Trying to wrap our arms around the sheer scope of the damage in New York, New Jersey and pennsylvania, and the Death Toll across six states stands with 49 people including children who were trapped in homes and basements and some in cars as they tried to escape. As we await the president , it is going to be a long Labor Day Weekend for the Families Grieving the loss of Loved Ones and for many more Loved Ones the loss of their homes. And so you, this is the first time that you are coming back to seeing your home like this . Yes. And because of all of the flooding, the firefighters had a tough time getting to some of the areas, because of that flooding. Did you ever expect it to rain this much in this area . No. No, we have had heavy rain, but knotting with the flooding and maybe a little bit of the water in the basement, but nothing to get significant flooding and we have heard in the past that there were floods in the area. And you found something in the debris and what is the significance . We found the picture of our little Girl Lila and an Anniversary Card that i gave megan celebrating our fourth anniversary, and we are trying to find our wedding rings, because we had taken them off, and so far, not any luck with that, but i dont know if we will find them or not. That is devastating for the couple there in manville, New Jersey, speaking with gabe gutierrez. We also have our reports spread across, and so, now, we are understanding that some people are just get back into their homes as we saw the couple speaking with gabe, and what are the folks finding . I mean, it is interesting, geoff, some of the areas are flooded, and not far from here in manville, and not all of the water has receded and a lot of the areas are still flooded and looking at Waistdeep Water and in manville, some of the areas it has flooded so fast is because of the mega Storm Ida happened in a twohour period, anded that i have flooding here because they are surrounded by three areas and a stream and two rivers and the second they have a rise in the Water Levels and coupled with the intense amount of rain here in the last 48 hours or so, and that is why they had the extreme flooding. And The Way that the superintendent said from the Fire Department is that it becomes a island. So this is the extreme flooding here, and this is vincents home, and he has been emotional, and because of what he has been dealing with, and, and i dont want to say that to make you recognize this of how hard this is, because this is so difficult it is, and look at this, and vincent was down here in the basement, and he has eight dogs. He was trying to get them upstairs and what happened. The wall collapsed, the cinderblocks started flying at me, and the furniture started flying at me and i ran for my life to get upstairs and i just made it up. Reporter and then what . You got upstairs. I got upstairs and got the dogs in their cages and they are all alive and i ran out to move my truck and i could not get back to the house, because the water was this high when i got back and higher, and i had my three kids and my wife and kids and my father, and i couldnt get to the dogs and they sent the Rescue Raft to get my three kids back and came back and got my dogs and my wife and her father. And then luckily, the town folks and other people helped us out. What was that like to see your kids and Wife Ride up in the boat . I was happy they were safe and nobody is hurt. All of this stuff is going to be replaced eventually, but we worked so hard. And everything is gone. But we have Each Other, so i dont know what else to say. Reporter what will you do now . Where are you going to live . We are in a hotel at the moment, and people are helping us, and i dont know, we have no plans. Reporter have you file for insurance yet . I am in the process, and i am talking with them, but i dont know, i have never been through this before, so everything is new to me. Reporter i am so hard, vincent, because you put so much Love And Care into your house. And i wanted to show you this, because this is Vincents Garden here, and the entire foundation, and look at this, the entire foundation of this home is crumbling, and this house could very well buckle, and vincent says that you can smell the gas inside of the house, and i am not going to take you into the interior, and we have seen the houses that have blown up in the neighborhood, and this is the reality here, and we are having the big conversation of the Climate Change which is to protect against the Climate Change, and then what do you here are folk like vincent and so many others going to do with what they are going to do with this devastation . This is a horrible for vincent and his family. And now, To Ellison and New Orleans, and you have been reporting on this storm all week, and people there still without Power And Gas and food, and how are the people holding up now . Yeah, i mean, they are showing up in Distribution Sites like this to get assistance from the National Guard and fema. This Distribution Site is not only helping people who drive up or walk up, but this last little section if you will, it is now focused on helping the Department Of Health here, one of the leaders organizers of