with the white house on or in the days leading up to the january 6th insurrection. they have been asked to turn over documents and appear for depositions in mid october. today, the committee sent a letter to each. the one to former trump chief of staff mark meadows said it was reported that he was, quote, engaged in multiple elements of the planning and preparation of efforts to contest the presidential election and delay the counting of electoral votes. the letter former trump aide dan skavino says he was, quote, with the former president on january 5th when he and others were considering how to convince members of congress not to certify the election for joe biden. the one to former pentagon official kash patel notes he served as chief of staff to christopher miller and there's substantial reason to believe you have additional documents and information relevant to understanding the role played by the department of defense and the white house in preparing for and responding to the attack on the u.s. capitol. the letter to one time trump strategiest says he was quote, described with communications on then president trump december 30th, 2020, urging him to plan for and focus his efforts on january 6th. you are quoted as stating on january 5th, 2021, that all hell is going to break lose tomorrow. tonight, trump issued a lengthy statement reacting to the subpoenas, which read in part, quote, we will fight the subpoenas on executive privilege and other grounds. there's also new reporting tonight from "the washington post" that the biden white house is, quote, leaning toward releasing information to congress about what donald trump and his aides were doing during the january 6th attack. a white house spokesman says, quote, the administration has been engaging with congress on matters related to january 6th for several months now and will continue to do so, including with a select committee. several republican house members are also potential witnesses for the january 6th investigation. some of them spoke to trump on that day, including minority leader kevin mccarthy. >> i haven't served any subpoena, but it just goes to show there is more about politics than anything else. there's only two questions that this committee should actually be looked upon. why was the capitol left so ill-prepared? and how can we make sure that this never happens again. but that's not what they're focussed on. >> meanwhile, one result of the big lie that the election was stolen from trump is the so-called audit of the arizona 2020 election results which showed joe biden won. that review has been going on for five months. the results are expected to finally be made public tomorrow. with that, let's bring in our leadoff guest, ashley parker bureau chief for the washington post. clint watts, west point graduate, army veteran, former fbi special agent and distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute. barbara mcquad a veteran federal pros cue forand former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. she worked with doj during the biden transition. she is also a co-host of the pod cost, sisters in law. thanks to all of you for being with us. barbara, here is what we heard from january 6th committee member congressman adam schiff, a little earlier tonight. >> no one is off the table. we're going to determine what went wrong in the lead-up to january 6th. we're going to find out who was involved, who was knowledgeable, what roles they played in the planning, what expectation they had of violence what the former president was doing among the biggest unknowns is what was going on within the white house on january 5th and 6th at that critical time when our democracy was being threatened with violence insurrection. so, we're not wasting time. and you know, these are going to be some of the more visible efforts that we're making, but we'll be conducting interviews as well. and of course we already made a lot of strides in requiring documents we need for the investigation. >> is the former president on a list of potential people you will call before you? >> you know, i think we have a lot of work to do before we answer that question. >> that is, barbara, a key question. what do these letters to former aides reveal how this committee is approaching this investigation and what are they looking to do? >> well, it does seem to me to send a message they are focussing their energies at this moment on donald trump himself. you know, the first thing they looked at at that hearing they had this summer with the police officers was all about the impact at the capitol. but this is really all going right to the source. if you look at the four men who are involved in this, people who were at the white house that day, steve bannon advising donald trump the night before, and kash pa tell who said previously to the press that he was in non-stop communication with mark meadows, the white house chief of staff that day. so it seems to me they're really focussing on what president trump was planning what he knew, and perhaps why he didn't act sooner when we saw violence break out there. i think in light of some of the news that's broken in recent days about this six-step plan that john eastman bro about how to overthrow the election along with this other memo really points a lot of fingers in the direction of president trump to determine whether this was not just a lot of chaos that happened on january 6th, but a concerted plan. >> ashley, you covered the trump white house for four years. give us a little context based on what barbara was just saying, how important the people who receive these subpoenas