now he is challenging governor greg abbott. the thing is abbott already oversees a state that is lagging the national average rate. 60% of the population is fully vaccinated. a state experienced after awful bout of delta. yesterday the unvaccinated allen west was in the hospital with a serious case of covid getting treatment and tweeting, "as governor of texas, i will vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates in the lone star state. there are far better protocols that individual citizens can utilize and decide for themselves. now this is for greg abbott a political problem. what is greg abbott fully vaccinated republican governor to do? how can he possibly one up the challenger with a serious case of covid tweeting from his hospital bed against vaccine mandates? well, abbott issued an executive order banning all entities in texas from the vaccines. a step he did not take in the past. but now he's got a more pro covid-19 challenger to his right so i has to move towards the more pro covid-19 poll politics. west understood

now this is for greg abbott a political problem. what is greg abbott, fully vaccinated republican government to, how can he possibly one up the challenger with a serious case of covid, tweeting from his hospital bed, against vaccine mandates. well, abbott issued an executive order banning all -- it's a step he did not take in the past but now, he's got a more pro covid challenger to his right, so we asked to move towards the more pro covid polar politics. allen west understood what was going on, he tweeted out a victory lap, a link to a far-right website building itself as a concern -- which if you are my age makes your head explode. with the headline, greg abbott's executive order came hours after allen west said i will vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates. when he's right he's right, he knew what he was doing. now, obviously there's a federal mandate issued by president biden, there's an understanding there's a primacy, a federal law, in the united states constitution, something that's been pretty well established. in

look, governor abbott's daughters are involved in the campaigns. they work for public records in new york city. the if they move to texas, he is now trying to mandate that his own daughter would be more at risk because the company couldn't have a mask policy. it's just crazy. and, you know, i used to know greg abbott a little bit ash texas and the 2000 butch campaign. he was no the this person. and it's just another example of somebody who either said they weren't the person they pretended to be or somebody that completely band on all the principles for what, a third term? it's just both sad and tragic and a complete failure yf you should be in office. >> and we saw chuck grassley sell out and do the same thing this past weekend. 88-year-old dean of republican senators. we'll stay at this. can't thank you both enough for adding your voices to tonight's broadcast. coming up for us, look around. you'll see things that got you to by truck. and if you're waiting for something you ordered, it's probably because our country doesn't have enough people to

governor desantis, governor abbott have doubled down on their base. their base is telling them that mandates on vaccines, mandates on mask, public health measures that have been recommended by the experts are in fact unpopular with the republicans. they're working to appeal to. they have greater support, they're working against the larger public opinion, which annually supports mandates. not by huge members. i saw a poll by the associated press, and lower than 48% -- only about a third oppose it. it's not overwhelming, but it is a majority. and it is significant. it's a difference between a pro and con. what we're seeing in desantis, abbess, and these other republicans, they're playing to the republican base. which is overwhelmingly against it. that's a calculation that they're making, it's good politics at this point. even if they don't win, when it comes down to sometime a court showdown with the biden administration. >> we should admit to ferc and viewers, who are used to seeing three initial guess on this hour, that we do indeed have three. it's j

why isn't he worried abbott will cheat and manipulate the vote? if there was any integrity to this and not a chase to find a way to suppress black voters, they would be questioning the system of their primary. i don't know, joy, if i think this will bite the republican party in the butt because this will depend on what happens in washington d.c. the police the democrats in that state had to flee to. nobody in texas will face consequences for voter suppression. >> that's a good point. look at the past here. so, you know, the brothers said to me in 2012 eventually this state will be a purple state. it's moving in that direction but to the point jason just made, democrats in d.c. have a lot to do with whether or not that vote can be galvanized. maria, teresa kumar says there need to be issues that are patble. democrats are stalled pretty much in d.c. and yet, look at this state. ted cruz only beat beto o'rourke by less than two points last time when he ran. the current governor abbott did better against valdez but will not run against a woman this ti

so it feels to me like what abbott is doing is purely performative. he gets the benefit to the far right fever swamp of saying what they want to hear but knows the businesses won't do it so there won't be an additional outbreak of covid. do you see it that way or is there something else going on? >> i think part of it is performative but as our fellow guests will testify to, the real world application is past performative, all of the things he's done. i listened to the previous segment that was awesome. we have to go from -- we need to protect the democracy to what is actually the real world application of all of these anti democratic things we've done and why we've arrived here. greg abbott launched all these things endangering texans' lives and taking away the rights of both people of color and women in this state. all those things. they have practical applications where people die from them. right? as you led into the failure of the grid, not 200 people died. 700 people died and they didn't do anything to fix it. we had 68,000 people in texas die f

