Be the superintendents and the School Boards. The real constitutional question here is does the governor have the authority to withhold their salaries and essentially tell them what to do, or as the local Home Rule in the state of florida, 67 counties the governor has been hammering over and over again that if children are going to be masked that decision will only be made by the parents. It will not be made by the government. This is what the governor here, Republican Ron Desantis had to say yet again on this issue. Its a parents decision. If you believe in the masking during the school, youre free to do it. No one is saying you cant do it. But if youre somebody that is concerned about that, that thinks that may not be the right thing for your child, then i think you should have the right to make that ultimate decision. I dont think government should override that. I was in naples yesterday. Thats Collier County. First day of school, the kids are all excited showing up to school and i talked to some parents and some kids about wearing masks. Interestingly, one parent with their children not wearing masks said, we are not wearing masks because we believe our faith will protect us. I spoke to another family. They had their masks on, the kids had their masks on. They were all standing there and i said, youre wearing masks and they said, our faith teaches us that we should wear masks to respect others. So you can clearly see that even along religious lines, people have a different take on whether the government should tell them to wear masks and whether they should wear masks. Now, there is a political side to all of this, of course. We decided to take a look at the counties in florida that have decided that they are going to defy the Governor And Mandate mask wearing. So you can see these urban counties in florida. Not all of them are urban, but the counties in florida that have decided, yes, we are going to Mandate Masks and to defy the government. If we take a look at the most recent president ial election, take a look at this. Those that have decided to defy the governor are also the counties that supported biden. So thats clearly showing and reflects the political nature of all of this, but at the end of the day, for instance, here at Washington Elementary, the kids will be told to wear masks and some are saying why is the government trying to tell us to do that and others are saying absolutely, the government should tell us to do that and were seeing a rise in the cases. Some report theyre seeing more children with covid than at any other time at thisled and the one thing we dont have are the numbers in the state. That is because the florida governor has decided, first of all, covid numbers are going to be released only once a week and missing from that information is the age of the patients or the age ranges, which of course would be very useful for parents as they get ready to send their kids to school, worried about the spread of the Delta Variant. Kerry, Joe Scarborough here, im sure you have also seen and heard from medical providers around where you are right now that a lot of the Emergency Rooms, a lot of the Icu Beds, jampacked and also a lot of Pediatric Wards also jampacked as well. Talk about just report for us, if you will, the situation and how dire it has been up and down the coast of florida. I think the thing that struck me the most was a pediatric doctor in Collier County who decided that she would participate in a psa and this was a Video Put together by the hospital that then the School Board decided to send out. This is collier count my where they do not Mandate Masks, its up to the parents and the children to decide what to do. When this doctor was on camera urging people to seriously wear masks, she was crying and had to walk off camera. She could not get through it because of the number of children she sees showing up in the icu. So the emotion from a Doctor Who, lets face it, the doctors are frontline every day are patients and they do see some of the most horrible, tragic cases of any illness in our country. If theyre losing it emotionally, you understand the power that is actually hitting the children with this Delta Variant and with covid, and the real question is when you go through this for parents is i want my individual choice some say, but if their child winds up in the hospital they may have a very different take on why didnt we just mask everybody up . Well, and we hear that of so many people. I have a close friend, i heard it from a couple of days ago who in the icu and feared that death was not far away. One other thing, kerry, im curious as you talk to these parents and talk to other School Administrators. The thing that i found is that its not quite as bright of a red Blue Line in some cases. In north florida, places where i have seen you and while youre reporting on hurricanes sweeping across the state. I have talked to friends who were trump supporters, who were School Administrators, and who a couple nights ago one of my friends cut off a debate and said were wearing masks, the Delta Variant is killing people, and its killing children and theres no debate in this school and if anybody has any problems you tell them to call me. This is somebody who was a strong supporter of Donald Trump. I found in this case that, yes, there are those that you can just line it up and if they voted for trump, if they supported trump then theyre on one side, biden the other, but im seeing some former trump supporters actually look at the science, look at the medicine, and they are actually taking a break. Did you find that at all in your reporting . I did and i think what what struck me was some were adamant about not wanting their child to be required to wear a mask and then they took them out of school and put them in the private schools and now some of the private schools have mandated they will wear masks. Its a little bit of handling your political philosophy while also concerned about the health of your child and which one is going to win out here. I think in most cases, the child and the health of your child is going to be the most dominant part of making your decision on whether you want your child masked. The political side of this, and this is one that republican governor Ron Desantis, this is one of seven states that have said adamantly that decision can be made by the parent. It will not be made by the government. And of course, big part of this, i mean, we really have to consider that should this be a governors decision, should this be a State Decision, or should local governments, the School Boards that are elected, the School Superintendents that are hired, should they be deciding we just saw yesterday in Broward County which is ft. Lauderdale and angry parents and Broward County said were going do this for the children, were going to Mandate Mask wearing and theres no do overs when this is all done. If a child gets the Delta Variant and winds up in the hospital and potentially dies, theres no way to undo a mistake like this. And whats so hard to understand, kerry, as you said, were not talking about Rhode Island here. Were talking about a massive state, about A Thousand miles long, from one end to the other, where theres 67 counties and, really, five different cultures, at least. Well, Nbcs Kerry Sanders as always, great talking to you, great reporting. Thank you so much for being with us. And willie, i just it just makes me scratch my head when i hear reports of parents saying were going to ignore doctors, were going to ignore science and jesus is going to take care of our children. So we can act reckless medically. Jesus is going do they think that jesus decided to kill over 600,000 people with the covid virus . Its i would say its beyond anything i have seem, except sadly its consistent with much of what i have seen over the past five years other than now and what mika calls a death cult. We have parents who are willingly sending their kids in to schools, less safe than medicine suggests they could be or that their doctors, their own Family Doctors, would suggest they could be if they took some simple precautions. People are free not to take the vaccine, thats their right but it has implications for other people. We heard kerry talking about some of the School Districts defying the governor. Yesterday on the show, we spoke with a superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, dr. Carlee simon, and she is pushing back despite Desantis Threat to withHold Money from the district. Any threat to cut the money is a concern, but really when i reflect on the job i need to do, then this is just something that im going to have to push forward. I need to provide the secure, safe School Environment thats constitutionally mandated to my students and i believe i just need to focus on my job and make sure that im providing that opportunity for the students. And i believe i am with the Mask Mandate. In our interview, dr. Simon told us about a letter she received from the State Commissioner of education, Richard Corcoran where he pressured her to follow the Governors Order and to respond by 5 00 tomorrow evening, and dr. Carlee simon is back with us this morning with her response. Dr. Simon, good morning, great to have you here on. I want to read part of your response what you wrote to the commissioner. Quote, the failure to use all of the Mitigation Strategies available including masks will inevitably mean that some of our students will have to receive their education outside of the school setting. We share the governors view that this is not the desired outcome. The death or serious illness of a child as a result of Covid19 Exposure is a far more serious injury than any discomfort that may be experienced due to universal masking. We ask that you seriously consider the appropriateness of withholding funds in an amount equal to the Superintendents Salary and the combined salaries of the members of the School Board. Like you, we are obligated to provide a safe and secure public education to all students. Universally masking is the most effective strategy we currently have besides vaccination to meet this obligation. So dr. Simon, when we talked to you yesterday, you were trying to get ready for the First Day Of School and check on all your kids and teachers and get another difficult School Year under way and then you had to deal with this. Tell us a little bit about what went into the letter and what weighed on you as you wrote it . So, you know, we have been examining the letter and then we compared it to how we see it in our situation, especially associated with our data and Today Or Yesterday was the first day and then we got to see the action that we were concerned about occurring. As an example, the largest high school, the entire Football Team Minus students who have been vaccinated will be quarantined. My Staff Attorney has allowed me to share that she was not feeling well and she actually went home ill and she actually is vaccinated. And so, you know, we have been predicting that this is going to have an enormous impact on how we perform our function as a School District, and so those are just two examples of how this Delta Variant is really impacting everything. These are anecdotal, it just started. I did find out that we had a parent who tested positive who dropped off their children to school. So, you know, even the component of parents making the decisions, this is under the assumption that parents are Making Decisions that are considerate of The Public health, and im not seeing that across the board. So you had a Mask Mandate, the kids show up at your School District yesterday. How many of them would you say were wearing masks and what did you say to some who werent . So as far as entering into the building, all of them needed to be masked. Were still trying to find out, you know, if we had any concerns that, you know, happened throughout the day because obviously, its a long day and, you know, things can occur. So were still looking into that and examining it. We did have parents who came at the front door who wanted their children to enter and did not want to follow our mandate, and we ended up having 25 submit the medical opt out form. We also had five people who act who asked to participate in the scholarship program. We did have a situation where one child was dropped off without a mask and the parent did not answer the phone and that child waited in the clinic and, you know, we are not going to allow a situation where somebody who disagrees with our policies is allowed to do whatever they would please. Yeah. Doctor, let me ask you, how many vaccines do children need to have to start Public School in your county . Off the top of my head, i dont know. If i were to just, you know, remember as a parent signing my children up for school, i would say theres quite a few of them and then, of course, you have them throughout their childhood. Right. And that is just always a thing. Then we also encourage Flu Shots every single year at our School District and thats right. Thats a program with a lot of participation. Its interesting, i think like i remember five or six, i have four kids and they all got five or six vaccines. Its interesting, you and i are of an age, im about 80 years older than you im sure where we were also required to get vaccines or else we couldnt go to school. Do you find it bizarre that youre having to explain to Human Beings that have lived over the past 40, 50, 60 years like the purpose of vaccinations, the purpose why we vaccinate our children or why we protect our children, lets say, polio, for instance, my kids got Polio Shots. You did, your kids did, everybody got Polio Shots and theres hardly any chance to get polio, but the desire of the government was to eradicate polio from the face of the earth. This is something that we have known for 50, 60 years and yet these people coming to you, they act as if this is the first vaccine ever administered. Im curious how do you respond to that . How do you react to parents who act so shocked that either their kids if theyre of a certain age need a Vaccination Or Need to wear masks to prevent this disease from spreading . So i share that same observation in the sense where i mean, both my parents have the scar on their arm where they did what was that . Smallpox vaccine, im not even sure. Polio, yeah. The big, round mark and its funny and i remember talking to them about it. And it was a mark of pride that they were members of their community, this is what they did to eradicate this disease within the community, and so i remember those types of stories and as a parent of myself i have vaccinated my children because i think theres that collective component as well as protecting your child. Right now, i do find it very hard to understand the resistance. I can understand, you know, some people are resistant to change and new and i get that, but i feel strongly that, you know, we only function well in my mind if were collective and we work together. Community matters to me and this seems to me to be just a foundational act of being a member of a community. Theres everything is bigger than us and more than us, and i dont understand why we cant find common ground that protecting life is actually something that we all should be doing. So dr. Simon, as i read through your letter, one part jumped out at me because it was so specific. You said you asked that to the commissioner that you seriously consider the appropriateness of withholding funds in an amount equal to the combined members of the School Board. Is that what the state is threatening you with if you put in the Mask Mandate which is what you did officially now. Theyll take away your salary . Thats what theyve shared on the news and its interesting because they dont control how funding is allocated to our employees. Like, for example, our organization, our district, we are the ones who distribute paychecks and bonuses and all of those components. So actually saying that they are not going to pay me or the board members, thats really not quite an accurate statement. They taking that funding out of our general fund, theyre removing that allocation from moneys that would come to the distribute in order for us to provide the education to our students. So i guess he can think its through that way in his mind, but its actually not that way in the reality of how the moneys come into the district and how theyre distributed out. So the state might say we might take your money away. Are you going to work for free this year . Im going to run this School District and take care of my families and my community and the students and the teachers and my staff members, and if that is what its going to take, thats what its going to take. Im not going to let some component like this, you know, a material thing stop us from doing the right thing. Well, it seems obvious to so many people, but its actually a brave act to protect your children in the state of florida. Superintendent of alachua Public Schools, dr. Carlee simon. Up