were to the president, the kind of access they had and how is this going over in trump world tonight. >> so, these people who received the subpoenas are incredibly important to the trump world with the exception of steve bannon and even he in some ways they were all members of president's inner circle, intimate confident, people who were there or in contact with him the day of the insurrection and the run-up to the insurrection. and you know, journalist who immediately after wrote some of the stories trying to detail what happened on january 6th and how did we get there, this committee is doing exactly what we do, saying who are the people who can tell us what the president meant by this tweet? what was he thinking about the angry crowd? he knew there was a crowd. it gatt gathered the night before. what was he telling people close to snim what did he expect to happen? when he dictated a tweet or received a subpoena or typed one out himself, what was his goal? what did he maybe say before or after that tweet was sent that we don't know but tells us what he did or didn't want to happen on january 6th. the difference, of course, is unlike journalists this committee has subpoena power. and so, you can see the reaction from trump world already. they are furious about it. but it looks like this is the beginning of what is going to be an effort to get closer and closer to the former president's inner circle. >> clint watts, listening to various members of this committee tonight in interviews, it's clear that they're moving fast, that they're focussed. what do you think based on what you've seen so far, the content in these letters? and what are you looking for going forward? >> i think this is the critical step, chris. when you look across the board, since january 6th, it's kind of just been let's beat up on all the law enforcement, all the fbi, you know, dhs, why weren't they doing, why wasn't the pentagon responding. but when you look at it at its core, the only real unknowns is who got those people out there on the lawn that day, out in front of the capitol? and was there any intent to go ahead and breach the capitol. just from the public statements of some of these individuals you can see there was clear intent to create a large mobilization at the capitol and they got it. it's also very interesting to hear barbara's perspective as well. when these documents that we do get ahold of them and see what the communications were, we see when there were sort of questions about, hey, would you pull them back or was there any sort of coordination the night before there so-called meet-up where i guess steve bannon was at. seems it would also open a lot of people up to civil liability. there are injuries here. we had law enforcement officers hurt, injured, some were killed, ptsd. i think a lot of these records when they come into the public will go far beyond the investigation, it will open up cull pbility over time. >> barbara, in terms of this investigation, in the past we have seen how republicans mastered procedural delays. democrats learned a lot from the past. they can hold witnesses in contempt. they can refer them to the justice department. this is a whole different approach that we'll see in this justice department. how critical is doj and what are you watching for in that regard? >> i do think he's right in that we now have a different administration. the last administration we saw the justice department acting as an ally of president trump and shielding him and some of his associates from subpoena power. and taking things to court. so, having a justice department that acts with integrity and that will be there to hold people in contempt, file criminal charges for people who refuse to comply with subpoenas i think can be very meaningful. i do think, though, that one of the cards that is still held by all of these witnesses is their own ability to go to court and file a lawsuit or president trump's ability to go to court and file a lawsuit. even though ultimately i think congress will get the witnesses they want and the documents they want because this is clearly within their power, especially if the current white house waives executive privilege, i think trump and his associates can further delay things. >> can he legitimately claim executive privilege, barbara? >> i think ultimately he cannot. i think ultimately it will be the decision of the biden white house. but i think he can do enough to file a lawsuit in the courts and wait for that to get litigated. he can try to slow things down. but i think at the end of the day congress will prevail and get the documents and the witnesses that they want. >> let's talk about the cooperation that we're seeing, ashley, from this white house. and potentially what kind of showdown that might be setting up between republicans and democrats. look, this was always going to be what the two sides have said it was going to be. the democrats say this is legitimate investigation. you cannot have an insurrection at the capitol and not have an investigation. the republicans, of course, have said that it is just a sham. it's political theater. but in terms of the white house cooperation, how do you see that? >> well, i think you see it in line with president biden's campaign and his administration, which is that he talked about sort of restoring democracy over autocracy and making that one of his guiding principles. you know, he was talking about that globally, but it was also very much coming in and undoing what he thought were all the wrongs and ills of the trump administration and all of the ways they chipped away at democratic