josh letterman, thank you. i to bring in now tim jones.fire out there in california. talk to me about the fire, it's the second largest in california history. it's about 21% contained, is it so different to rain this fire in? >> the extreme drought kwns are really contributing. the fear has been suppressed by fire cover and smoke cover. today we're expecting a lift. gusty winds, they put embers out. there is advance of a flame front. i want to play this sound for you and a question on the other side. listen to this. >> this past winter we did not get the normal snow pack and precipitation that we're used to seeing. we have a probability of ignition and that means if you drop 100 matches in 100 different places every single one of those would start a new fire. that is how dry the conditions are. so we're exceeding all of the thresholds. >> is this the new reality on the ground in the american west? that we will be facing these kinds of conditions year after year and potentially facing these kinds of fires? >> it is what we have seen in the

joining me at the white house, josh letterman, heidi pris bell a. josh, it is interesting, your primary beat for us is climate. in many ways on any other day, if we were at 10,000 cases we might be leading with your beat on climate. as the white house press briefing on covid, covid, covid, covid, no matter what the administration would like to accomplish outside covid, until the virus is tackled and pushed out of here, it means all of the other proposals have to take a back seat. >> reporter: that's right. that's kind of the dichotomy. the line you hear from the white house is walk and chew gum at the same time. substantively, they feel they're doing a good job of being able to stay focused on getting things they want to get done. white house officials point to the fact that the bipartisan infrastructure deal still on track, not an easy lift. the democrats' only massive spending bill looks like it will happen along with major climate components of the president's agenda. politically that's where they have less control over what the message is and wha

shep >> josh letterman live in our washington news room josh, thanks very much for some congressional reaction, let's turn to republican congressman, adam kinzinger now. he flew missions in afghanistan and iraq he's currently a member of the air national guard congressman, i know you are with me on this, that i just can't stop thinking about the family members who just knew that their military folks were coming home by tuesday and now this. it is just heart-breaking. >> yeah, it is war and the you know, shep, we often talk about, you know, the last person to die in the war and the last casualty was february of 2020 and then now, you know, you have this, 13, and i hope it doesn't climb from that. it is very heart-breaking. and particularly you think of even the ones that survived that didn't get injured, the kind of scenes they've had to see after this, you know, peering over the wall and seeing the taliban beating women, abusing children. there will be a lot of damage to a lot of people.congress's r >> what's congress' role now how quickly do the hearings and the investigations begin

nbc news correspondent josh letterman is in the nation's capital where the march is about to start in minutes. josh, set the scene for us. what can we expect from the march about to start? >> yeah, well the crowds have been steadily gathering throughout the morning. they started before the sun even came up when we were here about 5:30, 6:00 in the morning. a bit of the lay of the land. a crowd gathering here in mcpherson square, a stage set up where there is already speakers giving addresses, marrying a lot about the filibuster, a lot about the voting law in texas. on the far end behind this crowd you have folks doing voter registration trying to make sure people are registered to vote, not only that they're registered but registered at their current address. we had a chance to speak to some of the rally goers as they arrived. i spoke to one woman who attended the second march on washington now she is back here today. and this is what she said about how it feels. >> what's it like to be here years later at another march on washington but on the same issue that hasn't really gotten tha

here's nbc news correspondent josh letterman. >> the u.n.'e, tying changes in our climate to human activity more directly than ever before. we wanted you to hear some of the report in its own words. a.3.1. it is virtually certain that hot extremes including heat waves have become more frequent and more intense across most land regions since the 1950s, while cold extremes, including cold waves have become less frequent and less severe, with high confidence that human-induced climate change is the main driver of these changes. some recent hot extremes observed over the past decade would have been extremely unlikely to occur without human influence on the climate system. a.3.5. human influence has likely increased the chance of compound extreme events since the 1950s. this includes increases in the frequency of concurrent heat waves and droughts on the global scale. high confidence, fire weather in some regions of all inhabited confidence, medium confidence, and compound flooding in some locations. b.2.4, it is very likely that heavy precipitati

