where a hostage situation is still underway. police have confirmed that one of the hostages has been released and will be reunited with his family. we are going to bring you the very latest from the ground in just a minute. plus, how some in the grand ole party have become anti-reality. and you don't have to be a diplomat to get around visa laws any more. or do you? sydney, australia is trying to figure that out. we're going to explain how tennis star novak djokovic is involved. and the supreme court ruled this week the government has no business telling you what to do with your body except, of course, if you live in texas. i'm ayman mohyeldin. let's get started. let's start with the very latest on the breaking news out of texas. nbc's morgan chesky is on the ground for us. morgan, we know one of the hostages was released already. have we heard what led to that release? what's the situation looking like at this hour? >> reporter: yeah, ayman, the colleyville police said the hostage was released an hour ago unharmed and should be reunited with family. we don't know what led to the release. there are three individual that are still inside. beth israel congregation a quarter mile from where i'm standing. we know ongoing talks are going on with fbi negotiators and the man who is believed to be armed inside and has been inside that synagogue, ayman, since about 10:45 this morning. that's when the initial call went out to the local police here, saying that there was some sort of situation happening in this rather small synagogue in this suburban neighborhood. that's about 30 miles outside dallas. and since that point in time, whenever that synagogue's live stream for their services was interrupted by this man, we have seen federal and state authorities converge on this scene, expand their footprint here to about a quarter to a half mile perimeter, and tell everyone who lives within the immediate vicinity of the synagogue to please stay insides your homes. i didn't have a chance to speak to a gentleman whose family is just across the street from the synagogue. his son walks by to go to school each and every day, and he says that they felt that living in this area, you would never think, of course, that something like this could happen, and yet here we are. however, right now, ongoing negotiations are happening with that man. we do not know what's been said at this point in time other than that one hostage has been released, and that authorities are confirming there have been no reports of any injuries at this time. ayman? >> yeah, an absolutely terrifying situation unfolding in that community and in this country. nbc's morgan chesky. we're going to continue to monitor this situation in texas throughout the show and bring you any updates as they happen. and switching gears for a moment, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, that's been the gop's motto when it comes to the january 6th insurrection and the big lie. but this week their anti-democracy efforts really turned into an overall anti-reality campaign. take minority leader kevin mccarthy here for a moment who thought playing dumb would actually work when asked about trump's culpability for the insurrection. >> you're disclosing private conversations. did you tell house republicans on the january 6 call he bore some responsibility for january 6 as thompson's letter indicates? >> i'm not sure what call you're talking about. >> oh, you're not sure, congressman? really? don't worry. here you are in your own words on january 13th, 2021. watch. >> i say he has responsibility. he told me personally that he does have some responsibility. i think a lot of people do. >> now, mccarthy isn't the only member of the gop trying to rewrite history right in front of our faces and gaslighting us all. on friday, former vice-president mike pence broke his silence on the january 6th attack to come out against changes to the filibuster, believe it or not. in a new op-ed pence wrote, in part, democrats plan to end the filibuster to, quote, pass a bill nationalizing our elections, would offend the founders' intention that states conduct elections just as much as what some of our most ardent supporters, excuse me, would have had me do one year ago. i mean, it's just mind boggling. are you sure about that, mr. pence? you're saying that democrats trying to ensure the right to vote would offend our founding fathers just as much as an attempted coup? did you forget what that mob threatened to do to you? >> hang mike pence. hang mike pence. >> in case you couldn't hear that, that's the mob chanting "hang mike pence." they literally wanted to hang you. and finally, we have senate minority leader mitch mcconnell in a memo on sunday. mcconnell called out demsz' latest push on voting rights legislation, dubbing it the left's big lie. mcconnell said democrats would use fake hysteria to break the senate and silence millions of american voices. i see, suddenly pence and mccarthy's comments are starting to make a lot more sense. this isn't some grand a lapse in memory. it's a strategy. the republican party is trying to redefine and rebrand the big lie. they want you to forget how trump supporters threatened the very foundation of this nation's democracy a year ago, and they want you to forget the role they played in it. they're trying to make us question our own reality and accept theirs, and there's a name for it. it's called gaslighting. even majority leader chuck schumer called mcconnell's move the, quote, classic definition of the term. he's