institutions and eroded faith in them. and that's why you see this biden white house coming out and they're casting it not at all their public statements in political or partisan terms but saying this was an insurrection on the u.s. capitol. this was a dark day for democracy. we believe as americans this can never happen again. and that's why we're participating. not because we don't like the former guy but because this is so important. of course you're going to hear from republicans as we did from the clip you played of leader mccarthy and president trump that this is a hoax, a witch hunt. that's not now the biden administration views it or talking about. >> the big lie continues, clint. ashley's paper, her reporters have been very, very busy tonight, are just reporting that the texas secretaries of state's office is going to audit the 2020 election results after trump called the governor and asked for one. then you also have the fact that we're expecting the results of this so-called audit in arizona tomorrow. the times reports that had already inspired copy cat efforts in other states. talk a little bit about how these on going lies, this misinformation on the election is just continuing to grow and cause problems today. >> i think there's the acute problem, which is it's still causing this sort of incitement and at points mobilizations that we've seen over the last few months. we've been on air because the capitol has become a magnet after january 6th. state and local capitols have become magnets for intense protests and incitement to violence. separately over the longer term it really degrades trust and confidence in democracies and all of our democracy institutions and elected officials over time. and becomes a play book where if candidate doesn't win, then they feel like they need to claim that it was all rigged against them. ultimately it's a fundraising mechanism, i think, for these politicians and particularly the trump organization is to keep them going. right? keep their base going about something. one thing i don't think people realize is president trump has never stopped campaigning. when he was president and still does not stop campaigning, he's still out there and pushing and he's still picking. you see the power today with the call to texas. this arizona audit, at least the initial reports i just read about 30 minutes ago seem to say they will find absolutely nothing. and will not overturn anything. all it is doing is eroding confidence in americans. you know, trust and democracy and putting dallas into pockets of pacs and politicians that are just going to use it to kind of campaign indefinitely under false pretenses. >> yeah. when you talk about the kind of unrest this foments, clint, the fbi director saying just this week that incidents of domestic terrorism have more than doubled. is this only going to get worse? is this kind of rhetoric continues to ramp up? >> i think there's several confluence of events. we have anti-mask, anti-vaccine, election fraud protests, all of that coming together. we had a mass shooting today in tennessee. we have people going back to the workplace. we have unemployment benefits ending and next year is an election year which means all the rhetoric tends to ramp up from marjorie taylor greene commercials with the 50-count sniper rifle shooting at exploding trucks essentially laying out a story that we want -- if you remember years ago we got upset for sarah palin talking about cross-hairs this is next level incitement. i don't know how bad things don't happen based on the level of rhetoric and the emotion going on around the country right now. >> barbara, look into your crystal ball and give us the benefit of all of your experience. we know they want to move forward on this. we know that this is not something they want to drag out but realistically give us a timeline as you see it and where you see this going, how big is it going to get because already tonight at least one member of the committee said we're not done obviously with the subpoenas here. >> well, one thing they did that gives me optimism is they didn't use the normal niceties that are done when you are subpoenaing members of the former executive branch by giving them first an invitation to come in and then only when they decline using a subpoena. they came right out of the gate with a subpoena which i think was a good move to short circuit things. i think it is likely some of them will file lawsuits. i hope the judges who see those cases will decide them in an expedited manner. just as we saw back in the nixon case, when the supreme court heard that case within just a matter of days and not dragging this out a matter of months. and so, if we could get that kind of resolution from a court, then we might see these witnesses testifying within the next few months. >> ashley parker, whose paper had a literal explosion of breaking news stories tonight, thank you for being here. barbara mcquaid, clint watsz, thanks to both of you. coming up, what's next for team trump? facing subpoenas from the january 6th committee. later, one of our top metd kal experts is here with what you need to know about pfizer boosters. and what to do if you've got one of the other vaccines. "the 11th hour" just getting under way on a thursday night. "g under way on a thursday night. landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. ♪ when you hear 'cough cough sneeze sneeze' ♪ so it was a happy ending... it's time for ♪ 'plop plop fizz fizz' ♪ alka seltzer plus cold relief, dissolves quickly... instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. in business, setbacks change everything. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. so get comcast business internet and add securityedge. it helps keep your network safe by scanning for threats every 10 minutes. and unlike some cybersecurity options, this helps protect every connected device. yours, your employees' and even your customers'. so you can stay ahead. get started with a great offer and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. plus for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. call today. steve bannon, he's now known as a podcast host, a conservative figure, popular on the far right, but he's also someone we realized is talking to president trump in the final days of the trump presidency. talking to president trump even on january 5th, the eve of the insurrection. and saying to president trump based on our reporting, kill the biden presidency in the crib. january 6th has to be a reckoning. >> that of course "the washington post" robert costa one of the coauthors of the book "peril." tonight ban nonis one of four trump allies subpoenaed by the house committee investigating the insurrection. here to talk more about it is robert gibbs, and white house press secretary under president obama and michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee, former lieutenant governor of maryland and host oft michael steele podcast. good to see you, guys. robert, costa laid out bannon. we saw mark meadows with the president on january 6th and scavino. these are the folks who have been part of his inner circle. will they comply or more likely has chairman benny thompson put it be rekals trint? >> well, i think there's no doubt. you've seen this from the republican party's posture on investigating the entire insurrection is they want nothing to do with this. they're going to delay. they won't participate. they'll do all these things, but i think your previous guest talked about they're likely be compelled to deliver some testimony. while i think steve bannon is maybe the most exciting name there, i'm -- to me the most interesting one is the former chief of staff mark meadows. it is unimaginable that mark meadows wouldn't know everything that happened that day, every movement that donald trump made and every update that was coming in or request from the pentagon or from the fbi would have been funneled into the white house through the chief of staff's office, so he would note everything there was to know about that day and i think he's going to be the most interesting witness. >> so michael steele, couple pieces of breaking news i want to ask you about. we just got a tweet in maricopa county, we're expecting this report on the review, whatever we want to call it in arizona. here is what maricopa tweeted, the arizona draft report from cyber ninjas confirms the county ice canvas was accurate and the candidate certified as the winners did, in fact, win. almost simultaneously this report in the washington post i just mentioned it that the texas secretary of state's office is announcing an audit of the 2020 election results after trump called for one. i don't think we need to remind people he won that state. >> yeah. yeah. small detail. he won texas. look, this is an absolute waste of taxpayer time and money. it's up to the citizens of those jurisdictions to express their outrage about it. the rest of the country just yawns because the reality remains the result maricopa county put out tonight, hey, we called the election in november. we certified the election in november. all we see now is the same information coming back the exact same way. this idea by the way of a forensic electoral audit is a fiction. it doesn't exist in law. it is a waste of time. it is a waste of effort. the processes that are in place under current laws and subsequently revised laws not in the last cycle but leading up to this cycle have ensured this process to be fair and complete in dealing with the kinds of things that, you know, you need to do. canvassing and making sure that the ballots are where theyneed to be, et cetera. so all we're seeing right now are republicans affirming what the country learned and knew on november 3rd in that succeeding few days after the election before the final announcement and certification of joe biden as president was made. so if you'll want to pay for it in texas, you'll can pay for it. >> but what is confounding not that we're looking for any common sense in this, robert, is the fact that we have history with this, right? they've done other audits. they found out that, no, absolutely nothing was wrong. that the results of the election was indeed the result of election and yet they keep going and keep claiming fraud and keep claiming in the face of the facts victory. >> yeah. i think in georgia we counted the presidential vote three time. maricopa county counted several times, tested their machines, did a hand count. look, this is, as michael said, an enormous waste of time and energy, an enormous waste of taxpayer moneys and i think it's all done exactly for what your previous guest said, this is about raising money. this is about exciting the trump base and the trump partisans to continue to give money to people that are pushing the audit in arizona. why on earth would we audit texas? as a democrat, i would concede texas. right? michael, as a republican, they won texas. we can set that aside. are we going to oklahoma and alaska next? we get it. >> maybe the question is, robert, why aren't you contesting texas? >> right. maybe i should. no, but all kidding aside, chris, i think it's clearly done to raise money, to increase this tension that