josh letterman, obviously, the nightmare scenario for the country. afghans, many more injured as well. the president, though, holding fast to his decision to pull out of the kentucky senior there any white house point of view? >> reporter: none whatsoever. officials say what took place yesterday while devastating and deadly for american troops serving there, only re-solidified the president's belief we have the get out of yoochg, we have -- afghanistan. we veto et now. according to his aids, no matter how long we stayed in afghanistan, we were going to ends one this mech of extremist groups, with an afghan military clearly not able to stand up and defend against taliban insurgents. even now the taliban in control of kabul and afghanistan. unable to prevent extremist attacks from rival groups like the khorason group. jen psaki said this was maybe the worst day of president biden's young presidency so far. certainly, that has been the move at the white house in light of these americans who have died and true chaos's thigh sfrugle to figure out what if

let's turn to josh letterman now who covers the state department for nbc news thousands still trying to get out of kabul tens of thousands including afghans. how disruptive, practically speaking was this attack to those evacuations? >> as far as airplanes leaving the runway, shep, tit wasn't. there was no infiltration of the air base there were no aircraft injured as part of this suicide attack and, in fact, president biden says after the last 12 hours so, including since this attack occurred 7,000 people have been evacuated from the kabul airport. but of course the real issue here has been all along how do you get safely to the airport? a question that has gotten far more complicated in the wake of this deadly attack today as far as the numbers, there are already about 5,000 americans that the u.s. government says have been evacuated from afghanistan. there is about a thousand more that the state department is in contact with who say they want to leave now now, the state department believes a majority of those at this point in time may have already managed to find their way out of a

particularly as we get into the midterms next year, lindsay. >> josh letterman, thank you so much fort here in washington. i want to bring in co-chair of the poor people's campaign, william j. barber speaking today at the make good trouble rally at the lincoln memorial today. you've been organizing rallies all summer. talk to me about the significance of today and what it is that you'll be fighting for. >> well, the great question before america today is what does it profit america if you hold onto a filibuster, and hold on to a partial infrastructure bill but you lose the soul and the infrastructure of the democracy, which is voting rights and the infrastructure of our daily lives, which is living wage and economic justice. this cannot be just about one day or one issue. it wasn't in '63. it's not today. we can't say this starts to push back. we've been pushing back. this is a day we come together and if that's all you do as a day you haven't done enough. we have to continue to move and have a campaign. when i go on the stage i'll have a low wage worker from west virginia, who's whit

we start with josh letterman, katie beck in atlanta georgia. and shaquille brewster is in springfield, missouri. and i want to bring in dr. bernard ashley. thank you all for joining me. josh, let me begin with you. could we require foreign travelers to the u.s. to be vaccinated? >> yes, but it is a work in progress. white house officials saying this will not be an immediate step. they are describing this as part of a fazed approach. so they are going to, at some point, require vaccinations for people entering the u.s. in some limited exceptions that we still don't know exactly what they will be. we know that other countries like britain, canada, they have started to lift sop of their restrictions on americans. the long list of countries like the u.k., china, india, and others. where people who have been there cannot visit the united states. the u.s. also planning to keep in place that anyone entering the u.s. needs a covid test. >> any idea when the changes will take effect? >> we don't have a time line on this. they're not ready to roll this ou

josh letterman is at the white house. i also want to bring in stephanie ruhle, and jim mecina. thank you all for being with me. by the way he was also serving as president obama's campaign manager. let me start with you. we heard that the president will be speaking any moment now about this block buster jobs report. what will we hear? >> the white house is certainly breathing a sigh of relief today after fearing this report could have been worse than it was. i think you will hear two mayor themes from the president. the argument that his build back better approach is working. they have succeeded and now is the time to keep the foot on the gas when it comes to the bipartisan infrastructure bill, when it comes to the democrats 3.5 trillion spending bill, and other measures to try to make sure the economy is able to overcome some obstacles. the other key theme is the fact that in order to preserve the economic progress that we saw in this report, tentative as it might be, that we have to continue to deal with the vaccinations. that we cannot ease up on trying to get as many people

josh letterman is following the story.e was running out to do something about climb change. you read this report and it is pretty ominous. have we finally reached the point? are we out of time? >> it is too late at this point, craig, according to report for us to undo the damage done to the planet by climate change. our future one way or another is will be potter than it is right now. that in part is because of continuing sea level rise that occurs as a result of ice melting. even if we were to zero out our emissions tomorrow, which we're not obviously going to be able to do. even if we caught all of our pollution it would take decades for global temperatures to stabilize. we'll see more extreme weather events of the kind that you were talking about with steve. but there is a silver lining here. it is not too late. and this report finds that while under all possible scenarios we're still going to end up getting 1.5 degrees celsius that scientists have been warning us about. two degrees will be a lot worse an 1.5 degrees. f

