Mark milley saying today that getting americans out is the singular focus of the Biden Administration. The situation is still very dangerous, very dynamic and fluid and we can be proud of those executing this mission. Theyre currently in harms way. That needs to be our focus. There will be plenty of time to do aars but right now our mission is to secure that Air Field, defend that Air Field and evacuate those faithful to us. There will be many postmortems on this topic but right now is not that time. Theres troops at risk and we the United States military and fully intend to successfully evacuate all American Citizens who want to get out of afghanistan, all American Citizens who want to get out of afghanistan. They are our Priority Number one. In addition we intend to evacuate those supporting us for years and wont leave them behind. Milleys comments hours after scenes of chaos unfolded on wednesday outside of what is the only way out of afghanistan. The airport In Kabul. The taliban erected checkpoints across the capital. Reports of taliban soldiers using weapons against the crowds of people at the airport. Despite statements by Taliban Leaderings they wont return to the ways of the past their soldiers have cracked down on the first signs of public opposition to the rule. The New York times is reporting they faced the takeover of afghanistan and demonstrations in at least two cities as they moved to form a new government. A Public Display of dissent was met by force. They were fired upon and beat. That dire situation is giving more momentum to a bipartisan push for the United States to open its doors to our afghan allies. Georgias republican Governor Kemp signaled that he is open to refugees there. On Tuesday Utahs republican Governor Cox tweeted utah was Settle Id by refugees fleeing religious persecution. We understand the pain caused by forced my inauguration and appreciate the contributions of refugees in the communities. Today we sent a let every to the president expressing the desire to help those fleeing afghanistan. Nbc news is reporting a group of 46 senators is calling for a humanitarian Parole Category that would allow activists and other public figures to quickly relocate to the quite. The desperate operation to get merges and allies out of afghanistan is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. The New York times Correspondent Michael Shear is here and Mark Jacobson who served in afghanistan and kabul as the deputy nato representative. And David Rode is here, Executive Editor of The New Yorker. Com and part of the team for the coverage of afghanistan and pakistan. I want to start with a little bit more of General Milleys briefing. This is him on what theyre doing right now, what the Operation Looks like to get people out. Theres a steady flow of people. I think the numbers will grow and the messages go out and i would tell you that for the american Citizens Passport holders the taliban and the State Department working out of i got it out. Working out a measure. Those numbers are likely to grow. For the others, State Department is still working through exactly getting the procedures for the evacuees to get to the airfield. Mark jacobson, can you just pull the curtain back . Theres specificity with the categories american. Citizens, Passport Holders that has to be so definitive that they will get out is interesting but seems to be more ambiguity around our allies. Those who aided the u. S. Military operations over the last two decades. Let me start with a good note. There are people getting through the gate, getting through the taliban checkpoints and leaving. I and others are in touch with dozens if not hundreds individuals trying to Escape Kabul and getting reporting from them making the way to the Gate Or Airport and some turned back. Heres the concern. One, you are getting most americans through the taliban Check Point. Not all. I know where americans are turned back two days in a row. Passport holders. The afghans including those who i we made a guarantee to. Americans are turned back by the u. S. Marines, as well. It is better but got to be demoralizing. Heres what i worry about given what was said today. You cant get enough people through by August 31 unless you expand that perimeter and that was the theme today. If you wont do that which Secretary Austin was clear about and not extend the Time Line your only option to Cut Off categories. Without a blue passport and a green u. S. Persons card, green card, you are not getting in. It is the only other option to limit the number of people we take out. Senior white House Official told me they moved 1300 people through the Kabul Airport tuesday. 2300 today. Mark said thats the good news. They are so eager to have a conversation of the wisdom to leave after 20 years and less aggressive to defend what everyone is seeing unfold. I wonder the latest on the logistical rubber meeting the road of the number of people there and the country rates at which theyre getting them out. Thank you for having me on. I dont think theyre a little hesitant to that conversation. Theyre terrified of it. You saw President Biden focus almost entirely and be incredibly defensive of the overall decision and to essentially want to talk about the 20year war and the reasons why he decided it had to end. They do not want to talk the last week or two and the decisions that they made both the president , military, State Department and the administration over the last months that led up to this last weekend and while theres good news, i agree, with all due respect to General Milley who wants to focus on the here and now, there are important questions that everybody is raising whether you talk to the activists trying to convince the administration for months now to alexanderwalker an evacuation because they saw this eventuality happening and if you didnt start a Mass Evacuation of these people you were going to run out of time and moving the perimeter of the airport may help people In Kabul but not people stuck in provincial villages around afghanistan and reading you will get to david in a minute. Reading his piece in The New Yorker breaks your heart when thats one story of him trying to help somebody get out and that story is repeated tens of thousands of times and with similarly bleak outcomes i fear. David, im going to ask you to do this for me. Im going to ask you to take us through for anyone that doesnt know your connection and who you are trying to get out. Can you tell us who you are trying to help and why . First of all, thank you for having me. Mark and michael, thank you. 12 years ago i was kidnapped by the Dahl Ban and an afghan journalist with me helped me escape and saved my life. He became an American Citizen. His family, his wife and children are trapped In Kabul now. He applied in march to bring his wife and children here before President Biden announced the deadline. The american bureaucracy is unable to approve the visas for four months. He tried to get them out. Theyre trapped. Thats what my story was about. I have been begging every official i can to get the case out. In terms of what is happening the chaos continues. This evacuation is an abject failure. Last night he got an email from the u. S. Embassy telling him to send his family to a certain gate at the Kabul Airport, that email is used as a pass to get them on to the airport to leave. They made it through the taliban Check Point and terrified to be identified as the family that helped the american escape. That didnt happen. They made it to the gate. They waited for hours. They were turned away. This is a disaster. Who were they turned away by . Did they make it to an american official . It was very they didnt make it to an american official. The gate was closed. They made contact with a translator inside and told them to move sort of about half a mile away and safer. The Gun Fire that you described they experienced. Live calling to him and said theres Gun Fire. The taliban are beating people and so they went and waited until 9 00 at night local time. Very dangerous now on The Streets Of Kabul and the translator told them to wait. Stopped answering the phone. They went home. I think the world has now seen, Mark Jacobson, the images of how many people are in this situation and i think to continue to appreciate just how both brutal the taliban still is and how desperate our friends and allies are at this hour it is important to talk about this one situation and this one effort with the influential and committed friend unable to get one family, an American Citizens family, out. Let me show what my colleague Richard Engel shot today outside the airport and ask if the pentagon is likely to revisit some of the decisions about the perimeter or if you think theyre going to stick with the plan regardless of how inefficient and ineffective it is. Im worried they wont revisit. The Back Channel discussions with d. O. D. White house, state, dhs officials they are defensive and bureaucratic and i wonder if that i remember why they entered public service. They make the mistakes and then being told the information you have is wrong. Look at what david described as something we saw over and over again last night. The problem is the pentagons not acknowledging basic problems such as the taliban are continuing along with the curfew that was set up by the afghan government. So you have people told to get to the airport and need to get there in the middle of the night or early morning but the taliban have a curfew. I dont understand i hate to make this Vietnam Analogy but reminds me about the 5 00 follies. That Press Conference so detached i think david is right. We are destined for failure in this somebody says we are operating. Damn the optics. We made a mistake. Adjust and get the people out. Michael, just to come back to what seems to me and im sure you know better than i do the White House frame is that we will never apologize for bringing all americans home and got the vast majority of the public behind them and disconcerted by what it is seeing and hearing. People Shoulder And Shoulder to us for 20 years and regardless about the military effort in aghanistan over 20 years there is something visceral of leaving people on the battlefield. I wonder if you detect any movement on the calculations on this. I really dont. You know how quickly this kind of thing can change a White House so maybe another day or two of these scenes and the stories will in fact change their mind but to date the conversations with administration officials seem convinced that the important moment is the end of a 20year war and the american public supports that and not as concerned frankly about the images that and the sort of stories that we have been talking about. Not to