the site with the National Guard. They told us that they are partnering up with the Health Department here to set up the supplies and provisions that they can come to get and take to nearby nursing homes. We do have an estimate today finally of when the power might be back on in this area. We know that some power started to come on a couple of days ago, but it is less than 20 with the power back in the area of New Orleans. Now, the Energy Company, entergy, they expect to have the electricity back on for most of New Orleans by wednesday, september 8th, and for some people that is still too far away. Listen to what we have heard from some people today. No help so far . No. The lines for ice, gas, food, water, the ridiculous. I have to keep my insulin on ice. Because im a Heart Patient and im a diabetic, and so i have to have my medicine and my insulin cold, and my medicine has to be close to me. Given the water and the Ice And Everything is a lot of help, and we need more and more of it. Without the electricity, nobody can work. Reporter geoff, we have talked about the people not having necessarily the means to evacuate or to get out of the situation, and one thing they wanted to remind the viewers of is that the city of New Orleans did not open up any temporary shelters when the storm hit. They are supposed to open up a Special Needs medical shelter, but initially the mayor said it would open thursday, but now they say it is going to open saturday, and for a lot of people, this is way too long to get some vital resources and help even though the Cooling Centers has not been enough and not fast enough. Geoff. Ellison, when the Energy Company says they expect the power to be on wednesday, is that a best Case Scenario Situation or hard and fast, we will get the power back to you folks wednesday, because that is a week and a half that people there have not had access to electricity. Yeah, it is a long way away, and they got the first lights on a couple of days ago in eastern New Orleans and in the french quarter, there are some lights on there, and making a loop around the city, but, yeah, for some people, it is a best case scenario, and they expect to have the majority of the power for this area on by the 8th, by wednesday, but it is still very far away, and some people who we have spoken to are not convinced. In one area they have had trouble with the sewer and the infrastructure, and so they are not confident it can move that fast. Geoff. And shannon, we know that President Biden is in louisiana, New Orleans, and his motorcade has now left the airport and our colleagues are reporting colleagues on Air Force one said that as they were landing they could see really a sea of blue tarps which people were using to protect Roof Damage there in New Orleans. What is the president doing there today . Who is he is going to meet with . What is he going see . With local officials there to see what support the federal government can do and better coordinate and see what resources federal government can get to the local communities and the president is going to take a Walking Tour of the damage and some of the hardest Hit Parts and also take an Aerial Tour, and also, the aerial of people with Air Force one and a much more detailed Aerial Tour while he is there as well. He is going to make remark, and there is two key things to listen to or listen for in those remarks. One, infrastructure, and you heard ellison mention it before, the president is trying to sell this nearly 4 Trillion Infrastructure Package through congress, and total in Infrastructure Spending and how can that be used to help the cities like New Orleans that have been chronically faced with crumbling infrastructure rebuild, and how can that be used to help other communities to prepare for this increase in severe weather events that we are seeing in places that didnt used to see this type of weather like yasmin was at there. And another point to listen to is Climate Change and how he links the events in New Orleans to the Climate Crisis and whether or not he uses this, this time and this real, you know, confluence of disasters that we have seen across the country to personalize and humanize the Climate Crisis to turn into a way that people can feel and touch and see how is it going to affect their real lives. But most of all, the president is going to show support for the community to try to see how the federal response is going to do what it is supposed to do. Shannon pettypiece, and Ellison Barber and yasmin vossoughian, i thank you all. And now, we will go to hear from Secretary Of State to hear the taliban has full control of the country after eliminating a threat in the final place in the valley. So tell us, courtney kube, about this final pocket of resistance. Yes, there was a pocket of resistance in the panjshir valley, and this is a historic place where there has been a resistance and led in this case by the old Northern Alliance group. Many people may have heard of Ahmed Massoud who is a famed Guerrilla Warfare Leader in afghanistan who fought against the soviets in 1980s, and he is well known. He was assassinated right before september 11th, and his son is leading the resistance movement. And the taliban