Plus, President Trumps growing hold on the Republican Party. Usa, usa. Just a few hundred people show up in washington to support the January 6th insurrectionists but it comes as a republican congressman decides running against rreelection. That environment for me is just not one that im willing to be a part of. Ill talk to republican Senator Bill Cassidy who voted to convict at mr. Trumps second Impeachment Trial about his partys future. Border crisis. More than 10,000 Haitian Migrants huddled at the u. S. mexico country. Basically third World Country conditions. That bad . That bad. You cant imagine. The u. S. Planning deportation flights as early as today. Joining me are jeff mason, Maria Teresa Kumar and anna palmer, founder of punch bowl news. Welcome to sunday its meet the press. Good sunday morning. Could our fight against the Coronavirus Turn into our latest Forever War . The war we thought we were winning at the beginning of the summer has been complicated by a more resilient named delta and the reluctance by many to get vaccinated. There was mixed messaging about third shots or booster shots. All this comes amid the sobering nudes that the sevenday average of deaths topped 2,000. The number of cases has slowed in recent weeks a hopeful sign that maybe the Death Rate will soon fall as well. Still the mixed messages threatening the administrations credibility. President Biden Wont be able to get his agenda passed without getting past covid. In short, its a war he cant afford to lose and one that cant last forever. Joining me is dr. Anthony fauci, head of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. Dr. Fauci, welcome back to meet the press. I want to begin with booster shots. Would we be in this space of confusion if the President Hadnt gotten ahead of the science here . Chuck, if you look at what happened, it wasnt getting ahead of the science. The president and the medical group at the White House said we are planning to be able to roll out boosters essentially for everyone 16 years of age and older. That was a plan that was always contingent, and every one of ups said that, contingent upon the fdas normal regulatory process, together with their advisers, to make a decision as to exactly what that rollout would look like. Thats exactly what happened. A very competent group of people who advise the fda deliberated and came to the conclusion that rather than have essentially everyone who has been boosted everyone who has gotten the regular immunization of two shots should be able to get boosted. They made it on the restrictions that you said, 65 years of age or older or those 18 to 64 with underlying conditions that might make their response to infection be severe, and those who have institutional or occupational situations, would make them more risk of getting exposed and infected. Thats a fair chunk of people in the united states. We look at it as one phase of the rollout. I understand why there might be confusion because i think people were not understanding the difference of planning for something and actually what element of that what proportion of it youre actually going to roll out. Thats exactly what happened. So the confusion is not if about boosters, its when. What youre saying its inevitably were all going to get boosters if youve been vaccinated, but maybe not in the timeline of five to eight months, maybe on the timeline of by The End of the Calendar Year . You know, chuck, i believe as a scientist who has been following it, that ultimately the real proper regimen will turn out to be the original two shots plus a boost. But you want to do that according to what the data tells you, including the Risk Benefit Ratio particularly for the younger people who do not generally get as much severe disease as the elderly and others. So i believe that theres a good chance that, as we get into the coming months, into the next year, that you will see the Data Pointing to the benefit of having a much broader blanket of people. We dont know that for sure now, and thats the reason why data are going to continue to come to the fda and theyre going to continue to evaluate it. If we didnt have the supply, a more limited supply of the vaccine, would we even be discussing the booster . If we had a more limited supply, would we even be discussing boosters . Would we only be about prioritizing getting first shots in the unvaccinated . Right now is a booster a luxury . No, i dont think a booster is a luxury. Ill explain why in a moment. I do want to correct one thing, chuck. Our highest priority still is getting the unvaccinated vaccinated. There should be no confusion about that. The highest priority is not getting boosters. We think its important to get boosters to people, but the overwhelming highest priority is to vaccinate the unvaccinated. Now, you were saying, though, that its not a luxury. Explain why its not a luxury. Well, the reason is, if it turns out that the optimal way to get durable protection for people is to give them the first two doses and then several months later, be that six, seven, eight or whatever months later, you give them a booster, that might actually mature the immune response to have a much more durable response. I dont believe its necessarily at all a luxury. It may ultimately turn out to be the proper regimen when we look back at it and say, looking back at this, what turned out to be the proper regimen. The reason we started with two