right. gaslighting is defined as a form of psychological manipulation that victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, their perception of reality, or their own memories. that's exactly what republicans are doing, and honestly it's infuriating. with trump's lap dogs continuing to gaslight their way through washington, it's a wonder if he'll ever be held accountable. >> you can't keep getting away with this! >> so, there's a lot to break down from this week, and we have the perfect panel for it. let's bring in our saturday night panel. stephanie miller is a comedian and host of the stephanie miller show on sirius xm. noah shack man is the chief editor of rolling stone. and stand-up writer with trevor noah. stephanie, i have to ask you, do you feel straight-up gaslighted by the republican party here? >> i do not feel gaslighted. we have always been at war with east asia. it is exactly like that. if you've ever been in a relationship like that, you recognize it, right? i mean, you just play the tape, ayman. they are on tape saying the opposite, and so it really is like we've all been taking crazy pills for the last year, right. >> i mean, the kevin mccarthy sound bite where he completely pretends he doesn't know what he's talking about, it's mind boggling. you do know that you speak to journalists every day. did you not know that conversation or that comment was going to be recorded? i mean, noah, what do you make of pence choosing to speak up now and on this and making the comparison that he did? >> god, he's such a bench. come on, man. they said "hang you" and then you're going to turn around and downplay it? come on, man. >> crazy. >> it's just crazy to me. and honestly, the -- maybe i'd be more afraid of the sort of gaslighting element of this, except there's thousands of hours of tape, reams of documents, and you've just had sedition charges filed for january 6th. so, yeah, they can try and gaslight all they want, but there's like tons of evidence to contradict their gaslighter. it might work in some corners of the world where there is an information bubble and facts can't necessarily get in. but for the mainstream, mainstream folks know what's up. >> josh, i've got to ask you about donald trump here, because let's be clear on who helped lead the gop down this rabbit hole. my point of reference of having worked as a journalist for decades in the middle east was that the dictators and the authoritarian leaders in the middle east would love to have the kind of cult of personality that donald trump has been able to cultivate on his republican party in the span of four to five years. and he did it in broad daylight. they do it over there by killing people, disappearing people, suppressing people. does this show just how much power trump still holds over the party? >> yeah, i mean, yeah, i think there's power over the party, but i think when you look at people, when you look at actual individuals trying to get on with their life and move on, i think that some of that is waning. i don't know if he really has the same pull that he would have had even a year ago. and i think that -- i agree with everybody on the panel. it is kind of funny. like, every -- i don't know, every gop, like politician that's tried to push a certain narrative now completely opposite to what they were saying before, they would have killed it back in the day when like coolidge was president or taft. before we had recording devices that they could be caught on all the time. if it was just the printed word, i didn't say that, come on, man. but the fact that it's your face -- i don't know why more journalists don't just bring the tape with like a small tablet to play it, you know. >> i mean, honestly -- >> recording device have a well nonliberal bias, ayman. >> if i had the resources i would create a 24-hour news channel that played republicans back to themselves, the things that they said. just like what we did right there. stephanie, i have to ask you this. speaking of trump, he's holding a rally right now in arizona. we're not going to cut to t. he is sharing the stage with mark finchem, we should note. he is a noted qanon supporters. a far cry from trump saying he knew nothing about it. he is full-on supporting somebody like this who believes the qanon conspiracy. >> i'll be upset if k. junior doesn't show up. it's just rude. i don't know how you do journalism in this day and age. we do not have one set of facts. i don't think i realize how many crazy people are drinking their own urine and waiting for jfk, jr. there's a lot of crazy people. i don't know whether donald trump has enabled them or what has happened. >> i mean, also, i've got to say the rallies are starting to be held in slightly more obscure places with less people. and i feel like that also needs to be pointed out every single time because here's the thing. i remember, you know, covering the rallies and the rally would be like in d.c. or it would be in like a big place where it's like my man is doing tickets. he's crushing it. like watching a comic's career when they skyrocket, then they hit a low point. i don't know if a scandal happens. they're trying to sell out the funny bone in north carolina and they can't get those tickets sold. it also needs to be pointed out as obscure as these guests and as weird as these guests are getting, i feel like we have to start looking at trump rallies like, do you remember the rapper chingy? >> yes, i do. >> we need to start treating trump rallies like chingy albums out. there's another