0 our thanks for being with us, on behalf of all our colleagues at the network of nbc news. good night. ws good night tonight, on all in with chris -- clearly governor abbott knows that the federal rules so -- why do you think he did? this >> politics. >> the latest public health stun for a republican governor, and the pressure for other states to follow >> i think you just want a lot of support -- certainly for me. >> plus, parents now suing schools who refused to enforce mandatory mask mandates for students they have the right ring efforts to whitewash -- and the end of an era for a fossil fuel boondoggle that was clean coal. >> clean coal that is nothing more than a madison avenue mad men's version of reality >> when all in starts, right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes the story that president joe biden, likes to tell, and it's want to tell it like we'd like to tell as well probably for the same reasons is about the vaccine policy over at fox news. see last months after president biden announced a new sweeping plan to give millions of people vaccinated and get back to work fox news started to attack him non start, four -- of the talia therrien tyranny. >> we can tell you that the shutdown, of such a southwest airlines over the weekend, was a direct consequence it was a reaction to joe biden's vaccine mandate. >> we had to a elect this rotting bag of old meal to get a real tyrants. >> he's not mad at the taliban anymore, he's angry at you. or at least 80 million americans who haven't been vaccinated. >> if vaccine mandates were so popular, why the hard sell? why the shaming? why set up the covid cast system that you're doing? >> the actual story, the one that joe biden likes to tell, is that fox news the network has a stricter policy than he does remember, biden said employers with over 100 employees under osha, which is occupational safety hazard administration, must to require vaccinations or offer workers the chance to be tested weekly you get vaccine or you get tested weekly. fox news requires its employees to be vaccinated or to face daily testing their policy is five times harsher than biden's here is biden last week, mischievously calling attention to that fact >> even, i always get a kick out of this, fox news. fox news requires vaccinations for all employees give me a break, fox news >> i have to say, i think it's kind of funny to, because the host of fox news, winds strenuously about vaccine mandates and got out of their way to celebrate people who left their jobs and rather than get vaccinated and look at their own employers doing but, perhaps that not surprisingly, the folks that were deeply offended by the president and maybe others have pointed out this hypocrisy tucker carlson, who last week said the fox news superpower is courage, last night cried out the old i just work here routine >> fox news requires vaccinations for all employees give me a break, fox news will >> now to be clear, we just have a show on this channel, we don't run the company, and we would don't presume to speak for the company but as a factual matter with joe biden has just said, is completely untrue. we can say that with authority since we work here. >> is he kingly or? what's up with the we? what are you talking about -- it's true, actually, that would biden said is technically precise. but tucker carlson seems unclear about the problems -- they just have a show. so here it is, fox news employees are required to be vaccinated or be tested every day. i will quote kevin lord, executive price president of human resources at fox news parent fox corpse, said enamel, the company will be requiring all unvaccinated employees to be tested each day. not just once a week, in order to work and company facilities. again, just so folks understand, this is five dimes as onerous as biden's own policy on vaccines. we also know fox news employees wear masks, just look at this footage from this opening of their newly renovated bureau. every single person is wearing a mask. so, despite all that fox news personalities, and all these grandiose terms -- at the end of western civilization as they know it, not a single person not one on the network, will actually have the tiny little's coach, the monaco's courage or integrity to go on air, on the show they just have a network to criticize their bosses own policies. because as tucker said, quote, they just have a show on the channel and would never presume to speak for the company. when they sign your checks, they get your silence. what's tucker can do though, is use that show to use -- in republican politics and to keep the country in continuously path of sustain may mass death. that is more or less completely avoidable. it is october, mid-october 2021, we still lose 1000 day people a day to the virus, which we have vaccines for. while i've network -- encourages people not to get vaccinated. we're watching the next steps of these perverse politics play out in realtime, in the second largest state in the union, texas. in texas, the state's republican governor greg abbott, has been in the crosshairs of fox news of being insufficiently right-wing and anti-immigrant. and now abbott, who -- has primary challengers lining up to take him on. houston chronicle reports that in august a primary challenger named donna heye finds, who has appeared on tucker carlson's show, accused texas's child where for agency of promoting transgender sexual policies to texas youth, under a section of its website titled gender identity and sexual orientation. within hours the web page was gone. now that web page, to be cleared, was linked to a suicide prevention hotline and other resources dedicated to helping empower and celebrate young lgbtq input people. that has also been taken down