that, well check in with you this week. President biden meanwhile, spoke yesterday about those banning Mask Mandates in the school and pointing out the hypocrisy of the stance. One of the things that i find a little disingenuous, when i suggest that people in zones where there is a high risk wear the masks like you all are doing, im told that government should get out of the way and not do that. They dont have the authority to do that. And i find it interesting that some of the very people who are saying that, who hold government positions, are people who are threatening that if a schoolteacher asks the student if they have been vaccinated or if a principal says that everyone in my school should wear a mask or the School Board votes for it, that governor will nullify that. Lets bring in Nbc News National Affairs and from the recount, john heilemann. We have spent the past five, six years underestimating the Publics Appetite for stupid politician stunts, stupid political stunts. I do wonder though, talking to republicans and trump supporters across my Home State of florida that i have grown up in, people that supported Donald Trump and hearing their response, their sort of defiance against what desantis is doing, i wonder if desantis is teetering on a bridge a political bridge constructed of cheap political stunts and stupid Press Conferences and it may be one bridge too far for him because even some of my trumpiest friends, some who have gone to the hospital and suffered from covid, but and others who have not, seem to understand the danger of the Covid Variant and love their children more than they love following political cranks. I just i wonder, are we hoping against hope that perhaps this political stunt will backfire and Ron Desantis will stop mandating from tallahassee what private Business Owners and local School Boards can do and let them do what is best for theyre customers and their children . I think we are joe, for sure, hoping against hope, and, you know, the president calling out the hypocrisy of what desantis is doing is spot on in terms you know, and you kind of teased it out a little bit there, the extraordinary hypocrisy of conservative and although we know what conservative means is not what it ever meant, but forcing the private businesses and School Districts to do what it wants to do to follow the ideological and political leanings rather than following their own calculated best interests which is what conservatives should really want, its all nuts, right . But i think, you know, the question youre asking about desantis, the analysis we have had of Ron Desantis for the last, you know, the last year, two years, has been is this guy potentially the kind of smart a smarter, more competent and therefore more dangerous in some Ways Version of Donald Trump and thats kind of been his hes kind of out to be the trumpiest governor in the country in what is the home im afraid to say about your ancestral homes, florida, the heart of Trump Country s that what desantis is . Is he kind of more rationale, more competent, not quite so crazy version of Donald Trump . I think thats what hes trying to do and trying to be and i think the question youre raising is whether is it possible that if you take a little bit if you take the trump out, like being the less crazy, more competent version of Donald Trump makes you not really that trumpy at all and then makes you an ordinary politician again and i think thats what desantis is flirting with. He can be trump and get away with it because there seems to have been over the last four years an unending tolerance of that in the republican party and where political tricks, irrational antiscience policies, Culture Wars, all of the stuff that republicans continue to give Donald Trump a wide berth on that, can desantis get away with that in the face of covid and when hes not actually Donald Trump . You know, if youre right and were about to reach that Tipping Point in florida because of the potency, the Threat And Damage of covid, were not going to learn something about the politics of covid. Well learn something about how transferable Donald Trumps theatrics are to nontrump politicians and desantis may be about to learn that too. Its going to be interesting but on the other side of that, lets see what the attention that desantis has gotten by doing intentionally stupid things, by doing intentionally dangerous things, by doing things that will quote, own the libs. That will get own the media, yeah, you know . Everybody that trump supporters hate are criticizing him, and when you have hollywood actors Criticizing Desantis, when you have Stephen King Criticizing Desantis and people in the media Criticizing Desantis, i mean, thats a Gold Mine. Of course, he is being rewarded in a sense for doing something that endangers children. And yet, Donald Trump learned that only made people more loyal to him and i guess the question is, you know, would Ron Desantis rather be where he is right now or where Nikki Haley is or where any of the other 30 people who want to replace Donald Trump is or where Donald Trump is. I mean, desantis gets a lot more press now than Donald Trump. Yeah. So maybe he considers placing childrens lives in danger. Maybe he considers that a big political win and he doesnt allow local School Boards to take measures that would protect children in their own communities. Maybe thats a big win for him. Well, look, it clearly has been so far. Obviously, Ron Desantis would rather be in the position hes in than the position of any other republican politician in the country, except for maybe Donald Trump himself. Hes, you know youre right. Its been a Gold Mine for him in the confines of the republican politics and hes put himself in a position where, you know, if Donald Trump doesnt run for president in 2024, i dont know anybody who covers national politics who doesnt think that Ron Desantis is a frontrunner if not if the frontrunner for the republican nomination. He likes the position and its clear that the reason hes pursuing the policies that youre talking about is because hes hes been in the positive Feedback Loop in the hermetically sealed universe of republican Trump Era politics, but i go back to your first question which is like when does the clock run out on that . Like when does the Death Toll get to be too high . When do the friends youre citing, the Trumpian Floridian Voters who you hear from in florida are getting to the point theyre getting Fed Up With, and they say, enough with the cheap theatrics, we never saw it with Donald Trump. A lot of the country did for sure and swing voters did, thats why Joe Biden is president , but are they about to reach that point in florida . How much Inconsistency And Hypocrisy does Ron Desantis put on display and how many conservatives walk away from him before that Calculus Changes . I dont know if were there yet, but hes testing the proposition. He certainly is. And you wonder if they support yanking away the salary of dr. Simon because she wants to protect the children in the school. The senate passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and plus a warning about the possible collapse of Afghanistans Capital now. The late on the talibans ongoing takeover. A notable moment last night. Cory booker of New Jersey is downright giddy in supporting a republican amendment to a bill and then well talk about the resignation of new York Governor Andrew Cuomo when Morning Joe comes right back. Comes right back welcome to allstate. Where everything just seems to go your way. Youre in good hands with allstate. Click or call for a lower Auto Rate today. vo i am living with cll and i am living longer. Youre in good hands with allstate. Thanks to imbruvica. Imbruvica is a Prescription Medicine for adults with cll or chronic lymphocytic leukemia. It will not work for everyone. Imbruvica is the 1 prescribed oral therapy for cll, and its proven to help people live longer. Imbruvica is not chemotherapy. Imbruvica can cause serious Side Effects, which may lead to death. Bleeding problems are common and may increase with blood thinners. Serious infections with symptoms like fevers, chills, Weakness Or Confusion and severe decrease in Blood Counts can happen. 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I think that given us the circumstances, the best way i can help now is if i step aside and let government get back to governing. And therefore, thats what ill do. Reporter threeterm Andrew Cuomos dramatic fall from grace. The son of Mario Cuomo, andrew became a national presence during the peak covid outbreak, but he has been embroiled in scandals over Nursing Home deaths, the publishing of his book and allegations of Sexual Harassment. In my mind, i have never crossed the line with anyone. But i didnt realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. Reporter Cuomos Resignation comes one week after the release of a scathing report from the states Attorney General, alleging the governor sexually harassed 11 women. Democratic leaders welcoming the decision to step down. I respect the governors decision. Reporter but President Biden who had called on cuomo to resign also saying this when asked about Cuomos Performance as governor aside from his personal behavior. Hes done a hell of a job. Reporter cuomos accusers reacted to the news. It feels like a weight is off my shoulders and hopefully i can move forward, and be happy again. Is this resignation enough for you . Reporter its not. He didnt take responsibility. He didnt really apologize. Watching his Press Conference Today and his resignation, he almost still had the attitude as though he is the victim when he is not the victim. He is the victimizer. Reporter cuomo said it was to prevent a long and expensive impeachment but that may still go forward and if convicted, cuomo could be barred from ever seeking State Office again. Kathy park reporting from the State Capital of albany there. Lets bring in Tom Winter and political strategist with lots of experience in new York Politics, susan del percio. Tom, let me begin with you and how Governor Cuomo got to the moment yesterday. There were so many people who said, i covered this guy for a long time, i worked with this guy for a long time, i know this guy, no way he walks away, and then he did. How did we get here . Physically he got there on the taxpayer funded helicopter to new York City to conduct a Press Conference in which the Press Wasnt invited in. Conceivably he could have done that from albany, but one last Helicopter Ride for the governor to get to the heart of your question, yesterday, i received the information in the morning that he was on that helicopter, he was coming in and there was going to be a 10 30 a. M. Announcement. It appeared to me, you know what, maybe things had actually turned, maybe the resignation of his top deputy in his you know, kind of his righthand woman, Melissa Derosa broke the camels back and then his personal attorney came out, speaking on the live stream, coming out with the forceful defense and refuting what she had been saying all along and then the Thought Process is maybe this is the announcement, im staying on and fighting. You have to look at which friends did he have around him and the answer to that was really none at the end. Nobody was sticking up for him, nobody was speaking it on his behalf, both in state politics, national politics, nobody was sticking up for him and it was difficult to see, one thing he said in the Press Conference which is believed to be true, difficult to see how he could move forward with governing and impeachment and with the tremendous cloud over his head and a complete lack of support. And the State Assembly said if you dont resign, were going to move forward with impeachment so he was in the corner a bit like that yesterday. He said that the investigation was quote, politically motivated. I think its important to remind the viewers that he backed an independent investigation, backed by letitia james, a Friend And Ally of his. And that was back in early march, and the two independent investigators that were hired, one an absolute expert in Sexual Harassment and Sexual Harassment cases and the other the former acting united States Attorney for the Southern District of new york, incredible backgrounds and biographies and theyre the exact two independent people youd like, and then of course the investigation starts to curve in a way that the governor hoped it would not go and then its All Of A Sudden a biased investigation. We heard from the personal attorney, hey, theyre not giving us the access to the transcripts or the underlying evidence. You either know everything or you dont know what was uncovered so it didnt make a lot of sense and yes, this is completely driven by the governor. The idea by a public report, the idea he wouldnt get the weekly briefings was in the report. Susan del percio, you have known new York Politics and followed it for a long time and grade the Governors Performance Yesterday at the Press Conference. Fminus. It was disgraceful. As we heard one of the victims say earlier, he played the victim. He refused to take any responsibility. It shouldnt be surprising thats the way he decided to go out. He wanted to fight. But as tom said, he has no friends. He had No One to back him, to help support these decisions so he was left with virtually no other option. What he did was have his lawyer make a case for the record, that could go uninterrupted and then he came out and did what he had to do. But by no means was this gracious. By no means in new yorks best interest, this was solely in Andrew Cuomos best interest. You know, the Washington Post wrote a piece earlier this week, called the last act in Cuomos Father Son tragedy. It was a pretty extraordinary Piece And Matt writes this. With new yorks governor, the story always comes back to the Father And Son, the legacy what he can never outrun. The interplay with the late and legendary father mario has always been front and center, inseparable from the drive and the recklessness. It is the defining relationship of his life. They enabled Each Other, maybe thats the best way to understand it. Because andrew was andrew. The political tough guy. Even in his teens who would apply who would happily wade into the nasty business of new York Politics and mario got to go on being mario. The highminded priest of Public Morality and because mario mario, a sanctified hero in liberal america, andrew got to go on being andrew, saying that he was doing whatever he pleased. By now, Andrew Cuomo must know two things for sure. The first is that his father whose admiration he sought for a lifetime would be bitterly disappointed in him. Although perhaps not for the reason youd think. Maybe mario would have been sickened by the allegations, detailed by the state Attorney General, of Borish Groping and innuendo, but what would embarrass him is how he threw away a 50 Year Legacy by believing he was invincible. He will never outpace his fathers shadow now, he wont win the mystical fourth term that barely eluded his dad. He wont finish the third. The media called mario hamlet on the hudson, a moniker he hated until the day he died and this last act it will be andrew who ultimately fills the role better, anguished and haunted, unable to finish what his father left undone. Exit stage left. And john heilemann, i have always been struck by the difference in political personalities, at least, between Father And Son. I mean, Mario Cuomo when i interviewed him, when i saw him come speak at the university of alabama, one of the more conservative one of the more conservative times in recent american history in 1984, he was always working the crowd. He was always working you. He was always charming you with that sort of brash new york charm. He was always trying to persuade you. He was always trying to win the argument, to explain why his vision for america, a liberal america, an act of government was the best way forward, not only for liberals but for independents and conservatives. It was actually it was a really compelling political personality regardless of where you stood ideologically. His son was just a mack truck. Just ran over anybody that got in his way. Talk about the contrast between Father And Son and how Andrews Choice of how he was going to behave as a politician left him broken and alone yesterday. Yeah. I mean, joe, you pointed out i mean, just to start, think about the dominance of the two of them. Someone yesterday pointed out that except for one Election Cycle, might have been 1998, every Election Cycle from 1974 to 2018, one or another of the cuomos, andrew or mario, was on a ballot in new York State. Its an amazing thing. Just the pervasiveness and the dominance of the cuomo, the names in new York Politics, and yet as you say, so different. You know, the way you just described Mario Cuomo is the way i remembered him, but also as a poet. Mario cuomo famously said you campaign in poetry, govern in prose and he was an extraordinary orator. He was poetic, he