john heilemann is sticking around with us. >>> when we return we will be joined by former cia directorout how we failed to see this coming. the speed with which the taliban has advanced has surprised everyone as we brace for the fall of the afghan government. >>> plus, the urgent need nor the january 6th committee to investigate not just what happened on that day but the flood of new details we are learning about the disgraced ex-president's pressure campaign to overturn an election he lost. >>> what we know about how long we can expect the delta variant to circulate in this country from other countries where it has already left as the white house marks the biggest vaccination day in more than a month. that's good news. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. millions of vs struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. that's why i started medhaul. citi launched the impact fund to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything i've got to my company, and my community. i g

joining us now, john heilemann, nbc news and msnbc news national affairness analyst.r podcast. also with us, stephen dennis, senate correspondent for bloomberg news. and, john heilemann, it's the old days in the senate, once again, at least for this week. >> lawrence, i'm thinking about, like, back in, like, 1993, 1994, when -- when i lived down there, and you lived on capitol hill. and rode around on a motorcycle and were the most powerful staffer on the senate side. it's really like nostalgia time. and i know you and i both had a lot of doubts that we would get here. and i still don't think this think is home. i mean, we know how complicated it's going to get. now, you know, all of the -- the worries about the senate, about whether they could do what you just described, vividly, that we haven't seen in such a long time. not just the legislating but the legislating in this bipartisan way. mitch mcconnell having apparently concluded that the politics here are such that he's at least willing to help chuck schumer in the normal way. to get to make business happen in the

john heilemann, we have convene this group of four to judge just how on track the infrastructure bill is, and i remember a question last week was, are the democrats in the house are, the ten democrats who turned out to be the speed bump or roadblocks, i think we pick speed bump, nancy pelosi got out of that speed bump pretty easily, john? >> really easily, lawrence, there was little reporting -- what struck me as a little hyperbolic reporting was oh man, we're really heading, this is going to be a tough week, and nancy pelosi is not even speaking to these moderates, man, this is ugly, it's getting ugly on capitol hill, and i just thought, this is a real thing, you know, some work is gonna have to happen, but by the standards of tough acts that nancy pelosi has had to deal with in her career, this was not set the highest rate of difficulty. in aggregate, and i know norman, you and i have talked about this before, in aggregate the whole thing they're trying to do is about as hard as anything other seen congress trying to put off, when you think by the infrastructure piece, lending the p

joyce vance, claire mccaskill, john heilemann.hank you all so much, my h, friends, for spending so much of your afternoon with us today, more than i know you anticipated. i'm grateful. >>> when we return, there's a big push today in washington in the fight to protect the right to vote. that story isto next. >>> thplus, why the twice-impeached disgraced ex-president's phone call to get doj to declare the whole election corrupt could be a game changer in any state or prosecution against him. we'll explain. >>> and the missouri congresswoman leading the fight to get the eviction banned, she is spending the night on the capitol steps. do not go anywhere. do not go anywhere clearly, velveeta melts creamier. this isn't just a walk up the stairs. when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪ verizon launched the first 5g network and now we want to be the first to give everyone the joy of 5g, by giving every customer a new 5g phone. old cu

also john heilemann, executive producer of show time's "the circus" and host of "heel and high water" clint watts is back, now a fellow at the policy and research institute. lucky for us, all three are contributors. betsy, let me start with you. i know you have fantastic reporting i want to get to, but elizabeth newman is a lifelong republican who came to her criticism of donald trump in a very painful way. she talked about it on this show often. it really came down to her life's work as a person working around the policy of extremism. to hear her articulate that the threat is exacerbated, violence against all of us is exacerbated by the seemingly sanctioned conduct of one of the two political parties is harrowing. >> that's right. and she really had a front row seat to this in the final months of the trump administration. she gave me an on-the-record interview shortly after leaving the department of homeland security where she detailed the unsuccessful efforts, largely unsuccessful efforts she engaged in to try to get the trump white house to take this threat seriously. the way she l

