unvaccinated america is now essentially synonymous with red america. the new york times reports today the political disparity in vaccine hesitancy is stark. the kaiser family foundation reported at the end of june that 86% of democrats had at least one shot compared with only 52% of republicans. an analysis by the new york times in april found the least vaccinated counties in the country all had one thing in common. they voted for donald trump. joining our conversation is dr. patel, and an msnbc medical contributor. david plouffe is also back. welcome to you both. let s talk about what s going on in my home state, doctor. it is heartbreaking for me to talk to my friends who live in southwest missouri, particularly those friends who are involved
committee room? i think it s important to understand that liz cheney certainly doesn t speak for republicans or kevin mccarthy. she s so out of step with where the house republican conference is at this point. the important thing, i think it was a stunning decision by speaker nancy pelosi, the fact jim jordan and jim banks were nominated by kevin mccarthy to be on this was not surprising. it s something we have been talking and reporting on for weeks. the fact she was saying we are not going to have this turn into a political witch-hunt, a back and forth partisanship. i ve been talking to republicans today, though. they say in some ways pelosi really played into the hand of kevin mccarthy by the fact she decided they weren t going to be on this committee now it allows ken mccarthy to say this is partisanship. not saying that s true but the talking point will come forward with republicans in the coming
they said even in the icu they ve had patients who said i wish i had gotten the vaccine. is it too late? it s just heartbreaking all around. the other uncomfortable thing we have to talk about is that we don t know short of a mandate how to really convince people who might just be really reluctant despite what we re talking about to get vaccinated. that s where i think all americans, republicans, democrats, the like, we have an obligation to talk about this as much as possible to convince people to change their minds in any form necessary. it would be terrific if all the republicans who hold elective office would take about an hour to go on social media and all of them say i was vaccinated. i was vaccinated. my wife was vaccinated. my children have been vaccinated. it is a real abdication of duty and even worse the people lying
it s going to be wall-to-wall coverage. that will dominate the entire political conversation and you will not have a single person to push back. what about when mark meadows is called to testify? other figures that might not have that white house privilege. this is going to be the political moment for the next several weeks and months and republicans aren t going to have a say there. i think that will be something we will have to look back and see how does mccarthy figure out how to push back on it when they aren t participating in the process. with that in mind, david, can the democrats go too far here? can they push too hard in terms of subpoenas and demanning testimony from elected officials? could they lose the american people on this? i think they should be as aggressive as they can on process, hear from everybody they think they need to hear from.
visuals. he seems like a different person there than today. you don t care about politics. this was a seminal day in american history. our democracy remains under attack that is one of the significant roots in the soil. so we have to find out what happened. who is responsible. i think there will be a lot who don t want their role exposed. congresswoman madeleine dean, thank you so much for being with us, anna palmer, as always, thank you for starting us up. david plouffe, lucky for us, is staying with us. when we come back, republicans stoking the flames of misinformation as the states and districts they live in are exploding with new coronavirus cases. ignoring the drive to vaccinate more americans and instead publicly spreading lies and fear mongering. plus, republicans rejecting a