doses, as you well know, chuck, we discussed it right here on the show, we were in an emergency situation. We needed to get vaccines out to people to be Life Saving and, in fact, they have likely saved millions of lives already. That doesnt mean thats The End of what this regimen should be. On a week by week, month by month basis, as we gather more data, we may get a better concept of what the proper regimen will be. Lets talk about the definition of who is in the high risk category. That seems to be a bit subjective. Im curious. If youre a vaccinated person in the washington, d. C. Area, youve got a pretty good protection because theres a high vaccination rate. If youre a vaccinated person in one of these sunbelt states, you dont have that same protection. Are you an atrisk person if youre vaccinated, in your 40s and 50s in mississippi, for instance, but not a Highrisk Person here in washington . The way the recommendation came out, chuck, was not in the sense of geographically where youre located. It was talking about underlying conditions. Theyre pretty well delineated, where the cdc has categories of people who are at risk for more severe disease. When you talk about the next category is people 18 to 64 who on the basis of institutional or occupational. Thats what youre talking about, people who might be exposed based on what their occupation is. Health care providers, people who are in essential jobs where people from the outside keep coming in, those are the types of people. Its not been said because you live in this state versus that state. Should it be though . That does not constitute that at this point. Should it be . Well, i think Thats Something i dont want to opine on that, chuck. I think what we need to do once you get from the fda what the authorization to do, thats the reason why you have the Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices that advises the cdc to finetune that. Generally they stay well within the bounds of what the fda has authorized. Theres always the capability of finetuning that a bit. This is about pfizer, not about moderna or the Johnson Johnson. Speak to these folks right now i believe you have moderna, if im not mistaken. What about a third dose of moderna. I have. What about a second dose of Johnson Johnson . The J J folks feel left out all the time in the media narrative. Understandably feeling left out in the narrative, but not in reality. We are definitely paying strong attention to both the J J people and those who received a moderna. The actual data that will get that third shot for the moderna and second shot for the J J is literally a couple to a few weeks away. Were working on that right now to get the data to the fda so they can examine it and make a determination about the boosters for those people. Theyre not being left behind by any means. Is this something within weeks, days, months, when it comes to moderna and Johnson Johnson . Chuck, i believe it will be weeks, not months. I dont think its going to be days. Its going to be weeks, i believe. The Pfizer Rollout should be this week . Do we expect that . The fda hears from the advisory panel. You expect that decision this coming week and the rollouts could begin as early as thursday or friday . Yeah, i believe thats quite possible, chuck. As you know, the fda will come out with their decision and then immediately after that you will see the Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices advising the cdc. So it should be within the time frame that was first mentioned. You have said certainly theres the medical proof, scientific proof that, if youve gotten covid, you get some natural immunities. Do we have good studies that indicate how long those natural immunities last . Not yet, chuck, we dont. Were following that, but not yet. We do know that when you do get infected, you get strong immunity. Theres No Doubt about that. The durability is unclear. Theres another fact we know that, if you do get infected and recover and get vaccinated, the level of your immunity is extraordinarily high, surpassing any of the other twodose vaccines that you get. So there are certain things we do know, the two things i just mentioned. The thing thats still unclear is what the durability of natural infectioninduced immunity is, and what is the scope of its protection against different variants. Is this a case where, do you think well be able to get data to find out, for instance, if youve had covid, maybe you only need one shot of a pfizer and that will be sufficient . Is that the kind of research you think well be able to have in hand soon . Yeah, i believe so. Im not so sure how soon, but certainly thats an important question, is being asked continually, particularly since we know you get a shot following natural infection and recovery, you get a very good immune response. So thats a question of interest and hopefully well be able to answer it in an expeditious manner. All right. Play forecaster here. This is our fourth surge. How close are we to being through it, and what do you expect the next three months to look like . Well, the next three months, chuck, is up to us. Getting back to what i say all the time, we still have approximately 70 Million people who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet gotten vaccinated. If we get the overwhelming majority of those people vaccinated as we get into the mid to late fall and winter, we would get through the