yamiche: i want to stick with you, yasmeen. talk about the what the president is weighing moving forward and might we see new mask mandates or new mandates when it comes to the vaccine? i'm asking that question in the middle of the olympics kicking off and some athletes unable to go there because they got the coronavirus. yasmeen: this is a difficult moment for the white house and the administration because they've been pushing vaccinations very hard since they got in office but it's stalled out the last couple of months because by late spring, early summer, everyone eager to get a vaccine had gotten it so now they're tryg to convince people, you can see the rates of vaccinations slowing down tremendously from their peak a couple of months ago and also this is a point where the outbreaks that we see are going to be regional depending on vaccination rates and social dancing measures. you saw l.a. county and washington state and new york, cities reimposing mask mandates indoors for both vaccinated and unvaccinated but the tricky

yasmeen, you have family in the area. sure you were trying to manage that and make sure everybody was safe. what was it like to write a book about something you were reporting on but also living? >> that's a great question. i think it took a big emotional toll because it was so much a part of our day-to-day. we couldn't get together a lot of the time, just sort of brainstorm and work on things in person. we had to do a lot of our interviews over the phone or on zoom. you can always -- you know, you can always build that relationship with people a little bit easier if you are meeting in person and kind of build trust that way. we were cold calling a lot of people and not really able to meet them, a lot of times not able to see their faces. of course, we're all stuck at home and scared. you know, for so much of last year, we were really scared for our families, for our parents, our friends, you know, living in parts of the country that were getting hit really hard, so we were covering this, and we were hearing these stories

damien and yasmeen everyone for tuning in. i assume you all that pre-ordered the book from politics and prose but here it is. it's fantastic, thank you. your book is so great and i'll ask my question you guys can find out for who answers. your book is so great a part of a just wants to use this our job you recount all the amazing anecdotes in your book. i'm not going to do that but there is one i would you about that is got a lot of attention already basically you report president trump at one point suggested sending inspected cruiseship passengers to guantÁnamo bay -- infected. tells about that. >> this is something that really jumped out at us, for a couple of reasons. one, back in february 2020 there was a lot of focus first on that diamond princess christian those off the coast of japan, and i think there were 500 or 600 passengers on the ship, a lot of americans on the ship, elderly americans and so there was this big fight over what to do and how to get them home. at the time 360,000 people and cruise ships around the wo

here is what yasmeen ramsey has to say, whose mother died in the collapse. yasmeen: some very poor decisions were made, and it robbed me of saying goodbye to my mother. yamiche: president biden spent some 300 hours -- some three hours meeting with grieving families. >> the whole nation's morning with these families. they have seen it on television. they have gone through hell, those who survived the collapse as well as those missing loved ones. yamiche: nancy pelosi convened a committee to look into the insurrection at the capitol. in new york, the trump administration was charged with running a tax fraud scheme. and sunday was the fourth of july, the day that president biden hoped to have 70% of volatile's vaccinated, but he will fall short of that goal as the delta variant is quickly spreading. we have some of the best reporters covering it all. jonathan lemire joins us from new york city. joining at the table, ayesha rascoe of npr and jonathan swan of axios. thank you for being here. this was a busy newsweek, but we want to start with what happened in flo

"washington post" health policy reporter yasmeen abutaleb. yasmin, thank you for joining us tonight and you are why reporting. i want to be clear. you have reported this out, you got image of the slides. the cdc has still not said this -- they've not made this public. >> they have not. what we have from our reporting is they're expected to release the data that prompted this decision tomorrow, even in these slides they mentioned data. they cite studies. they cite their own investigations. but the actual methodology, the data, the sample size is not in there yet. the expectation is that they will publish that tomorrow. >> obviously we spoke to the head of the cdc here on tuesday night where they had talked about this new mask guidance which has confused some people because they feel like it's a backtrack or reversal. the cdc says it's an update. but that's the masking part of things, that vaccinated people should wear masks in some circumstances, indoors if they're in a high transmission area. what are they doing about the vaccine problem? bec

. >> now, in fairness, yasmeen, you know more about this than i do. so when i saw that it could be as transmissible as ebola or the common cold, what's that supposed to mean? does that mean it's a great factor of transmissibility greater than they or we thought the delta variant had? >> it is. it's highly transmissible. they say it's just as infectious as chicken pox. it's more than twice as transmissible as previous strains of the virus. so that's one of the really concerning things. and i think this document really shows that the cdc sees that we're at a pivot point in the response. things were getting better for a couple of months. we've seen cases surge over the last few weeks. i think fortunately hospitalizations and deaths are still lower than they were with the summer surge last year because so many people are vaccinated. but given the way delta behaves, the fact that vaccinated people can still contract it and spread it, this is a new worrying phase of the pandemic and i think we'll see, they stress in there, they actually call for universal m

and then we will go to yasmeen. >> and so, the document said that the cdc had changed that vaccinatedple didn't need recognizes that it needs to revamp the public messaging in light of the delta variant and details how dangerous the agency scientists and outside scientists have concluded how dangerous delta is and how transmissible the chicken pox is and severe the infection is and that while the vaccinated people's infection is mild, it is still transmissible and that is what changed the mask recommendation this week. >> and so for the indoor masking for the vaccinated, and the guidance has been confusing and we talked about it yesterday on this program, and the cdc wanted to get ahead of the information leaking out, and that begs the question, why is that leaked and why didn't the cdc make this available based on the guidance, and what did you find in your reporting? >> as you know, geoff, this white house is maintaining a firewall between the public health officials and the political side and the white house, and the appointees at the agencies, and while that may have come into pla

you le morita, and yasmeen, thank you both. >>> simone biles sits out.s at the olympics. could what she just announced she's suffering from, the at which time twisties keep her from competing at all in the rest of these games? we're live from tokyo next. 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 got you. for the love of people. for the love of community. for the love of progress. citi. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've honorably served. no matter their rank, or when they were in. a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. [swords clashing] - had enough? -