one, but i don't know if i care. >> that chingy single was incredible in its time. >> i was going to say, you know, i think you actually comparing trump to chingy is insulting ching, not insulting trump. >> i do want to say, look, trump is starting out in sparsely populated rural areas. be careful about tap dancing too much on his tin album or something like that. the guy still has incredible pull and, look, he is going further and further into the conspiratorial right. one of the folks at the rally, i believe, last time i checked, was this fellow ron watkins who is the person most suspected of being q of qanon. he hasn't -- he's moved away from dismissing qanon. he's hanging out with q, it seems. that's a giant jump. and the merging of the conspiratorial fever swamps of the far-right internet and mainstream republicanism has really, you know, it's reached its final form here. it is weird. it is conspiratorial, and it's dangerous. and i know we can laugh about these guy's twists and turns and we can laugh about how lame the location is. the fact of the matter is there are big chunks of this country that are believing the nonsense they're peddling, and frankly i don't think the democrats are doing a particularly great job at offering an excellent alternative that and that increases the power of the crazy right. >> yeah, i know. listen, first, i agree with you on two fronts. one, you look at people like lindsey graham and how they completely bought into the trump train. it shows you how much trump has command over the party on a political front. you're completely right. i spent the better part of the year investigating one of the women who died in the january 6 attack, and she was a full-on qanon believer and she was in the northwest part of georgia who fell victim to this conspiracy theory and ultimately that led her through the big lie to march on the capitol on january 6. to noah's point, stephanie, the conspiracies don't just stop there. you even have kevin mccarthy who claimed a letter from the 1/6 committee asking him to testify was a, quote, distraction. and he posed it in this kind of conspiratorial way. he writes, is it a coincidence that they sent me the letter yesterday when it just came out that it was the highest inflation we've had in the last 40 years, as if they're two separate realities, and that you can't -- the federal government and the rest of society can't talk about two things at the same time. >> maybe it was a coincidence that it was on the day of the best economic record of any president in 50 years or the lowest unemployment rate. i mean, you know, there's worldwide inflation because of the pandemic. i mean, you know, i'm getting so tired -- we just had a lunatic insurrectionist in office for four years. you know, the biden in disarray talking points they keep buying from republicans. can i just say in response to trump being that cheap rapper that you were talking about, that's only in relation to the bookings they have for this rally which apparently are prince and michael jackson and aaliyah and a lot of other dead people. but some super, really good big talented dead people, ayman. >> all right, guys. we're just getting started. please stick around. next up we're going to talk about how we solve a problem like novak djokovic. at least we're going to try. plus, we've all had a good laugh when he with heard some people pushing a dee worming drug to treat covid, but those very same people who laughed are not laughing now at a new controversial cannabis treatment. stick around for that. but first, richard lui is here with the headlines. hey, richard. >> we're still following the breaking news hostage in the dallas area. three people including the rabbi currently held hostage at the congregation beth israel synagogue. police confirming one of the hostages was released. they are demanding the release of a woman attempting to murder u.s. officers in afghanistan in 2010. meanwhile across the country, the n.y.p.d. is on had high alert with additional resources being deployed to key jewish locations throughout the city. a spokesman saying eric adams saying the terrorist task force is in close contact with officials and in texas. more ayman with ayman mohyeldin after this. more ayman with ayman mohyeldin after this only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ we hit the bike trails every weekend only pay for what you need. shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? 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[music: “you can get it if you really want” by jimmy cliff] why does walgreens offer prescription copays as low as zero dollars? ♪ ♪ so you won't have a medicare in the world. ♪ ♪ plus, 90-day refills and same day delivery. larry? that's even less to medicare about. fill your medicare prescriptions with walgreens and save. ♪ ♪ i know there's conflicting information about dupuytren's contracture. i thought i couldn't get treatment yet? well, people may think that their contracture has to be severe to be treated, but it doesn't. if you can't lay your hand flat on the table, talk to a hand specialist. but what if i don't want surgery? well, then you should find a hand specialist certified to offer nonsurgical treatments. what's the next step? visit findahandspecialist.com today to get started. all right. so the australian open tennis tournament kicks off on monday and it's looking more and more likely that the top ranked player in the men's draw will be missing from the court. that's because notorious anti-vaxor