was philosophical, he engaged in the Thorny Nuanced and kind of the moral philosophy around government, right . No one will remember a speech that Andrew Cuomo could quote. Not a thing that he particularly cared about. Now, on the plus side, you know, people will despite all of this, people will some people will look back on that moment in the early part of 2020 when the other side of andrew, you know, giving those daily briefings on covid, trying to present people with the facts, trying to do to show the country what a leader would do. Now we all know he did not he made a lot of mistakes in covid that we didnt know about in the time, but at the moment the contrast was between him and Donald Trump, talking about the facts, trying to present the grim truth to new york about what was going on with covid, even though it was so grim and so terrifying but saying we have to look at this squarely in the face. Unlike what Donald Trump did. Those were the strengths that Andrew Cuomo had, right . So its not that its not that mario was so great and that andrew was all terrible. Its just that theyre they were Mirror Images of Each Other in terms of what their strengths and weaknesses were. Both of them deeply flawed but i think No One will say in the end that Andrew Cuomos flaws were not much deeper than his fathers and have now brought that dynasty, maybe not to an end. We can talk about that later. I think Andrew Cuomo thinks hes got another run in him down the line but thats another topic. Susan, part of the reason that many people have said that Cuomo Couldnt have imagined this outcome is the sense of the entitlement, hes a cuomo, he can run again for a fourth term, and then hubris catching up to him in the end. What do you think of the Cuomo Name at this point . Its complicated. As someone who was there when andrew won reelection in 2014, knowing how important it was for his father to be there, he was very sick at the time, and seeing his reaction when his father died. Its clear that the only reason he probably did resign was because he knew he could not scar the name with the the Cuomo Name with impeachment and i think that is the only reason he resigned. It was in his nature to do forward and fight this and he wouldnt allow himself to be impeached. Impeachment remains a possibility, theres the investigation into the Nursing Home scandal, whether or not his administration fudged the numbers, theres a book deal. Theres a lot in the stew here, so whats next for cuomo . On top of that you have the criminal investigations and i think those are the most imminent legal threat to the governor, specifically the one being conducted by the albany Sheriffs Office and theyre looking at the groping. Well see where the investigation goes. All of this is very tricky with respect to applying criminal statute to it, but youve got a friend of this show, mimi rocah, she is looking into the trooper one allegations. You have the manhattan Attorney Generals office, Cy Vance looking at this. And theres more to come from the governor in terms of a legal exposure. You talked about how the lines have been redrawn redrawn with respect to Sexual Harassment in the workplace. The ongoing culture of Sexual Harassment in the workplace is unacceptable and has held employees back for far too long. He said that Sexual Harassment of an employee need not be severe or pervasive. That was october 11th, 2019, as part of the governors 2019 womens justice agenda. So perhaps when he talks about the lines being redrawn on him, he should look at his own hands and see whos holding the pen. That was just less than two years ago. Hes on the job about 13 more days. Tom winters, susan del percio, good to see you both. Overnight the senate passed a 3. 5 trillion budget blue printing. Its a sweeping expansion of the social Safety Net. The Party Line Vote of 5049 came just before 4 00 in the morning. Earlier in the morning the senate passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Lets bring in Sam Stein and white House Correspondent for Pbs News Hour and msnbc contributor, Yamiche Alcindor. Obviously President Biden was happy with the bipartisan package that went through. And he got 69 votes, got some republicans to hop on board as well. Thats right. President biden took multiple Victory Laps yesterday. You could hear in his voice the joy and really he was pointing out what he sees as really a bill that is going to fundamentally change American Life. He said this is a generational investment in infrastructure. He talked about the idea that this is going to transform American Life. He also harkened back to his own legacy and the reason why he won and the reason why he ran in the first place, talking about this idea that he wanted to run on bipartisanship. There were a lot of naysayers who said republicans and democrats couldnt work together. You could hear in his voice that he was really excited about this new Infrastructure Bill. Its going to the house along with this 3. 5 trillion bill that the senate passed at 4 00 a. M. The Big Question now is can democrats hold it together . Can moderates and progressives make sure to be on the same page and can this Twotrack System that President Biden says hes confident will come to his desk, can that actually go through in the weeks and months ahead. They will not the White House will not get the support from republicans in the house that they got in the senate. There are a number of republican senators who were willing to defy Donald Trump. I dont think its going to be that way in the house, so democrats will have to figure out a way forward on it. Speaking On The Floor Last Night of the senate, democratic senator Cory Booker gave a rousing endorsement of a republican proposal by Senator Tommy Tuberville of alabama. Talk about bipartisanville. Tubervilles amendment to the democrats 2022 Budget Resolution was to cut federal funding to local governments that support defunding law enforcement. Weve heard a lot over the last couple of years about how all democrats support defunding the police. Thats been really what the republicans have led with in a lot of campaigns and likely what Theyll Lead with next year. Well, heres senator Bookers Response to that proposal. Madam president. Senator from New Jersey. I am so excited. This is perhaps the highlight of this long and painful and torturous night. This is a gift. If it wasnt complete abdication of senate procedures and esteem, i would walk over there and hug my colleague from alabama. And i will tell you right now, thank god, because theres some people who have said that theyre members of this deliberative body that want to defund the police to my horror. And now this senator has given us The Gift that finally once and for all we can put to bed this scurrilous accusation that somebody in this esteemed body would want to defunding the police. Lets not All Of Us, but 100 people sashay down there and vote for this amendment and put to rest the lies that i am sure i will see no political ads attacking anybody here over defund the police. And i would ask unanimous consenting to add something else to this obvious bill. Can we add also that every senator here wants to defund the police, believes in god, country, and apple pie. Thank you. And sashay they did. The amendment passed 990. With every Democrat Voting in support of the amendment to be against defunding the police. Sam stein, thats over, right . That argument . Its not going to be used anymore despite the fact that every democratic leader thats been on this show over the past year has called the defund the Police Slogan idiotic, starting with jim Clyburn And Speaker Nancy Pelosi and every other leader ive had on. The reverend al even outside of politics unanimously has said its a bad idea and it hurts the truly disadvantaged most of all. So here, though, we have a vote. Every democrat is on record being against defunding the police. So the political world has changed, right . Yes, its completely nullified. It will never be in a Campaign Ad again. Forget this issue, put it to the side. Actually what does to sashay mean honestly . How does that look . Im sure what it would resemble if you sashayed down. I like it. To your point, joe, this is a thorn in the side of democrats because as you know correctly, all the leadership has said they do not support it. In fact President Biden when he ran in 2020 ran on a platform of increasing funding for police, not decreasing it or defunding. And they passed legislation, the covid Relief Bill, for instance, included legislation that was used to bolster police departments. Sort of the irony that the White House was pointing out yesterday was Ron Desantis, who appears to be is giving cops a 1,000 bonus across bonus but using funds from the covid Relief Bill from the bonus so that is federal funding passed by the president , mostly democrats, that desantis does not support that hes using to funding the police. But no, this is not the nullification of the issue. We will see plenty of it heading into the midterm elections. Im sure it will be featured prominently in many republican Campaign Ads and thats because there are a few democrats in the house who support moving police away from a traditional Policing Role and more towards a less traditional Policing Role and social Services Role but thats just a few members and not the party at large. Jonathan lemire sent in a sentence. The Boston Red sox sashayed in another tragic loss. Yamiche, im curious about the bill that all democrats voted. For is that the prelude to the Reconciliation Bill . That is the prelude to the Reconciliation Bill and this is the bill that President Biden laid out and said this is the human Infrastructure Bill. That is the bill dealing with climate change, dealing with communities that have been hurt by when highways cut through a lot of africanamerican and communities of color, it also deals with giving money for children, giving money for Health Care workers. So in that bill its really the bill that President Biden said is investing money in American Life and in ways that we should be looking at infrastructure as a wider idea past just roads and bridges. He says this is a 21st century Infrastructure Bill. This is the bill that republicans unanimously voted against. Its the bill that republicans say proves that democrats are, quote unquote, as one senator said last night in the middle of the Night Spending Money like sailors. That being said, democrats said this is the priorities of the president and democratic party and it really is about helping people in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of an economic crisis try to help their lives out. So i think its going to be one that the president will want to talk a lot about. Its also going to be one featured in the midterms as republicans have really continued to focus on Culture Wars and continued to focus on trying to paint democrats as socialists. Democrats will say, well, heres what we got done while republicans were painting us as these caricatures. We got you trillions of dollars in money to help people around your communities. All right, Yamiche Alcindor of pbs and politicos longsuffering red sox fan Sam Stein, by long suffering i mean like a week and a half. Thank you both for your reporting, we appreciate it so much. So john heilemann, maybe it was about a month or so ago where everything seemed to be sort of clogged up in the arteries of congress and washington, d. C. I think i commented that Joe Bidens April Speech suddenly looked like nothing more than words, that things needed to get moving. Here we are now it looks like were going to be moving toward a trillion dollar bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. As Joe Biden said to Barack Obama after obamacare, thats a big deal. We havent had that big of a bipartisan Bill I Cant remember us ever having a trillion dollar bipartisan bill, certainly not in the last decade or so. Now we have this 3. 5 trillion outline that does look like a precursor to the Human Infrastructure Reconciliation Bill that looks like it most likely will pass. Even though i have my traditional concerns, too much money, inflationary pressures. As i said of the trump republicans, not spending like sailors but spending like drunk socialists, that is a lot of money, a lot of programs that conservatives like me might have a concern with. But if you look at what Joe Biden promised and if you look at the transformational presence that he promised in april, that suddenly is the outlines of that suddenly becoming a bit more clear through sort of the washington fog. I believe the phrase you used, joe, was drunk socialist sailors after eating an entire sheet of Window Pane Water acid. Yes, that is what i said. To describe the scale of the spending. With all your familiarity with Window Painters is your brand orange sunshine . I cant remember. I have no idea what youre talking about. Lets just stick to inflationary pressures and you talk about acid, but go ahead. If it all comes together this fall and they pass both these bills, which it does look like its going to be both or none. If they pass them both, it will be a gargantuan victory for the president. It will be the most Significant Progressive Liberal Domestic Agenda passed through the congress since the great society. Now, you could look at that a number of different ways politically and a number of different ways substantively but it will be a big fing deal for Joe Biden. I think it is an incredible accomplishment to have gotten through that bipartisan bill through the senate, incredible accomplishment. But it is not even quite halfway home now and the difficulty still remains trying to land the planes in the house simultaneously, which is how its going to have to happen. The White House has done an extraordinary job working more in lockstep with the leadership, the democratic leadership in the House And Senate than weve seen in a very long time. Credit the White House staff, the experience of people like Ron Klain and steve, they have been able to do what they have done so far. Man, you can see the Fault Lines in the house with a much more different caucus. You have people on the very far left, people close to the center and the moderates. The tensions are there. No one is committed to nothing any of this. Its not going to be a glide path. Im not saying its not going to happen. As difficult as it was to get done what they have done so far, the degree of difficulty goes up by an order of magnitude when you get to the house. Youve heard people like aoc laying down the law. Josh gottheimer had to lay down the law. I think well see three or four more serious like cardiac arrests for the democratic party before we get to either success or failure. This fall is going to be quite something to watch. All right, john heilemann, as always, thank you so much. Its great talking to you. Even if you speak of things we know little to nothing about. Willie, so weve been hearing for some time that this was going to be tough sledding in the house because aoc was going to be along with other people were going to be fighting Nancy Pelosi. Nancy pelosi insisting that the Reconciliation Bill passes. We see they passed the bipartisan hard Infrastructure Bill yesterday. And then they followed it up with their 3. 5 trillion budget outline. It certainly seems, willie, like this is coming together. Suddenly its not difficult at all for aoc or any of the progressives to support both of these bills at the same time, pass them on a Partyline Vote because they get 4. 5 trillion of Infrastructure Spending and a trillion of that is from a bipartisan bill from republicans. So for democrats, this actually, people talked about this being pretty tough sledding, but if they pass that Budget Resolution, then they pass that Infrastructure Bill through reconciliation, suddenly you do a Partyline Vote and they have 4. 5 trillion of Infrastructure Spending, hard and soft. I think most progressives would consider that a huge victory. First of all, its a huge victory for us to have moved on from heilemanns exotic pharmaceutical habits. I think thats important that we put that behind us here on the show. But youre absolutely right, joe. Think about those numbers. When you served in congress if someone was talking about 4. 5 trillion of money headed out the door. As you say, Joe Biden can rightly declare that he did some bipartisan work on the trillion Dollar Piece of it and spoke to his progressive caucus with the 3. 