peter baker, claire mccaskill, and john heilemann join us. good evening and welcome to you all. peter, walk us through what some of the circumstances could be to trigger the kind of alert that went out to americans remaining behind in kabul. >> well, you've heard the biden administration and the president himself say that they're concerned about possible attacks on the people who are gathered at the airport by a branch of isis that exists in afghanistan, right? and it's possible, i don't know this to be a fact, but the alert certainly gives the impression that the administration feels like there's an imminent possible threat. >> as we attempt to get peter's comms hooked back up, senator, give me the review, if you would, from your standpoint of of the evacuation as it's progressing right now, and also your review of the two members of congress two took it upon themselves to inspect the evacuation effort. >> i think we have to realize that i'm not sure there are very many countries that could have airlifted almost 100,000 people out of afghanistan. remember what a small percentag

norman ornstein and john heilemann, thank you both for joining us tonight. >> thank you.e >> thank. you and coming, up jason furman was the chairman of obama's council of -- and he has seen things in the biden economic recovery that he has never seen before. his one word description of this is, quote, wonderful. professor jason furman joins us next. an joins u next next when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪ (man) go on, girl, go on and get help! that's it, girl! [heartwarming music] (man) ah! (burke) smart dog. with farmers crashassist, our signal app can tell when you've been in a crash and can send help, if you want it. it's new and one of many farmers policy perks. also, our signal app could save you up to fifteen percent on your auto insurance. (man) that's really something! (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. [dog barks] (both) good girl! ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ ♪ you probably think visa is a credit card comp

let's bring into our conversation john heilemann, hosts of the hell and highwater on the recount and david jolly is here. david, start with you. with the florida democrats, what they accomplished seems to be twofold. one, they put a face to what these lawless do. came to congress and explained where drop boxes are removed from largely democratic parts of the state. they came and also said, we don't need the "for the people" act. we don't need the whole thing. we only need an inch. even that modest plea was not something democrats in washington could accomplish? >> yeah. and nicolle, your context is very important, because, look. texas democrats, though the bill may have passed through the senate and ultimately they did not want it to, they did achieve a modicum of success standing on principle expressing outrage. the bill watered down some. small victories in there for texas democrats today. and your point's exactly right. looking to washington democrats saying we now need you to protect us the rest of the way. look, i think what you're seeing from senate leadership in particular, th

. >> let's bring in nbc news national affairs and from the recount, john heilemann. we have spent the past five, six years underestimating the public's appetite for stupid politician stunts, stupid political stunts. i do wonder though, talking to republicans and trump supporters across my home state of florida that i have grown up in, people that supported donald trump and hearing their response, their sort of defiance against what desantis is doing, i wonder if desantis is teetering on a bridge -- a political bridge constructed of cheap political stunts and stupid press conferences and it may be one bridge too far for him because even some of my trumpiest friends, some who have gone to the hospital and suffered from covid, but and others who have not, seem to understand the danger of the covid variant and love their children more than they love following political cranks. i just -- i wonder, are we hoping against hope that perhaps this political stunt will backfire and ron desantis will stop mandating from tallahassee what private business owners and local school bo

john john heilemann, it's the old days in the senate once again, at least for this week. >> lawrence, thinking about like, back in 1993 1994 when i lived down there and you lived on capitol hill, ran around on a motorcycle and we're on the powerful -- the most powerful staffer on the senate side. you and i both had doubts we would get here, but you know i might not think this is home. we know how complicated it is. all the worries about the senate, whether they can do what you just described vividly, that we haven't seen such a long time. not just the legislating but legislating the bipartisan. way which mcconnell concluded that the politics here are such that he is at least going to help chuck schumer in the normal way to get peak business to happen in the senate and get this bill through. you gotta get it over the house which is where the atmosphere is more toxic and crazy, but over the weekend things got more toxic and more crazy than things will. get there is a lot of complexity and trying to land both planes at the same time. aoc over the weekend made sure to say how hard it woul