because apparently greg abbott does not want anyone to get any idea, he runs a state that wants to stop any ill the any lgbtq youth from killing themselves. governor abbott is now basically spending all his time, full-time, in office fending off this right flank from primarily challengers it's not just -- another one of them is allen west, we were talking all west before, a one term congressman from florida, he sort of a marjorie taylor greene of his class, the most extreme, the most reckless, the most language. almost a decade after he lost that seat, sort of looking for what needs to do in public life, he picks up and moved to texas pick plants as flag and right wing poked alex there. last year managed to get himself elected to -- now he is challenging governor greg abbott. now the thing is, abbott already overseas a state that is lagging the national average of vaccinations. only 63% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. the state is experienced an awful bout of delta in the summer, something that was largely preventable had more people been vaccinated. but yesterday, the unvaccinated allen west was in the hospital with a serious case of covid, getting treatment, and tweeting quote, as governor of texas, i will vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates in the lone star state. there are far better protocols that individual citizens can utilize and decide for themselves. now this is for greg abbott a political problem. what is greg abbott, fully vaccinated republican government to, how can he possibly one up the challenger with a serious case of covid, tweeting from his hospital bed, against vaccine mandates. well, abbott issued an executive order banning all -- it's a step he did not take in the past but now, he's got a more pro covid challenger to his right, so we asked to move towards the more pro covid polar politics. allen west understood what was going on, he tweeted out a victory lap, a link to a far-right website building itself as a concern -- which if you are my age makes your head explode. with the headline, greg abbott's executive order came hours after allen west said i will vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates. when he's right he's right, he knew what he was doing. now, obviously there's a federal mandate issued by president biden, there's an understanding there's a primacy, a federal law, in the united states constitution, something that's been pretty well established. in fact, we more or less follow war on this federal policy so, corporations like southwest airlines and american airlines, which are both based in texas are saying, they are going to stick to the federal vaccine requirements but underneath that, there is a magnetic pull on the right side of our politics, calling all republican politicians in that direction. it's sick with. it's truly sick but there are people like allen west, and tucker carlson, who are out there every day working to supercharged that magnet, pull more people towards sickness and illness, and more mass death. just as long as it doesn't, with their paychecks. it's having a predictable for effect as the country is now heading towards 750,000 deaths, more than 100,000 of them since june when the vaccines were available. so, so, many people who are dead now because a trust of the wrong people harris county judge -- serves as she iq tip of the large county in texas with -- and they both join me now. judge adela, let me start with you as an elected official about with a meeting of this sort of back and forth and this new executive order that is superseded by federal law means for the many employers, businesses, working forces, that are in harris county? >> so, the county executive it i've also the emergency manager for harris county, home to houston 3:03 oh cities. i have learned as an emergency manager that that when there's an emergency, disaster, you lose every toy your disposal and what governor abbott is doing is akin to taking the water away from firefighters. i mean, it is taking a tool, an important tool away from an emergency managers and so many others in the community who are trying to do the right thing and something i've heard from the community, multiple times throughout this pandemic, is one of the biggest challenges throughout, has been the mixed messages. the confusion. this decision by the governor, is adding another layer, another level of confusion to the situation, where you are putting these businesses in the middle of the political fight. without clear guidance and that in of itself, as well, makes the fight against the virus against this emergency even harder. >> and i mean if you live in texas, you're right about texas politics a bit, what's striking to me is the desperation and they of cowardice and weakness that seems to be on display here. and if allen west clearly taking that for a victory lap, but it doesn't look particularly like dominant and tough to be chasing around your primary opponents and jumping whenever, you know saying how high, whenever they say jump. >> yeah, i mean look, something like almost like 70,000 people have died in texas from the coronavirus we have something like 260 people in texas have died every day over the past month, according to the texas tribune but that's not the problem that can greg abbott has, the problem that greg abbott thinks he has is how does he hold on to positive coverage from the fox news, and donald trump's endorsement, so that i do not lose my primary and that is the only thing he is concerned with as far as with handling the coronavirus he's not worried about making sure that texans are not dying from preventable disease, with a widely available vaccine. he's thinking how do i win my primary? because this is a conservative leading