winter well. We always have to worry about the other respiratory infections, particularly influenza. So we strongly encourage people to also get the influenza vaccine. I believe if we get that overwhelming majority of the people vaccinated as we enter into the fall and winter, we can have good control over this and not have a really bad winter at all. One final thing. You indicated personally you would be supportive of a Vaccine Mandate for domestic flyers. Is that something under consideration by the Biden Covid Team . Well, the team has a lot of things on the table. Nothing has been taken off the table. That decision has not been made. You know, the president made the decision when it comes to flying, if a person does not want to wear a mask or doesnt wear a mask, they double the fining on that. We have not yet gotten to the point of requiring vaccinations on domestic flights. But everything is on the table. We consider these things literally on a daily basis. All right. But does that mean its something that could happen, or is it really just based on how long this fourth surge lasts . Well, i think obviously the degree of dynamics of infection influences a lot of decision. So suffice it to say, its still on the table right now. All right, dr. Anthony fauci, as always, appreciate you coming on and explaining the administrations perspective. Thank you. As well as providing your own expertise. I guess we will see you soon. Thank you. When we come back, one of the ten republican members of the house who voted to impeach President Trump, Anthony Gonzalez, calls it quits. Cites threats to his family. Ill talk to Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the seven republicans who voted to impeach mr. Trump at his second Impeachment Trial. Thats next. Impeachment trial. Thats next. De it. You dunk it . Doggybone it . Haha slam it, wham it, strawberry jam it . We upgrade it get a 5g Phone on us with select plans. Every customer. Current, new or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just 35, better costs less than you think. Hey hun hey, get your own vapors relax with Vicks Vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. Take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. Welcome back. Weve had two new indications of former President Trumps growing dominance of this portion of the republican Republican Party. Yesterday a few hundred people gathered at the capitol for a rally in support of the January 6th insurrectionists. Anthony gonzalez decided there was no future for being an antitrump republican and announced he would not run for reelection. Hes a sellout. Hes a fake republican and a disgrace to your state. Calling trump a cancer for the country, gonzalez is one of ten house republicans who voted for impeachment after the January 6th insurrection to retire. The environment is toxic and the dynamics inside our own party which have sort of stopped making sense to me in a lot of ways. A Twoterm Member of congress from ohio, facing Max Miller Who Trump has already endorsed. Maxs opponent is a guy named Anthony Gonzalez, bad news. Hes a grandstanding rhino, not respected in d. C. Who voted for the unhinged, unconstitutional, illegal impeachment, witch hunt. Eight months after the January 6th attack, former President Trump is still winning the fight for the soul of the Republican Party. In a new survey more than half of republicans blame left wing activists for the attack, only 30 hold White Supremacist groups responsible and just 15 of republicans put a lot of blame on Donald Trump. On saturday, just a few hundred gathered at a rally on Capitol Hill in support of those charged in the insurrection. Ahead of the rally, trump praised the perpetrators of the attack saying our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly. Meanwhile, trump is trying to purge the party of any republican who crosses him, endorsing challengers to members of congress who voted to impeach or convict him. The straw that broke the camels back is when he voted to impeach President Trump. Lisa murkowski is so out of touch, she even voted to remove Donald Trump from office even after he was already gone. On Friday Trump said in a statement, one down, nine to go. Republican leaders are following along. Many may house republicans stripped Liz Cheney of her leadership posts. For reasons i dont understand, leaders in my party decided to embrace the former president who launched that attack. And republicans are adopting trumps language and tactics. They want to lock it down. Boo. Were not going to let it happen. If anyone is calling for lockdowns, youre not getting that done in florida. Were talking about an invasion of our country. Homes are being invaded. In the California Recall Governor Gavin Newsom successfully ran against Republican Frontrunner Larry Elder. The clone of Donald Trump. Worried democrats could use the same playbook in 2022, as trump injects himself in key primary contests in georgia, arizona, New Hampshire and north carolina. Will you welcome the former president s involvement in the midterm . Well, he has his own agenda. My view is, were going to focus on this administration and the future. Joining me now is Senator Bill Cassidy of louisiana, one of the seven republican senators who voted to convict President Trump at his second Impeachment Trial. Senator cassidy, welcome back to meet the press. Chuck, thank you for having me. Pleased to be with you. Let