say they dont care. I think every single person i talked to expressed deep concern of bringing folks home. You heard general Milley Talk about we wont leave anybody behind but it feels hollow a bit because the actions on the ground at the moment dont seem to back that up and frankly nobody is taking responsibility or few people are in the administration taking responsibility for the decisions that led up to this. This didnt happen by accident. This is a series of choiszs that the president made what to do and whatnot to do and whether to start evacuations or when not to start evacuations of American Citizens and all of that leads up to this moment and the question of whether politically the president gets damaged by this, you know, for a lot of people it undermines the sense of competence he ran on. He said i wont be trump like and govern of by tweet but i will have a government that is competent and understands how to do these things and i think this undercuts this notion. Just to follow up with you, michael. They have displayed such responsiveness to the facts and the changing science around the pandemic. Today announcing a third Booster Shot. Like the inverse. Right . Right. The position was clear, ran on it why the public by and large supports the plan to end the War In Afghanistan and the timetable but the inability to sort of flex with whats happening and to commit to getting everyone out and to do something from his perch to streamline the special visas or acknowledge some Visa Programs are not tenable. The taliban Wont Fly women from ngos to third countries to come here. Some programs havent been adapted to the facts on the ground. I wonder if you can sort of talk about what the sort of Pressure Points are if thats ever to change. Is there anyone in his ear that sees this the Way Mark and david sees this . The way the folk who is are shouting from the roof tops seem to see this. I think there are people in his ear. This is not an administration that doesnt see whats going on and a lot of their allies on Capitol Hill and in the Activist Community are echoing the same things and not like theyre not hearing it. I dont want to get too much into the president s head here but like the one thing that seems different to me about this issue than maybe some of the other governing issues is that this is a passionate belief of his. Not that say he doesnt belief passionately about other things but his personal visceral opposition to this war goes back years if not the full two decades and i have a sense in this White House that the decisions that are being made now surrounding the evacuation are driven in large part by a knowledge on the part of the advisers they know where he is and unmovable on the bigger question and may be that that realization that the president has the view hes got has driven a lot of the Decision Making around it maybe not in such a good way. David, i want to show you a bit of sound of the Press Conference that just wrapped up about what they knew ahead of time with which this would happen. The intelligence clearly indicated multiple scenarios were possible. One of those was an outright taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of the Afghan Security Forces and the government. Another was a Civil War and a third was a negotiated settlement. However, the timeframe of a rapid collapse, that was wideliest mated ranging from weeks to months and even years. Following our departure. There was nothing that i or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days. David, did you hear how quickly this could happen if the americans left . Yes. We did. And lets look at what happened in 2001 and the matter of ten days or two weeks the taliban collapsed. Afghans switch sides or they withdraw from the battlefield and take to the hills to fight another day and thats what some have done, some government forces have gone up in the remote areas. This is exactly what happened in 2001. I just think that milleys fine. Whatever happened in the last week is fine. Mark is absolutely right. Expand the perimeter. Take control of the full airport. Calm the population by saying we will be there tlug August 31. The afghans are terrified that the americans are going to leave in the night. Thats how they left Bagram Air base and we cant get a public statement from the administration that well be around for another week. Just lastly we telegraph an ugly fact and its true for 0 years and the taliban used this to help them. We say afghan lives matter less. Yes, bring americans first home. I understand that. But thats a disastrous message for us in the long term. Who wants to be our ally when we treat them this way . It is the largest military in the world. We can do that. Use the amazing airplanes and Transport Systems we have and carry out an amazing air lift. Ford evacuated 130,000 south vietnamese. We can do better than 2,000 a day. David, what is the next step . What have they been told to do tonight . Theyve gone back home. Hes furious. Hes afraid. Im going to try to talk to him and i think theyll try to go again and reaching out to people in the government. But there isnt a sense of urgency. I dont hear that. These are caring officials i have talked to before so im just like michael and mark puzzled. I think i think this could hurt them politically also. It is just wrong on a human level. Im so shocked and disappointed by the way this is being handled. I appreciate All Of Your candor. And well stay on it with All Of Your help. Thank you all so much for starting us off today. Breaking news in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Booster shots being recommended for all americans even as officials struggle to get americans largely in red states to take a sing the shot. New evidence in the January 6 investigation leads to an interesting interruption. And democratic candidate looking to unseat a republican heavy weight of sorts centering the campaign on the threat posed by the insurrectionists. Thats. Verizon business unlimited starts with americas most reliable network. Then we add the speed of verizon 5g. We provide security thats made for Business And Offer plans as low as 30 per line. More businesses choose verizon than any other network. We are open and ready for you. Millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. Thats why i started medhaul. Citi launched the Impact Fund to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything ive got to my company, and my community. I got you. For the love of people. For the love of community. For the love of progress. Citi. We are waiting live remarks by President Biden on the latest actions his administrations taking to fight covid including announcement from top health Officials Today to offer Booster Shots for all americans starting next month. Still the first and second shots they say are Life Saving and why hospitals in states with low Vaccination Rates have plunged into real crisis mode. Including mississippi where a second Field Hospital that opened in a Parking Garage is still not enough capacity. People want to know how they can help. Go get a vaccine. I hear people all the time say they want to do the research about the vaccine. Do research about what it would be to be taken care of in a Field Hospital in a garage versus getting the vaccine. This is serious business when were putting patients in a place we are not normally taking care of patients. Joining us now is public Health Analyst and the Founder Director of national center for Disaster Preparedness and ab stoddard. I will warn you. President biden has an event at 4 30 and often runs late and today he might be on time and apologize ahead of time to interrupt either of you to listen to President Biden but first on the boosters, doctor, there is a sentiment sort of among a lot of parents i corr that adults may get a third shot before a child under 12 gets a first. Can you explain that . I wish i could. I was on a briefing recently with the White House and senior health officials but last week i was telling people that the news was to start giving a third shot to people with severe immuno compromised and today we start to start in the fall vaccinating people with the third shot basically everybody. Especially those vaccinated early. I think theres work to do on the Messaging Side but the World Health Organization is begging the u. S. And others to please do not go down the path of third Booster Shots for people until the rest of the world had enough vaccines or a single shot to so many citizens. So it is a real issue here and confused and hopefully we wait to make sure that the third shot is verified by the fda to be safe before we start giving anyone a third shot and then we make sure to do whatever we can to help the rest of the world. White House Official said to me that this is about an added layer of protection. There was a glorious pocket of time that im sure we remember when we were vaccinated and people started to inch tord a new normal. I wont call it back to normal. June to sort of i dont know, early julyish. The White House is cognizant that people are anxious and what do you think . I think that the president s instincts as well as his teams from the very beginning before they even took office was to place the crisis of the pandemic as the top Priority And Everything else would be secondary. If they could contain covid that Everything Else would fall into place. And they did a really good job of that. The problem is that the Delta Variant outran the vaccines. The vaccines trying to ourun the virus and it is an overlay over this debacle of afghanistan and people feel differently than in may or june or july now and theres question of Confidence And Anxiety and so i think that this is an effort to try to again outrun the Delta Variant and assure americans there will be a containment of this. It is a huge challenge and the doctor makes a very good point. Very concerning that we are not entirely sure whether or not this should be happening but the administration is very aware that the fact that containing Covid Sort of ended is perilous for him politically and the Economy And Everything else. Lets listen to President Biden. Id like to make an important Announcement Today in the work to get every american vaccinated. And protected from the Delta Variant of covid19. I just got a lengthy briefing from my Covid Team and heres the latest of those in a pandemic of the unvaccinated. While we are starting to see initial signs that cases may be declining in a few places, cases are still rising, especially among the unvaccinated. There are still 85 Million americans eligible to get vaccinated who remain unvaccinated and at real risk. Across the country, virtually all of the covid19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated. In