not to be outdone, in florida, governor ron desantis is following abbott's lead on covid, asking the legislature to block the blight biden administration's vaccine mandates. still with us, don calloway, mark mckinnon, mike this is so on brand i don't know how immersed you are in the minutiae of texas politics these days. but what should we know, what should be to think about this new guy i bet is put up as secretary of state, and if we weren't in polite conversation we'd probably ask, is he a student who would fold with one phone call from abbott's boss? >> well sure he would, he's one of the lawyers who made the texas appeal on behalf of donald trump. so, he's bought and paid for by donald trump already. so this is fascinating to watch, the back and forth between abbott and desantis to see you can kiss the shoots faster in china better, this is an interesting thing on the texas front, on the elections front, because admin is responding to the pressure to audit the state of texas, which trump won by a lot, which is abbott offered to audit the four largest democratic counties, so i th

you have greg abbott. you have ron desantis. you have other republican governors that are actually stepping in and stomping on them, taking away their freedom as a private enterprise, as a free enterprise business to do what they think is best for their companies. to keep their doors open. to keep their restaurants open. they're taking away that choice. it's like a socialist government not letting a private business, a family business do what they think is best. i don't understand it. mike barnicle, now you have the biggest corporations saying the same thing. the biggest corporations that understand they need their people working, they need their people back at work doing their jobs, getting their company going, getting the supply chain running again. and who is stopping them? republican governors. why? not because of science. >> no. >> not because of any medical advice. it is all just playing to the lowest common denominator and the dumbest conspiracy theories on the internet and on facebook. they are at war against private ent

. ♪♪ >>> clearly, governor abbott knows the federal rules supersede the state, why do you think he did this? >> politics. i think it's pretty clear, when you make a choice that's against all public health information and data out there, that it's not based on what is in the interest of the people you are governing. it's perhaps in the interest of your own politics. >>> governor greg abbott's ban on vaccine mandates is setting up a clash between the state of texas and the biden administration, with many companies stuck in the middle. the question is, will businesses comply with the governor's order? or federal requirements? >>> plus, lawmakers vote to lift the debt ceiling, but a bigger fight is looming when it comes to a $3.5 trillion spending bill. the question is how will democrats shrink the social spending plan? >>> and life imitates art, william shatner is expected to launch into space later today. the question is, couldn't he just beam himself up? it's "way too early" for this. >>> good morning. welcome to "way too early." the show that's honored to boldly go into your living roo

and abbott offered to audit the four largest, of course, four democratic counties. that was not enough for donald trump. let me note the lieutenant governor dan patrick offered a million dollars award for any example, anybody could find a voter fraud. today it was reported or yesterday that he paid $25,000 for somebody from pennsylvania who found one example of voter fraud and it was someone voted fraudulently twice for donald trump. >> amazing. don, here we are in 2021, did you ever think you would see this race to be all things trump, two grown man who are willing to do just about anything to get the love of the crowd that loves him? >> no, we started along this path perhaps in 2015 when donald trump descended from the escalator talking about mexicans sending their worst people. i think it was long before that. i remember being shortly out of college, reading books such as "the end of reason" by al gore. i gave a lecture at north carolina to environmental justice students and none of them almost knew who al gore was. congratulations, gentlemen, we are all old. we

i wanted to talk about abbott's ban on vaccine mandates. as we talked about the other extreme policy texas is now pushing, it feels like banning vaccine mandates should fit in that group. how are businesses in texas handling that? >> well, first of all thank you very much for having me on tonight. governor abbott loves to say texas is open for business. but the ban on vaccine mandates is about as anti-business as it gets. it strips away choice from businesses who are trying to make tough decisions about keeping employees, customers most safe during this pandemic. because of other executive orders the governor has issued tying local officials hands. what we have seen is throughout the state, you have seen chambers of customers, business groups, seen large institutional businesses like southwest airlines or american airlines, come out and say we're follow what the federal government told us to do. we're employers with more than 100 employees are to mandate the vaccine. i think this was exactly what the governor wanted put the businesses in to