me start with Anthony Gonzalezs retirement. Him walking away from politics, is that good or bad for the Republican Party . You know, anthony is choosing his personal priorities. You read his statement. It stands for itself. I think you have a broader question there, do republicans continue to relitigate 2020 or do we look forward with a positive agenda . If we relitigate 2020 over and over again, it wont change the result in 2020, but were sure to lose in 2024. On the other hand, if we have a positive agenda which addresses the fact that the biden administration is in disarray, whether its inflation, The Border, afghanistan, then the country will win and well win. But if we choose to be bullied, well lose. You agree with Congressman Gonzalez who calls Donald Trump a cancer for the country . You know, politicians hes really speaking about the Republican Party. Politicians are not victims. Politicians make a choice. If we choose to look forward, bringing positive solutions to the american people who have needs, we win. If we choose to be bullied, we lose. Let me put a point on this. My state has been hammered by hurricane ida. I have communities which have been completely destroyed. If you go back there, youre going to find somebody who, yeah, they feel strongly about the election in 2020. What they really feel strongly about is rebuilding their community and building the resiliency so that this doesnt happen again. Now, if we meet that persons needs, republicans will do well in 2024, 2022. If we dont, Theyll Look elsewhere. Lets meet their needs. You are i think being relentlessly hopeful here. Youre trying to look forward. I get what youre trying to say. Youre alone here. There are not many of you speaking this way. It does look like a Lions Share of your colleagues prefer to either stay silent or to go ahead and relitigate to appease trump. So we answer to voters. So if we dont answer to voters in a positive way, we lose. Its kind of a marketbased economy, and its ruthless. If all you do is talk about the past, youre yesterdays news. If you talk about the future in a way which gives a positive alternative to a biden administration, whether its inflation, afghanistan, immigration i could Go On which is failing, then we win. Now, folks can choose to be bullied and relitigate. We can choose to go forward and win. I choose to go forward and serve my constituents. Adam kinzinger said that the issue is there are too many of his colleagues his quote lacking the courage to speak out while privately hoping for change. It does seem theres been this, well, if you wait trump out. Guess what . Theres no waiting him out. He waits you out. He waits everybody out. Youve got to confront this more squarely. Youve done it. You put yourself on the line. No one is going to accuse you of not speaking out. Youre seven of 50 republicans. Republicans let me start over. Politicians are not victims. We choose who we answer to. Either you can choose to answer to someone who is off screen, if you will, or you can choose to answer to your constituents, your state, your country. I find if you answer to your state, your constituents and your country, elections go okay. So if we speak you say im being hopelessly optimistic. No, thats a winning strategy. If we dont adopt that sort of strategy, our country loses and we lose. Im all about winning. Im about going forward. Im about meeting the needs of someone right now in South Louisiana who is wondering if their life can be put back together, and theres folks like that across our country. Do you think at this time with where the party is choosing to go right now with Donald Trump, that that is a losing strategy for the midterms at this point . If we relitigate the past, we lose. Weve got to speak about the future. Now, again, our country is looking for something which brings back the prosperity we had prepandemic, where economic benefit was principally going disproportionately going to those in the lower portion of our economic scale, with record low unemployment, which is to say record high employment for africanamericans, hispanics, disabled, high school dropouts, et cetera. If we speak about recovering that, we win. Again, if we relitigate an election from 2020, we lose. Im about winning. Part of the reason why we might have Donald Trump is this idea that washington is just always fingerpointing. This Debt Ceiling Discussion feels like one of those moments. I want to put up something that Mitch Mcconnell said. He said the country must never default. The Debt Ceiling will need to be raised. The only issue is whose responsibility is it to do it. A democratic president , democratic house and democratic senate. Its their obligation. This feels like someone saying, there is a fire, i have a Fire Extinguisher but im not going to use it. I know where you are on the Debt Ceiling in general. Do you see how silly this is for the average person right now . Just do your job. We know you have to raise the Debt Ceiling to make sure the economy doesnt crash. Why politicize that . A couple things about that. Every now and then context is important. Debt Ceiling Context is important. We actually raised on a bipartisan basis the Debt Ceiling in the last congress because on a bipartisan basis we agreed on what to spend the money on. This time democrats want to increase the Debt Ceiling on the for the Reconciliation Bill which theyre passing on a party line basis, which