alabama, more than 90 of the kuntd hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. And in texas 95 of those in hospitals are unvaccinated. Right now its worse in states where overall Vaccination Rates are low. But let me be clear. Even in states where the Vaccination Rate is high, the unvaccinated in those states are also at risk. And were seeing cases rise as a result. It is a tragedy. There are people who are dying and who will die who didnt have to. So please, if you havent gotten vaccinated, do it now. Do it now. You can save your life and it can save the lives of those you love. Good news is that more people are getting vaccinated. Overall weekly new vaccinations are up more than 80 from where they were a month ago. While it can take up to six weeks to be fully protected after the first shot this increased level of vaccination provides results the weeks ahead. Just remember. We have two key and key ways to protect ourselves against covid19. One, safe, free and effective vaccines. Two, masks. Vaccines are the best defense. But masks are extremely helpful, as well. For those who arent eligible for the vaccine yet, children under 12, mask are the best available protection for them and the adults around them. Thats why we need to make sure children wear mask in school. Before i talk about the news related to vaccines let me say a few words of masks and our children. Unfortunately as you have seen throughout this pandemic some politicians try to turn Safety Measures into political disputes for gain. Some trying to take power away from local educators by manning masks in schools. Theyre setting a dangerous tone. For example, last week a School Board Meeting in tennessee protesters threatened doctors and nurses who are testifying making the case for masking children in schools. Intimidation and threats seen across the country are wrong. Theyre unacceptable. I have said before, this suspect about politics. Its about keeping our children safe. Its about taking on the virus together. United. I made it clear that ill stand with those who are trying to do the right thing. Last week i called School Superintendents in Florida And Arizona to thank them for doing the right thing and requiring masks in their schools. One of them said we teach science so we follow the science. The other said that they have a guiding principle. Students first. I couldnt agree more with what they both said. Thats why today im directing the secretary of education, an educator himself, to take steps the protect our children. This includes using all authority and legal action if appropriate against governors who are trying to block and intimidate local school officials. As i said before, if you arent going to fight covid19 at least get out of the way of Everyone Else whos trying. We are not going to sit by as governors try to block educators from protecting the children. If a governor wants to cut the pay of a leader the money from the american Rescue Plan with pay that Persons Salary 100 . Ill say more about children in schools next week but as we head into the School Year remember this. The centers for Disease Control and prevention said that masks are critical especially for those not yet vaccinated like our children under the age of 12. Lets follow the educators and the scientists that know about how to teach the children and keep them safe than any politician. This administration is always going to take the side of our children. Next want to talk to those of you who can get vaccinated but you havent. The Delta Variant is twice as transmissible as the alpha variant. It is dangerous and it continues to spread. Vaccines are the key to stopping it. Were making progress. Today more than 90 of seniors have at least had One Shot and 70 of people over 12 have gotten the first shot. Thats good news. We need to go faster. Thats why im taking steps on Vaccination Requirements where i can. Already i have outlined vaccine requirements. Federal workers and contractors. Medical staff caring for veterans and active military and reservists. Today a new step. If you work in a Nursing Home and serve people on Medicare Or Medicaid you will also be required to get vaccinated. More hand 130,000 residents in Nursing Homes have sadly over the period of this virus passed away. The same time, Vaccination Rates among Nursing Home Staff Trail the rest of the country. The studies show that highly vaccinated Nursing Home staffs is associated with at least 30 less covid19 cases in long Term Care residents. With this announcement i use the power of the federal government as a payer of Health Care Cost to ensure to reduce the risks to the most vulnerable seniors to keep people safe and out of harms way. If you walk into a Government Office Building you should know that they do everything possible to keep you safe. If youre a Veteran Seeking Care at a Va Hospital you should not be at a greater risk to walk in. If you visit, live or work in a Nursing Home you should not be at a high risk of Contracting Covid from unvaccinated employees. I continue to look for ways to keep people safe and increase Vaccination Rates. Im pleased to see the private sector stepping up. In the last week at t, amtrak, mcdonalds all announced vaccine requirements. I met with Business And Education leaders from united airlines to Kaiser Permanente to howard university. More than 50 Health Systems in the 2 weeks announced vaccine requirements. Colleges and universities are requiring more than 5 Million students to be vaccinated as they return to classes this fall. All of this makes a difference. The Wall Street Journal reported the share of Job Postings stating that new hires must be vaccinated has nearly doubled in the past month. Governors and mayors in california, maryland, massachusetts, New York, oregon and washington have all announced Vaccination Requirements. So lets be clear. Vaccination requirements have been around for decades. Students, Health Care professionals, our troops are typically required to receive vaccines to prevent everything from polio to smallpox to rubella. In fact, reason most people in america dont worry about polio, smallpox, mumps, Rubella Today is because of vaccines. It only makes sense to require a vaccine that stops the spread of covid19. Its time for others to step up. Employers have more Power Today to end this pandemic than buffalo. My message is simple. Do the right thing for your employees. Consumers and your businesses. Lets remember the key tool to keeping our economy going stronger is to get people vaccinated and at work. I know that ill have your back they should know i will have their back as i have the back of the states trying to do the right thing. For example, yesterday i instructed the federal Emergency Management Agency fema to extend full reimbursement to State Developments the state deployments of National Guard in support of covid19 response. Nearly 18,000 National Guard members are supporting the response nationwide. From caring for patients to administering vaccines to distributing supplies. As the states continue to recover from the economic toll the full reem reimbursements w continue the economic recovery. These are the latest steps to get more people vaccinated. Next, i want to speak to you all All Of You who are vaccinated. How should you be thinking about the first know that youre high will protected against severe Illness And Death from covid19. Only a small fraction of people going to the Hospital Today are those vaccinated. We have a responsibility to give them maximum amount of protection, all the of you the maximum amount. Earlier today the medical experts announced a plan for Booster Shots to every fully vaccinated adult american. This will boost your immune response, Increase Protection from covid19. Its the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise. The plan for every adult to get a Booster Shot eight months after you got the second shot. Pending approval from the Food And Drug administration the Cdc Committee of outside experts will be ready to start the Booster Program during the week of september 20. Anyone vaccinated on or before January 20 will be eligible to get a Booster Shot. So that means that if you got your second shot february 15th, youre eligible to get the Booster Shot october 15. If you got your second Shot March 15 go for the booster starting November 15 and so on. Remember as a single rule eight months after the second shot get a Booster Shot. These Booster Shots are free. Wed be able to get the Booster Shots at any one of 80,000 Vaccination Locations nationwide. It will be easy. Just show the Vaccination Card and get a booster. No other i. D. No insurance. No state residency requirement. We have been planning for this scenario for months. We purchased enough Vaccine And Vaccine supplies so that when your eightmonth mark comes up you will be ready to get your vaccination free and Booster Shot free and we have it available and will make you safer and for longer and help us end the pandemic faster. Now, know some World Leaders say America Shouldnt get a third shot until other countries got the first shot. I disagree. We can take care of america and help the world at the same time. In june and July America administered 50 Million shots here in the United States and donated 100 Million shots to other countries. That means that americas donated more vaccine to other countries than every other country in the world combined. During the coming moths of fall and early winter we expect to give out about 100,000 boosters and the United States will donate more than 200 Million additional doses to other countries. This will keep us on the way to meeting the pledge of more than 600 Million vaccine donations. Over half a billion. I said before, we are going to be the arsenal of vaccines to beat this pandemic as we were the arsenal of democracy to win World World War ii. The threat of the Delta Virus remains real. But we are prepared. We have the tools. We can do this. So all the those of you who are unvaccinated please get vaccinated. For yourself and for your loved ones, your neighborhood and community. And to the rest of america, this is no time to let our guard down. We just need to finish the job with science, with facts and with confidence. And together, as the United States of america, well get this done. God bless you all and may god protect our troops. Thank you. Mr. President talk about recognize taliban President Biden there making some news on a couple of fronts. He foreshadowed a speech next week on specifically focused on back to school, kids and being safe in the classroom. But in this speech he underscored a message thats increasingly clear from this White House. Different measures, different policies