and science denier novak djokovic's visa was canceled a second time on friday. turns out the 20-time grand slam champion filed a false visa application. on the form he denied traveling up to the lead of his traveling to sydney, australia. he was living the high life, attending events in serbia and spain. he claims the wrong box got clicked and then blamed it on his assistant. but here's the thing. the tennis star has a history of truly indefensible head-shaking behavior both on and off the court. this is a man who we should note whose explosive meltdown at the tokyo olympics brought him worldwide derision. a man opposed to the covid vaccine before there was a covid vaccine. and a man who diagnosed his own gluten intolerance by, you won't believe this, touching a slice of bread. has aaron rodgers met this guy? at this point the nfl star might find djokovic a better medical adviser than his current sensei joe rogan. in an -- these anti-vax stars who think the rules don't apply to them is quite staggering. this isn't djokovic's first brush with hypocrisy. last summer when tennis star naomi osaka said she wouldn't be doing any conferences to protect her mental health, he said she was breaking the rules, saying it is part of the sport and part of your life on the tour. this is something we have to do, otherwise we will get fined. as djokovic knows sports do have rules. any good sportsman plays by them. they don't blatantly flout those rules before finding a back doorway of getting around them and crying foul when they get hit with consequences, and then blaming it on their assistant. stick around. we'll get into all of this with my panel next, plus an update on the hostage situation in texas. n the hostage situation in texas isn't that right limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows a whistle. 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♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ staying up half the night searching for savings on your prescriptions? just ask your cvs pharmacist. we search for savings for you. from coupons to lower costs options. plus, earn up to $50 extra bucks rewards each year just for filling at cvs pharmacy. an update now on the time line of the texas hostage situation. it started this morning with a new york rabbi getting a call from the rabbi being held hostage in texas in colleyville which we've been watching. then around 10:41 a.m. local time, police in colleyville get a call for service at the synagogue. hours later, a surprise something happens, 5:00 p.m. local time, one uninjured hostage is released. now that we're in at least the 10th hour, and in the dark, law enforcement hoping for more surprises, they are still negotiating with the suspect. and, ayman, that's the time line so far. we're going to keep on watching it. >> all right. thank you very much for that, richard. keep us posted. meanwhile, with the australian open just days away, its top ranked male player novak djokovic's participation remains uncertain. for more on all of it, let's bring back our panel. stephanie miller, josh johnson, and noah shackman. noah, i'll start with you. what do you make of the saga? how has the australian government handled it? what do you think the the significance of this will be? how do you think the australian tennis federation has handled it? >> i've got to say i'm no tennis expert, and i know that there's a hearing going on like literally as we speak about his immigration status. but i will say that djokovic has been the purveyor of some rather odd theories in the past. he sort of hangs out with this sort of group like wellness influencer and he's proposed that people like him can eat certain foods that might be toxic or drink certain poisonous fluids, and that by virtue of their awesome body's detoxify them. so, i'm not sure he's the world's foremost public health expert. i do know that he's apparently lied on his -- on some of these immigration forms, and i know that he's espoused some anti-vaxx views in the past. i honestly don't know enough about the situation to know whether that merits him being blocked from australia or from the open. >> i was going to say, i know people who when they're going through immigration in countries, in western countries, they are so afraid of misspelling their own name, that that violation alone would get them deported, get kicked out. this guy falsified immigration documents and then had the audacity to blame it on his assistant which, again, for me is just mind boggling. stephanie, you tweeted out if naomi osaka or serena acted in the way novak djokovic has acted in the last couple weeks, the tennis association would be sharpening their knives. they hung osaka out to dry because she missed a couple of crickets. with novak djokovic, crickets. i agree, the hypocrisy is absolutely glaring. what do you make of the blatant double standard here? >> that wasn't my tweet, which is misogynistic of you right away. that's okay. but, you know, can i just say noah took a shot of goop. as someone who has been steaming my vagina ever since goop told me to, i resent that. i can't with these mast holes and co-vidiots any more. i wish i could use the australian anchors who -- >> please do. funny enough, we have that. let me play that. we have the two australian anchors caught on open mic laying into djokovic using a few choice expletives, we should note that. viewers have come to their defense saying it reflected the mood of the frustrated aussie population. watch this. >> look at the right side of