that. and welcome everyone to alex witt reports developing this hour the biden administration ramping up its coronavirus response as it works to contain the delta variant. today the national institute of health director dr. francis collins making clear why the cdc issued new mask guidance as health officials seek to reassure vaccinated americans and encourage more unvaccinated people to get the shot. it s mostly about protecting the unvaccinated. that is where the real serious risks of illness are. if you are vaccinated right now your likelihood of getting severely sick is 25 fold reduced. the vaccines work extremely well. but the new news and much of this comes from the outbreak in barnstable county, massachusetts, is that vaccinated people are capable of getting the virus in their nose and throat and they do seem to have high enough levels of virus that they might be contagious. meanwhile, infrastructure taking center stage on capitol hill this weekend. the senate i
tonight on his 100th day in the white house in the hardest job in washington. we ll see how much he has aged in these 100 days. also joining us, rachel, and this is a trivia question that i don t expect maybe anyone to know the answer to at the moment, the very first person who gave ron klain a job in politics. very person to hire ron klain in politics. going to be joining us later in the hour. you ve booked both ron klain and the person who first hired him in politics pour the same yo show? correct, yes. this is your life thing. yeah. and both of them have not they don t show a sign of age since that 1984 losing campaign that ron klain was involved in. and they ve both survived that loss. and gone on to, you know good careers. to say the least, man. thank you, lawrence. thank you, rachel. well, joe biden is now 100 days into the hardest job of his life, and white house chief of staff ron klain is now 100 days into the hardest job of his life, and it is hard
committee. he would likely chair the committee if republicans take the house this fall. think he would have deep respect for committees and the work they do, especially when it comes to oversight and investigation, both of which he vigorously pursued back when republicans ran the house. so why, then, did he just snub a request to meet with the house select committee on january 6th? well, in his letter to the committee, he said he had, quote, no relevant information that would assist the select committee in advancing any legitimate legislative purpose. notice, he doesn t say he has no relevant information that would assist the committee in its investigation. only, quote, any legitimate legislative purpose, which he s already made plain he doesn t believe the committee has. it s a way of being less than honest, without appearing to be, frankly. because if the question is, does he have anything of interest to the committee and its investigation? the answer is clearly, yeah, he d
jordan, the ranking republican and he will likely chair the committee if republicans take the house this fall. as such, you would think he would have deep respect for professional committees and the work they do when it comes to oversight. both of which he vigorously pursued when republicans ran the house. why did he snub a request to meet with the house select committee on january 6th. in his letters he said he had, quote, no relevant information to assist the select committee in advancing any legitimate legislative purpose. he didn t say he would have legislative information that would assist the committee, only a legitimate legislative purpose which he claimed he doesn t believe the committee has. it is a way of being less than honest without appearing to be. if the question is does he have anything of interest to the committee, the answer is clearly, yeah, he does. here s committee member adam schiff talking about text messages to former white house chief of staff mark me
she s urged the west not to recognise what will be putin s fifth term as president. our russia editor, steve rosenberg, is in moscow with more. russia s democracy is the best in the world, the kremlin says. and at polling station 38 in moscow, we found a choice of candidates and plenty of voters. democracy in action, right? not quite. realistically, only one man can win this. vladimir putin! the man who s been on russia s political stage for the last quarter of a century. vladimir putin faces no serious challenger. his fiercest rivals are in exile or in prison. not that this woman, whose son is fighting in ukraine, wants any change at the top. of course i voted for putin, she says. i trust him. but not everyone who came out today was actually voting. this, one of a string of attacks on polling stations across russia. they are unprecedented. after chaotic scenes here. ..an arsonist is detained. and green ink poured into a ballot box. the authorities called the attackers sc