and prescriptions for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The number of eligible unvaccinated adults down to 85 Million. I think the last time he addressed the country on this topic is 93 Million and the White House putting some teeth in Vaccine Encouragement and mandates. Doctor, tell me what you heard that will move the needle in terms of getting more people vaccinated in that 83 Million eligible but unvaccinated american category. So i think one of the most important things that the president can do is search every single possible avenue to mandate vaccines. He talked about mandating vaccines for federal and medical workers in hospitals where the hospitals are getting Medicaid Or Medicare funds. The Va System and so forth and many more avenues to be exposed and the sooner the better to get as many as possible of private entities, universities and businesses and event venues to say you want to come in here and come into the workplace and go to this concert . You must prove that you have been vaccinated and all of that is really good but the Head Wind is the fact that we have an incredible resistance from governors who are being driven by some toxic combination of breath taking ignorance or such woeful recklessness. People like Governor Desantis in florida is so far Out Of Control in really baseless resistance and trying to impede even schools from demanding that vaccines should be mandated. They should be. Hillsborough, florida, that county had something on the order of 8,500 students and teachers and staff either quarantined or testing positive, et cetera. Its really Out Of Control. Unfortunately the governors in texas and mississippi and Alabama And Florida are Resistance Force that we have its really impeding the ability of america to get control of the pandemic, nicolle. A. B. Stoddard, he is adding to his arsenal. This president will direct the Department Of Education to use all their tools. Hes freed up covid Relief Funds to pay for teachers in School Districts that get Cut Off by the likes of Governor Desantis. Hes requiring Covid Vaccinations for all longTerm Care workers who serve Medicare And Medicaid enrollees. Thats everybody. Thats all Nursing Homes. Hes requiring every Nursing Home employee and longTerm Care Facility Employee to be vaccinated because theres some that dont take medicare. Theyre not the ones serving the vast majority of the older population. They really are putting teeth. Theyre adding to their sort of Leverage Pile every single week. Yeah, back to what i was saying, i think the president knew when he came in that getting this pandemic under control was the first priority under his mandate. I think after watching them kind of really nervously tried to Bob And Weave on the Vaccine Mandate debate. Theyre stepping right in and saying employers can really put the delta On The Run and curb this explosion of infections and get this under control. I think its really good. I think its really exceptionally important that hes stepping into the debate about students. You know, if he has to go into a political, you know, backandforth with Governors Abbott and desantis which hes also tried to avoid, then he should. He should really make the contrast clear to people about who is helping the Infection Spread and whos trying to help bring it under control and how it has to be brought under control. I think he should use all the forces of the government and take the political hits from the people who were looking to do that anyway, right, to make masks the Front Prop of the culture war, to say that any kind of Vaccine Mandate is totalitarian. Its time to take them on, because the numbers are so dangerous. And he actually has made some headway if you look at the Vaccination Rates. People are changing their minds. Theyre hearing about people at Deaths Door expressing their regret. Employers are telling them you cant come back without one. Thats whats moving the numbers and im glad the White House is stepping into this debate more forcefully. Im going to add to our conversation our coverage, eugene daniels, coauthor of playbook and lucky for us an msnbc contributor. The president is also answering dr. Redleners question. Theyre announcing boosters. Theyre recommending that eight months after the second vaccine that anyone received that was either Pfizer Or Moderna people go in and get a Booster Shot. It was described to me by senior white House Officials an added layer of protection. They laid out in the Briefing Today a lot of protection still from those two vaccines but to get back up to those 90, 92 levels the Booster Shot is requiring. The president said i disagree with people who think i shouldnt use those to protect my country and the citizens here. I think that is absolutely what we should be doing. Again, this president saying it is my choice, it is my decision to have enough supply for a booster for every american. Eugene, we lost you. Ill come back to you because that was your point before the president s speech. Dr. Redlener . Yeah, so i first of all, i understand where the president is coming from, of course. However, i think the World Health Organization, as ive said many times before, is pleading with the u. S. And other wealthy countries to please be cognizant of the global need. This is not just a matter of humanitarian perspective, which of course it is, but its also a matter that if we dont get countries where theres less than 2 Vaccination Rates under control and start vaccinating people, they will be Breeding Grounds for fermenting Virus Growth and the development of mutations which will eventually get here. It could be much worse, even the delta vaccine. So theres a practical reason to pay a lot of attention to what w. H. O. Is asking for. The other thing is we dont really have Fda Approval yet for a third dose and were going to get it hopefully eventually. But right now i think it was maybe a little premature to make this announcement in my opinion. I get where hes coming from, but i think there is other factors to be considered. And i wish, i guess, that we could have waited a bit before being so definitive about September 20th as a start date. Eugene daniels, as a. B. Has said and as this White House has made clear, beating the virus has been mission critical for this president and this White House. They have achieved the unthinkable. They really have managed to get needles in the arms of a really challenging moment with our country with disinformation being pumped into about 40 to 50 of the country. What do you make of this more aggressive policybacked posture that theyre taking with the unvaccinated . I think one of the things that they know is that they have to get a handle on this. They have talked about this for the last month or so. They started to get more aggressive first on misinformation and disinformation. Then you heard the president start calling this a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And youre starting to see the president and the administration and their allies talking about and putting more pressure on the private industry to help out here, right, because like a. B. Said, if you cant go if youre in New York and you cant go to the restaurant, maybe then youll go ahead and get that vaccine that youve been putting off. More importantly, if you live in a place that has low Vaccination Rates but has high levels of the Delta Variant or whatever variant that is coming next, then possibly if you cant go anywhere or interact with people, that will change things. So that is one of the things they are hoping to do. Also, like a. B. Said, theyre taking the fight on with governors and others who are as the president has said to us in the Press Corps over and over and over, he feels like they are standing in the way. And that is something i think that this administration is going to be doing and doing it more leaning on policy folks and Health Experts to lead on that because they also want to keep politics out of it as much as possible even though as we all know its really impossible at this rate. Truer words. Eugene dan yelds, dr. Irwin redlener, a. B. Stoddard, thank you to spending time with us and bobbing and weaving with the Breaking News. The next hour of deadline White House starts after a very short break. Dont go anywhere, were just getting started. Anywhere, wer getting started. And our customers rated us 1 for Network Quality in america according to j. D. Power. Number one in reliability, 16 times in a row. Most awarded for Network Quality, 27 times in a row. Proving once again that nobody builds networks like verizon. Thats why were building 5g right, thats why theres only one best network. Tech every customer has their own safelite story. This couple was on a camping trip. When their windshield got a chip. They drove to safelite for a sameday repair. And with their insurance, it was no cost to them. Woman really . Tech thats service you can trust. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Is your family ready for an emergency . 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Batteries and first Aid Kit are a good start thats cute, but my internet streams to my ride. Adorable, but does yours Block Malware . Nope. It crushes it. Pshh, mines so fast, No One can catch me. Thats because you all have the same internet. Xfinity xfi. So powerful, it keeps oneupping itself. Can your internet do that . When i came into office, i inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the taliban. There would have been no ceasefire after may 1. There was no agreement protecting our forces after may 1. There was no Status Quo of stability without american casualties after may 1. There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more american troops back into combat in afghanistan. Lurching into the third decade of conflict. I stand squarely behind my decision. Hi again, everyone. Its 5 00 in the east as we continue to cover the current administration, the Biden Administrations handling of afghanistan where at the moment the speed of evacuations has picked up. Thousands are still trying to escape taliban rule. We cannot forget what came before all of this. President biden ultimately did make the final decision to leave afghanistan, but this was a conflict three president s before him have contended with and his predecessor, who in the last few days has been very outspoken against this current administration and their handling of afghanistan, well, he was the one who set the stage for exactly what has transpired. Lets take a little trip back in time. In 2018 at the request of the u. S. Government, the man who is now set up to become the new leader of talibanled afghanistan was freed from prison. Npr reported at the time, quote, freeing him was long viewed as