so even greg abbott right now is going to have a more conservative challenger. he's going to get primaried from the right in 2022. a lot of people think that's part of the reason why abbott is doing what he's doing. and that is a kind of metaphor and probably won't happen, but it's a thing that drives and animates the impulse. all these republicans are terrified. and the reason they're terrified in particular is what drives that primary dynamic, which is the second factor. and that is donald trump. republicans were going further and further in this state all the way from the early '90s to the late 2000s. and the fact trump still hovers so large in our political conversation and all these texas republicans are terrified if they were to do what you just suggested, which we used to do back in the 20th century which is to moderate their policies, trump will come after them and they will get primaried and lose their jobs and their power and all the perks and that stuff. it really is the perfect microcosm of the dynamics that had been polarizing our politics and drive

that same, poll finds the approval rating of governor greg abbott, is at 41%. the lowest since february 2016. here is what matthew dowd, a former republican who's running as a democrat, for texas lieutenant governor, told the host of the circus. >> we've lived over 30 years? 30 years? do you sense that there is a palpable awareness, within texas, of how bad it's been for the last year here? outside, we all look at texas and go one. it's a nightmare. but to texans feel? that >> i've talked to a lot of people, including disinfected republicans who think they can fix the party, but they don't like what's happening. i've talked to independents, i've talked with them all over. i would say the most consistent way to say it is, i'm proud of my state, and i love my state. but what they're doing is embarrassing. republicans, independents and democrats, democrats may state it more well, independents might say it and slightly different, way but republicans were disinfected, they all say basically the same thing. this is embarrassing. >> joining us now, the nbc news an msn

>> absolutely, this is something we've seen time and time again with governor abbott. originally it was i ban local officials issuing any kind of mask mandate. my office -- is harris county, including the houston area, we follow a lot against the attorney general to push back, because students were opening, up we have students go back into the schools, and of course students of a certain age are able to be vaccinated. so you have these breeding grounds for the vaccine, and for folks to potentially get sick. and the governor time and time again has issued more executive orders, they're intended to tie our hands, to have these measures that stop us from keeping other people safe. again, it's bad business for texas, bad policy for texas, and right now texas is number two in the country for covid deaths. so we need local officials to keep people safe, we need businesses to keep people safe. and we need our leaders to stop tine our hands in this process. >> i want everybody to stay safe. i say that at the end of every segment. harris county attorney christian d. menefee, th

we now have abortion bounty hunt governor greg abbott of texas banning any entity in his state, including private businesses from mandating covid vaccinations for workers or customers. he's denouncing vaccine mandates as federal over reach while his covid loving side kick florida governor ron desantis is making good on his promise to punish local governments for taking steps to protect workers because covid must be let in otherwise how would one market his top donor's remedy at fancy popup clinics. leon county is facing a $3.5 million fine for requiring proof of vaccination. as baby maga is exploring options to legally block vaccine related terminations in the private sector. if leadership could kill. wait, it can. this comes as other republicans and maga minons double down. jim jordan said we should ban all vaccine mandates. charley clark get the tweeting party started saying reject tyranny, catch the freedom flu despite the flu kirk's colleague the co-founder at turning point died of covid last year. conservatives are also turning nba star kyrie irving into an an tie vax martyr. the bro

governor abbott's plan doesn't work. an nbc news review of the most recent state and fbi data finds texas is well behind the national average when it comes to states that actually find, arrest, and put away rape suspects. another worry for abortion advocates and many legal scholars is that by blessing this law, the supreme court could unleash a contagion effect, prompting a rash of similar laws in other states. and if the high court upholds s.b. 8, it could also have massive implications for the future of federal law enforcement. so much so that more than 120 current and former prosecutors and judges signed on to a brief last week calling s.b. 8, quote, perhaps the most blatant attempt to subvert federal authority since jim crow. because upholding the law in texas could give advocates of states' rights the very ammunition they need to fight other federal laws for which they don't agree, like gun restrictions and voting rights laws. joining me now is melissa murray, nyu school of law professor and faculty director at the