are saying they have taken this area back, but we are not hearing the same from the resistance movement, but it is a small group, and some of them are well trained, and even are actually some members of the ghani government who are part of this, but they did not have any outside support, and the question we have been asking the pentagon and would there be any effort on the part of the u. S. Military to support this group in the fight against the taliban and it was very clear that there was not going to be any air support, and the u. S. Military mission there is over, and so we are trying to watch to see if both sides come together, and both sides have the same message here that in fact the taliban have taken that area. We dont have full confirmation of that, geoff. And colonel jack, the European Officials said they are willing to cooperate with the new taliban government as long as they meet certain conditions, they dont export terrorism, and the taliban respects Human Right of law, and have you seen any signs whatsoever that they will comply with those things . No, and they may not do it, and they may not do it because they may not be able to. We tend to think of the taliban as a monolithic organization and because they are using terror to keep everybody under control, they will be able to control everything they need to in order to form a government and maintain control and do the things they promised us that they will do, but the taliban is not like that at all. Even if we could trust them, they are not in control of everybody. It is not a monolithic organization, and lots and lots of factions, and after they try to consolidate power inside of kabul, they are going to probably have a hard time controlling the leaders in the outlying province, and even closer to home, Controlling Haqqani by The Way, who is going to try to expand his Influence And Power and you know the old observation about the french revolution. Revolutionaries first kill their enemies and then they kill their friends and then they kill Each Other. It is unlikely that right away the taliban is going to be able to control absolutely everybody under its command everywhere in the country. So i dont think they will be able to even if they want to abide by everything they told us they will be able to do. And so given what you said, what can you tell us about who to expect to be the new leader of this new government . Well, that is it remains to be seen. They are vying right now for control inside of the area. There was a old thing that everybody always said about the previous government, central governments inside of afghanistan that, the president of the country is really only the mayor of kabul. I think that is the case here. There is so much corruption endemic there, i think that there is liable to be a facional war just for control of the control of kabul, and it is impossible to know who is going to rise to the top. Haqqani is the outlier, but he has the ability to put together a strong organization that is liable to overturn absolutely everything that the taliban has to do. Colonel Jack Jacobs and courtney kube, thank you. We will take that briefing when it starts. And texas has passed the most restrictive Abortion Law in the country and other states are vowing to follow the lead. And now, we will go live to florida that is breaking the daily records of deaths for covid19, but you would not know it by listening to the governor. 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The most pernicious thing about the Texas Law is it sort of creates a Vigilante System where people get rewards to go out to, you know, and it just seems, and i know this sounds ridiculous and almost unamerican that we are talking about. President biden says that the Justice Department is taking a hard look at the legality of the new restrictive Abortion Law in texas which bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy but relies on the citizens to enforce it, and weakens roe v. Wade, and now on Capitol Hill Nancy pelosi is pushing an effort to codify Roe Protection into federal law, and meantime, governors in Florida And South dakota are considering the antiabortion legislation of their own, and with the procedure effectively banned in texas, lawmakers have advanced another restrictive bill this time restricting medication to abortion protection. And now, joining us, you have done extensive reporting here, and take us inside of the republican strategy here inside of texas to roll out more Abortion Bans in more states. Sure. So this Abortion Ban is really critical, because it is not the first time that republicanled states have tried to ban abortion from six weeks onward that is early enough that people often dont know they are pregnant, but it is the first time that a law has succeeded in part because of the private Citizen Provision that the Supreme Court has declined to block the law largely because they did not see that the plaintiff suing the Abortion Clinics had standing because they could not prove they would be harmed so what we are seeing is the republicanled states, florida, north dakota, South Dakota and likely ohio and likely others are saying that it worked in texas, and so this is the chance