the country. that discussion this hour is the president and leading republican governors continue their fight over mask mandates for schools. people should not be dying from a viral illness. period. they shouldn t be dying from covid-19. we re seeing pretty rapid changes to the health of the individuals that are infected with the virus. and a day after andrew cuomo s announcement that he s going to resign we will hear for the first time from his successor lieutenant governor kathy hochul who in the 13 days will make history as new york s first woman governor. we will hear about the potential legal fallout still to come for cuomo. president biden holding firm on the withdrawal from afghanistan on the midst that the taliban s rapid moves can threaten kabul. we trained with equipment over 300 afghan forces, they have to fight for themselves and fight for their nation. on the urgent climate threat and the alarming u.n. report, i ll be joined by the president s special env
jab at him with the tax cuts passed in the trump administration, because he said unlike that, all of his plans are fully paid for, and so he went into details on some of those things as well. but i have to tell you, garrett, there is not a lot of new in these remarks that the president has talked about this over and over again, and the build back better agenda from day one in fact, and so this is is a president who wanted to come tout speak out and speak about what took place and moving forward and the second half of the agenda, but what stuck out to me today is that he did not speak about what happened with the businesses and the universities and the airlines who are requiring the vaccines and i asked jen psaki in the briefing if it was the official white house position that is what they wanted the private sector to do, and they would not go that far, but they are hoping that the businesses will be modeled for others, but that is what we are watching, but he says that he h
now. and day four of that annual motorcycle rally is under way. there is roughly 700,000 people, and wes want to bring in dr. natalie azar. good to have you. morgan, let me start with you in texas. at last check a few hours ago you mentioned that just half a dozen icu beds were left in austin. what are officials there saying about how dire things have gotten in austin texas and beyond? they re saying things are reaching a crisis level. we have seen hospitals revert back to staffing levels, to operation modes, when texas was seening a real summer surge. social media, phone calls, any way they can to say please stay indoors, don t so go to mask gatherings, and please mask up. for another big part of the surge is the fact they are unable to issue a mask mandate. it has been prohibited with an executive order. six icu beds in the greater austin area. we have about eight million people there. at last check they re about 75 icu beds available there. so no matter where you look yo
hi there. i am stephanie ruhle. it is thursday, august 5th. this morning, we re following several big stories. new york governor andrew cuomo running out of time and options, facing new calls to resign as state lawmakers say the other option is impeachment. major push to vaccinate the nation continues. 30 health officials from the last four administrations writing a letter to corporate america, urging companies to mandate the vaccine. we talk to one of the officials behind that letter. and new legal fight, less than 24 hours after the biden administration issued a new ban on evictions, a group of landlords, realtors filed a lawsuit challenging the move. we have got to start with a dramatic new weapon in the fight against delta variants. a white house official telling nbc news the biden administration is developing a plan to require foreign visitors to the united states be fully vaccinated against covid-19 when travel restrictions are lifted. current restrictions are in pl
speaker. we begin in what was an overall difficult weekend for the united states in the ongoing coronavirus, the new wave is taxing hospital emergency rooms again. with health officials warning things can get a lot worse. nbc political correspondent vaughn hillyard has more. reporter: the united states topping 100,000 new coronavirus cases just friday. a stunning fourth wave with the number of infections and seriousness of the moment rising each day. things are going to get worse. if you look at the acceleration of the number of cases, the seven day afternoon has gone up substantially. the virus surging in states from the west to the east. cases doubling in more than 40 of them over the last two weeks. this is a class five hurricane. reporter: more florida residents tested positive for covid over the weekend than any other point in the pandemic. hospitals in jacksonville and orlando are already breaking previous hospitalization records. in neighboring alabama more