donald trump needs to have exist. but look, the problem with this is that it undermines everything. right? there are people that are just beginning to pay attention to some of these audit processes or just learning about it and they're probably asking themselves, was there something wrong? why did it need to be audited. and so again, it's this slow drip, drip, drip that withers away the foundation of what otherwise should be the strongest, most robust democracy on the planet. >> on a parallel track, michael steele, there's the possibility of a government shutdown looming. the last quarter century featured an increasing number of such standoffs with republicans generally seeking something from the democratic president to reign in spending. in almost every case, though, republicans wound up bearing most of the blame and they rarely got much in the way of concessions to show for it. so, can you explain why they keep playing this game? >> well, a lot of it is to robert's point about money. it's about driving the base. it's about, you know, trying to given all the money that was spent during the trump years and the growth of government during that period, now it's about we're fiscal conservatives and the democrats are wild sort of drunken folks spending money that people don't have. but at the end of the day, this story is going to play out the way it always has. there will not be a shutdown because the republicans often get the short end of that stick. so why would you -- if you're trying to set up 2022, you're not going to do it successfully on this issue. you may be able to come at it on other things. $3.5 trillion in infrastructure spending or whatever. but on something like this that goes so fundamentally to that safety net, that many of those republican constituents need and have to access, whether it's social security, whether it's, you know, assistance for their kids, food stamps, whatever it happens to be, to be the party that's standing in the way of that as the article says has never turned out well for the republicans. so, why bite at that poisonous apple. >> yeah. there was a poll on this i think in august. and this is an important issue for 2% of the electorate. so it's also hard to see just as the numbers game how that works for them. >> michael and robert, you're staying with us. the politics surrounding the human drama that's sfil unfolding along the southern board when "the 11th hour" continues. board when "the 11th hour" continues. 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. that's why we're building 5g right, that's why there's only one best network. instantly clear everyday congestion with vicks sinex saline. for fast drug free relief vicks sinex. instantly clear everyday congestion. and try vicks sinex children's saline. safe and gentle relief for children's noses. tonight... i'll be eating a club sandwich with fries and a side of mayonnaise. wonderful! mayonnaise... on fries? a little judgy, don't you think? that's weird. so weird. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've 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. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ are we still exclusive? absolutely. ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ ♪♪ it is critical that people understand that the authority that we are exercising is not a matter of immigration policy. it is a matter of public health as issued by the cdc to protect the migrants themselves. our personnel, local communities and the american public. >> the biden administration defending its handling of the influx of haitian migrants a the southern border, but just today, the top u.s. diplomat in haiti resigned. writing in a letter to the secretary of state, quote, i will not be associated with the united states inhumane counterproductive decision to deport thousands of haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to haiti. country where american officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by arm gangs in control of daily life. the white house also announcing today horses will no longer use -- be used by border officials in del rio. that change, of course, prompted by the release of what the white house called horrific images showing agents on horse back charging haitian migrants on the border. still with us robert gibbs and michael steele. the white house says it's banning horses at the border. is that just a surface-level fix for what's happening? this is a mess down there. >> it is a mess. i think it's an important component of this policy. the images were horrific. they don't belong in 2021 and they didn't belong centuries ago when we might have been more used to unfortunately seeing them. i think, though, the steps they are taking are important. most importantly probably is getting people into shelters, getting them out from underneath the bridge, 15,000 people living in those conditions under a bridge is not what we want to see. quite frankly, we have to go through the adjudication process of i would presume tens of thousands of people or at least thousands of people seeking some level of asylum. so, look, there's a whole practical policy that has to get put back together, the asylum process came basically to a screeching halt under the trump administration. immigration courts are overloaded. it takes months if not longer to get a case heard. there's a lot of practical things i think this administration has to get moving through in order to deal with this as well as stemming more people from coming. >> this is confounded just border issues in general, immigration, the issues of migrants, michael steele, you know