that we are looking for the finally have a Sixweek Ban take effect and not be blocked by the courts even while roe v. Wade has not technicallily been overturned. Thank you for joining us. And now to add to the conversation, former Texas Senator Wendy davis. You might recall that Wendy Davis spent 13 hours on her Feet Filibustering and trying to block the state from passing an tie abortion bill. Thank you for having me, geoff. And you tried to block a bill that would ban abortion after 20 week, and this is six weeks before many women know that they are pregnant. How did texas get to this point. The bill we were filibustering is targeting regulations on bills to target the clinics and that is how we were able to ultimately overturn in the Supreme Court when Justice Kennedy was still a part of that court. Now, of course, this new law is beyond our worst nightmare. And for the first time in the history since roe has passed, we have not had a federal court at some Level Step in to intervene and block this kind of dangerous law from going into place while the constitutionality of the issue is being examined. And what that means for the 7 Millionplus women of Childbearing Age in texas right now is that they have essentially lost their right to access Abortion Care in this state. It cuts across all lines. However, i do want to stress this. That while it may be the case that your niece finds out that she is pregnant and isnt going to be able to get an abortion, you may have the ability to put her on a plane and send her to colorado or to New Mexico or New York or elsewhere to receive that care. So as has always been the case, this law is going to have a disproportionate and devastating impact on the lower impact women, and women of color who dont have the same opportunities to access Care Outside of the state as some others might. And it is also my understanding that a lot of these clinics that are being forced to close in texas, they provide a range of other Health Care services to women beyond abortion, and so women in need are, will be left without, you know, resources and access to Health Care potentially . It is a terribly diabolic situation that the radical right has instituted here in texas. They have defunded the ability for women to prevent unplanned pregnancy while simultaneously of course having government mandated pregnancy instituted, so they have no power to end a pregnancy that they, they may experience. And you know, what is really terrible is that the Abortion Clinics that are still open, that are still operating and meeting the rules as they stand right now providing abortion up to six weeks, those doctors and other Front Line medical workers are exposed to tremendous financial and legal liability as a consequence of the work they continue to do to protect women in our state. We have created a legal defense fund. Please viewers donate to it. Deeds not words. Com, and protect at least in this short term as we continue to fight this all of The Way up through the system, lets try to protect the vulnerabilities, and the financial vulnerabilities of the medical care professionals. The house speaker Nancy Pelosi says she wants roe codify into law, and President Biden called what he sees the vigilante aspect of this law as almost antiamerican, and he says that the doj is looking to see what he can do to stop it, but he is not entirely clear that the doj can stop it, and the congress has a lot of things on the todo list, and it is not entirely clear they can make this part of it, and how concerned are you about the ripple effect, and other states following texas lead absent federal action here . I am so concerned about it, geoff. It is clear as you mentioned earlier in this coverage that other states, florida and others are now coming forward saying that they are going to replicate this law or, you know, trying to outmaneuver Each Other and get more radical than other radical right members of their party. They are going to try to be even more severe against Womens Ability to access abortion in this country. We are essentially going to wind up in the situation at least in the south of the united states of america where we truly do have government mandated pregnancy, and where people like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton who are of Course Part of our radical right system here in texas will be standing in the bedroom of your nieces, your daughters, controlling what they can do with their bodies going forward. A quick question about the politics here, because there was an nbc News Poll a recent one that found that 54 of americans believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, so what is the potential here for the blowback on republicans . Well, i think that there is great potential. We always hope that as extreme and more extreme as their push against abortion becomes, there will be blowback. Here in texas, a recent poll showed that 70 of texans want roe to be left alone and for its implementations and protections in texas to be left in place. So republicans have made a real gamble here. They are worried about their primary voter and they are trying to get more radical than the next guy in those primary election battles, but they need to be careful, because we democrats are not going to stop fighting, and i think that we are going to be joined by independents and moderate republicans who do not want to lose this right. 