states, as long as i survive my primary the democrats won't be -- who can put me in the general election. it's really extraordinarily irresponsible. there's no question that he knows better they're, on some level greg abbott is hoping that he loses, some of these fights some, of the mandates so that he's get these numbers -- but he doesn't want to be the one responsible and we know this because he plays these games with a mask mandates early in the pandemic, where he said no mask mandates, but then when city started doing it when the numbers got really bad, he was like oh, he had no he didn't know he could do that because you were desert liberally confusing thing as the judges said. so he's not concerned about how many people are dying in texas of the coronavirus. he's worried about wearing winning his primary. and that's why this entire policy is recklessly, this entire pandemic is being right -- >> judge, you are nodding your head to a lot of that one thing that striking, one thing of the ironies of texas is its experience a lot of growth, job growth, economic growth, population growth. it's got in the santa's new congressional districts. that growth has been mostly generated in sort of metropolitan areas, in texas. harris county being one of them and the governor and republicans like to taunt that growth as a symbol of sort of how well the texas model functions, and at certain 0.1 wonders if this kind of policy, this sort of the abortion policy of this governor, telling businesses they can't require say frequent working places, begins to imperil precisely the thing that governor abbott and other state republicans like to tally as -- >> absolutely, you were referencing the new law that essentially bans abortion and puts a bounty on folks, anyone who facilitates an abortion. right now, anyone can openly carry a gun the, texan voting rights, and now at this and it's a race to the bottom and who can out trump trump and who can catch the eye of the former president, and who can win the primary that does make a more difficult business climate. but you also have to see the position they're putting these businesses in. for our mom and pop shops, to these big corporations, a lot of these businesses have made incredible sacrifices. telework, working to keep their employees safe, through policies, smart health policies. supporting us when we needed them to have a mask requirement all kinds of steps, so now you're putting them in a difficult situation once again, so of course, from my perspective, as someone who wants to see my region and my state continue to thrive, it's concerning not just from the health stance but also why are we putting these businesses in the midst role of politics. i'm old enough to remember when the republican parted was post to regulating businesses, and we need to do better than this. we deserve better. same flight we're seeing in schools, you know, we have an order in harris county that requires masks in schools and it's been shown to work. but the state has an opposing order, and so the school districts site one, and then they cite the other. it's past time to get all -- to get through all of these politics. and just movie on this pandemic with the public safety steps we know work. adam, you mentioned the politics here and it is a conservative state, and you asked me who's gonna be the next governor of texas, i would say the republican nominee. whoever that. is that is a safe bet. but i will note that abbott polling is pretty bad. it clearly has been affected by delta, a, he was 54% of texans surveyed just about a month ago, said the state is on the wrong track. said that the approval of the draw performance. it's not wyoming alabama, mississippi, this is not a trump plus 2025 state. it is a trump plus five state. it is a conservative state no, doubt it is a state where republicans dominate state government. and i would read -- but you know it's not completely like in the bag. it's not like there's nothing on the other side to worry about politically. >> yes, it's unusual for abbott to be underwater, in his approval this. way and the reason why is underwater is because there's something absurd about discussing in texas, that the government doesn't tell businesses what to do. and actually there not only telling businesses what to do, but you're telling them what to do in order to make their customers have less stakes. we're in the case of school, you are saying that teachers, you can mandate vaccinations in schools and daycares. so you are forcing texans to send their children to facilities where they might be at risk. simply because you don't want to get donald trump mad. it is an incredible level of cowardice. and one of the things about his reputation is that he was the guy who sort of the elder statements. he was very conservative, but he didn't come off as like a crazy person, out was who has talked about secession. and all sorts of -- things. he was the one who was supposed to be confident in the governor state of conservative. but in a normal way. and now he is just doing whatever he has to do to get donald trump to approve. >> judge lina hidalgo, and adam serwer, i think you both. >> when it comes to people who tried to help donald trump overturn the 2020 election, there are basically two camps, on one hand there are those who are digging in their heels. fully committing to the bid. meng forever, and then there are those who are trying to tiptoe out of the limelight of trump. fame and trying to re-enter polite society. as if they haven't tried to subvert american democracy. new center in the group, john eastman, the guy who literally wrote a memo on how to overturn the election. but don't, where we got a great defense, that clears up everything. that's up next. ng that's up next