a Goodwill Gesture with the potential to bring the taliban to the table. In 2019, trump planned a secret meeting with the taliban at camp david, right around the anniversary of september 11th. He had to call it off after a bombing by the taliban In Kabul killed an american. In february of last year, trump announced a deal negotiated with the taliban and without the involvement of the afghan government. That deal included an agreement to withdraw all american troops by may 1st, 2021, to lift sanctions against the taliban and to free 5,000 imprisoned taliban soldiers. And then the expresident went further to undermine the deal. Heres Donald Trumps former defense secretary, mark esper, explaining how trump laid the groundwork for the situation were currently in. My concern was that President Trump by continuing to want to withdraw american forces out of afghanistan undermined the agreement, which is why in the fall when he was calling for a return of u. S. Forces by christmas, i objected and formally wrote a letter to him, a memo based on recommendations from the Military Chain Of Command and my senior civilian leadership that we not go further, that we not reduce below 4,500 troops unless and until conditions were met by the taliban, otherwise we would see a number of things play out, which are unfolding right now in many ways. Now up on Capitol Hill, were seeing many republicans lay all of the blame for everything thats happening on President Biden, completely ignoring the role that the expresident played. Heres democratic Congressman Tom Me Laski calling them out, there are two types of republicans right now criticizing President Biden. The ones who have been consistent, who opposed this process when trump began it and the ones who are totally opportunistic and hypocritical like Kevin Mccarthy who did nothing to stop trump from initiating the withdrawal. But the heat on President Biden is also coming from people within his own party. Three senate committees are demanding answers from his administration. Politico reports the impending reviews on Capitol Hill could be the Biden Administrations first significant headache when it comes to congressional oversight. With democrats in control of both chambers, the White House has seen little public pressure from its allies on the hill. That posture is about to change. All of which presents us with the situation in our Nations Capital that looks all too familiar, says our good friend, matthew dowd, who tweeted this. Quote, the response by the gop and so many democrats in d. C. To events in afghanistan underlines what ive been saying for years. Gop feels no shame and dems feel Shame Way too quickly. Biden is right in what he is doing. Support him vigorously. That is where we begin with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Julian barr, also retired u. S. Army Colonel Jack jacobs, medal of Honor Recipient and Msnbc Military Analyst and the aforementioned Matt Dowd, founder of Country Over Party who always tells it like it is. Matt, im going to start with you. You give voice to something that i think a lot of people feel. I think that this decision to leave afghanistan has the support of a wide swath of both people that may have voted for the expresident and obviously the biden coalition. This president wants to keep the coverage and the conversation around the decision to leave. Obviously there are other things going on, but your point is that democrats dont do the whole circling of the wagons that republicans do. Explain. Thank you, nicolle. This has become such a predictable thing that ive observed over the years, and now as you know ive been very critical of the republicans. But the democrats, time and time and time again keep acting as if theyre going to play by the old rules of were going to all be nice to each other and were going to do this and were going to back off and were going to feel guilty about stuff and respond with a committee and were going to do this. Republicans could care less about any of that. They could care less. Democrats, every single time theres some pushback on some crisis or some situation, not all democrats, many democrats just fold. And i think this is a point in time where they should be standing up vociferously in the midst of this. Obviously theres questions to be asked about everything thats gone on in the last 72, 96 hours related to afghanistan. But thats not what this is really fundamentally about right now. Thats not what this is about. And i keep raising the question of were focusing on this issue, asking the questions that need to be asked, great, all of thats fine. But were in the middle of losing our democracy at home, right . And the democrats how many months and weeks did it take until finally a committee has been put together. We saw one day of hearings and weve not seen anything else any more from what happened on January 6th. They dont seem to have a capability of standing up for Joe Biden in a really strong forthright manner in the midst of this and saying, listen, Joe Biden is right about this. Weve been here 20 years. Its a mistake. The building has been falling down. Weve been trying to put it together by patchwork. Enoughs enough. Weve lost too many american lives in afghanistan for us to stay any longer. Thats what they ought to be arguing about. But again, democrats, you see it in sex scandals, what happened to Andrew Cuomo. You see it in almost every single issue. They jump first, and i agreed with the Andrew Cuomo resignation, but republicans never do any of that. So as i said, its pretty clear republicans zero shame on anything, zero shame on anything. Democrats feel it way too quickly and back off way too quickly when right now they should be standing up for President Biden in the midst of whats going on in the country. And i think, julian barnes, thats where a lot of the Voting Public is. I think the public sees the alternative to President Biden as this soulless, antidemocratic leaning republican party. And ive covered your reporting yesterday. General milley seemed to respond to it today. There seemed to already be some interest in oversight on in the senate, the democraticled senate. I wonder if you can just bring us the latest on the reaction to questions about the intelligence that this White House consumed not in april when it announced the Withdrawal Buts as the conditions changed after that announcement. Yeah. And youre exactly right. You know, in april the intelligence gave a fairly long estimate, 18 to 24 months. There was time before the afghan government collapsed. But, you know, the situation on the ground changed really quickly. And it was apparent by july that it was getting really quite worse. And there were a number of intelligence reports that went to congress, that went to the White House, that really laid out plain that the timeline was collapsing. Now, you pointed out there was pushback from General Milley. He said he didnt see a report that said the collapse of the government was 11 days away. Thats a little bit of an unrealistic ask for an intelligence agency, to make a very specific prediction. But, you know, we also had a comment from Admiral Haynes that they did miss the ultimate collapse. They werent able to predict that they were five days away, ten days away, but there was adequate warning here. Warning that they need to speed up the evacuations and that the situation on the ground was changing. And so that is for the White House to answer, why not more preparation for a chaotic end. I want to show you i mean answering they are, they have got the president doing a big interview with Abc Anchor George stephanopolous. We have our first excerpt from that interview where he fields some of these very questions julian is talking about. Let me show it to All Of You and well talk about it on the other side. When you look at whats happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, Execution Or Judgment . Look, i dont think it was a fail look, it was a simple choice, george. When the taliban let me put it another way. When you had the government of afghanistan, the leader of that government get in a plane and taking off and going to another country, when you saw the significant collapse of the afghan troops we had trained, 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off, that was thats what happened. Thats simply what happened. But weve all seen the pictures. Weve seen those hundreds of people packed into a c17. Weve seen afghans falling that was four days ago, five days ago. What did you think when you first saw those pictures . What i thought was we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did. So you dont think this could have been handled better in any way . No mistakes . No, i dont think it could have been handled in a way that were going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow theres a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, i dont know how that happens. I dont know how that happened. So for you that was always priced into the decision . Yes. Colonel jack jacobs, is that right, that what unfolded was inevitable, preordained . No, no. And no. Ill take what julian said one step further. Dont forget that we had three administrations in a row that made the decision to get out. President obama started withdrawing troops in 2011. Thats ten years ago by my calculation. We went from more than 100,000 down to 2,500. Thats almost an order of magnitude. Theres a lot of blame to go around. And i think the military and the State Department can share some of it. Weve had years to plan and exit. This is not a complicated mission. Weve done it before. There was a plan on the books to do it. And when it was finally executed, it had an inadequate supply of troops. Remember, originally it was going to be 3,000 troops, about 1,000 of whom were support troops. One battalion, the 82nd Airborne Division was going to be in reserve. As soon as the commander got on the ground, he had to commit the reserve immediately and reconstitute the reserve with another 2,000 troops. Everybody whos wearing four stars, all those highranking people at the top of the military Food Chain had all been to afghanistan for the last 20 years. They knew exactly what it took in order to accomplish this mission and for some inexplicable reason there was nothing but Complacency And Inaction and In The End ineptitude. Nobody is arguing that we should not have gotten out. But the question of when and how, that turned out to be an absolute disaster. Matthew dowd, i understand the case youre making. Your point is that a Functioning Party has these conversations. Theyre capable of having an after Action Analysis where mistakes are acknowledged. You and President Biden are having an adjacent conversation that