1 in 4 people in this country has either had an abortion or knows or loves someone who has had one. This is an issue that is going to impact many, many people. Former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, i appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you. Thank you, geoff. And now we go to louisiana where President Biden is touring the damage caused by Hurricane Ida. We will bring you any statements live. And now, florida is breaking its own records of daily deaths from virus. And, getting screened for colon cancer. Thats big because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. Hey, cologuard hi. 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Uhm whatever those are, theyre not pants. [ ding ] we are following Breaking News out of louisiana this afternoon where President Biden is seeing the damage done by Hurricane Ida firsthand. With us now from houma, louisiana, and you are at a site, vaughan hillyard, where you are with supplies and they are running low. Yes, folks, thousands of them coming in here throughout the course of the morning and the afternoon looking for supplies, but they are limited here. I wanted to let you hear from kimberly brodie, one of the individuals showing up for help. We are actually packing up. I am grabbing all of this for my mom and heading out of state. Reporter what were you hoping to get this morning . Anything. Water, food, ice, gas, anything. Right now we dont have nothing. Everything has perished. We have the bare minimum, and i dont have his medicines anymore, because the windows blew out right there. Reporter geoff, hundreds of folks driving up to tell us that they need tarps for their homes or businesses because the winds sustained damage on the homes and businesses and six days later so difficult to come to grips with here, and yet, folks have been coming up here and they have been throughout the day mostly unable to get those very tarps, and out of ice and mres and those Emergency Food packs here. The National Guard here is doing what they k and they are at very much Distribution Assistance Role here, and white the folks are told to come back tomorrow, and hopefully they r and the Question Marks are at the front of our mind, and this is coming down to the state of louisiana and the federal government and their ability to get the trucks with the proper supplies in here, geoff. And vaughan, you could see kimberly, and the exhaustion on her face and hear it in her voice. Very good reporting. And now, in florida, the Coronavirus Pandemic is causing them to break records for daily deaths. It is driven by the highly contagious Delta Variant. And you would not know it hearing the governor ron desantis. He says this is because he will start imposing fines on businesses and schools who have resisted is his resistance of the mask mandates. How much longer can they continue with this restraint . I dont know how much longer they can keep going, but in palm county, they have a deficit of 210 hospital beds. They are overwhelmed there and not only short of the bed spaces, but those coming in are exhausting the medical staff there, and that is causing the burnout. Listen to mayor of Palm Beach County. And the hospitals are very much full. There is increased demand for the Health Care professionals and the nurses and doctors and those in that profession, and burnout happening. So as the demand increases and the time is going on, the people are burnt out, and they leave the profession. And it is worth noting that those who are showing up in the Covid Wards in Palm Beach County, 87 of them are unvaccinated. Really, what is going on in Palm Beach County is repeated throughout the state, and lot of High Anxiety as they are seeing the Record Number of 325 people on average dying a day from coronavirus. Geoff. Wow. So dr. Gupta, i want to broaden the conversation a little bit and mention what the New York times is reporting and our team has confirmed that officials are advising the White House to scale back the plan for booster shots, because you have said that vaccinating the rest of the world first before giving the americans a third dose is the best way to go. Help us to understand that view, and what are you saying to the people who say that is all well and good, but i want to be as protected as possible. So, you know, a key piece here, geoff, narrowing the definition of who gets a booster who versus doesnt get a booster. It is important for the public trust. What we know is that getting a second, getting a third shot of a vaccine, if you have pfizer, moderna and the twodose rejmen, and the data is for those immunocompromised or over 65 years of age, and no data for those younger than 65 and otherwise healthy and the conversation of narrowing is important, but what i will say here is in the big ifs here is what is the dosing interval. If you have one shot j j, and what is the right dosing interval, two months . Six months . We dont know. That is number one. What about moderna, and you need the third dose . A