nbc's josh letterman is there at lake meade in boulder city, nevada.is tier one shortage declaration means and how it's going to affect the millions of people in those states that rely on that lake for their water supply. >> reporter: 40 million people who rely on water from the colorado river basin and from lake meade. and you look at where we're standing. this looks like a beach. this used to be the bottom of the lake. the water used to go way above where my head is now. if you look and see this white ring over there, they call it the bathtub ring, that's where the water level used to be just a few years ago here in lake meade. the water levels have more dropped 130 feet since 2000. and just in may, it passed a critical trigger point, 1,075 feet, which is how we got to where we are today, with the federal government expected in just a few hours to issue the first-ever tier one water shortage declaration. which at first it will mean cuts in nevada, as well as to arizona. and i spoke with the local water authority general manager who said they've been

>> my colleague josh letterman confirms that more than two dozens diplomats based in kabul did writethe secretary of state to express their concern about just how quickly the government could collapse, given a taliban takeover. they stressed this. what's notable about this, from a source familiar with the situation, is the day after this cable was written, a new program for special immigrant visa holders was enacted to get more afghan nationals out of the country. clearly this was something the state department did here. we are told, on the record from their chief spokesperson ned price, that they value this kind of internal dissent. that's the reason for this process. in this particular instance, we're learning that it was reflected, then, in the policy, even though it wasn't something publicly talked about as much, given that they still wanted to go forward with the full plan of a drawdown, which is what led to the chaos, and ultimately now the bigger questions are about what happens after august 31st, the deadline when the president wanted all troops out. he's now saying he's comm

. >> steve patterson, josh letterman, thank you.on of "andrea mitchell reports." garrett haake is in for chuck todd today. e is in for chuck todd today and now get netflix on us. it's all included with 2 lines for only $70 bucks! only at t-mobile. it's taken a lot to get to this moment. ♪ grew up at midnight - the maccabees ♪ dreams are on the line. you got this. refresh... it all, comes down, to this. ♪♪ ♪ someone once told me, that i should get used to people staring. so i did. it's okay, you can stare. when you're a two-time gold medalist, it comes with the territory. >>> if it is monday, it is major covid deja vu. more cities are imposing mask mandates again. including some children's hospitals as some kids start go back to school raising fears that the outbreak will only get worse. plus with the president's legislative agenda on the line the senate closes it on final passage on the bill. a senator at the center of a all, and later, new developments in the cuomo investigation. they meet to lay out next steps for impeachment as t

. >> josh letterman, thank you for setting the stage for us. let's bring in national action network profit and host of politics nation reverend al sharpen, one of the leaders for food's march on washington and voting rights that will be happening in a couple of hours. rev, we want to let viewers know what we're talking about here. we're showing a graphic about all of the lawyers, republican lawmakered enacted 30 restrictive voting laws according to the brennan center for justice. your march is a mass mobilization, demanding elected officials protect democracy, denounce voter suppression, make d.c. a state and ensure fair and easy access to votes. how do you think this will put pressure on congress. >> the pressure comes because we are marching at a time the house of representatives passed the john lewis voting advancement bill this week. now it goes to the senate. and the reason martin luther king iii and i who have convened have said let us have the location of the major rally, with the capitol in the background, is to show the world that the

josh letterman joins us and vaughn hillyard from jacksonville, florida, covering the surge in covid-19 there in the sunshine state. guys, welcome to you both. josh, let's get to the latest message on the covid-19 sfront. what say you on this? >> reporter: the biden administration warning there are likely to be more restrictions coming down the pike that things are likely to get worse before they get better. president biden as he was heading this weekend to camp david telling reporters that in all likelihood that will mean more stricter guidelines and potentially restrictions on americans, although they are saying that's not going to look like the kinds of lockdown that is we saw last year. we heard from dr. fauci this morning who echoed the consistent message from the biden administration which has been this is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated. dr. fauci saying there are still about 100 million americans who are eligible for the vaccine. they're of the right age and other qualifications but they are not getting the vaccine, and that is why we have this issue requiring the return of m