is going to fuel inflation if you speak to democratic economists like larry summers. So, wait a second. Were supposed to aid and abet Party Line Spending which even democratic economists say will fuel further inflation. No, thats not right. If you want to come back and meet where we can actually find common ground, where we can address needs as opposed to a democratic wish list, then well help. Not when youre just trying to tank the economy by fueling inflation to get your wish list. Senator, this Debt Ceiling has nothing to do with the reconciliation. This isnt about spending going forward. This is about spending thats already happened. I understand the messaging you want to make clear and the issue of spending. I understand that from an ideological disagreement. Thats politics. But thats not what this Debt Ceiling is about right now. Its simply paying the bills weve already promised wed pay. Wed actually raised the Debt Ceiling adequately to address all the way up to the 1. 9 trillion package that was passed the american Relief Panel on a Party Line Vote which has money out there far in excess of what is actually needed and is contributing to the inflation we have now. I will beg to differ with you. Going forward, thats what theyre hoping to do. Theyre hoping to increase the Debt Ceiling to meet their 3. 5 Trillion package which the committee for responsible federal budgets says is actually 5. 5 Trillion. Were going to disagree on this. They are increasing the Debt Ceiling to make room for a 5. 5 Trillion Democratic Party wish list. I think that isnt how this technical Debt Ceiling needs to be. Very quickly, theres still people without power in your state. I know its in the hardesttoreach areas. Do you believe this bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that youre supportive of is going to make it where Power Outages are less in louisiana after storms . First, hopefully Disaster Relief will actually address those particular needs. This bill has billions to promote resiliency for the grid, whether its a hurricane in louisiana, an Ice Storm in texas or the Northeast Or Forest fires on the west coast. So absolutely. Again, billions to address resiliency. We should pass this. We should pass it for my folks in Lafourche And Terrebonne parish, but for folks elsewhere in the nation. Senator Bill Cassidy, republican from louisiana, appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. Thank you. Have a good sunday. Thank you. When we come back, the growing crowds of Haitian Migrants living in deplorable conditions at the texas border, thats just one of many crises facing President Biden right now. The panel is next. You dont get much time for yourself. So when you do, make It Count with crest prohealth. It protects the 8 areas dentists check for a healthier mouth. The 1 Toothpaste Brand in america. Crest. Welcome back. The panel is with us. Anna palmer, founder of punchbowl news, jeff mason, white House Correspondent for reuters, Rich Lowry from the National Review and Maria Teresa Kumar from voto latino. Welcome all. So to say this has not been a great week for the Biden Presidency is a bit of an understatement. Friday was rough. The Fda Scuttled Boosters for everyone over 16. Theres a Micro Crisis at the texas border. More than 10,000 Haitians Living in deplorable conditions. U. S. Military had to admit its Missile Strike in kabul in response to the killing of 13 soldiers was an error and it killed up to ten innocent civilians. And then france so angry about the u. S. Sabotaging their deal with australia, they actually recalled their ambassador. Jeff mason, what is the mood at the White House right now. Its been a rough six weeks, and it seems as if its only getting worse. It got a lot worse on that Friday Afternoon with all those things happening in one day. The mood is one of soldiering on. Theyre certainly embattled right now. This White House has said from the beginning Joe Biden can chew gum and walk at the same time and all the people around him can do the same. But certainly some of these crises are ones they didnt expect. I dont think they expected to see one of the u. S. s oldest allies recalling their ambassador. Theyre trying to say weve got this and well roll through it. Its a tough time. Anna, with the afghanistan withdrawal and how it went, and then you have what the pentagon said, and then you look at The Border. There is this growing, wait, can you guys get your arms around our problems . This seems to be the real challenge. They have continued to stumble here. They dont have the messaging right, dont have the policy right. Theres a lot of questions on Capitol Hill now that these members are coming back where theyll face investigations on afghanistan, what happened there. Its not going away. I think this is something where this White House has really not got its feet underneath it. Now were weeks into this, right . They need to figure out what their messaging is going to be, how are they going to deal with tough questions. Maria teresa, this Migrant Crisis its not seasonal. President biden thought it was going to be seasonal, one of the things he said that turned out not to be true these days. This issue with the haitians we were talking earlier, this is another problem with disinformation perhaps for the haitian people. This is a bunch of bad choices. Are we really going to send people back to haiti . I think the options right now are really