Half Concentration Dose or the full Concentration Dose . We dont know. Mixing and matching . We havent levied a recommendation yet here in the united states of Mixing And Matching Johnson Johnson and moderna or pfizer, and so there are critical unknowns here right now, geoff. The only known that we do know is that if you are giving an additional shot of moderna or pfizer, and if you are immunocompromised, the narrow group of people, it seems to help the Antibody Levels and keep them out of the hospital. So that is the only the change of the policy, and lastly, let me say, geoff, this notion of the surging capacity in hospitals, burnout amongst the Health Care professionals, and we should start to talk about the Hazard Pay for the respiratory professionals and the nurses and the cadres that we dont have a supply, and i say this as a Military Doc that we play the folks who go into deployed settings extra that they feel a greater satisfaction, and greater incentive to stay in these dangerous roles and we need the similar paradigm here for those who are not being paid enough, particularly for nurses and respiratory professionals. You are Health Care professionals, but human, and how long can the Health Care systems can you operate like this . Fundamentally, and we have this conversation like this, the and when i was down at Oregon Health and sciences university, and rationing of the care is already happening, and the difficult conversations are already happen, so we have to broaden this, who should and should not be getting the access to best kinds of care when it comes to needing the advanced care like ecmo, and like we talked about yesterday, because the rapid care is happening and it is burning people out, and causing those who have made responsible decisions about their own health to be vaccinated to not be able to reliably access care and not get a Knee Replacement if they need it, and surgeries canceled across the Zip Codes and so people need preventive care in addition to emergent care. Thank you, dr. Gupta. And now, Manchin Being manchin. He is riling up the democratics one more time. S one more time. 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. I was drowning in student loan debt. Then i discovered sofi. Lower interest rate. To the State Department for that briefing from Tony Blinken on afghanistan. And any american citizen who has expressed leaving, and as you know, starting in march we sent 19 separate notices to citizens in afghanistan encouraging and then urging them to leave. Most of the remaining citizens who have dual citizenships are deciding whether to leave a place they call home is wrenching decision. And we have been in touch with those who are trying to decide whether to leave and that including the News Organizations and private foundations to help. There are extremely complex logistical issues to coordinate and we are working through them as quickly and methodically as we can. And for those afghans who have applied for and eligible for visas. There are questions about the backlog of the sivs and why these Men And Women were not out of afghan by the time the operation began. Let me give you more contex ont this. When we took office, we inherited a backlog of more than 17,000 Siv Applicants, and the program was basically in a dead stall. There had not been a single interview of an Siv Applicant in kabul in the nine months prior to us Taking Office going back to march of 2020. Covid19 of course was a major impediment. As you may know, the process for approving a special Immigrant Visa is not a simple one. There are 14 steps laid out in a statue passed by congress. They involve multiple departments and agencies and not just the State Department. And the most time consuming are not handled by this department. We were determined to fix this. Within two weeks of Taking Office, we restarted the Siv Interview Process in kabul. On february 4th, one of the very first Executive Orders issued by President Biden directed us to complete a review of the entire Siv Program to identify the causes of undue Delay And Process the siv applications more quickly and directly. I directed additional resources, significant additional resources including adding 50 people to the team in washington to process the applications. We sent more Siv Ajudecators To Kabul and doubling the resources in kabul working on the siv cases, and all of this was in the springtime. When our embassy went on the ordered departure in april and many Embassy Personnel returned to the united states, we sent more consular officers to kabul to Processing Siv applications. As a result of these and other steps including working with congress, by may, we had reduced the average processing time of siv visas by more than a year. Even in the Covid Surge in june, we continued to issue the visas and went from issuing 100 special Immigrant Visas in march to 1,000 a week in august. And then we launched Operation Refugees to bring afghans and their eligible Family Members to the united states, and then of course we negotiated the thirdworld country sites to host the candidates as we processed the applications. And we processed as many applications as possible. We are exploring alternative ways to