your screen. this is on the free-throw. you can't see the raptors mascot. you know, when there is nobody else in the building, you kind of stand out. >> all right. so that was a massive production fail on our end. that's definitely not it. they probably hacked into our server and totally deleted the video we were going to play of them. but listen, josh, honestly, the point in this is the anger is developing against him. maybe he'd be lucky to be on the court. people probably would be throwing things at him. what's your take on this? again, is there a double standard in the way he's been dealt with? >> i mean, there's clearly a double standard. i mean, it's fitting that his last name has joke in it. i feel that's what most of this is. you know, if you want to play by the rules, if you feel very strongly, if you have convictions about a very specific thing, you take muhammad ali. a lot of people like to take the covid stances and compare themselves to someone who did something great. muhammad ali didn't want to fight in the vietnam war. he lost his boxing license. he cleared that time until he could box. he didn't start unsanctioned bar fights. act like it's not me and didn't go. it's a weird thing. as someone who watched who has friends in sydney, australia and watched people live under the -- some of the strictest of lockdowns and responses to covid that we've seen around the world, i would be furious if someone that hits a ball real good is allowed to just do whatever they want. it's like, it's not even like he's a teacher or a doctor, someone we might need over here. he's someone that's coming for his own title, for his own glory and doesn't want to do the thing. it's not even -- i don't know. it's a weird thing. i try to be patient with people when it comes to new science because i stopped learning science at, like, the last year of college. so everything i know now is what a person smarter than me told me. so i'm with you where sometimes you get so rich that just the people around you are the people around you and they're like, hey, this is what i heard, and you're not out with regular people so you don't know how you sound. i'm never going to fault a person who is too insulated by their money to not understand how they sound. but then when you put into action, you actually go places and put people at risk or you lie on your assistant, come on, my man, my man, your assistant? >> that's it. can i just say -- can i jump in? it's the lying, the lying and the selfishness and exposing another reporter knowing he was covid positive. i think we're all -- just had it up to here with anti-vaxxers. we're going into our third year of this. this is the first disease we have not eradicated with a vaccine. polio, small pox, measles, i mean, we didn't reach herd immunity on any of those. we eradicated it by vaccine. this is the first disease we're choosing because of idiots and f-nuts like stern would say like djokovic. >> also, we don't have to deal with djokovic during the time of like polio and stuff, otherwise god knows what would have happened. go ahead, josh. what were you going to say? >> definitely he would have been playing. two, i feel like overall, this is a lesson that we should take, take very seriously that we would not survive zombies. if covid were zombies, guys, this is it, then, because we clearly don't -- we can't get together with essentially one of the easiest, like here's -- i'm not saying covid is not scary and dangerous -- >> i wouldn't mind being eaten by a zombie now. i wouldn't care. >> it would at least be conversation. but it would be something. it's terrifying. >> all right, guys, listen, we're going to take a quick break. stay with me. we have a lot to get to. don't go anywhere. all those people we judge for taking ivermectin nor covid may be getting the last laugh. r may be getting the last laugh. smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ with chase security features, guidance and convenience, banking feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. we gotta tell people that liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need, and we gotta do it fast. [limu emu squawks] woo! new personal record, limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ so, the supreme court delivered a major blow to the white house's fight against covid-19 this week, putting a stop to a proposed vaccine and testing mandate for companies above 100 million people. the requirement would have affected more than 80 million workers nationwide, and more importantly, it was estimated it would have actually saved more than 6,000 lives, perhaps prevented more than 250,000 hospitalizations over the next six months, according to osha. however, it wasn't all bad news for biden. there was one modest victory after the conservative-stacked court ruled in favor of a requirement for health care workers to be vaccinated. lots to discuss on this one. let's welcome back our all-star panel. stephanie miller, noah shackman, and josh. i want to read what they had to say in their opinion. in part, it reads, it is telling osha, in its half century of existence, has never before adopted a broad public health regulation of this kind -- this lack of historical precedent is a telling indication that the mandate extends beyond the agency's legitimate reach. this is what drove me crazy, stephanie, because this is a once in a lifetime pandemic, the likes of which our government, osha hasn't even seen in its existence since it was created i believe in the early '70s, and