greg abbott is bullying family's businesses and entrepreneurs. people that drives not only the texas economy but the american economy for doing what they think is best for their own private enterprise, it means it's private that the government should not be able to comment and tell people how to run their business in a way that actually hurts their business. i think the craziest example of this as we say months ago, they could not require vaccine mandates. they let anybody on with or without a vaccine. it was just a business disaster, forget the healthcare disaster. i know these people don't care about people's health the way they act. think about just the business, the crisis that they're causing. if you are a small business and if you work with your family your entire life to keep a small business open to make payroll every two week, the dealing of everything you had to do and you have a governor saying you can't protect yourself, your family and workers and customers the way you want to protect yourself? that's insanity. there is nothing conse

and with at&t you'll be able to keep funding politicians like texas governor greg abbott. at&t, funding sedition, oppression, and of course one america news network. >> the lincoln project to take us off the air tonight as we start a new week. holiday for come, work day for others. can you guess which category we're in? that's our broadcast for this monday evening. it comes with our thanks for being here with us. on behalf of all our colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. ♪♪ knows that if they are doing it and so in the intelligence world inspiring an espionage you don't just put offense to

where's this disconnect coming from abbott? >> well of course sexual violence is a serious, serious problem and one that it would be good for him to have an agenda around and that would start with probably addressing the culture that tolerates sexual violence, addressing policing. you know, addressing the many, many problems that survivors face when they try to come forward. the numbers don't even tell the story of the many people who never come forward. but the outrageous and inhumane ban that texas has would not do anything to address sexual violence and it would put survivors, it would put rape and incest survivors in a terrible, terrible situation. one that is far worse than the one that they are in with no remedy, no relief, and a really difficult way forward. >> let me share some more of the reporting about the state of rape prosecutions in texas. this is from nbc news. the lack of rape prosecutions in texas has been of such concern that abbott's office sponsored a study at the university of texas at austin that will be p

governor greg abbott has issued an executive order blocking vaccine requirements including for private businesses. the question is how will the biden administration respond? >>> and paul mccartney sets the record straight about why the beatles broke up. now more than 50 years later, the question is what really happened to the fab four? it's "way too early" for this. ♪♪ >>> good morning and welcome to "way too early," the show that's prepping for a hard day's night. i'm jonathan lemire on this tuesday, october 12th. we'll start with the news. almost a year after america led joe biden out of covid t president may have hit a wall, troubling scenes at the southern border and a delta variant surge. the president's ratings have tumbled from the low 50s in february to the high 30s in a recent quinnipiac poll. strategists are reporting a common trend to politico. they write in part, quote, reports from leading party operatives all point to biden needing to get a handle on the virus to claw his way out of the muddle. in a focus last week, pennsylvania democrats one after another articulated

abbott is trying, of course, to pick a larger fight. he is not just crushing down on his own constituents or small businesses or companies that want to do whatever they want to do. in other words, if he didn't have this anti-freedom rule, different companies would presumably decide what to do if they are small enough and if they were large enough over 100, they would probably have to comply with president biden's vaccine mandate, which is set to go into effect. so in a way, you could interpret this as a republican governor beating up on his own small businesses in his state to pick a larger fight with president biden. there is a lot going on all over the place. we have a special guest, i bet you know her, the california congressman karen bass when we are back in 60 seconds. n we are back in 60 seconds as someone who resembles someone else... i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. oh, yeah. that's the spot. only pay for what you need. ♪

after he signed the law yesterday abbott got another lawsuit handed to him over these new maps. this one was brought by democratic voting rights attorney mark elias that you've seen on the show. so, he's going to have a legal fight on his hands for these unbelievably racially redone maps but unless the lawsuits succeed, the new maps are set to take effect next year. watch this space. regina approaches the all-electric cadillac lyriq. it's a sunny day. nah, a stormy day. classical music plays. um uh, brass band, new orleans. ♪ ♪ she drives hands free... along the coast. make it palm springs. ♪ cadillac is going electric. if you want to be bold, you have to go off-script. experience the all-electric cadillac lyriq. - grammarly business turned my marketing team into rock stars. (diana strums guitar) maya swears by grammarly business because it keeps her work on brand and error-free. fast and easy. - [announcer] learn more at grammarly.com/business. >>> all right. that is going to do it for us tonight this fine tuesday evening. see you again tomorrow. "way too early" is up nex