process the applications so thatt the applicants dont have to wait in afghan to wait for the process. Then we realized that the process was not designed to be done in an evacuation emergency. There are lessons here that we have to learn and we will learn even as our work continues to have ways to make the program run more efficiency and effectively, and one more note on the sivs. I want to thank the many veterans of the Fwhar Afghanistan who are working individually or through the Veteran Service organizations to help the afghans who helped them. The State Department officials conferred with the veteran groups throughout the evacuation operation. I spoke with several of them along with Denis Mcdonough the secretary of Veterans Affairs who are using their voices we have been listening to Secretary Of State Tony Blinken of Processing Afghans and lets bring in Honor Recipient Jack and can you tell us what you heard there . Yes, evacuating the people from kabul, a lot of them tried to get in, but they couldnt and the only way to get out is to go up to Massur Al Sharef and for them the go into uzbekistan. And a problem for the large majority of them in and around the big cities, if you are in kabul for example, the only way to get there is to go through the mountains, over the mountain, the Induecush Running right through there and the taliban has control of the Supply Routes and so the likelihood that a significant percentage of these people will be even, will be able to get out of the country even overland is extremely low. Colonel jack jacob, thank you for the insight. We will turn our focus back to the White House now where President Biden addressed the unexpectedly low Jobs Report today. I know that some wanted to see a larger number today, and so did i. What we have seen is continued Growth Month after month in job creation. That report shows that employers added only 235,000 new jobs in august and raising new questions about the state of the u. S. Economy as the Delta Variant spreads. Joining us now is our Friend Robin Farzad host of the podcast full disclosure. And now, this disappointing Jobs Report as it has been describe and the worst that investors have seen since january and walk us through the lowlights and the highlights. Well, we are still what 3 Million people working shy of where we were prior to this calamity last spring. Everybody was expecting this to be the breakout autumn, and go back out and eat and go to the movies and spend liberally and see a 10 jump in the gdp, and all of that has been throttled by this Delta Variant, and you have people worry about offices reopening and those expecting to go back by september at the latest and now story after story of kind of pushing january as the new september, and all of that in aggregate brings the number down significantly shy of what the economists are understanding. For months i have been hearing from the experts and the analysts are saying that when it is coming to the labor shortage, the employers have to pay more, and i was just in Rehoboth Beach with a Taco Bell with the starting wage of 17 an hour, and that is unfill and millions more, and only 235,000 people found new employment last month and how does that work . Well, a misalignment, and every Service Sector Mother of Arbys Today in richmond, virginia. Theres signs everywhere the diner i love will hire you on the spot. I could practically work there and wash dishes. People dont want to do it. People are scared. Front line workers who have dealt with irate customers, maskless customers, when you dont have uniformity of standards and advice, and youre worried about a Delta Variant, 17 is not enough. Sometimes 20 is not enough. General motors announced they will cut production at their North American plants due to the microchip shortage. For anybody wanting to buy a car, lease a car, even rent a car, whats the impact . Strange times. Numbers coming out of the used Car Market Hold that thought. Im told President Biden is speaking. Well go straight away to that. Governors in my state of delaware, pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, they have more deaths than you have here, i hope that doesnt change in terms of the number of lost lives. I have a daughter who went to tulane. She runs a boys and girls club operation. She called me and said, dad, when are you going . Why are you spending time talking to the governor of New York . Why arent you in louisiana. Yall got to write a note for me that im down here, all right . Look, you know, cedric and the fema administrator, we came because we want to hear directly from yall what this what specific problems youre dealing with. Weve been working delivering 6. 7 Million meals and 6. 