the fact that chaos ensued is the reason we had to go. We were a crutch. We werent training anybody. Minutes after we withdrew, the intelligence that julian reports on, picture changed because the psychological impact of having a date for our withdrawal and our absence in the state created a psychological vacuum immediately. Where do you put the solution . Is It Solutionless . Do we go back to a pre9 11 picture of afghanistan . What are your thoughts on that . Well, to me, you can analyze this from a 20year or actually more than that, a 40year or 50year perspective. Much of where we started, started with reagan and moved into George Herbert Walker bush and then moved into clinton. But listen, i think what Joe Biden made the decision that george w. Bush and Barack Obama knew had political consequences and didnt make the decision. They knew that when we finally made the decision to leave and pull out, the sort of House Of Cards afghan government was going to fall. I think they all knew that. I think they have known that all along. I think everybody as weve watched this. For it to fall that fast that quick means it wasnt ever built on solid ground. Maybe thats the question to be asked of whoever thought this was going to be successful to begin with and whoever thought it was actually working was wrong, because it was never working. And if the idea i mean this was going to fall this was on its way falling before we even pulled out the last 3,000 troops. I dont know what the answer is. Every single solution, a Hammer Isnt required. I think Joe Biden has finally come to the place where the use of the military, our use of the military shouldnt be the first decision, shouldnt be the second decision, shouldnt be the third decision. Its time we end this. Weve lost thousands of people. Ill just put this in context. No american lives have been lost in afghanistan in the last year, none. No american lives of been lost in afghanistan in the last year. So far in the midst of this chaotic withdrawal, no american lives have been lost. 100 american lives are lost a day by Gun Violence in america. 1,000 were lost by covid yesterday. And so i think in the media and in our conversations, yes, we should do an after Action Report like General Milley said. We should always do an after Action Report on all of these. But we need to put it in the context and we need to fundamentally understand we were in a place since 2001 that never wanted our form of government or our sense of democracy and was a tribal country and was going to revert back to a tribal country the minute we took our Hands Off of it. Thats the fundamental problem and thats what we need to understand. Julian, some of the conversation in national security circles wasnt seriously considered by Donald Trump either and that was leaving a number of troops there to have eyes and ears on the ground, to make sure that Al Qaeda didnt regain its foothold or another Terrorist Group that threatened our country. The president seemed willing to address that as well, to discuss Terror Threats all over the world in places where we dont have the military. But its an important piece for people to understand that for Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who saw the world in completely opposite ways, neither man had staying in afghanistan indefinitely on their to do list. Thats right. And i think if the events of the last weeks have shown us anything is it was an indefinite mission. There was not a path forward of training for another five years or another ten years. You know, it would have been propping up an afghan government that wasnt working indefinitely. And so theres not that much debate about whether we should have stayed. It would have been an indefinite commitment of a sizeable number of troops and a lot of money for a lot of time. I think the questions now are, you know, was there a better way to exit, a way that got out more of the people who had helped us over the years, that had secured more of the way to watch for future Terrorist Threats in neighboring countries or in afghanistan. I mean the deal, though, was made by the previous administration. It was made by Donald Trump. And the flaws of that deal, which called for an immediate exit of all u. S. Troops with no lingering presence, with a limited way to do Counterterrorism Strikes in the future, those were from the previous administration, that agreement. And people should just keep that longer lens both offered by julian and by Matt Dowd as we process all the things that you, Colonel Jack, have talked about. It is a complicated picture. Well look forward to the rest of President Bidens interview with George Stephanopolous and continue to follow this with all your help. Julian barnes, Colonel Jack jacobs, thank you for starting us off this hour. Matt dowd sticking around. When we return, much more on the Breaking News of last hour. President biden calling out in some of the most direct terms to date those Red State Governors amid rising coronavirus cases in their states. Hes also recommending Booster Shots. Tom frieden will be our guest next and the u. S. Surgeon general will be with us later as well. Plus republicans in georgia inching closer to a potential takeover of elections in that states largest and most Democratic County all predicated on the false notion of Vote Fraud in 2020. What democrats are doing to fight back against the gops slowrolling assault on democracy. Deadline White House continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. K break. Dont go anywhere. Mobi app . Yeah, actually im taking One Last Look at my dashboard before we board. And you have thinkorswim mobile so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. You two are all set. Choose the app that fits your investing style. At usaa, weve been called too exclusive. Because we were created for officers. But as weve evolved with the military, weve grown to serve all whove honorably served. No matter their rank, or when they were in. A marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from 73. And even his kids. 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Only a small fraction of people going to the Hospital Today are those who have been vaccinated. We have a responsibility to give the maximum amount of protection, All Of You the maximum amount. The threat of the Delta Virus remains real. But we are prepared. We have tools. We can do this. So all those of you who are unvaccinated, please get vaccinated. President biden just in the last hour as his administration takes action to add what a senior white House Official describes as another layer of protection for vaccinated americans with Booster Shots. Its a major step in this Countrys Fight against the Delta Variant and also the slow and expected waning Vaccine Protection over time. It comes as 85 Million americans who are vaccine eligible havent yet received One Shot. Lets bring into our Coverage Dr. Tom frieden, former cdc director, now the President And Ceo of resolve to save lives. Our friend, Matt Dowd, is still here. Let me show both of you something else this president said taking some of his most aggressive posture against those redstate governors who are playing politics with masks. Unfortunately, as weve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public Safety Measures, that is children wearing masks in school, into political disputes for their own political gain. Some are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in schools. Theyre setting a dangerous tone. Intimidation and threats were seeing across the country are wrong. Theyre unacceptable. Dr. Frieden, weve often asked i think in the last four years if theres any bottom for the gop. Matt and i both worked in the gop. It seems that this political fight over kids, especially kids under 12 who are not eligible for any Vaccine Protection wearing masks, represents a purely political posture. I wonder what you think the White House is able to achieve by taking a stronger line and defending states and School Districts who want to protect their students with Mask Mandates . Im a physician, not a politician so i wont comment on the politics. But i will comment on the science. Its really, really important that we get our kids back in School Learning in person and staying there, despite the Delta Variant, which makes it much more difficult for this to occur. And that can be done, but only if we use a layered approach of protecting our kids, protecting our teachers, protecting the staff in schools. That means vaccinating everyone who can be vaccinated, masking up, increasing ventilation, getting ready for cases and clusters because they will occur and having extra protection for those few students and staff who have serious underlying conditions and may be at particular risk. The president also previewed, dr. Frieden, that hed have more to say next week about back to school, but this is so important, i think, to moms and dads who have kids in this under 12 age group. Theres one more, theres Pool Testing as well. Can you talk about schools that successfully got through a year of Inperson Learning . We focus on these southern schools banning masks, but there are a lot of schools in other parts of the country that are doing all of this. Its a Vaccine Mandate for teachers and everyone eligible, its a Mask Mandate for everyone vaccinated and unvaccinated, its weekly testing, its social distancing, its cohorts and pods. Can you talk about what that does . Well, one thing not to lose sight of is ventilation. That can be as simple as opening the windows or as complicated as trying to retrofit some of the older Ventilation Systems in some of the schools. Basically, you want to bring more of the outside air inside. You want to increase air changes, increase outdoor activities. Testing is something that can have a lot of value. It needs to be done in the right context, in the right way, with the right followup. And weve seen some universities do that very successfully. Were also seeing universities implement Vaccine Mandates for their students. And that makes a lot of sense. Youve got a lot of people in a short in a small amount of space, and thats coming up in a short period of time. So the more people we get vaccinated, the better. But Theres Something i think we need to step back and say, which is if we look at whats happening in the u. S. With spiking cases and if we look at whats happening globally with continued widespread uncontrolled transmission of covid, it is from not the failure of the vaccine, the vaccines are working great, it is from the failure to ensure that the vaccines are taken. That means access globally and uptick in the u. S. Thats our Achilles Heel here, that we dont have enough people vaccinated. Because of