5 trillion, which will include some what they call Human Infrastructure. So well see how that moves through the house. But this morning the White House and the country is dealing with a surge in covid cases in states across the south. In texas, dozens of hospitals now have run out of Icu Beds. We will talk to the President And Ceo of Texas Medical Center in just a moment. But first, infections also on the rise in the state of mississippi. Doctors there say they are seeing not just Vaccine Hesitancy, but vaccine hostility. Lets bring in nbc News Correspondent Ellison barber from ocean springs, mississippi. Shes outside the Emergency Room at Singing River Ocean Springs Hospital in a state that is now, as i said, out of Icu Beds. Ellison, good morning. What does it look like in that hospital behind you . Reporter hey, willie, when we got here this morning, there was an ambulance waiting outside in the bay. I went up to speak with them and they said they had been here holding for 30 minutes waiting for a bed to open up so they could admit a patient. They said they took the last only available bed at this hospital yesterday morning. They said that they were putting patients on the walls, leaving them on gurneys going up and down monitoring their Heart Rate while they waited to get access to a room. We spoke to one doctor here who told us he had a conversation with someone about getting vaccinated and that person told him that they would rather die than get the vaccine. They are taxed here beyond words. They are taxed capacitywise. Theyre also just taxed emotionally. Theyre also dealing with not just Vaccine Hesitancy but as you said vaccine hostility. Doctors and nurses who weve spoken to blame the internet and politics for a lot of that. I talked to one nurse in the icu here who after years of being an Icu Nurse is moving to a different department. She told me that she could just not take it anymore, that its become too much for her to bear. She said at this point people arent doing what they need to do to protect us, so she has to protect herself. For her, that means leaving the icu. She was on one of her last days, one of her final shifts on the covid icu floor. On that floor we also spoke to a Respiratory Therapist who spends all of her time, all of her shift by the bedside of Covid Patients. She talked about the look in their eyes when many of them are being intubated and how they will tell her to tell their Loved Ones to get vaccinated because they wished that they had. I want you to listen to exactly what she told me when we had that discussion. Just having those patients look at you before theyre being intubated and begging you to not let them die and just the look in their eyes knowing that they could have done something to help prevent them from getting as bad as they have gotten. That just its just heartbreaking. Reporter one thing that i kept hearing from the staff at this hospital and the other two hospitals in this system is that they dont think its silly for people to have questions about the vaccine, but they do think that it is silly and irresponsible for people to trust things that they see on the internet over the physicians who are on the front lines seeing and treating this every single day. Weve heard from so many doctors who say these patients have trusted us with so much in their lives, other vaccines, delivering their babies, taking care of their families, and now All Of A Sudden because of what they read on facebook they dont trust us on this. Ellison barber in mississippi for us, thanks so much. In texas, dozens of hospitals have run out of Icu Beds as covid19 surges faster there than at any other time during the pandemic. For the first time since early february, the state reported more than 10,000 hospitalizations. Yesterday Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins warned hospitals are at 90 capacity and central texas hospitals are down to only two staffed Icu Beds. We now at this moment have two pediatric Icu Beds. These are not just for covid. Car wrecks and anything else. If your child needs icu and a ventilator in a 19county area, we have two. Now is the time that we must all make small sacrifices. Masks suck, but its a small sacrifice to save lives. Joining us now President And Ceo of the Texas Medical Center. The facility is the largest medical center in the world, home to the worlds largest Childrens Hospital and the worlds largest Cancer Hospital and will be hosting 10 Million patients. We appreciate you being with us this morning. Give us a snapshot if you could of whats happening in your hospitals there in texas. Well, thank you for having me. The snapshot is a concerning one for All Of Us. If we look at we do have the expansion of being the largest medical city in the world. Weve got the ability to expand further that many other regional hospitals. But the numbers are alarming. Weve already surpassed the second wave as far as the escalation of new cases. And now were seeing just the numbers are not changing. Were seeing over 350 patients a day admitted into the hospital. So its very clear. And not unlike many other places in the country, when theres lower Vaccination Rates, youre going to see these numbers continue to rise. What is the percentage of patients that youre seeing now in your hospitals who are unvaccinated . Largely in the high 90 percentile of the patients that were admitting into the hospital with covid are unvaccinated patients. And what is your take on what were seeing play out from the statehouse in austin with Governor Abbott saying he cannot support Mask Mandates in School Districts, and School Districts coming out and just defying him . In Dallas County theyre saying, look, weve got to keep our kids safe. Theres a spike in cases here. You have to wear a mask if you come into these schools and well suffer the consequences. Similar scenes playing out in the state of florida. Do you think kids in schools ought to be masked. I think that what we do at the medical center because we see this data perhaps the largest Data Set in covid across the country because of so many hospitals, what we look at is the data. You can see a causal relationship in the past when we had Mask Mandates. Two weeks later we would see a huge dropoff of covid infections. Two weeks later from that wed see a huge Drop Off in hospitalizations. So masks work. Theyre a vehicle of Public Health that we should utilize. And i know its been politicized, but its really important we wear Seat Belts. I remember a Day Way back when we didnt wear Seat Belts because for the vast majority you didnt need them until you needed them. Any time you can add a Safety Factor to our children, to our elderly community, to All Of Us, is a smart thing to do. Bill, i just want to have you underline this one more time about masks. When im talking to friends, talking to Family Members, talking to people in political conversations, political conversations, can you believe that, when were talking about a pandemic . They say masks dont matter. Masks dont make a difference. Youve seen it firsthand. Youve seen it in studies, inside your hospital system, that they do work. Can you just again underline for those listening right now. Sure. Thats a great question, joe. The thing that was very clear. We, unlike many other places where theyre waiting and have a delay of data, we aggregate the data from all of the hospitals across the Texas Medical Center. We see this every day. We do our own testing and so theres no delay in data. Whats very clear, when we were seeing in the earlier phases of this pandemic when we were moving up to peak levels in the second wave of this pandemic, its very clear as soon as Mask Mandates came up, you would see a Twoweek Delay and then the numbers just fell off. The infections fell off as well as the number of people in our hospitals. And it was a clear causal relationship. We look at the data very carefully. We dont make assumptions and we certainly dont let politics enter into our analysis of that data. So its very clear that masks work. Its very clear from vaccines, and a lot of people have misunderstood, vaccines were never intended to make us never get the virus, they were intended to keep us from getting very sick and dying and its working extremely well. So masks are absolutely a tool that should be utilized. We try to stay clear from the political side of this. Well leave the politics out of this and just talk purely medically. What would you say to people in the state of texas who say i dont want to get the vaccine, i dont trust the vaccine, im never getting the vaccine, or people who say im not going to wear a mask because i dont need to wear a mask or it infringes on my freedom. What would be the case you would make to them from a medical point of view. From a medical point of View Id make the following. Im old enough to remember being in a gymnasium and getting a Polio Vaccine and that was at a time when my aunt was infected by polio and paralyzed from it. We gathered together because of the data. We knew that together we could shut down the polio and we did. Its no different here when youre thinking about the vaccinations. The data, look at all of the places in the country that have huge outbreaks. Its low number of vaccinations. Theyre all the hot spots and they just line up mathematically, you can see it. Here the question before us is you have an opportunity with two shots to really almost guarantee yourself that you will never die from this disease and you will never get terribly sick. Were seeing that every day. Whats unfortunate now is many of those people that have elected not to get vaccinated, theyre filling our Emergency Rooms, theyre filling our icus and theyre so much younger. Often youd hear that people thought this was a disease of the elderly. Its not. We are seeing 20 on average, 20 years younger of the people that were admitting very sick in their 30s, 40s, that thought they were invulnerable and are very sick and were losing some of those people sadly. So in a time where you have an opportunity to rid this from our economy, theres no faster way to get an economy back than to wipe out this virus. And i just hope that we could all really move past the political side of this, listen to physicians, do the right thing, get a vaccine, wear a mask when youre in public settings and well move this virus out of our communities. But until we are willing to do that collectively as a population, were going to be with this virus for many, many more months to come. President and ceo of the Texas Medical Center, bill mckeon, thank you so much for being with us. We really do appreciate it. Appreciate you taking time out during this very, very busy time for you. Hope youll come back. So, willie, so much to go over there. We hear from time to time and we see on twitter some people saying, me not getting a vaccine, its nothing to you, its my business an nobody elses business. Just not the case. It is everybody elses business. You hear from one Hospital Administrator like bill after another after another that the Emergency Rooms and the Icu Beds are jammed with Covid Patients. Ive got a friend who got a desperate call last week about not being able to get into a hospital in florida because this person was having what they thought to be a heart attack. Thats usually the fast track into any Emergency Room. But they didnt let him in in a timely manner because they had a long line. They had Security Guards waiting at the door. They didnt want people that were panicking thinking they had covid to go in and get inside of there. And weve heard throughout this morning, ive heard throughout the state of florida, ive heard across the country, im sure you have too, that because of the unvaccinated, Icu Beds are jammed. Because of the unvaccinated, Emergency Rooms are jammed. People who are having heart attacks, people in car accidents, people who need Care Arent getting that care as quickly or may not even get an Icu Bed as we heard from a Press Conference out of dallas about 20 minutes ago. Theyre down to two Icu Beds in their entire system. In north florida, i talked to somebody on a Hospital Board that said they are just completely jam packed. He went through the records. 100 of the Covid Patients in there that were filling the Emergency Rooms an filling up their Icu Beds, 100 were unvaccinated. So there is a very real cost not just to the frontline workers and not just to the families who are suffering as they watch Loved Ones get sick and possibly die, but also to the rest of their neighborhood, the rest of their communities for people who may get sick with something else and need to get to the hospital. Theyre not able to do that if the beds are all filled with people who refuse to take a vaccination. So they dont want to take a vaccination, were in america, as i said. Everybody has a right to be dumb. But you dont have a right to be dumb and say this is my choice and its not affecting Anybody Else. The hyperindividualism is sort of that Logic Sort of short circuits somewhere between the i can do what i want and it doesnt affect other people because it most definitely does. Theres no question its affecting icus and Emergency Rooms. A lot of hospitals are cancelling elective surgeries, they have already taken that step. The frustration is the Miracle Vaccine arrived a year ago as we talked about this in new york and all these other hot spots. The difficult truth was we werent really going to be able to get through this until there was a vaccine. Well, the government and pharmaceutical companies and brilliant doctors and scientists got together and made vaccines. We have it, its here. Its the way out. You just heard from the state of texas that its in the high 90s in terms of a percentage of patients who are in those hospitals who were unvaccinated. Theres no mystery. If you get vaccinated, youre protected from covid19. But there are many people in this country who still refuse to get it. Were going to continue to cover that. We want to move to the state of new york where Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday he is stepping down. The Threeterm Governor announced his Resignation Yesterday saying he no longer could effectively lead the state and will end his time in office in two weeks. The decision comes as the new york State Assembly prepares to ending its monthslong Impeachment Probe and the governor faces potential civil and criminal penalties from several Sexual Harassment allegations. Now, you know me. Im a new yorker born and bred. I am a fighter. And my instinct is to fight through this controversy, because i truly believe it is politically motivated. I believe it is unfair and it is untruthful. This situation by its current trajectory will generate months of political and legal controversy. That is what is going to happen. I think that given the circumstances, the best way i can help now is if i step aside and let government get back to governing. And, therefore, thats what ill do and my resignation will be effective in 14 days. In less than two weeks now Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will take over and become the first woman to lead new York State as the acting governor. She responded to governor Cuomos Resignation in a statement that reads i agree with Governor Cuomos decision to step down. It is the right thing to do and in the best interest of new yorkers. As someone who has served at all levels of government and is next in the line of succession, i am prepared to lead as new York States 57th governor. Joining us now, former u. S. Senator and now an nbc News And Msnbc political analyst, Claire Mccaskill and host of msnbcs Politics Nation and president of the national action network, reverend Al Sharpton. Rev, youve known this man for a very long time. Are you surprised that he stepped down yesterday . I was surprised he did yesterday. He called me the day of or the day after the report had dropped and he was clearly still getting ready to fight. He was in a very fighting mood. Ive known him 35 years, worked together on several things, including the eric garner Chokehold Law and 15 minimum wage. He did a lot of good things. But these are serious charges. And i told him, i said, let me tell you something, governor. Ive talked to the Chapter Leaders around the state of the national action network, upstays, buffalo, syracuse, long island, and most of the leaders think you should resign. Al, hold on, more will come out and he was saying it was political, that the prosecutor, i believe his name was kim, had been after him when he was in the Southern District. And i was telling him where the mood was even among people that were allied with him. So i was surprised. He had already kept his defense. Yesterday when the announcement came, i was surprised he did it. But i felt as he finally said it had got to where he could not govern. There was nowhere that he could continue to govern. Whether he believed or not that what he did was what they said, he couldnt govern. These were very, very serious charges that should not be taken lightly by the State Assembly or the state senate. Im curious as we look back on Andrew Cuomos reign in albany, obviously hes going to be remembered like nixon is going to be remembered for watergate. Hes going to be remembered for this Attorney Generals report and Sexual Harassment charges against him and also of course the Nursing Home scandal, which i suspect is not over yet. I am curious, though, rev, the state of new york as far as a governor goes, talk about his policies. You talked about a 15 minimum wage. How was he as