the conservatives are actually using that for an excuse. they're saying, hey, osha has never seen anything in the last 50 years, but they haven't stepped back to say, oh, by the way, this is a pandemic that hasn't happened in 100 years. >> exactly, ayman, that's exactly it. i mean, something that has killed nearly a million of us is not a workplace safety issue, i don't know what would be. you know, arguments they use were ridiculous, like, oh, you can get it at a ball game or concert. you don't have to go to a bal game or a concert. we are forcing people to go to work and to face illness or death. i mean, this is the pro-life court that just made this pro-death ruling. i mean, this is a pro-covid ruling really. i cannot -- it's exactly like the smoking. you have a right to smoke, but not on a plane next to me, not in my workplace next to me. i don't -- i for the life of me -- they should be right-wing radio hosts. as a radio host, i know it is the lowest form of life on the planet. they should be ideologues, they shouldn't be supreme court justices. >> you make a great point about the analogy of smoking and the workplace. the supreme court literally says in the workplace the supreme court is not working. so it even acknowledges that coronavirus has come to the workplace. that includes places like the supreme court. noah, a global pandemic yet still the white house doesn't have the power to implement this mandate because, you know, they are at the mercy of the supreme court. what does that tell you about the way our branches of government are working? because the thing that, again, frustrates me about this is the supreme court is supposed to rule on the validity of laws that are made by congress. congress made a law that gave osha the power to do this, and the supreme court is now saying, no, that law is not valid. >> yeah, i hear that, and i hear it's incredibly frustrating. to be fair, there was talk within the biden administration last september when this was implemented that this might not survive a supreme court challenge. and there was talk even at the time that maybe it was worth doing even as a temporary measure, even if the supreme court would knock it down because you'd save some lives that way. and the supreme court did, you have to say, accept a more narrowly tailored mandate when it came to health care workers. so the news isn't all bad or all surprising. but, yeah, i mean, as somebody who's -- i'm in new york right now and we're going through yet another wave of this and, you know, throughout the country we're seeing a couple thousand people die every day. it's horrible. and i really wish our government could get its act together from testing to vaccines to really go full-out against this pandemic. and it feels like it's, you know, two steps forward, one and three quarter steps back. it's incredibly frustrating. >> do you think, noah, we're getting to a point as a society where we need to learn how to live with this pandemic? we're just going to have to, i hate to say it, but accept there is going to be a large part of our population that is simply not going to comply with public health guidelines, and we need to figure a way as a society to live with it and to live with this segment of our population? or is the risk just too severe for it? >> look, most public health experts say at some point covid-19 will become endemic. that means it will be a little more like a seasonal flu or something like that. >> here to stay. >> no, i mean, i'm not going to accept, you know, a thousand or 2,000 people dying a day needlessly. that's not okay. that's a 9/11 every few days, and i don't think we should as a society accept that. we've got to do everything we can to try to contain this. and, you know, the biden administration has not been perfect on this, not at all. you know, they were slamming the trump administration for not having the testing regime, you know, to track the virus's spread and they fell down on testing, too. and there's a lot of blame right now to be spread around here. there are hopeful signs here in new york that the number of cases does seem to be going down and the hospitals do seem to be holding up, but, man, this is really tough and this isn't anything -- there may be some low level we want to live with and we should all be willing to live with, but this shouldn't be a permanent state, no. >> josh -- >> can i jump in for a second? >> go ahead. >> the trump administration, it was a criminally, murderously bad response to covid. and joe biden, we went from 1% vaccinated to 80% with one shot. i think the thing he couldn't have foreseen is that 40% of the country does not want to live, and they don't want their kids to live? i mean, that shouldn't have even been partisan. but i blame trump for politicizing this to a degree that i don't think anyone can get their head around why people are not getting vaccinated. i don't know what else biden could have done. he tried everything he could, then went to mandates, you know, and now here we are with this right-wing court. >> yeah, and biden has been calling this a virus of the unvaccinated for the time being because, at the end of the day, they are refusing to get vaccinated and refusing to comply with some of these public health mandates. joshua, what are your thoughts on this? there was one victory noah was saying when it comes to the health care workers. when you look at things like the surge of numbers at hospitals, the impact that it's having on our health care system, it's slowly still ticking up as