limited. As you said, chuck, theres tons of disinformation right now, if you were to ask me whats one of the things under the radar folks arent paying attention to but is a national security crisis, it is the disinformation, whether the crisis at The Border, vaccine hesitancy, getting information that doesnt allow them to understand what the government is doing for them. When we talk about whats happening even for example in france. France had to pull their ambassador back because they just lost a major contract of government jobs. Theyre trying to figure out how do you actually save face. They understand the alliance right now between the united states, germany, france and australia, the nato alliances, they need to make sure they fortify. Who is our biggest challenge . China. That is why the australians decided to buy the submarines from. I think the White House would agree with you about disinformation. Thats been something theyve been trying to combat for months as well and theyre frustrated by it. The only thing theyre not criticizing Biden On is the deal with australia. Someone really upset with france, deserves to be upset. The french will get over it. Theyll get their stories straight on boosters. I focus on The Border and afghanistan. Both to significant extent selfinflicted, national embarrassment and give a sense that events are out of control. I dont think were here yet, but if this kind of slide continues, the risk to biden is a wraps that would stick with people, decent guy but not up for the job. Thats what they have to avoid at all costs. A certain oneterm president from the late 70s that would agree with that, president carter. I want to bring this over to the deal on Capitol Hill. He needs to get this and yet i have to put up something from the political director of the missouri aflcio. He was talking about the biden agenda complete. I dont think one percent of reliable or frequent democratic voters have even a decent understanding of what democrats are trying to do in washington, d. C. Right now. The disconnect between what folks in washington, d. C. Are talking about and what folks on the Ground Know is massive. He was saying they have done good things and havent been able to communicate them very well but i do feel like the mids of the covid surge, whats happening on The Border, the congressional fight feels like one thats only more problematic. Number one, i would say youre right he needs it. I was traveling with President Biden on 9 11 last weekend. We chatted briefly. He expressed confidence that some republicans who arent coming out in favor of these deals are still going to be with him. That goes back to i think they wildly, wildly over estimate where republicans are here. I think to your point, the biggest issue is going to be just getting the lights going. Theyre going to have to do government funding, do the debt limit. That is not what anybody in the middle of the country is concerned about. Its why shots in the arms played so well, because its something people can understand. The next several months are going to be a slog of really just can biden turn Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and get them to support a massive Reconciliation Package which then they can use to 2022. Up until then, the next four months will be tough. Its not even as much about bipartisanship, its about getting democrats yes. Lets say they get the bill passed, but if they dont explain it, we saw what happened in healthcare. Thats the biggest challenge right now. The consumption of American Media right now in everyday households is falconized. Thats an understatement. One of the challenges is people are starting to see the Child Tax Credit hit their bank account. They dont really understand where its coming from. Thats the amazing thing, one the Missouri Labor Leader was talking about. My own people dont even know that was based on a democratic you would think an enormous Spending Bill would have more impact, but its having less an impact. Absorbed in the ground and No One knows where it came from and its coming again. People on my side of the aisle are focused on, theres a huge immigration bill tucked in, with amnesty of about 8 Million people. No one is talking about it because theres so much in it and its so huge. I was just going to say, do democrats really want the parliamentarian to do im sorry. This feels like that could be a poison pill. I think we dont know. We dont know what the parliamentarian is going to say right now. Theyre doing all the arguments for and against it, but i do think that immigration, voting rights, abortion are what democrats are going to run non2022 not what their Spending Bill is. I do think this is where the biden administration really needs to wrap themselves around and learn a little bit from the recall, the newsom recall. That is, yes, right now biden may have had a tough week, but it is an asymmetrical conversation between him and what trump represents. Talk about the abortion bill. Talk about Larry Elder in his totality is the antithesis of american values. Thats where they need to lie about. We are talking about policy but were living in a cultural war of what is the Heart Of America and that is where the biden administration really needs to lean into. Biden needs a foil. I mean, i joke that when biden comes out for Facebook And Twitter asking President Trump to get back on, in some ways we miss that. You dont want