reladies and gentlemen, our starting line on this wednesday night, where peter baker, lee john heilemann, dr. nahid bhadelia for starting us off tonight. claire mccaskill but no reaction from james murphy. and lately, that third vaccine shot could be coming sooner than we all expected. there is one use on the booster. front one of our top public health physician standing by to talk with us about all of it as the 11th hour is as we say, just getting underway on this wednesday night wednesday nigh rtable, dually-adjustable, foot-warming, temperature-balancing, proven quality night sleep we've ever made. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 24 months. only for a limited time. for skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin gold bond we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power. number o

. >> john heilemann, it's one thing if you are a member of let's say the new york assembly to make a statement about the governor or if you're president of the united states and a democrat on whether he should resign. i found it really interesting and, again, i'll use the word again ominous politically for governor cuomo that governors from bordering states decided to put out a statement as well. that's kind of like swerving jr. your car into the other plane politically, going out of your way to take this guy down a couple of notches and let people know he should resign. nobody was asking the governor of rhode island, and new jersey if they wanted him to resign, and nobody probably would have. but i just thought that joint statement was fairly extraordinary. based on what i've seen in these situations in the past. >> let's be clear, joe, it's the joint statement that's kind of incredible. is it possible that a trenton reporter would ask the governor of new jersey, yeah, it's possible that the governor of connecticut might get asked the question, possible, but the fact that they all b

i think it's a huge deal that we're back up at 1 million vaccinations a day, john heilemann. >> a huge deal. hi, nicolle. that was not me calling your phone. >> the wheels are off. this never happened to me. i apologize. >> you know, look, it's a huge deal and i think, you know, part of the reason why even in the face of this delta variant part of the reason why joe biden had been on -- has had, through much of his time through taking office has been steadily popular and has been in a position to push his domestic agenda through congress, is because there's been a lot of confidence in his ability to deal with whatever comes on the covid front. look, history will tell the tale that the scale of the challenge that he faced when he became president in terms of administering, deploying, distributing, vaccinating this country, is one of the great challenges that any president has ever faced, and he by any standard has been incredibly successful at it. the fact that we still have so many unvaccinated people in america, goes to not failures of the administration, but goes to the poisoned poli

john heilemann as the president, himself, president biden says the buck stops with me.0 after which president trump paradesed the taliban leader saying we have common interests, they want to see the violence stop in that country just as much as we do. he was anxious to get that deal. yeah, more than anxious, willie. if you recall in recent months post-departure of the former guy, there has been reporting about the frantic trump scramble in the waning day is of the election, at a time when he was maintaining falsely that the election ras fraud will bet in december or january he was trying to issue orders to have a last-second completely unprepared for, completely on the fly departure from afghanistan so he can claim that for his legacy as he walked out the door. i think that's indicative of how serious trump was of managing this process in an orderly way and i think that the fact that we have seen some number of trump administration former officials come forward now and point out that this entire thing that is whenever you want to say how joe biden handled this, if trump

news, and nbc national affairs, host of show times the circus, and hell and high water podcast, john heilemann. this was foreseeable by a lot of people and preventable, many assessments have it. if bagram air base had remained open, get translators, allies, americans out of the country, and then you leave, as the argument goes but as mika walked through for us, you've got military pointing at state, state pointing at congress and the circle just going back around. nobody wants any responsibility for what we're seeing in afghanistan right now. >> i think the finger pointing is naturally going to happen between capitol hill and the white house if the white house is going to claim that the reason that this evacuation didn't start earlier is that it's in congressional hands. we have heard seth molten saying he was banging the drum for months, on the number of people that needed to be evacuated from afghanistan, what the draw down date was going to be. the evacuation needed to start months ago. he has been trying to call directly to the administration along with colleagues who are veterans on the d