that, there is spiking cases. Now, what were seeing from Around The World is also sobering. If you look at israel where they have almost 80 full vaccination, theyre having a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. We dont have all of the details on that, but thats, i think, one of the reasons why the administration is looking proactively at the need for booster doses. The challenge here is that you really want to make sure that the vaccines are working great. They are protecting people from serious Illness And Death. But we dont have enough of them globally and we dont have enough people accepting them in this country. So, matthew, ill honor the physicians request to stay out of politics, but the problem here, Inadequate Uptake is a political crisis. Its because 40 of the country has been fed bs and lies from people who work in places that absolutely have Vaccine Recommendations and standards and yet they preach the kinds of things that make people reluctant to get vaccinated. The mask feels like the next level of politics around that same population. I wonder where you think the breakthrough lies, if it is in our future . Well, i think that i think it really is about 25 of the population in the United States when you look at all the studies and look at all the polling on it. Theres about 25 of the country thats basically saying theyre going to refuse to get a vaccine and basically refuse to ever wear a mask. Thats thats solid. And i dont think theres much changing it because that part of the population has an emotional and cultural attachment to not getting vaccinated and to not wearing a mask. And you cannot break an emotional attachment with a rational argument, it never works for anything. You cant break an emotional attachment with a rational argument. And so In The End i actually think were going to have to deal with this by the only means necessary, which is force people to do the right thing. Businesses force their employees, basically say if you dont get a vaccine, youre not working here. Airlines force the people and say if you dont get a vaccine, youre not going to work here. If you dont get a vaccine, youre not going to fly on our airline. I think thats the only way to break the 25 . But i have a more fundamental, as we watch this debate and its been a lot of things. The problem is that group of people does not believe in a sense of common sacrifice and the Common Good. The idea if somebody is an idiot and doesnt want to get a vaccine for themselves, theyre an idiot and i wish them well. But the idea they dont get a vaccine and theyre not protecting other people is basically the disregard for the rest of their community. And i think thats our politics. The gop, and ive said this before, has become the party of i, i, i, me, me, me. They no longer think that as an American Citizen theyre supposed to be part of the Common Good and a part of the we. And thats a fundamental break with our tradition going back 240 years as spoken to by almost every single president , including john f. Kennedy who said ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Were no longer in that place with that 25 . So In The End making a rational argument to them is not going to work, or trying to get somebody to stand up and break through that 25 . The only way we break through the 25 is mandating vaccines and mandating masks. Dr. Frieden, vaccines have always been mandated. Anyone thats sent a kid to Camp Or School or on a Field Trip has had to provide a Vaccination Record for that kid and there are lots of countries that americans Cant Travel to without producing their Vaccination Record. I used to carry mine around when i was a White House staffer. What is different . Is it just our politics . What is different about the public health measures being recommended by scientists and doctors and a country where you describe it as a lack of uptake. I think matthew is describing a 25 that is just refusing for cultural reasons to participate in these measures. What is sort of the scientific view of why this is so difficult . Our two most powerful tools to fight covid are vaccinations and masks. And unfortunately, both of them have themselves been infected by toxic partisanship. And thats making us much more vulnerable to the pandemic. But what youre seeing, as cases increase again, as people recognize that its going to get in the way of jobs, get in the way of business, get in the way of learning, and its going to kill people is an increasing acceptance of the necessity of vaccination and masks indoors and an increasing acceptance of Vaccine Mandates. You see Tyson Foods mandating vaccination for their employees. And thats really a bellwether that industry understands here, hey, this isnt about politics, this isnt about ideology, this is about keeping businesses afloat, keeping our schools open, keeping our Economy Humming and saving lives. Thats something that i think will grow. With that, one of the issues thats going to be challenging is Vaccine Verification. Once you say you have to mandate vaccinations, you have to have a way of knowing whether or not that mandate is enforceable, and that means you need a valid, accurate, reliable Vaccine Verification certificate. And i would take some exception with what was just said. I think there are a lot of people who have a lot of questions about the vaccine. They may be most likely to get it if their doctors recommend it. But yes, there are a lot of people who will only get it once they are mandated to get it. We saw a very positive Move Today with the Biden Administration requiring Nursing Home workers to get vaccinated basically or the Nursing Home may lose Medicare And Medicaid funding. Thats really important, because the Nursing Homes have been Ground Zero for this pandemic. And a Nursing Homeworker who is unvaccinated is really a potential deadly risk for the people they are responsible for carrying for. Dr. Tom frieden, its a privilege to get to talk to you today. Thank you for spending some time with us and fielding our questions. Matt dowd is sticking around. When we come back, never mind that there wasnt any evidence of systematic voter fraud. Georgia republicans are now moving a big step closer to a possible takeover of elections in the states biggest, most Democratic County. That is next. Atic county. That is next millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. Thats why i started medhaul. 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Relax people, my wireless is crushing it. Thats because you all have Xfinity Mobile with your internet. Its wireless so good, it keeps one upping itself. There is a reason so many people insist that the republicanled war on Voting Rights is the single most significant and important threat to our democracy since the Civil War. Today especially. It might not seem that way but the proof is all around us. Voting rights are at the center of everything weve been talking about today, whether afghan interpreters, women and children, refugees are deserving of rescue here at home and a safe place in our neighborhoods. Or, for example, whether we use every single tool available across all levels of government to get our fellow citizens vaccinated in order to conquer a very deadly, yet very beatable virus. These decisions are made by elected officials. Ultimately its the right of all americans to select who those officials are. Right now that right is under assault. In georgia, a day after we learned that that state executed a voter purge, resulting in the cancellation of more than 100,000 inactive voter registrations, today there is an alarming new development. Georgias republicancontrolled State Election Board inched closer to a possible takeover of elections in Fulton County. Fulton county is a blue county. It is the states largest. It is the county that propelled president Joe Biden to victory before becoming the subject of baseless gop claims of voter fraud. Now a, quote unquote, Performance Review could be the first step toward a State Takeover which would leave it right open to political interference in future elections. Theres some encouraging news to tell you about on this. House democrats have introduced a new Voting Rights bill named after the late John Lewis that would restore and strengthen parts of the gutted Voting Rights act of 1965. Lets add to our conversation our friend, the reverend al sharpton, the president of the national action network. Matt dowd is still here. Rev, first on what is under way in georgia, their Voter Restriction Law was the first passed. It resulted in the boycott of major league baseballs allstar game. This, though, was the part of that law that a lot of people were most afraid of, undermining who counts the votes. Talk about this step that they have taken to take control of elections in Fulton County. We must first underscore that Fulton County is a majority black district, so the racial element is clear. But one of the things that comes to mind when i heard about this is that 58 years ago next saturday, Martin Luther King made his speech i have a dream. In it he talked about governors whose lips were dripping with the words of nullification. 