a governor over his almost three terms . I think overall he was good. There may have been some things we disagreed, but he moved forward on things like police reform, like lgbtq rights. He was very, very close with labor on a lot of those issues. I think he was good. He was as a person abrasive, had sharp elbows, and a lot of the elected officials and also State Leaders found him as not the kind of person that youd find as a guy that youd go get a beer with him, as they would say in the terms of being friendly. But he was effective, which is also why its sad to see what happened. But even in that sense of being a comrade on political terms, you still have to respect the fact that women have to be regarded and respected and that you cant take these things lightly, even with those that you may be allied with. You cannot have this kind of behavior tolerated. Yeah, it is, Claire Mccaskill, obviously there was no moving forward with him and i would say not just because of the Attorney Generals report but also ultimately because of the lies that were told about the Nursing Home scandal. The one thing, though, ive never gotten as we look back on Andrew Cuomo, and feel free to talk about anything you feel to talk about thats happened over the past 24 hours or 48 hours, but one thing we havent talked about yet is the rev brought up his abrasive personality. Ive said from the beginning, i didnt get it. I didnt get a Politician Running who was that abrasive with the media, who was that abrasive with people that he worked in day in and day out. But it never seemed to catch up to him until the last few months where he found himself alone on a political island without a single friend defending him. You know, joe, i think i can speak for a lot of women that morning that when cuomo made his statement yesterday, there was raw, Burning Anger by a lot of women when he said he didnt believe hed ever crossed the line, he just didnt realize the line had been moved. Now lets put in context that statement. In this report that i read with the eye of a prosecutor, there is a young State Trooper that cuomo pulled into his detail, a mere handful of years ago. She wasnt qualified to be in his detail based on her years of experience. He wiped that rule out in pull her in and then he did a series of things with her, just a few years ago. Can you imagine thinking that the line doesnt prevent you from in an elevator running your finger down the spine of a State Trooper in your detail and saying, hey. Can you imagine thinking the line has not moved enough that when you brush over the State Trooper whos supposed to be guarding yous stomach into her hip that you think that somehow is a line that has moved . And whats really startling about this is not only his trying to justify in his poweraddled brain that what he had done was somehow appropriate was that he asked for this investigation, which means his power had corrupted him so much, maybe because of his abrasive personality and he wanted to chalk it up to people dont like me because im tough. But he asked for this investigation, knowing that he had run his finger down the spine of a very young woman State Trooper on an elevator. He knew that and that was just a couple of years ago, joe. So he actually sat there and acted like he had done nothing wrong. And thats whats so by the way, the conversation what you just said is pretty remarkable. Thats the conversation that mika and i privately had last night. We were talking about this and we were going through of course we both thought he should have resigned for A Thousand reasons, but we were going through our due process arguments. We are going through the attorney and just talking between us, not preparing for the show but talking over dinner about this and we both went in on that State Trooper because there were some parts of the report that were he said she said and the Attorney General assumed the woman was telling the truth. But mika and i both got to that trooper, who was not qualified to be there. Everybody knew she wasnt qualified to be there. And most importantly, there were witnesses. It didnt mean that what she said was any more true or false than what Anybody Else said, its just, again, as youre looking to charge somebody with a crime, you need witnesses. And the evidence in that case was so remarkable. What i said to mika was, its so funny you said this was just a couple of years ago. I said, mika, its 2021. Its not like this is 1991 or 1971. It would have been wrong in all of those years. But this guy had such Advance Notice that the rules had radically changed post me too. How could he or anybody have done this and then got in front of microphones and said, well, i guess the rules changed on me. He couldnt say that in good faith, claire. Lets make sure were clear about one thing and im going to gently push you here like i think mika might if she were on set with you. I dont think the rules changed. I think women began to evaluate the risks of coming forward versus the incredible desire to change the workplace. Hold on a second, claire. Let me be very clear here. Let me be very clear. I didnt say the rules had changed. I believe i said he was precluded at his Press Conference from saying the rules had changed. Correct. I said what he did with the trooper was just as wrong in 1991 as it was in 1971. Exactly. Was it would have been in 1951, just as disgusting on a human level. Im sorry, go ahead. Absolutely. You and i both totally agree on that. But what has changed is the courage of women to come forward. I think back to some of the things that happened to me in the early 80s in the Missouri State Legislature when i was about the age of that State Trooper and i was single. I kept my Mouth Shut because i was so afraid of the impact it would have on my ability to do my work for the people who had elected me. And my career. I mean lets be candid and honest about that. Women are now being braver about coming forward, and that State Trooper there were witnesses. I mean there were things he said to her within the confines of the truck, which is what they call the package that the governor travels in with security, where her supervisor said to her make sure what he said in the truck stays in the truck. Read page 33 of this report which is the details about this State Trooper. Were talking about 2018 and 2019. Were talking about just a little while ago. This guy who tries to stand in front of a camera and use his Godgiven Ability to communicate to try to say this was politically motivated, he asked for the investigation. He knew he was guilty. He had to go because his power had completely corrupted his character. He said it was biased and politically motivated, downright trumpian and still holding on to the argument that its generational and cultural the way he acts around women. Rev, let me ask you this since you do know Governor Cuomo well. How is he looking at his future now . There are investigations of course into the Nursing Home scandal. Theres criminal investigations in new york. Theyre looking at whether or not his staff worked on his 5 Million book in the middle of the covid crisis. Where does he go from here . I clearly feel he will be very much trying to fight with all he has all of the investigations. Hes not one that will go off quietly into the sunset. Andrew cuomo will be around in some Form Or Fashion if he can arrange that from now on. Hes not going to just disappear. Now, how viable that will be well see. And i think that weve got to see where the state goes. The Lieutenant Governor who will be governor, hochul, she faces challenges. I told him the black community, she voted against the first black Attorney General, eric holder. Things like that shes going to have to deal with as she tries to govern. So the concerns about where the state goes and the nation is a lot more concerning than where andrew goes. But andrew is not going to be one that last time we saw him he was waving goodbye. Thats not Andrew Cuomo. For now hes got 13 days left in the governors mansion. After that, who knows what. Rev, great to see you. Claire, great to see you as well. Ahead, as the taliban continues its advance in afghanistan, a u. S. Envoy delivers a blunt message to those milmilitants. Plus the latest move in a legal battle over the 2020 election. 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Im rich barnes. Youour Cidedentase E Woh than insurance offered . Call the Barnes Firm now to find out. Yoyou Ght T Beurprpris i want to thank a group of senators, democrats and republicans, for doing what they told me they would do. After years and years of infrastructure week, were on the cusp of an Infrastructure Decade that i truly believe will transform america. This bill shows that we can work together. I know a lot of people, some sitting in the audience here, didnt think this could happen. This bill was declared dead more often than anyway. That bipartisanship was a thing of the past. It was a relic of an earlier age. As you may well remember, i never believed that and i still dont. So i want to thank those senators who worked so hard to bring this agreement together. I know it wasnt easy. For the republicans who supported this bill, you showed a lot of courage. President biden at the white House Yesterday celebrating the Senates Passage of a bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The final vote was 6930 with 19 republicans joining all democrats to approve the bill. And overnight the senate also passed a 3. 5 trillion budget blueprint. This one was 5049 in the vote along party lines. Its the first step for democrats to push through their sweeping expansion of the countrys social Safety Net without any republican support yesterday, joe. Lets bring author of the bestselling Book Evil geniuses, kurt andersen. Kurt, i love your book so much for so many reasons. Even though im a conservative, it explained a lot to me, the political world that we live in and actually the political world that i sort of inherited when i ran in 1994. I wasnt exactly sure where everything came from. You explained a lot of that very well. Weve had a ton of books that explained what happened from 32 to 80, the fdr era. Not a lot of books that really go in and try to figure out what happened and why it happened during the reagan era from lets just say 81 to 2016. Your book did that. I want to get to a lot of other things. But first explain that and explain how the biden administration especially with whats happened over the last 24 hours and their appointments on antitrust, how it looks like we just well may be entering yet another era. Well, my fingers are crossed that we are. What happened in the 70s and then spectacularly in the 1980s was a declaration that the new deal and all that came out of it was obsolete. We didnt need that anymore, that we were beyond that. It began to be rolled back, along with tax cuts and everything else. And that paradigm shift, which was very carefully maneuvered and navigated and imposed by the economic right really worked. And democrats ceased being an alternative economically, presenting an alternative to the republicans. Now, 40 years later, it seems like the paradigm is shifting. The pendulum is swinging. Yes, with i frankly am amazed and heartened by what has happened thanks to the biden administration. As you say, this and as youve been saying all show and all week, this Infrastructure Bill is extraordinary. And, you know, its not passed yet but its certainly winding its way there more efficiently and efficaciously than we ever imagined. And its not just a social Safety Net. One of the other things that had been torn asunder and emass lated is antitrust. We stopped staying that companies could be too big and too powerful economically and politically. We stopped really having effective antitrust enforcement in this country. The biden administration has put in place this troica antitrust superstars in the department of justice and so maybe the corner has turned, well see. Obviously the war is not over but were getting there. And just last week this piece of economic news that got kind of eclipsed by the new news about the coup plotting and the we feel in the Justice Department who helped Donald Trump, amazing job statistics came out last friday. Almost A Million jobs created. Unemployment dramatically down, Wages Way up. So maybe were turning the corner. You know, kurt, let me just we had you on for a week obviously i loved this book a lot. And i just want to explain to conservatives, somebody like me, when i ran i ran as a conservative libertarian populist. Theres something in your book for everybody. For instance, if you want to understand why facebook is facebook and why amazon is amazon and why these monopolies are monopolies, you go in and you explain how the Bork Standard changed completely changed the focus of antitrust legislation and allowed big corporations to get bigger. And in my opinion, and i would guess the opinion of a lot of republicans, some of whom are sitting in the senate right now who are considered fairly conservative, actually changed the laws in a way that would crush entrepreneurs and effectively stop the entrance into the marketplace of, lets say, microsoft in the 1970s where a bunch of hippies from berkeley could start microsoft in their Fathers Garage with a 5,000 loan. That cant happen now because of the changes that have happened in antitrust law. Well, absolutely right. And the last big federal antitrust case against microsoft in 19981999, its settlement allowed the google and facebooks to arise in the early 2000s. Had we not so that is exactly the way in which effective, good antitrust can be like a good forest or a good gardener letting more plants rise, letting competition thrive. You know, its interesting about antitrust. The last two years weve seen in various ways a real bipartisan embrace of antitrust, certainly in the case of the big tech companies as you say. So i dont that may be the next big antitrust or bipartisan success in washington. The new laws that are necessary to effectively regulate big tech. Kurt, im curious for your take on what were seeing right now. I guess in the age of trump it started but were seeing it in the state of florida now. You write about this 40year era of small government. But the argument that twists actual conservatives like Joes Brain in knots from Governor Desantis is i dont want the federal government telling us what to do. Yet im going to tell private Cruise Ship companies what they can do and im going to tell School Boards, School Districts who want to put masks on kids that they cant do it. Thats not conservatism, its something else. What is it . Its power. He wants to be the desantis wants to be the autocrat of the state of florida. All of this conservative talk of localizing authority, localizing power as the superintendent that you had on this morning said, the florida superintendent, this is the most local Authority Thing we have in america, for better or worse, but its real. But no, desantis, no, im going to tell you what to do. Im going to tell you, mayor or superintendent, what you can and cant do, how you can and cant operate your schools. Its ridiculous. Along with so much of the rest of Policy Or Nonpolicy that, quote unquote, conservatives are pushing these days is not the conservatism of, you know, congressman Joe Scarborough in the 1990s or my republican family in nebraska. Its just i try not to use the word conservative because it isnt. Small government keeps government out of your life except in the state of florida where they want to dabble in every School Board meeting, it appears. Yeah. Kurt, great work in this area of antitrust. I wanted to bring up we all talk about big tech and we talk about and ive seen firsthand the power big pharma has had on capitol hill, the painful reality that people of both parties were folding under their pressure from big pharma. Lets talk a little bit about big ag. I noticed yesterday that grassley, a big Ag Senator from a state that is totally ag dependent, iowa, he asked the department of justice to go after the acquisition of sanderson farms, the third largest Poultry Producer in the country, by two of the big ag corporate giants. Do you think this is the moment where they could take that case, bidens doj, and actually grab a scalp in stopping this consolidation that really hurts the american farmer and the american consumer . I do. I really do think there is a growing and to some degree bipartisan reembrace, revival of antitrust sentiment. We lost it for 40 years. But now we have the various undeniable expressions of the problem of concentration, of big corporate concentration in agriculture as in tech. Of course there are fewer americans directly affected by big ag than in the case of big tech. But absolutely. I think big tech is, again, everybody uses google. Everybody has facebook. So it is familiar to citizens. But, familiar to citizens. But, no, i think it can extend to things, to the monsantos and tyson meats of the world as well. You wrote