this, republican and democratic administrations one after the other after the other. are we not learning lessons? how are we not getting this right? >> because we're blinded by our self interest, very small but very vocal group of anti-immigrant americans who don't want anyone to come to this country. under any circumstances, under any condition. so that has blinded and deafened our will and our efforts. i agree with robert. the administration has a mess on its hand. it's had one going back to the early days of its inception and it has not yet still been able to handle it. you sent the vice president to the border. the president talked about the border. the secretary made pronouncements and made claims and then you have the imagery. you have now black people being charged by horses. and you know, what i'm hearing in neighborhoods are, you know, oh, so they take out the horses when the black folks show up, you know? so, there's just a lot of bad messaging around what's going on at the boerd, and it means that whether this administration can do it now or future administration but at some point, somebody has to say, this is the policy. this is what we're going to do. and the congress has got to understand that the role that they play here is going to be very important to the success or failure of whatever that policy is. we have stop playing politics with this because a lot of people lives and livelihoods are affected by the decisions that are made or rather not made here in washington. >> yeah, but as you know they're playing politics with it. they're going to continue to play politics with it. i want to play what senator lindsey graham said on fox early. >> you know who the cowboys are, they're federal law enforcement officers with the duty to protect the border. and she sees them as the bad guy. so all i can say is what biden has done is he surrendered the border to drug cartels, coyotes and human smugglers. >> i don't know, robert gibbs, how we get past this. >> well, ironic to show a clip from lindsey graham who three political life times ago was supportive with the late john mccain and others of comprehensive immigration reform. lindsey graham gets bad polling back in south carolina few years ago in running for re-election and you get what you see on fox today with lindsey graham. you know, there are people that are sitting in washington and throughout this country that are working each day and probably tonight to figure out a policy solve for the immigration challenges that you mentioned vexed the obama administration, the trump administration and now the biden administration. and there's people that are running as fast as they can to fox to try to do what lindsey graham does which is incense and inflame the situation. >> instead of fixing it. >> instead of -- we need two parties that are willing to come together and govern the country. we know what people can say on fox. we need governing solutions. lindsey graham used to be that, but the party that he wanted to be part of and the party he needed to be part of to get re-elected were in violent disagreement with each other and lindsey graham long ago picked the party of politics. >> robert gibbs, michael steele thank you both. coming up next, the booster shots may have left you confused. 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>> yes, it passed 15-0. >> the cdc is expected to formally recommend that some americans get pfizer's booster shot six months after their last shot. advisers to the cdc said boosters should be offered to people 65 or older, nursing home residents an those anyones 50 to 64 who have risky underlying health problems. the panel offered the option of a booster for those 18 to 49 who have chronic health problems and want one. but the cdc panel voted against recommending extra shots to americans with high risk jobs, including healthcare workers and teachers. back with us again tonight the founding director for scepter for emernling and infectious diseases policy and research. so much to get to. let's start with a lot of folks who are very unhappy they have not qualified. teachers worried unvaccinated kids will infect them. doctors and nurses, many of them still working day in, day out in hot spots. and those healthcare workers we should mention were some of the earliest to get vaccinated so their protection has waned. what do you make of the fact that they were excluded? >> there was a lot of discussion of the committee. i got to say, it was agonizing. these are not easy questions. part of what they were trying to balance is what data is there in terms of a benefit of a booster. the data seemed clear against severe disease and hospitalizations and those older, what they were trying to balance with is there an additional benefit to that kind of severe disease or hospitalization protection for younger folks, particularly 18 to 50 range of that. the trouble is they said look, the one benefit. everybody could benefit. benefit for people who are younger could be protection from infection, but we don't know how long that immunity against just infection might last even with these boosters. as you say, a lot of people were surprised about healthcare workers and other essential workers not included even with that short increase in protection against infection in the period of time that we're in where these high risk occupational settings where our essential workers might be working, i think most of us would have agreed this might be a good reason to approve that. also, it's very confusing. the fda recommended one thing and the cdc the committee recommended another. however, i will end with