noah was saying, we may have peaked. but it is causing staffing shortages and it's got to be a cause of concern. what do you think of all this? >> i mean, obviously there are staffing shortages. i think that i would be more than okay with the supreme court's decision if they helped us with some of those staffing shortages and they all just got regular jobs. that would be fire. if the supreme court -- they don't even have to go in and breathe on each other right now. if the supreme court, all those members worked at an orange julius a couple months or a mcdonald's, something in the public where they could see, you know, whether or not it's a workplace issue, because they seem to think it's not, while also zooming in for decisions like these. >> hearings, right? before i go, i have one more for you, josh. it turns out vaccines may not be the only way to fight the disease. this is what i'm signing up for. cannabis compounds can prevent covid infection. are we really willing to try anything as we enter the third year of the pandemic? i'm willing to volunteer for this study. this is one study i'm willing to volunteer myself for. >> i feel like a lot of people were low-key like self-conducting the study for all of lockdown and just now they can finally report on their results, you know? like they had to keep it a secret in some states. >> if you use a bong of your own pee i'm sure it works or you wouldn't care that you have covid. >> it's a user-generated study. we're actually conducting this ourselves, as josh said. guys, thank you so much for joining us this evening. stephanie meller, noah shackman, josh, greatly appreciate it. >> thanks, ayman. >> thanks. >> all the best. next up we're going to have an update on the hostage situation playing out in texas. don't go anywhere. n playing out in texas don't go anywhere. doug blows a whistle. 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[music: “you can get it if you really want” by jimmy cliff] more now on the hostage situation in texas and what the suspect is demanding. from what we understand, just one thing. he wanted a fia sadika released from prison. she is a pakistan neuro scientist. she was sentenced in 2010 for 86 years in prison for the assault of u.s. nationals and u.s. officers. she is now in a federal prison not too far from the crime scene you see here. there is no apparent relationship between the suspect and sadeki. we'll have more later. >> all right, richard. thanks for all of these updates. greatly appreciate it. let's turn across the pond where the british monarchy and government have found themselves embroiled in outrage as both queen elizabeth and boar ras johnson face scandals. partygate. in recent weeks a number of parties had been held at number 10 downing street last year flagrantly flouting covid lockdown restrictions. the prime minister attended one of those events, leading him to issue an apology over previous denials of his attendance. >> i know that millions people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months. i know the rage they feel with me over the government i lead when they think that in downing street itself the rules are not being properly followed. >> now to make matters worse, downing street has been forced to apologize to queen elizabeth after it emerged two staff parties were held on the funeral of her late husband prince philip. she was left to sit alone at her husband's funeral. the commemoration of her husband's life vastly scaled down due to social distancing requirements. but it is not only the issue facing the house of windsor this week. prince andrew has been stripped of his royal and military titles after more than 150 military veterans wrote to the queen saying they no longer wish to be represented by the prince. the ninth in line to the thrown no longer entitled to be called his royal highness after a u.s. court refused to drop a case against the prince. now, the alleged incident is said to have taken place in 2001 when she was just 17 years old. prince andrew vehemently deny it is claims against him and will fight the case as a private citizen, meaning no money from the british taxpayers. it is a long way how queen elizabeth would have wanted to begin celebrations for her 70th year on the thrown. we'll have to see whether the partier in chief will still hold the role of prime minister when it becomes time for putting at the queen's platinum jubilee. thank you for making time for us this evening. come back here tomorrow at 9:00 eastern when palestinian american mo amer joins me to talk about his netflix comedy special. until we meet again, good night. . ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ ♪ ♪making your way in the world today♪ ♪takes everything you've got♪ ♪ ♪taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ maybe it's another refill at your favorite diner... or waiting for the 7:12 bus... or sunday afternoon in the produce aisle. these moments may not seem remarkable. but at pfizer, protecting the regular routine, and everyday drives us to reach for exceptional. working to impact hundreds of millions of lives... young and old. it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. ♪ ♪ real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we begin with an update on that breaking news from colleyville, texas, where a hostage situation has been unfolding for hours at a synagogue. colleyville police report the hostage-taker is communicating with fbi negotiators. they say no injuries have occurred inside the synagogue. the hostag