a piece. Ive been talking for a while on this show now about this hyperindividualism. Of course we always i say we, those of us on the right for some time have always talked about individual rights over state rights at least in our minds. At least we believe it this time. There were some Balancing Act that you didnt want the state coming in and taking your rights, but you still had responsibility to love your neighbor as yourself. You had a responsibility to worry about your neighbor. You had a responsibility to worry about those around you. We saw the rise of mothers against drunk driving, bringing down fatalities from Recklessness And Drinking and driving. You talk about the Seat Belt laws, all these other laws where there was some push backs by extremes but nothing like this. So theres a hyperindividualism. Basically its devolved into brattish 5yearold behavior. I can do what i want, when i want, however i want and you have no right to tell me anything. Im not talking about a global Vaccine Mandate or a global u. N. Tax. Im just talking about how conservatives used to be conservatives with a small c, at least the ones i hung out with and understood they were going to fight for individual rights but they still had a responsibility to their neighbor, to their community, to their country. I think thats lost for so many people that followed blindly followed Donald Trump. Well, imagine if back in the day the republicans of the nixon era, the reagan era, the Ford Era had made Seat Belts the hill they were going to die on. Were against installing Seat Belts because big Government Shouldnt do that, and were against requiring as State Law quickly did passengers and drivers to wear Seat Belts. Its unimaginable, but here we are. Youre exactly right. One of the bad things that came out of the 1960s is this extreme hyperindividualism, that its whatever i want in this childish fashion i want to get and you cant take it away from me. And now its the right that has made it central to their politics. And as williamson said in his piece and we talked about with you a week or two ago, it seems that the right is having their hippy moment. Kurt anderson, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Its so funny. The book is evil geniuses, by the way, the unmaking of america. Its now out in paper back. Its one of our favorite books weve talked about a lot over the past year. Its so funny, willy, if youre of a certain age and im not exactly where you fell on the time line. I suspect you were always like buckled up in the back seat, that we were trying to explain to our kids a couple of days ago that when my parents and All Of Us drove around would be like sitting in the front seat, wed crawl over to the back seat in those big old cars chasing, you know, balls, throwing things, no Seat Belts, no nothing. And when there was this Seat Belt requirement there were some people like oh, its the federal government stepping in on our lives, but people complied for the most part. But it is crazy how it changed like that. It saved so many lives. Well, i hesitate to tell the story but i think the statute of limitation is up from the late 70s. I still have a small scar on my forehead from the time i was jumping up and down at 4 or 5 years old in the Passenger Seat of car, we hit the brakes short, and yes youre absolutely right. Seat belts, some people resisted for some time, but so clearly they make sense and save lives like a vaccine. Still ahead were going to have much more on a number of republican governors enforcing their will over local School Boards. Nbcs Kerry Sanders joins us from florida where several county School Districts are defying the Governors Order against Mask Mandates designed to keep children safer from covid. Morning joe is coming back in a moment. Covid. Morning joe is coming back in a Moment Rock the boat dont rock the boat, Baby Rock the boat dont tip the boat over here we go. Dont rock the boat, Baby Rock the boat see disneys jungle cruise. Its time to rock the boat, america. Ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoo hoo ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. If you have this. Consider adding this. An Aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan from unitedhealthcare. 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Innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. Fermenting . Yeah like kombucha or yogurt. And we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. Thats what we do, so you can do you. New chapter wellness, well done. I had no idea how much i wamy case was worth. C call the Barnes Firm to find out what your case could be worth. We will help get you the best result possible. Call one eight hundred, Eight Million when a truck hit my car, the insurance companyed, wasnt fair. Eight million i dididt t kn Whahatmy C caswa, so i called the Barnes Firm. Im rich barnes. Its hard for people to k how much their Accident Case is worth. H barnes. T Ouour Juryry aorneneys hehelpou the senate passed President Bidens 1. 2 trillion Infrastructure Bill with bipartisan support. Thats good news. Thats positive. Thats right, a trillion dollars to fix our roads, privileges and airports so after they finish la guardia, thatll leave us with about 40. Well, good Morning And Welcome to Morning Joe. Its wednesday, august 11th. Another quick track to the south of france, willy. Yeah, glad shes getting some time away. Weve got a lot to talk about this morning, joey. Beginning with the latest developments of covid. Cases, hospitalizations, deaths still on the rise especially in parts of the country with lower Vaccination Rates as weve been telling you for some time. Nbc News Correspondent Morgan chesky has the latest. Reporter delta driving covid cases to dangerous highs. The variant now tied to 93 of various infections. The biggest spikes coming in texas, missouri, florida and arkansas where monday brought its largest Singleday Increase in hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. Patients flowing into arkansas hospitals at double the national rate. Its worse than any of the prior surges for a whole host of reasons. Reporter with only eight Icu Beds left in the entire state, the doctor says his hospital is seeing an increase in younger patients. Young, healthy people should not be dying from a viral illness, period. They shouldnt be dying from covid19. But because of this particular variant is so severe, virulent and replicates very, very quickly were seeing pretty rapid changes to the health of individuals that are infected with the virus. President biden speaking out about states banning Mask Mandates despite the surge. I find that totally counter intuitive and quite frankly disingenuous. Do you have president ial powers to intervene in states like texas and florida where theyre banning Mask Mandates . I dont believe that i do thus far. Were checking that. Reporter in texas after multiple School Districts defy the Mask Ban a san antonio judge issued an order allowing local schools to issue their own mandate. And in kentucky the governor demanding all schools mask up. As covid cases now top 36 Million the push to Vaccinate And Confusion over booster shots continues. Despite the fda urging no need for boosters some states like mississippi are advising doctors to consider it. As Pfizer And Moderna conduct their own safety trials, texas officials confirming some people are intentionally getting more doses than they should. Experts say that decision is premature. I dont believe most people should be going out and doing this on their own. Its going to cause a lot more confusion, and we want to look at the Safety And Efficacy data of third shots before we make the guidance who would benefit from it and who wont. More now on schools. Thousands of children heading back to the classroom this week as the debate over vaccine and Mask Mandates escalates. Lets bring in Nbc News correspondent Kerry Sanders from Riveria Beach, florida, in palm beach county. What are you hearing there . Reporter well, good morning. You know, theres a real debate in this state right now about whether parents can have the schools mandate actual mask wearing because the governor has made it clear the School Boards, the superintendents, they cannot do that. And if they do do that they will potentially lose their salaries, and again that would be the superintendents and the School Boards. The real constitutional question here is does the governor have the authority to withhold their salaries and essentially tell them what to do or is this local Home Rule in the state of florida, 67 counties, the governor has been hammering over and over again if children are going to be masked that decision will only be made by the parents. It will not be made by the government. This is what the governor here republican governor Ron Desantis had to say yet again on that issue. Its a parents decision. If you believe in the masking in the school youre free to do it. No one is saying you cant do it. But if youre somebody whos concerned about that who thinks that may not be the right thing for your child, then i think you should have the right to make that ultimate decision. I dont think governments should override that. Reporter i was in naples yesterday, Thats Collier county, First Day Of School there. Kids are excited showing up to school, and i talked to some parents and some kids about wearing masks. Interestingly one parent with their children not wearing masks said we are not wearing masks because we believe our faith will protect us. I spoke to another family. They had their masks on, the kids had their masks on, they were all standing there. I said youre wearing masks, and they said our faith teaches us that we should wear masks to respect others. And so you can clearly see that even along religious lines people have a different take on whether the government should tell them to wear masks or whether they should wear masks. Now, there is a political side to all of this, of course. And we decided to take a look at the counties in florida that have decided theyre going to defy the Governor And Mandate mask wearing. You can see these urban counties in florida not all of them urban but the counties in florida that have decided, yes, were going to Mandate Masks and defy the government. If we take a look at the most recent president ial election, those that have decided to defy the governor are also the counties that supported biden. And so that clearly shows and reflects the political nature of all of this. But at the end of the day, for instance here at Washington Elementary here in Riveria Beach when kids will be coming to school today, they will be told that they need to wear masks. And there are those in this state who say why is the government trying to tell us that while others are saying absolutely the government should tell us to do that because were seeing a rising number of covid cases. In fact, some of the Childrens Hospital, guys, are reporting theyre seeing more children with covid than they have at any other time during this pandemic. Down at the hospital with ten kids in the icu one of them on a ventilator. And that tells you a lot. The one thing we dont have are the numbers in the state. And that is because the florida governor has decided that first of all covid numbers are going to be released only once a week. And missing from that information is the age of the patients or the age ranges, which of course would be very useful for parents as theyre getting ready to send their kids to school worried about the spread of the Delta Variant. Guys . Kerry, im sure you have also seen and heard from medical providers around where you are right now that a lot of the Emergency Rooms, a lot of the Icu Beds jampacked. And also a lot of Pediatric Wards also jampacked as well. Talk about just report for us if you will the situation and how dire it has been up and down the coast of florida. I think the thing that struck me most is a pediatric doctor in Collier County who decided she would participate in a psa, and this was a Video Put together by the hospital that then the School Board decided to send out. And this is Collier County where they do not Mandate Masks. Its up to the parents and the children to decide what theyre going to do. And when this doctor was on camera urging people that they should seriously consider wearing masks, she broke down, was crying and had to walk off camera. She could not get through it because of the number of children that she sees showing up in the icu. So the emotion from a Doctor Who lets face it doctors are front line every day with patients, and they do see some of the most horrible tragic cases of any illness in our country. If theyre losing it emotionally, you understand the power that is actually hitting the children with these Delta Variant and with covid. And the real question is when you go through this for parents is i want my individual choice some say, but if their child winds up in the hospital they may have a very different take on why didnt we just mask everybody up. And we hear that of so many people. I have a close friend i heard it from a couple days ago who in the icu and feared that death was not far away. One other thing, kerry, you said you talked to these parents and talked to other School Administrators. The thing that i found is that its not quite as bright of a Redblue Line in some cases. In north florida, in places where i know ive seen you and your reporting on hurricanes sweeping across the state. Ive talked to friends who were trump supporters, who were School Administrators and who a couple nights ago one of my friends cut off a debate and said were wearing masks, the Delta Variant is killing people, its killing children. Were wearing masks, therell be no debate in this school, a conservative school, a private school. And if anybody has any problems, you tell them to call me. And this is someone who was a strong supporter of Donald Trump. I found in this case that, yes, there are those that you can just line it up and if they voted for trump, if they supported trump then theyre on one side, biden the other. But i am seeing some former trump supporters actually look at the science, look at the medicine. And they are actually taking a break. Did you find that at all in your reporting . I didnt. I think what struck me is some were really adamant about not wanting their children to be required to mask. And so they took them out of The Public School System and put them in private schools. And now some of those private schools have mandated that they will wear masks. You know, its a little bit of handling your political philosophy while also concerned about the health of your child and which one is going to win out here. I think in most cases the child and the health of your child is going to be the most dominant part of making your decision of whether you want your child masked. The political side of this and this is one that the republican governor Ron Desantis and this is one of seven states that have said adamantly that decision can be made by the parent, it will not be made by the government. And of course a big part of this we really have to consider that should this be a governors decision. Should this be a State Decision . Or should local governments, the School Boards that are elected, the School Superintendents that are hired, should they be deciding . We just saw yesterday in Broward County which is fort lauderdale, angry parents on both sides. And Broward County deciding you know what, were going to defy the governor. He can threaten to take away our salaries. Were going to do this for the children. Were going to Mandate Mask wearing. And the reason were going to Mandate Mask wearing is theres no do overs when this is all done. If a child gets the Delta Variant and winds up in the hospital and potentially dies, theres no way to undo a mistake like this. Coming up well speak to one of those educators defying the governor in florida. Our conversation with her next on Morning Joe. Florida. Our conversation with her next on Morning Joe. Welcome to allstate. Phone Notification where weve just lowered our Auto Rates. And savings like that will have you jumping for joy. Now, get new lower Auto Rates with allstate. Because better protection costs a whole lot less. Youre in good hands with allstate. 