that. The Rally Yesterday would have been so much bigger. Thats true. Joe bidens numbers go up when Donald Trump is in the news. You wont have Larry Elder running everywhere and everywhere is not california. Biden is going to be traveling face . They got things knocked out with the California Trip the wild fires. He is still planning to go to the Glasgow Climate Conference and g20. In conference hes planning to focus on stuff from home. Home being washington, d. C. But also delaware. Delaware, what . But certain Reconciliation Bill is too big to fail. He has a lot riding on Stuff Riding here. Ill pause. When we come back, why the expected economic boom is three months away, its always coming soon. Its a perpetual state of coming soon. Thats next. Tual state of coming soon thats next. Did you know diarrhea is often caused by bad bacteria in food . Try pepto® diarrhea. Its concentrated formula coats and kills bacteria to relieve diarrhea. See, pepto® diarrhea gets to the source, killing the bad bacteria. So, make sure to have pepto® diarrhea on hand. Welcome back. It is Data Download time. It was supposed to be the summer of independence from the virus, but it ended up becoming the summer of the delta variant. Data shows how quickly the story can turn and did turn this summer in a matter of a few short months. We had optimism here as you can see. Beginning of summer, 3 thought the pandemic was getting worse. 89 thought we were getting better. Our caseload was below 10,000 at one point. Delta starts its move in the south, and as you can see, getting worse, getting better. Then, of course, come august, pretty decided. I think we all know we live in this current unpredictable fourth wave. That pessimism has done what . It has led to some travel issues. As the virus, we were getting it under control, travel was decreasing, decreasing july and there you see august. And we expect the number to go because look whats already happened. The number of cancelled trips since the rise of delta 27 . Number of postponed trips, 34 . Look, this is a good way to sort of give you an idea of when is this economy coming back. People are looking forward, they see where delta is. Theyve decided the next three months, its going to be tough. For now it looks like everybody is hoping that maybe its the start of 22 that will begin the next chance at independence from this virus. When we come back, despite losing the popular vote twice, Donald Trump is still managing to tighten his hold on the Republican Party. What that could mean for the 2022 midterms and beyond. Stick with us. Th us. There were three things my family encouraged kindness, honesty and hard work. Over time, ive come to add a fourth be curious. Be curious about the world around us, and then go. Go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. Viking. Exploring the world in comfort. We did it again. Verizon has been named americas most reliable network by rootmetrics. 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. Welcome back. Now, we talked about the struggles and troubles for Joe Biden, now the Republican Party. Rich lowry, i want to play a piece from Anthony Gonzalez in an interview with our cleveland affiliate. We just seem to have lost the ability to dialogue and to reason and to do it in a way thats respectful and thoughtful inside of politics. Im pretty sure everybody around this table would agree with that sentiment. I thought the most correct thing he said is, even if i won, i was going back to a washington Republican Party controlled by trump. Uhhuh. This is no room for a moderate wing in the party. Whats the republicans going to do . Hes not up until 2026. Do you think 2022 Bill Cassidy much harder. You can maintain distance, but certainly cant frontally challenge Donald Trump. Put aside the post election, there are two ways for republican voters to react to 2020. One is to say, well, trump did good stuff, but hes the won that lost to Joe Biden, we wish him well but we need to move on. The other way is hes the opposite of Joe Biden in every way and hes still our champion. That latter option is very much where the party is. I dont think the party can mess up 2020. 2024 is a huge question. Whether trump decides to go or not is enormously important. Probably the single decision made by one person who will have the impact on the future of the Republican Party since dwightizen decided whether he was going to run as a republican. It will be epically important. Anna palmer, Adam Kinzinger says many are hoping he goes away. Hoping this passes like were nine months removed from January 6th and then some. Its stronger than ever. Absolutely. If you look at the president praising the protests this weekend here in washington, not a single republican said, no, what happened on January 6th was terrible, the president is wrong on this. Nobody wants to confront trump because its a losing battle. Honestly, if you look, most republicans on Capitol Hill are bear hugging trump. Kevin mccarthy sees his obtaining the Speakership Right through Donald Trump. Jeff mason, Bill Cassidy certainly made his stance clear, what was interesting to me, but he didnt want to add to the criticisms of of trump. He was very careful not to add to the kritisms. Put it this way, Mitch Mcconnell will be very happy with him. Yes. Its not just about Donald Trump. Its about his voters. The voters we were talking about the room in the Republican Party for