even before governor greg abbott signed these new maps in the, law a group of latinos advocacy groups and citizens sued to try to stop these new maps from taking effect, after he signed the law yesterday, abbott got another lawsuit, he handed to, him over these new maps. this one was run by democratic voting rights attorney marc elias, who you've seen here on this show. so, he's going to have a legal fight on his, hands for these unbelievably racially regenerated maps. unless those lawsuits succeed, they are set to take effect next year. watch this space. effec next year. watch this space watch this space ru presents... the underdogs. they may have lost an eye, or their hearing, or their youthful good looks. but there's a lot of things the remarkable dogs haven't lost... like their ability to lick, wag, and love with the best of them. join subaru in helping underdogs find a loving home and celebrate all dogs during our third annual national make a dog's day. [ sneeze ] and care you ok?l dogs oh, it's just a cold. if you have high blood pressure, a cold is not just a cold. unlike other

law signed by abortion bounty hunter greg abbott limits conversations about race in history in schools with one school administrator using the law to urge teachers to include opposing view points on, on the holocaust? >> make sure that if you have a book on the hole cast that you have one that has an opposing, that has -- >> how do you oppose the holocaust? >> what? >> believe me, that's come up. >> the super inten demt of that school district has since apologized but the texas law is still in the books helping to emboldened parents that impose any idea or conversation on anything that might make white people feel bad. elevating one group, white christian america's feelings over the facts about history as if jewish children haven't had to process their feelings about facts like the state sponsored persecution and murder of 6 million jewish people by the nazi regime and black children for the entire history of this country haven't had to process their feelings about facts like the kidnapping of millions of africans throughout the new world who were forced to endure the soul crushing tor

then there's ken paxton, abbott's attorney general. paxton was in el paso yesterday doubling down on trump's election lies. at one point agreeing that joe biden's victory amounted to a, quote, overthrow. this rhetoric is a danger to democracy, but many trump supporters and republican leaders continue to embrace it. it's gotten so bad that even in florida, a state that donald trump won by more than 350,000 votes, the republican supervisors of elections say they've received threats. they wrote a letter this week imploring candidates and elected officials to, quote, tone down the rhetoric and stand up for our democracy, to commit themselves to the goal of fighting falsehoods and strengthening voter trust. our democracy depends on it. wesley wilcox is president of the florida supervisors of elections which is the bipartisan association behind that letter, and he joins us now. so your letter, i read it, says it's urgent. do you think florida voters are getting that message, do they share that sense of urgency? >> geoff, this is really not a

yesterday texas' republican governor greg abbott signed in the new congressional district map. texas got two new congressional districts added this year. two new members of congress added from texas because of a huge population boom driven almost entirely by non-white people. 95% of texas' population growth. it's new residents over the last ten years for people of color. 95%. texas gained 1 1 new residents who are hispanic or latino for every one new white resident over the past ten years but that doesn't mean they get represented in congress. texas' new congressional map gives both of its new districts to white majority voting populations. the new map reduces the number of hispanic majority districts from eight to seven despite the huge growth in the latino population. the new maps illuminate texas' only congressional district where black voters were the majority before governor greg abbott signed the maps into law, a group of latino advocacy groups and citizens sueed to try to stop the new maps from taking effect. after he signed the law yesterday abbott got another lawsuit h

tonight we also learned that texas is republican greg abbott has issued an executive order prohibiting vaccine mandates from any entity in the state, that includes all employers, abbots order mentioned that the biden administration's vaccine mandates, which he called quote, federal overreach. as the battle over vaccines continues, the drugmaker merck is willing working to obtain an emergency authorization from the fda for what would be the first medication to treat covid. early trials have shown the pill reduced as hospitalizations and deaths by about half, we'll talk about it later in this hour. there is also another incredible story unfolding tonight at the intersection of sports, and race. viewers a monday night football learned during tonight's game that former monday night football analysts veteran football coach john cruger in, has resigned as head coach of the las vegas raiders, just hours after the new york times reported that his past emails included homophobic and misogynistic misogynistic comments. this follows an earlier report of him using a racist trope to describe one --

it's perhaps in the interest of your own politics. >>> governor greg abbott's ban on vaccine mandates is setting up a clash between the state of texas and the biden administration, with many companies stuck in the middle. the question is, will businesses comply with the governor's order? or federal requirements? >>> plus,

