the president and ceo of ashner health, louisiana's largest nonprofit health system, mr. thomas. thanks for being with us, what is the state of affairs right now in louisiana? yesterday a new state record for single-day hospitalizations, breaking a record that had been set all the way back in january. what does it look like on the ground there in the hospitals that you serve? >> certainly a very challenging situation today. we are in our fourth surge here in louisiana. we are seeing our cases increase exponentially, in the last month up 700% for the amount of patients we're seeing in the hospital with covid. the pandemic has evolved from being a pandemic of the unvaccinated. 90% of the people we have in our hospitals with covid are unvaccinated. it's a situation where we

louisiana governor john bell edwards declared a state of emergency. >> and amid frantic evacuation effortsn the u.s. army tweeting in part, "diversity is a number. do you have people that don't look or think like you in the room. inclusion is listening and valuing those people. " his tweet was criticism from several social media users, who questioned his priorities. those are a look at your headlines. steve: so many things are about priorities thank you, jillian. ainsley: calls are for the president and other officials now to resign, as the situation on the ground in kabul gets worse. senator tom cotton joins us with the outrage on capitol hill. brian: this group called isis diabetesk terrorists attacked us in kabul, they aren't stopping in the evacuations though. general jack keane on the vulnerability of our troops. it remains. when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. one, two!

john bell is ordering mask mandates. the mandate will go for at least a month, but governor edwards is taking an extra precaution and says it could be extended as needed. >> nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension that this is just another surge. we've already had three of these. this is the worst one we've had thus far. >> meanwhile new york city mayor bill de blasio recommended yesterday vaccinated new yorkers should wear masks when indoor. the reversal of the previous mask guidance comes amid a massive rise in cases due to the delta variant. the mayor said, quote, it's a strong recommendation and not a mandate. newly hired workers will have to show proof of vaccinations before working. those who do not will not begin working. there's a sharp divide between democrats and republicans. in a new monmouth university poll taken before the announced guidelines last week, 52% said they would support the safety measures. while democrats were overwhelmingly in support of it, 85%, 73% of republicans said they wasn't. 63% said they were vaccinated. 31% of the republicans say they're still not likely to ever get the sh