pentagon briefing on afghanistan to begin here, i'm joined now by nbc news white house reporter josh letterman. "wall street journal" national security reporter vivian sala many:i want to start with you on this. today was the second time this week we heard from president biden on afghanistan. is he striking different tone today? >> the tone from the president was similar. very defensive of his administration's handling of this debacle over the last week and a half or so. there did seem to be some good signs of progress in the numbers. in terms of the through put they're getting people out of afghanistan. the president saying that in last 24 hours or so they have been able to get out 5700. that's an increase and more in line with the 5,000 to 7,000 or 9,000 or so figure that we heard from white house and pentagon officials that they wanted to be able to get to. but we also interestingly heard the president seeming to open the door in these remarks to a slightly broader mission set here, more ambitious goals. not only pledging that he will get all americans who want to get out of the country out

nbc's josh letterman among the rally crowd at d.c.'s national mall.can hear the speaker loud and clear behind you. talk to me about the atmosphere in the crowd where you are. >> reporter: lindsey, we have heard from speaker after speaker all day. i have to tell you the predominant feeling thaw get from being at this rally today is one of frustration. you've got a lot of people here who this isn't their first rodeo. you know, they've been going to rallies for years and years, essentially fighting for the same rights that they're fighting for today. there's a sense of what can we do differently that's going to make a difference in the future when there has been so much, you know, inertia over the years. i think that's one of the reasons you hear such a focused call right now on ending the filibuster, something concrete that can be done that can improve prospects for getting protections in place in the future. we heard just a few minutes ago from the reverend al sharpton who was talking about possibly setting up camp outside the capitol, putting up a ten

nation's largest reservoir triggering federal water restrictions across the west where we find josh lettermanates could see the water supplies affected? >> reporter: geoff, the hill changes colors because that's the old water line and this used to be under water, used to be lake mead. i'll show you where it sits now. over the last 20 years or so the lake dropped about 130 feet in elevation. due to growing drought that scientists say is a combination of both natural weather patterns and human caused climate change and in may that water level hit below 1,075 feet which set off this first-ever water shortage declaration going to be issued in the next couple of hours by the federal government and means now the water levels below 40 prts and now we will have to see water cuts hitting multiple states starting with arizona, nevada and parts of mexico. parts of 40 million people that rely on water from the colorado river basin and now a scramble to try to prepare for the cuts. i spoke with the southern n invest water authority who told me this that they're wor ribbed about in the years ahead. >> 21st

let's move to josh letterman who does the same for us from the white house. , we know the president is prioritizing getting americans out of afghanistan, but let's talk about the afghan allies. what is the focus on that? >> reporter: well, it has been a moving target over the last week and a half or so, alex, because at first when the biden administration announced this massive air lift operation that they were sending what is now about 6,000 troops who are in afghanistan dealing with this operation, the thought was that this was going to be a very limited effort, mainly focused on american citizens, and the question really was so what happens if we get to this deadline at the end of august and you don't have everybody out. the administration kind of ee kwif indicated on that until coming forward to say, no, look, we are basically going to stay until we get all of our american citizens out. then, of course, the question became what about these tens of thousands of afghan allies? we have been calling them siv applicants, special immigrant visa applicants, as we

engle, nbc news, kabul. >>> let's go to the white house and bring in nbc nassau correspondent josh lettermaneorge stephanopoulos yesterday that americans would stay in afghanistan as long as it took to get every american out of that country, even if it means staying longer than the august 31st deadline. we did get an update of how many people have been evacuated by the united states us the far. how many is it? how far do we have to go here? >> according to white house in the most recent 24-hour period, they were able to get out 1,800 people that brings the total since august 14th to 6,000 people. they have been able to evacuate. so they're getting up to speed on now several thousand per day. that's still short of what president biden and other officials have spoken about in terms of being able to get out 5,000 people a day or even more possibly, 7,000 a day, president biden told george stephanopoulos. officials acknowledge this is really an hour-to-hour situation and their ability to be able to do this really rests on mr. they're going to get continued cooperation from the taliban to let fol