governor greg abbott today appointed jon scott as texas' new secretary of state. as secretary of state, mr. scott would oversee election administration in texas, a task complicated in recent years by baseless claims of election fraud from republicans in the highest levels of government fueled by former president donald trump. jon scott is a ft. worth-based attorney who represented the former president in a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in pennsylvania. on november 13, mr. scott signed on as counsel to a lawsuit filed by trump attempting to block certification of pennsylvania's election. "the texas tribune" today helpfully posts a link to that lawsuit in which trump wanted to throw out the 2020 election results. sure enough, there he is, listed as trump's counsel. he eventually dropped out of that case, but he literally lawyered trump's effort to have the results of the election thrown out. now texas republicans have put him in charge of administering all elections in texas from here on out. that's like his qualification for the job. this comes the

republican governor greg abbott has appointed john scott. john scott represented the disgraced twice-impeached ex-president in a lawsuit against pennsylvania's 2020 election result to the state's top elections role. a full legislative confirmation vote won't happen for him until 2023, but scott will oversee the state's critical 2022 elections, including abbott's own race. this from the "washington post" on abbott's praising of scott's experience, the statement made no mention of scott's role in perpetuating trump's baseless claims that widespread voter fraud rigged the 2020 election for president biden. dozens of courts nationwide rejected the various lawsuits but the trump-appointed judge in pennsylvania roundly rejected the campaign's challenge. joining us now is texas state representative jasmine crockett and eugene daniels is still with us. representative crockett, here's my question. i mean, in michigan, lawyers who were involved in the big lie have been harshly criticized. in pennsylvania, they're looking at sanctions for lawyers invol

greg abbott was down there with all these republican governors on the border, rolling out panzer tanks and helicopters to show how tough he is. the question, here in texas, a state you know well, has been for a long time, what was going to make the state competitive? what's going to make the state blue? the argument of -- we know why matthew dowd is in this race. he thinks that running in texas is -- democracy's at stake and this is a target -- this is the way you got to try to win to keep our democracy is to beat anti-democratic forces like governor abbott and like lieutenant governor patrick, and i think what is interesting, to cecile's point about accountability, is this onslaught of far-right legislation that has created this perception outside the state that texas has gone bonkers, and inside the state, that matthew believes there's this widespread sense of, we're embarrassed. it has done a crazy thing. matthew dowd's running in a lieutenant governor's race. i've never seen a lieutenant governor's race in my life covering politics that's been nationalized. like, most americans don

. >>> i want to go to the covid pandemic, in the state of texas as well, governor abbott mandate ing vaccines statewide. ordering vaccines for 80 million americans, all of this coming with two-thirds of americans over 12 now fully vaccinated. and over 500,000 getting shots every day. according to nbc news analysis, 40% of those shots are booster. meaning a lot of people getting vaccinated are staying that way. kerry sanders in florida. and dr. peter hotez is dough co-director of children's medical hospital. heidi, i want to start with you on this one. we're hearing from the mandate from osha. right? and then obviously, this ban from the governor of texas. how is something like that, that mandate, going to play out in a state like texas? >> reporter: yeah, within day, this new rule, yasmin, expected to advance. affecting about 80 million workers. and the answer to your question is it's going to play out very differently in different parts of the country. i'm here in maryland outside of columbia sports i spoke with the ceo because he said look there's no need to step foot in our buildi

governor greg abbott's pick four top texas election post worked with trump to fight 2020 results. here is the lead. governor greg abbott appointed john scott as texas new secretary of state, as secretary of state's state, scott would see over >> the texas tribune today post sailing to that lawsuit in which trump was demanding that the supreme court throughout the 2020 election results and, sure enough, there he is, listed as trump's counsel. eventually dropped out of the case, but he was trump's counsel for filing that case. he literally lawyer trumps effort to have the results of the election thrown out. and now texas republicans have put him in charge of administering -- from here on out. that's his qualification for the job. this comes the same week texas republicans drew up their new congressional district. you might have seen headlines, it's amazing. texas is the only state in the country that grew so much in the past decade the state got two new congressional seats simply on the basis of population growth. what accounts for all of population growth in texas? the population g