this, it's probably broader booster recommendation than most people think because obesity is one of the things that they included and that consider that a body mass index of over 25. that's over 70% of the american public. >> 70% of the american public falls -- okay. so, look, a lot of people do think it's confusing. in fact, the cdc panel points out that implementing these recommendations will be challenging falling again on doctors who are already overwhelmed with covid and folks working in pharmacies and so on. how do we make this less confusing and less challenging? >> yeah. i'm going to add another layer of complexity to this because the recommendations may also be different for the other vaccinations. we haven't seen moderna submit their data. one way is to align the moderna recommendations. first we have to see what the cdc director does with these recommendations. it would be traditional for the cdc director to accept what the committee says. to align the most similarities between the mrna vaccinations, johnson & johnson the one dose vaccine, their efficacy is waning against hospitalization for everybody, you might see a recommendation for boosters for everybody in that group. it's going to get even more confusing. the best probably thing to do is to try to align those recommendations as much as possible and to be clear about who qualifies and who doesn't qualify. it's going to take a lot of work. >> beyond boosters the big picture of where this pandemic is going, i want to play for you what former fda commissioner scott gottlieb predicted this morning. >> i think this delta wave may be the last major wave of infection, assuming nothing unexpected happens. we don't get a variant that pierces the immunity offered by prior infection by vaccination. so, assuming that doesn't happen and i think it's unlikely, this will be the last major wave of infection and becomes more persistent and endemic risk. you continue to have coronavirus spread but not at the same rate. >> 39th in the world for vaccinations. are you as optimistic that the delta wave is in fact the last major wave of infection we're likely to see in. >> i think -- you know, completely depends on how much evolution we see in this virus. that's related to how much uncontrolled transmission is happening in the rest of the world. you heard me speak about this in the past as well is that between now and when we get majority of us covered by vaccination unfortunately a percentage of us still continue to get infected, so if we have the bad luck that we don't get to a point where we have all had either encounter with the vaccine which is preferred or encounter with the virus and we get a new variant in that period of time before we reach what we think is likely to be the number that we need for heard immunity and this point with a variant like delta, most people think that's over 0% of us either gotten the vaccine or gotten through the infection. we're at the mercy of what the luck may bring. i do think that once we get to the other side of this once we get most of us vaccinated, he's right. dr. gottlieb is right. there might be surges among people who are vulnerable but it will not be as bad atz has been. >> we'll leave on that promising note. thank you so much for being with us tonight. coming up, how california's historic drought is threatening the state's renewable energy infrastructure. when "the 11th hour" continues. e when "the 11th hour" continues and you need it here. and here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. seek a commitment to clean. look for the ecolab science certified seal. that's a nice truck. yeah, it's the chevy silverado. check out this multi-flex tailgate. multi-flex, huh? 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mpblts. >> last year was one of the lowest precipitation we have on record. >> these aren't only affecting california's water supply but also the infrastructure that depends on it. this hydro electric power plant on the dam usually generates clean energy but for weeks the water level is too low to power it. this is kind of what i imagine walking on the surface of mars might look like. >> this is very dramatic. at this point we can't take the water in so we shut the power plant down until we get enough precipitation and run-off to bring it back up. >> other environmentally friendly power sources become that much more important. in the moe javi desert we went to one of the largest solar farms in the world and met the ceo. is it fair to say that solar might create the most? >> absolutely. solar is definitely the most abundant resource that we have particularly here in california. >> reporter: but even energy sources as abundant as the sun and wind come with their own potential challenges. >> the sun does not always shine. the wind does not always blow. there's more solutions that are needed in order to truly achieve our renewable energy goals. >> reporter: a future powered by clean energy visible on the horizon but now challenged by the intensifying climate change. >> we're back with more of "the 11th hour" after a quick break. k ie. ie my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... ...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with crohn's disease. the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. and many achieved remission that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. ♪♪ you have the best pizza in town and the worst wait times. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire ok, let's talk about those changes to your financial plan. bill, mary? 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