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Really, it just makes me scratch my head when i hear reports of parents saying were going to ignore doctors, were going to ignore science and jesus is going to take care of our children so we can act reckless, medically. Jesus can do they think jesus decided to kill over 600,000 people with the covid virus . Its id say its beyond anything ive seen except sadly its consistent with much of what ive seen over the past five years. Other than now in we have parents willingly sending their kids into schools less safe than medicine suggests they could be or their doctors, their own Family Doctors would suggest they could be if they took some simple precautions. People are free not to take the vaccine. Thats absolutely their right, but it has implications for other people. So you may not go into a public setting for a school, for example. We heard kerry talking about some of the School Districts defying the governor. Yesterday on the show we spoke with the superintendent of Public Schools, she is pushing back on Governor Desantis ban on masks in schools despite his threat to with Hold Money from her district. Threatening to cut our funding is a concern, but i think really when i reflect on the job i need to do, then this is just something im going to have to push forward. I need to provide a secure, safe School Environment thats constitutionally mandated to my students, and i believe that i need to just focus on my job and make sure that im providing that opportunity for the students. And i believe i am with the Mask Mandate. In our Interview Dr. Simon told us about a letter she received from Richard Corcoran where he pressured her to follow the Governors Order and respond by 5 00 tomorrow evening. And dr. Simon is back with us this morning with her response. Its great to have you on. I want to read for our Audience Part of your response. Quote, the failure to use all of the mitigations strategies available including masks will inevitably mean that some of our students will have to receive their education outside the school setting. We share the governors view this is not the desired outcome. The death or serious illness of a child as a result of Covid19 Exposure is a far more serious injury than any discomfort that may be experienced due to universal masking. Dr. Simon goes on, we ask you seriously consider the appropriateness of withholding Funds Amount equal to the Superintendents Salary and salaries of members of the School Board universally masking is the most effective strategy we currently have besides vaccination to meet this obligation. When we talked to you yesterday you were trying to get ready for the First Day Of School and check on your kids and teachers and get a difficult School Year under way but then you had to deal with this. Tell us a bit about what went into this letter and what weighed on you as you wrote it . Well, so weve been, you know, examining the letter as far as what the argument the commissioner of education had. And then we compared it to how we see it. In our situation especially associated with our data and Today Or Yesterday was the first day. And so we did get to kind of see in action what we were concerned about occurring. Just as an example our largest high school, the entire Football Team Minus students who have been vaccinated will be quarantined. My Staff Attorney has allowed me to share that she was not feeling well, and she actually went home ill. And she actually is vaccinated. And so weve been predicting this is going to have an enormous impact on how we perform our function as a School District. So those are just two examples of how this Delta Variant is really impacting everything. And these are anecdotal. It just started. I did find out we had a parent who tested positive who dropped off their children to school. This is under the assumption parents are Making Decisions that are considerate of The Public health and im not seeing that across the board. So you had a Mask Mandate in for the first couple weeks of school, kids show up at your School District yesterday. How many were wear masks, and what did you have to say to those who werent . As far as entering the building all of them needed to mask. Were still trying to find out if we had any concerns that happened throughout the day because obviously its a long day and, you know, things can occur. So were still looking into that and examining it. We did have parents who came at the front door who wanted their children to enter and did not want to follow our mandate, and we ended up having 25 submit the medical opt out form. We also had five people who asked to participate in the hope scholarship program. We did have a situation where one child was dropped off without a mask and the parent did not answer the phone and that child waited in the clinic. And, you know, we are we are not going to allow a situation where somebody who disagrees with our policies is allowed to do whatever they please. Yeah, doctor, let me ask you how many vaccines do children need to have to start Public School in your county . Off the top of my head i dont know. If i were to just, you know, remember as a parent signing my children up for School Id say there was quite a few of them. And then of course you have them throughout their childhood. Its just always a thing. And then we also encourage Flu Shots every single year at our School Districts. Thats a program with a lot of participation. Its interesting. I think like i remember 5 or 6 i had four kids and they all got five or six vaccines. Its interesting you and i are of an age. Im about 80 years older than you im sure where we were also required to get vaccines or else we couldnt go to school. Do you find it bizarre that youre having to explain to Human Beings that have lived over the past 40, 50, 60 years, like the purpose of vaccinations, the purpose why we vaccinate our children or why we protect our children even if lets say polio, for instance my kids all got Polio Shots, you did, my kids did. Everybody got Polio Shots. They have hardly any chance of getting polio. But the desire of the government was to eradicate polio from the face of the earth. This is something that we have known for 50, 60 years and yet these people coming to you they act as if this is first vaccine thats ever been administered. Im curious how do you respond to that . How do you react to parents who act so shocked that either their kids if theyre of a certain age need a Vaccination Or Need to wear masks to prevent this disease from spreading . Well, so i share that same observation in the sense where i mean both my parents have this scar on their arm where they did what was that the Smallpox Vaccine im not even sure what that was. Its funny because i remember i keep talking to them about it, and it was a mark of pride that they were members of their community, this is what they did to eradicate this disease within the community. And so i remember those types of stories. And as a parent myself i have vaccinated my children because i think theres like that collective component as well as protecting your child. Right now i do find it very hard to understand the resistance. I can understand, you know, some people are resistant to change and new, and i get that. But i feel strongly that, you know, we only function well in my mind if we all are collective and we work together. Community matters to me, and this seems to me to be just a foundational act of being a member of a community. Everything is bigger than us and more than us. And i dont understand why we cant find common ground that protecting life is actually something we all should be doing. So dr. Simon, as i read through your letter one part jumped out at me because it was so specific. You said you asked to the commissioner you seriously consider the appropriateness of withholding funds in an amount equal to the Superintendents Salary and the combined salaries of the members of the School Board. Is that what the state is threatening you with, if you put this Mask Mandate, were going to take away your salaries . Is that what theyve told you . Thats what theyve shared on the news. Its interesting because they dont control how funding is allocated to our employees. For example, our organization, our district we are the ones who distribute paychecks and bonuses and all of those components. So actually saying theyre not going to pay me or the board members, thats really not quite an accurate statement. They are taking that funding out of our general fund, theyre removing that allocation for moneys that would come to the district in order for us to provide the education to our students. So i guess you can think it through that way in his mind, but its actually not that way in the reality of how the moneys come into the district is how theyre distributed out. So the state says we might take your money away, you say im keeping the masks on, what gives here . Might you have to work for free this year . I am going to run this School District and take care of my families and the community and the students and my teachers and my staff members. And if that is what its going to take, thats what its going to take. Im not going to let some component like this, you know, a material thing stop us from doing the right thing. Well, it seems obvious to so many people but its actually a brave act to protect your children in the state of florida. Superintendent of county Public Schools dr. Carly simon, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Well check back in with you this week. Coming up, our next guest was recently described as No Ones ally. Well talk to Andrew Sullivan whose new collection of essays tackles some of the most contentious issues in American Life. That conversation straight ahead on Morning Joe. One, two one, two, three only pay for what you need with customized Car Insurance from liberty mutual nothing rhymes with liberty mutual. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I became a Sofi Member because i needed to consolidate my credit card debt. I needed just one simple way to pay it all off. It was an easy decision to apply with sofi loans, just based on the Interest Rate and how much i would be saving. There was only one that stood out and one that actually made sense and that was sofi personal loans. It felt so freeing. I felt like i was finally out of this neverending trap of interest and payments and debt. 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So then i said to him, you oughta customize your Car Insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. Hot dog or. Chicken . Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. 8 31 in the morning, beautiful live picture of the White House. Domippian voting systems filed a Lawsuit Yesterday against News Max seeking more than 1. 6 billion in each suit. The Wall Street Journal reports dominion accused of the two networks of airing false reports that its machines switched votes from president Donald Trump to mr. Biden. The company also said former overstock Executive Patrick burn repeatedly and falsely alleged dominion rigged vote tallies to steal the election from mr. Biden. Nauz max said its simply repeated claims by public figures and one american news did not immediately respond to request for comment. Joe, it turns out there are consequence tuesday the big lie for some people. Yes, there are. Lets bring in right now long time Journalist And Writer Andrew Sullivan. Hes out with a collection of 60 of his pieces titled out on a limb. Back with us reverend Al Sharpton and also senator Claire Mccaskill. Andrew, im so excited to have you on here because ive been saying for the past several years youre the most important writer in america certainly to explain the Trump Era. And i always got the same response back from those who knew and love you. Thats awesome but he doesnt wake up early so appreciate you waking up early. I just want to read the conclusion. I can read the whole Thing But David Frenchs Review of your book was so beautiful. I just want to read the last paragraph. He said the snapshots of recent history, read it to better understand the many journeys of one of americas most important public intellectuals but most of all read this book to see what it looks like when a thoughtful man tries his best to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. And as he says, andrew, and its the highest compliment i think any of us could pay anyone in this business because you are on No Ones side. First of all, how much did you have to pay, david, for that wonderful review. Secondly, seriously your thoughts on his view of your book . Its just i thought a beautiful piece. I thought it was stunning. And to be honest with you i was really shocked to read it in the new york times. And look, you do your best in your career to the tell the truth as you see it. And at any moment in time that can be extremely controversial or people can have extreme feelings about it. But i hope that over the long haul the ability to stick with what you really see in front of your eyes has a longterm credibility advantage, that the people know youre not lying, youre not trying to spin. Youre honestly trying to get it right. And you will get it wrong, of course, and i have. In the book i have a whole essay on what i got wrong about iraq. And i think that helps feel it matters. Just dont look at the news cycle. Look at the longterm. Look at exactly how consistent a person has been or how at least how earnest they are in correcting their own mistakes and subjecting themselves to a certain amount of humility in the face of extraordinary events that we cannot understand as they are happening and do our best to make sense of. You know, i have said all along at the end of iraq that iraq ended up making fools of us all. Many people who opposed going to iraq opposed the surge, supported getting out immediately, quickly. But again you can say that about your entire career. Even the most brilliant among us going out on that limb, fighting the good fight, sometimes getting it right but sometimes getting it terribly wrong. This this sort of journey makes fools even of the brightest of us, even the best of us. And of course i speak of you here. And it does. I think many of us got several things wrong over the last 25 years. And the consequences of that are with us today. That war was a terrible mistake. Deregulating the economies of 2008 happening was a terrible mistake. People are not wrong to be angry and understand where the accountability is. Unless we provide our own accountability people are going to go to someone like trump who will betray All Of Us. I agree trump is absolutely a threat to us. But to lose sight of everything else and get too fixated on that is like getting too fixated on defeating this virus as opposed to getting back to our lives. Thats the question. Is it the big long perspective youre hoping for . And readers in the end they get you. Those who dont want to read you will not read you, and those who like you will like you. And youll lose some and win some. But the key is consistency and the key is understanding what you do not know. And conservatism used to be about that humility, about saying we dont know everything, we cant fix everything, were going to have a limited government, were going to let people try and figure out their own problems. But when things emerge and we have a practical answer, well figure it out. And now its become a cult. And watching that happen over the past 30 years has been really depressing. If you have any sympathy for the conservative temperament and movement. Andrew, last night i was talking about a conversation i had earlier with claire. But last night we were talking about the consequential changes not only for women but also for race issues over the past 10, 20, 25 years. But we were talking about what was the most consequential change and i think everyone around the table said the speed that we got from your essays from 89 and 93 in Marriage Equality to Marriage Equality was absolutely just spellbinding, mesmerizing. Still hard to believe how quickly things change from 2004 when the Bush Administration was using it or the Bush Campaign Team was using it to pull people out against Marriage Equality to 2013. What are your thoughts as someone whos long been considered perhaps the most influential thinker on this issue . Well, you can see in the first essay im saying im not crazy, hold on, dont get too mad at me but heres an idea. And over the years you can see how it gets slightly more traction. And heres what i took from it. I took from the people who tell you this country is irredeemable, this country is sort of inherently bigoted, when you actually engage in the old liberal process of making arguments, listening to your opponents, getting out there not caring who youre talking to, you want to get your message across, engaging fundamentalests, talking to your own families. People took real courage in coming out. This was a triumph of liberal democracy. We didnt rig it. We didnt yell at anyone. We didnt demonize straight people as somehow the enemy. We tried to find things we had in common with the majority and unite over that. We tried to see we were actually members of families and wanted to rejoin our families. When you make that kind of good Faith Argument and you do it sincerely and you do it again and again and again, people in this country are prepared to change their minds and they change their minds. And to see that happen in my lifetime, i will never become pessimistic about this country. The speed was absolutely staggering, still hard to believe. In 2009 you start warning about the reich. You start warning about even though your conservative, even though youre