58 years later his son and i are leading a march on the capitol. If we dont have federal law, Georgia And Anyone else can do what they want. What this particular decision is doing is giving georgia the ability to nullify votes. If they can choose who counts the votes, who are on the county commissions, they can select which votes are valid or not, which is the definition of nullification. What they are doing in georgia and in other states, but particularly in georgia around Fulton County is tantamount to spitting on the grave of dr. King and John Lewis. They claim to love and exalt them, but they are actually doing what is the undoing of the Keystone Legislation that they were among those responsible for. I want to read exactly what happens, and then i want to come back to you, rev, and ask you if the federal legislation undoes what im about to describe if its ultimately passed. This is from the associated presss reporting on this. The State Board could eventually suspend the County Board if it finds Evidence County officials violated State Election laws or rules three times since 2018 and have not fixed violations. It could also remove the County Board if it finds that during at least two elections over two years, the board has shown nonfeechbs, malfeasance or gross negligence. The State Election Board currently with a 31 republican majority would appoint a temporary administrator to run Fulton County elections if it finds wrongdoing. Now, that sounds fine, right . You finding malfeasance or gross negligence, thats bad. But when you look at whos going to be the arbiter, the referee, that seems to be where this becomes extremely political, rev. Its who has the power of defining what is malfeasance. Whos defining what is wrong . And when you have a 31 board thats going to decide whether or not the County Election officers engaged in malfeasance, it reminds me of the three votes in the Supreme Court that just gave us the Arizona Law that in many ways took section 2 out of the Voting Rights act. So when you have a republican or rightwing stacked state commission, even if it was the other way around, you are handing them the political ammunition to fire at will and nullify peoples votes. That is antithetical to a democracy. How are we preaching democracy in afghanistan all the way to cuba and right in georgia, they have systemically erasing the principles of the democratic election by nullifying the votes on the Back End and on the front end purging voters for being able to vote in the first place. Matt dowd, you and i and the rev have all had this conversation. Its usually one we have at the top of the hour. Weve had some other news to contend with. But it brings us back to a question that all three of us ask all the time. This is so flagrant. Tragically this has been so successful, the republican effort to rig who does the counting and put in place measures to suppress the vote and make it harder to vote. What is your degree of confidence that any federal Voting Rights legislation will receive the adequate urgency that stories like this make clear it deserves, matthew . Well, i have little confidence whats the date today, august 18th, and were just now getting the House Bill to deal with this. Seven, eight months after January 6th that we finally get this situation and its in the house. My expectation it passes the house. It stops in the senate and thats where the biggest problem is because the unwillingness to get rid of the filibuster to save Voting Rights. The rev understands this well, but lets put this in historical context, nicolle. The United States of america has never had Universal Suffrage. The closest it came to Universal Suffrage in our country was in the aftermath of the 1965 Voting Rights. Thats the closest its come. We didnt have it in the beginning when only property owning White Protestant males could vote and then it extended to Nonproperty Owner Males and then 140 years later it expanded to women. Then we finally gave the right to vote to africanamericans in the 1860s. Then it took another hundred years. And other minority groups, latinos and Asian Americans have suffered along the way. And so it was in the aftermath of 1965 where we came closest to what we all thought our ideal was. Whats amazing to me is weve now rolled back that. Weve rolled back that and are now making it even worse than it was before 1965 in this. And i would point to one reason why this is. Its all political, because the gop understands the changing face of america. Its been going on for 20 years and they know the only way they can continue to hold power and not be accountable for the awful things theyre doing is by restricting the right to vote or by making it harder for people to vote or by nullifying elections in this country. The last sentence underlines this completely. For the first time in american history, the number of whites in america fell. For the first time since 1790 the number of whites in america fell. Were fast approaching a time where america is going to be a majority people of color country, within the next 20 years. Thats what the republicans are scared to death of and thats why theyre doing what theyre doing. Im going to ask both of you to come back tomorrow when we have more time, because i think thats absolutely right, tying this to the census data, tying this to these maniacal push on Voter Suppression laws and looking to the senate to see what happens next. The rev al sharpton, matthew dowd, thanks for spending time with us today. When we come back, how Booster Shots could help americans regain that confidence. Remember, that confidence we felt like midjune to midjuly for the spread of the Delta Variant . The Surgeon General of the United States will be our next guest. Stay with us. Be our next guest. Stay with us im greg, im 68 years old. I do motivational speaking in addition to the substitute teaching. I honestly feel that thats my calling to give back to younger people. I think most adults will start realizing that they dont recall things as quickly as they used to or they dont remember things as vividly as they once did. Ive been taking prevagen for about three years now. People say to me periodically, man, youve got a memory like an elephant. Its really, really helped me tremendously. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. What the world needs now. Is people. People who see healthcare a little bit differently. Where technology helps doctors provide more precise care. Leading to faster, better outcomes and puts improved health in all of our hands. Because seeing a healthier World Isnt far in the future. Were building it. Now. Ge building a world that works. People with moderate to severe psoriasis, are rethinking the choices they make like the splash they create the entrance they make, the surprises they initiate. Otezla. Its a choice you can make. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats Plaque Psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory Tract Infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. We have been calling all afternoon of the Biden Administration calling for Booster Shots, extra layer of protection. Joining our coverage is u. S. Sergeant general murthy. Can you talk about the third shot to boost our immunity . Thank you, nicole, for that question. Let me walk you through how we thought about this. We know that when we look at vaccines across the board and not just covid19 but other vaccines, it is normal for the immunity and the protection you get from the vaccine to decrease overtime. We anticipate it may happen with the covid19 vaccine. We knew that delta as a variant is different. I may have impacted the protection that we were getting against mild disease and moderate disease from our vaccines. We have been studying the data closely for a number of weeks and months now, what we recently saw in a number of data was protection from mild to moderate disease was decreasing. The good news was the protection of the worse of covid, Hospitalization And Death was maintained. When we look at the trajectory of the pattern, nicole, our worries is in the months ahead of the protection that we have from the worse outcomes of covid may start to drop. We want to act early to build and extend that protection that people have of the vaccine. Which is now we announce to start offering boosters on September 20th and thats when we plan to do pending the Fda And Cdc advisory committee weighing in. Do you imagine that most adults will have a third shot before any child under 12 have a first one . It is important for children to have one and especially i am a dad, i worry about my sons health. I tell you where we are in the process. We have trials underway thats being run by the company. The fda has made the valuation of covid19 vaccines including for kids at its highest priority. As soon as data is submitted, theyll evaluate it quickly. I think that could happen before the end of this calendar year. The timeline really depends on how quickly the company are able to do the trials and get that data to the fda. There is a feeling among a lot of parents and i cover a lot of journalists that cover schools and backtoschool, american parents are entering the third School Year of a more contagious coronavirus variant, i wonder if there is more urgency could be applied to the process. I feel the worries and the anxiety that parents feel. My wife and i spent countless of times thinking how we can protect them. Especially when schools are starting, it is natural to feel anxiety. We know there are steps to do, masking and testing. From the Fdas Perspective and our perspective as an administration, this is a high priority. We got to get the data from the company, they got to finish their trials so we can evaluate. As soon as we get that trial data from the company, it will be evaluated quickly and thoroughly because we want to make sure our kids have protection and make sure those vaccines are safe for them. Do you worry and i think most viewers of my program are consumers of science and the data, thats why i started the question of science and data behind this recommendation, they were quick to put masks back on if they were after to took them off indoors. There were this little window that people felt protected Mid June and july. Now people are feeling peak, March 2020 Era Anxiety again. I wonder what you forecast for the near future. We just be sort of gaming to the variant. Whats the forecast looks like from your perspective . Well, nicole, i think all of us had hopes that over this summer we would see cases continue to go down. We would return to our prepandemic way of Life And Delta came along, a variant thats more contagious than anything we have dealt with. I feel and sense that Worry And Anxiety as a country, you know , delta has thrown a curveball at us. Our vaccines have he will out. We are still seeing that the vast majority of people who are ending up in the hospital, sadly losing their life to covid are those who are unvaccinated. I want people to recognize the decision they made to get vaccinated was the right decision. It is paying off. What we got to do is continue to expand our efforts to get more people vaccinated. If we had more people vaccinated in our country, well see fewer cases. If we get a lot of people vaccinated, i think thatll move us a giant step forward and closer to returning to our prepandemic life. Here is hoping for it. Dr. Murthy, thank you so much for spending some time with us, we are grateful to have some time with you. Well be back after a short break. Dont go anywhere. 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A Weeks Worth of food and water, radio, flashlight, batteries and first Aid Kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter. Pge. Com thank you for joining us, the beat with Ari Melber starts right now. Hi nicole. Thank you very much, i am Ari Melber. We are tracking unfolding developments in afghanistan. We begin with President Biden announcing how the u. S. Plans to fortify vaccines to americans of a third vaccine dose. We man for every adult to get a Booster Shot eight months after you got your second shot. Pending approval from the Food And Drug administration, Cdc Committee and our outside experts, well be ready to start these boosters during the week of september 20. The threat of the Delta Virus remains real