1 liters of water, sometimes what we deliver and what is needed is not the same thing. Were frustrated you got to be frustrated about the restoration of power. I understand the operations are working on that. And so were working 24 7 with the Energy Companies. I think we will get this up and running and well deploy more federal resources including hundreds of generators to restore power. It is dangerous work, as i said. I want to thank those 25,000 linemen from 32 different states who have responded. All right. We have been listening to President Biden there deliver remarks as he gets updated on the emergency Operations Center in laplace. There are some Cell Reception issues, thats been the case all over New Orleans, thats the case with this video were getting fed in. Well take a quick break. Up next, Senator Joe Manchin is doubling down on a threat to stall his partys multi trillion dollar spending bill. Well be right back. Well take you back to louisiana where President Biden is giving an update about the federal response to Hurricane Ida. Theres nothing political about this. This is just simply about saving lives, getting people back up and running. And were in this together. So were not going to leave any community behind, rural, city, coastal, inland. I promise well have your backs until this gets done. So im mainly here to listen, to see whats on your mind, the really hard questions i Cant Answer i will turn to cedric or the director, because you know about me, ill have an opinion. In any rate, thank you, thank you, thank you. I turn it back to you, cedric. Thank you, mr. President. Well turn it over to the governor who is leading the statewide recovery. Governor edwards. Mr. President , we appreciate you being in Louisiana Today and thank you for accepting the invitation. I want you to know on this tuesday of this week, we were in this very room. It makes a difference to be on the ground, meet the people and see the damage. So we appreciate you being here. And i appreciate the declaration you signed quickly on our request. When i requested the major declaration, you signed that as well. Doing things timely is really important. We were able to assemble the largest team in advance of landfall in the history of our country. It was tremendously helpful. We had 1,300 people, including our own. I think it was 19 different states that came in to be able to do that. Its been a tremendously devastating tomorrow. Well be a long time recovering. The initial part is about getting peoples lives right side up. Saving lives, that sort of thing. The recovery will be, you know, its going to go on for quite some time. We know youre here with us today, but youll be with us for the long haul as well. I did want to point out that the immediate impacts of the storm, and we were up to nine confirmed deaths related to this storm, but there were two. And so very tragic, any time you lose life, but largely that was a big success story. Secondly, the investments the federal government made were just so helpful. There wasnt a levee anywhere in Louisiana State or federal that failed. A few of the minor levees overtopped. If your home got water because of that, its not minor, its serious, but were talking about very low numbers compared to what would have happened. Investing in infrastructure, in resiliency and making sure we do things better does pay off. This could have been a much more tougher storm to recover from. We welcome you and we thank you for being here. Can i say one thing, please . You know, once you represent a district, you never stop representing it. Thats true. But, you know, one of the things i hope you keep an eye on is everybody keep an eye on it is that, you know, i got kind of not beat up, but criticized for my talking when i was running for office that we got to build back better. Things are changing so drastically in terms of the environment. Weve already crossed certain thresholds. We cant build back road, highway, Bridge Or Anything to what it was before. We have to build back to what it is now, what is needed now. I know that the head of the Energy Companies understand this really well. We have a significant piece of Legislation Both Infrastructure bill and a Budget Bill a Reconciliation Bill that calls for significant investment in being able to deal with what is about to come. In other words, for example, when you guys are putting back up those high tension wires again, and thats working, youre not going to put up the same exact system. Youll have to build it better. And its resilieresiliency. I want you focussing, as you Take A Look, and i will presume to send you copies of this stuff, Take A Look and see what were suggesting makes enough sense to you. Not whether its enough money or not or too much. It has to be does it make sense. Coming in and seeing all the poles down. When we build back better, we know if its under ground, it costs a hell of a lot more money but it saves a hell of a lot more money long term. We know the stuff that goes across you saw the high Tension Stuff going down across mississippi like it did once in the Delaware River which is a hell of a lot wider than the mississippi river. So we have to it seems to me we could save a whole lot of money and a whole lot of Pain Pain for our constituents if we build back and build it back in a better way. And it will create i realize im selling as im talking, to, it will create significant good, paying jobs. Not 15 an hour jobs, but jobs at prevailing wag and generates economic growth. I hope we dont go about deciding you and i talked a lot about it, the Levee System and the one the federal government did. That was a lot of money, but think of how much money it saved. How many lives it saved. I hop