christian, you start sending up warning flares as david french said about where evangelical movement was moving and where the right was moving. Let me ask you as a guy who grew up in a southern Baptist Church and has been concerned, similarly concerned, are you surprised by how far it moved in Donald Trumps direction and where it finds itself now in large part fighting vaccinations, fighting medicine, fighting the protection of even their own Family Members . Well, on one hand i was a little surprised because i think many of us fail to acknowledge just how much trade policies, immigration policies had affected people, Working Class people in the middle of this country and we werent listening. I think we should have understood that better and got in there earlier. But, look, americas a crazy place. Im from the outside. When you look at this country do things like have an entire bloody civil war, this country banned alcohol for everyone. This country has these movements and these spasms. Its still alive and young. And so the idea that in a really gridlocked democracy that somebody would come along and say i alone can fix it, have the talent to persuade people and to exploit people that way, was always going to happen at some point. I mean the founders understood this would happen. We just about survived but not very well, and we have a long way to rebuild that. But america is a crazy place. As i said you never know what the idea that a black president would be elected and reelected twice in this country, thats as astonishing as Donald Trump. And so i would look forward to what americas going to deliver next. And thats the way the world looks here because this is where the future is actually made. But, yeah, i think the conservatism started going off the rails in the 90s. I had a piece talking about the Ken Starr Report which is when i got off the train and the refusals to acknowledge the errors in iraq, the double down, the belief we in america can torture people, we can borrow money, we can spend money, we dont even care about the deficit, these are such betrayals of conservatism, and we have a long way to go to rebuild that. And were going to have to adjust those on questions of immigration of trade, on those questions where the effects of the policies have really hurt people. Capitalism is not working right now. Its not working for most people. And if youre a conservative that should worry you and so instead of dedefending capitalism you should ask yourselves how can we make it more legitimate . So i think tackling inequality is also the course. If you look at britain where im from the tourists have managed this very populist right Wing Theory and bring it into the existing institutions. In this country the republicans have become part of that explosion have no control over it. And until they get rid of trump if they can, thats going to be the case. Andrew, its willie geist. Congratulations on the book. I think your Writing And Thinking has always stood out is because in this moment theres always few people for going out on a limb because they fear it getting sawedoff. You have people on the right wondering what the right thing is or Virtue Signaling on social media. O why in your assessment are there not more Andrew Sullivans, people who are willing to upset both sides in our political Media Culture right now . Well, because even i got fired last year. The atmosphere in mainstream media and ill say this with all seriousness has become so oppressive. The fear of saying something that might offend someone has become so great. A single statement that might be faulty in which their entire career is destroyed over this. Theres a fanaticism in the newsrooms around woke ideology that is really chilling the discourse, that is discouraging younger journalists and younger thinkers from saying what they think and also encouraging everybody to the furthest extreme of uniformity. We should be able to argue, and we should be able to argue without everybodys feelings being constantly wounded. We cant go forward if we dont have a certain amount of resilience, selfunderstanding. I remember eleanor roosevelt. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Believe in yourself. Fight bigotry that way. Stop putting the onus on everyone around you. Start building your own life and explaining what its like to be a minority. Being a minority is not the worst thing in the world. It has some wonderful joys to it, some wonderful aspects to it. When in fact if you look at it the other way around everything is freedom, too. And we can channel that freedom if we want to. And i think weve lost our nerve. And i think its because there are beliefs and social media which has made all this far worse. And i decide i have to keep doing this because if i dont, who will . I have enough cred at this point to be able to do it myself, and im trying to do that to encourage other people not to be afraid. Its okay to be wrong. Just acknowledge it. Its a good thing sometimes because then you can get yourself right. And i think over your lifetime youre constantly adjusting to changing circumstances. And the principles for me at least is dont do too much, keep government small, be prudent and encourage individual responsibility and freedom. Very simple really, very reaganlike really. And i still regard myself as a kind of reagan conservative who feels very much estranged from the world right now. Andrew, Al Sharpton. I have read you down through the years, and you have been controversial. As someone whos never been controversial, ive admired you going out on a limb. But let me ask you this, the fact i agree with you even on some of your attacks on what i call lofty liberals on the left and on the right, how does cancel culture represent a real threat to our ability to grow and to really understand Each Other in this country and not be canceled so immediately if you make one step or one move that can be interpreted in a way that ends your whole career . This whole cancel Culture Thing were dealing with now . How do you assess its danger . Its really dangerous. Were all human. Were all going to make horrible mistakes. Were also going to be in our off moments human as well. The great thing you and i share in a religious faith, in christianity is redemption. And thats originally what fueled the civil rights movement, this christian idea well forgive the people that hate us and that will make us stronger. And sometimes weve lost that sense. And the woke movement has no mercy, has no forgiveness and no redemption. It just condemns and ostracizes. Now, this is a mood, a mood that happens in america. It happened in salem, the hollywood blacklist, happened with the lavender scare. Americans have this moral Panic Capacity like they did in the 90s with Child Care if you remember. And i think you just have to tone the zealotry down to say wrg look, come on, were not hateful. We try to act in good faith. There are hateful people but dont assume everyone on the other side are the worst of their kind. Engage an argument. Sometimes you engage an argument that may hurt peoples feelings, and it may hurt them profoundly. In the book i have a piece addressed to my old colleague saying forgive me because i have raised some really difficult issues and im sorry. I felt it was necessary to do it, but im a human and i love you and i dont want to hurt you. And i did. And i think some of that is part of the necessity of being a journalist, sometimes your principles can have real impact on your friendships, and im lucky to have great friends but im also aware of the costs sometimes of saying things people really do not want to hear. Andrew, Claire Mccaskill here. As somebody who has had the far right and far left both mad at me at the same time, i really relate to so many of your writings. Id like you to spend a minute, though, talking about afghanistan. Your writings about iraq were very powerful in terms of your changing your mind about that mistake. Were now looking at a situation where our country has really spent so much lives, injuries, a trillion dollars. Weve trained 300,000 afghans to fight for their country, and clearly they are not doing that now because they outnumber the taliban. Talk a little bit about what your place is now in terms of your attitude as it relates to afghanistan. Well, enthusiast, if you remember, for these wars, in good faith, really. It was not a malevolent idea, it was a fact that we have to protect ourselves from religious fanatics. I wasnt conservative enough. I didnt understand culture properly, i didnt realize you cant walk into these countries with their complex histories, tribal patterns, religious obsessions and somehow make them into New Jersey in five years with the sons and daughters of americans. It was insane, in retrospect. And what ive tried to do since is say, what did we learn . There are some things we cannot do, that were trying too hard to achieve the impossible. Not only that, but we did it with the sons and daughters of Working Class americans of all races who bore the brunt of this, while people like me stayed at home and just licked our wounds. And i feel shame about it. I do feel shame about it. And i think, therefore, one has to reformulate ones ideas and argue for much more humble foreign policy, one thats much more restrained, one that seeks the defense of americans and not transformation of the world. We need to advance our interests against china, we need to figure that question out, which is really hard. But we must keep in our minds, we are not miracle workers. We cant go around the world changing history. Its so arrogant top think that. And i was caught up with the fear and the passion around this religious fundamentalism, but i was wrong. And i want to contribute to a prudent, moderate policy, and i support Joe Biden in this absolutely 100 , and i think its amazing that hes the one that actually had the balls to do this. Lets finish up here. Were short on time. But i just have to ask you, you have a positive outlook on america and the future of america. I wonder about one of the issues youve talked about the most over the past year or two, the wokeness on college campuses and newsrooms. Have you seen any positive Trend Line . We had cornell west on a month or two ago, who was critical of the decision to remove Classics Department from howard, and he said we have to study the classics. You quoted Martin Luther King in a 2018 piece, also believing in the importance of the classics. Reverend sharpton comes on repeatedly and talks about latte liberals and pushing back against the wokeness that he believes at the end of the day probably hurts the truly disadvantaged more than anyone else. Do you see positive Trend Lines in this area . Yes, i do. I see a growing generation of people that really find that unattractive. I think the bullying tactics are putting people off. I think the platform for independent writers have provided an outlet for others who have been rejected from the mainstream media and were competing back in the free market and well see if they adjust in response. I look at the moderate Working Class africanamerican voters who made Joe Biden the nominee and who made eric adams the mayor of new York City. That is the center of the democratic party, not this elite tend to be white left liberal elites. Theyre not really the Heart And Soul. Theyre the Heart And Soul of twitter, but twitter is not reality, thank god. And the democrats, you know, theyve won so many arguments on economics now, people like me have moved to the left on economics. Take that advantage. Dont screw it up with this toxic racialization of everything, this Toxics Identity which pit us all against Each Other as opposed to in favor of Each Other and see whats in common with Each Other. I think these things come in waves and im hanging in. And i know its depressing and i know so many of these institutions are not allowing diversity of view. We have a first amendment, we have a vibrant culture, we fight back and we create something interesting and fun. And were doing fine. Ive been shocked by how many people have come. So youve got to have hope, joe. Youve got to believe people will get Fed Up With this. And i think the next generation after z is going to be hating genz. Theyre nasty, toxic. Who wants to live that way . You want to have fun again, you want to feel empathy again. Its so sexless and humanless and interpersonalably horrible. I dont want to live like that, and at some point people will say i dont want to live like this anymore. Leaving the set with a collection of haymakers, the new collection is titled out on a limb. Andrew sullivan, it was great having you on. Now to the global citizens fight to defend the Planet And Defeat poverty. On september 25th, the biggest artists on the plan unite with world leaders to demand action on our biggest challenges. Global citizen live, from new york, paris, lagos, and other locations around the world. Join us for a once in a Generation 24hour global event to defend the Planet And Defeat poverty. Together, we can move the world. One action at a time. The show will feature starstudded lineups, including coldplay, Billie Eilish just to name a few. Lets bring you to Cofounder And Ceo to global citizen, hugh evans. Weve talked about this a good bit and what you have lined up is extraordinary. Also, the coverage, if you just look at the bbc channels, if you look at all the channels around the world that are covering this, its got to be the biggest event at least since live aid back in the mid80s. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Yes, were so excited about global citizen live, because this is, as you say, a once in a Generation Opportunity to bring the whole world together to fight the issues of defending the Planet And Defeating poverty. And were timing it deliberately alongside the u. N. General assembly meeting, just prior to the cop26 climate negotiations and the G20 Summit and this is an opportunity to go all around the world, bigger than global citizen has ever gone before. Were going to be coming to you live from lagos, nigeria, paris, rio, sydney, and more to be announced. And most importantly, this isnt just a celebration. This is a moment of unity to fight for the issues that are so urgent facing humanity, that is really defending the Planet And Defeating poverty. Youre getting rocks biggest acts and superstars globally, but youre also getting a lot of support from world leaders, which of course is the key. You all using your influence to influence them to use their positions to end poverty globally. Talk about that. Yes, joe. So far, over 35 governments have signed on to endorse the global citizen live campaign, and that ranges from leaders like President Macron of france, were in active conversations with the White House at present. But weve also had incredible engagement from the european commission. And these heads of state are really responding to the calls to action from global citizen. This year, our policy objectives are focused on really three big things. Firstly, we want to make sure that the world responds to the urgent climate challenge as we saw in the Ipcc Report just a few days ago, that highlighted that there is an urgent need to act now on climate change. Secondly, were responding to the Hunger Crisis currently afflicting 41 Million people on the horn of africa, and thirdly, the ongoing issue of vaccine equity, if were going to get covid19 under control we need to get 1 Billion doses to those who need it most by the end of september. And were finding that world leaders are responding to this call to action and are stepping up. Were also finding that the private sector across america is stepping up. We have wonderful cochair partners like cisco, verizon, delta, p g, salesforce, coke, are stepping up to be part of the movement. Hugh, youve been this has been a lifetime effort for you. We greatly appreciate you being here to talk to us about this. Were just at the beginning. Weve got a month and a half until the event actually goes off and we expect you to come back regularly and update us and let us know how we can help. Thank you, joe. And i hope we can count on you to see you in paris with us. It would be amazing to have you. Okay, thank you so much. I hope mika lets me go. Thank you so much. Greatly appreciate it. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi there. Im stephanie ruhle. Its wednesday, august 11th, and this morning we are watching several major stories. Just a few minutes ago we got the latest look at how bad inflation really is, and its bad, with prices up 5. 4 over this time last year. So is it the right time for lawmakers to work on a massive 3. 5 trillion Spending Package . What matters to voters . On the covid front, the Delta Variant now tied to 93 of cases across this nation, with multiple states in the south seeing their largest Singleday Spike in hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. The ceo of united airlines will be here to talk about his decision to require