moderates the voters are with the former president. That base is stronger than ever. Theyre the ones that are coming out. Be it a Bill Cassidy or a republican at a local level, at a national level, they need those people who are supporters of the former president. Maria teresa, is this proof that despite all of the challenges we talked about in our last segment, as long as trump is front and center it could paper over some problems for the democrats . I do. I also think when you look at republicans that are speaking truth to whats happening now in the Republican Party is against our democracy, the fact they felt so emboldened after an insurrection of a fair and free election on January 6th, what would speak more to the american people is stay in the fight, keep talking about the asymmetry were seeing right now in the Republican Party. Right now we dont have two parties. We have one party who believes in the democratic system and another one that says well win at all costs. I will continue to the death or i will be an independent and run that way. Theres a Bully Pulpit there that is constantly screaming for the Republican Party of what it means to actually lead and what it means to actually be part of a democracy in that you need two strong parties because otherwise theres no battle of ideas. Does the Republican Party have any chance of healing itself in trump runs . If he does run in 2024, its hard to say. He would be the prohibitive frontrunner, No Doubt. A bunch of people would not run because of him. Correct. And the field would be smaller. The question is two, two and a half years from now, has his power eroded in some way thats not visible currently and i dont think you would know until you test it in caucuses and primaries but he would be the prohibitive favorite. Under democracies and primaries republicans want to win elections. There eyre not an anti Democratic Party. A lot of people want to look back on January 6th its not an anti Democratic Party. Thats not true. They didnt vote for the insurrection, didnt vote for the commission. They didnt want to look behind the curtain to see what was happening there. They are going around state to state to create barriers to the voting booth, texas georgia, arizona all republican led certified the voting vote. We have to have a honest conversation with whats happening in the Republican Party. Thats why gonzalez is retiring. We cant even meet on the merits of what what facts are. Not one person who is going to vote because of the texas and electoral format. Thats not true. It absolutely is true. People can sign their absentee ballots, can vote by mail in georgia. One of the challenges right now in Harris County, the bill that was recently passed by abbott, they are closing dropoff boxes in Harris County which is the most diverse county in the country. Theyre not doing the same thing in predominantly white communities. It makes me pause and say if the Republican Party certified a fair, free election in texas why now and its the hardest state to vote in, why now add restrictions. These were emergency measures, they didnt exist prior to 2020. If we had a democracy prior to 2020, you top drivethru voting, stop dropoff boxes or limit them, it cant be true that democracy is over because we had a democracy prior to those emergency provisions. It will mobilize democrats in 2022. The question is how much. Whether it helps sort of fend off the republican firewall but that and the social issues really will get democrats out to vote. How much does trump impact the ability for the two parties to have even the same conversation on Capitol Hill . I do get a sense that this really is disruptive. When you look at all the things that will happen in the next four months, Donald Trump is peering over every republicans shoulder, are you going to vote with this . Are they going to vote to support this bipartisan Infrastructure Bill . The longer you get away from the senate vote, the fewer republicans in the that are going to. When you look at reconciliation, thats going to be a Party Line Vote. No republicans will support that. The fact they cant even get Debt Ceiling agreement here to me this is how you ended up with a Donald Trump, because of stupid political fights like this. And the people like Anthony Gonzalez are leaving, right . You dont have anybody who is this moderate, Business Centric republican who might be more of the person who says, okay, we need to have cooler heads prevail in these big crises. Where are the major donors on this . Why arent they influencing this . It differs from donor to donor, but a lot of them are where the rest of the party is as well on that question. Maybe this gets into the information ecosystem. Terrific panel. Thank you guys. Thats all we have for today. Thank you all for watching. Appreciate it. Well be back next week. If its sunday, its meet the press. President biden is facing a series of setbacks at home and abroad. Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly this week. After a tough stretch with some of americas closest allies, the question is will biden be able to reassert the united States Position of global leadership. Plus, stunning images from the southern border as a surge of over 12,000 migrants, mostly from haiti, gathered under a bridge in del rio, texas. The question is, how exactly do federal and state authorities plan to relocate them . And, ted lasso, the crown and the queens gambit