governor greg abbott's order triggering this response from dr. anthony fauci on news. >> from a public health standpoint, that is really unfortunate because we know how effective vaccines are in preventing not only illness for the individual, but for diminishing the dynamics of the infection in society. the data are very, very clear. it doesn't matter what i think or not think of governor abbott. the fact is look at the data and look at the difference between people who get vaccinated versus people who are unvaccinated. >> in neighboring arkansas, governor asa hutchison okayed a bill allowing workers to opt out of mandates. here's the governor today explaining his decision on "meet the press." >> my heart goes out to these workers that many of them say we're not anti-vax, we're just anti-mandate, and they're making a principled stand and it sort of makes the point that the mandates are not being beneficial. so i push back here in arkansas we don't need to counter a federal mandate on our employers with a state mandate on employers. >> with me now

unlike texas's gregg abbott or florida's ron desantis, new hampshire's says he supports private company's rights to impose mandates but he told cbs this morning new hampshire will be challenging the biden's administration federal vaccine mandate. new hampshire boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. more than 62% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. the number of new covid cases have plateaued. the governor joins me now. the first question is, why support private businesses making mandates but not a federal government saying that the private businesses have to mandate a vaccine or a test? >> well, again, that's the line between the public and the private sector. and really appreciating and respecting the individual rights of those businesses. you know, again, we want everyone to get vaccinated. i'm as pro vaccine as they come in that sense. when joe biden said i'm going to create new rules and force a mandate into private businesses, that's not appropriate. we're going to join the lawsuit with other states and push back, because those businesses, again, have to

it is about, you know, the danger of having a ron desantis or a greg abbott in charge of all of your elections, in charge of vaccines, in charge of whether our schools are safe for our children, and that is why democrats and people who believe in democracy, and i won't even say big d democrats, little d democrats who believe in democracy really have to stand up. this is our moment. because we either preserve it now or we lose it. >> absolutely right. >> mark mckinnon, it's an incredible episode of an incredible show. anyone who hasn't seen it should watch the circus from this week. donna edwards, thank you for spending time with us and for your words. when we come back, why covid may pose a bigger risk to older people who are vaccinated than younger children who are not. that new piece of reporting is next. not that new piece of reporting is next g to manage your type 2 diabetes knocking you out of your zone? lowering your a1c with once-weekly ozempic® can help you get back in it. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! my zone... lowering my a1c, cv risk, and losing some weight... now, back to the

so i think the real focus here has to be exactly on what governor abbott is standing in the door far. we can get out of this. you have roughly 55% of name have been vaccinated. you probably have 75% of the population immunity at this point. get to 90% population immunity. immune nice another 30 million or 40 million people and we can put the pandemic behind us but we just refuse to do that, it is really hard to watch. >> and it seems to be a hard edge. it's the politics of this, obviously, but there doesn't seem to be a way to persuade them. peep from ports, hollywood, people from politics. they all seem to have add some impact in the deep south. >> right, i think you get to the point where you have to compel people to do the right thing. people don't use reason or clojic. you have to compel them to do the right thing. >> have, thank you very. i know you have busy meetings at the end of the week, and thanks again. pressing because, the justice department stepping in to although the restrictive abortion law and worrying about what it might mean for other constitutional rights. >>> the

i love his energy and we absolutely do not need another greg abbott wannabe in these united states of america. you know, what people don't understand about redistricting is that republicans almost put themselves into this terrible box where they want to make their districts as red as possible, but that makes sure that they end up with a primary opponent. and usually it's somebody, obviously, that's going to be super far right. and so right now everything that the republicans are doing has to do with trying out-right wing a potential opponent to make sure that they make it back. it's all about power. they don't care about people. all they care about is making sure that they can maintain that power to make sure that they can keep their pockets lined. we have so many trust fund babies that sit in the texas house and they are oil family trust fund babies. so people have to understand that there's a bigger mission that's at play behind the scenes. >> and you know, with one of the things that's been talked about a lot, you know, it's texas, but it has national implications, is the re-drawin

susan, let's play this out, if you're abbott, if you're desantis if you are mike pence, do you just say thank you sir, can i have another fade away and it's like you never existed? >> almost, at least you would do it for the next 18 months or so because you're not going to have any other choice, donald trump will continue to dominate the republican party field and the polls will continue to cause trouble whenever he can, he loves raising money, and he will also use, i think, the fact that he will run for office as a potential tool to help him legally meaning that some elected officials have actually agreed not to run using that as a chip within the legal system as to deflect the amount of potential crimes he is charged with. >> baratunde, i want to talk about the virginia governor's race as a pro springboard into a related conversation here's a quote from political he is betting on parents anger with local school boards to help an edge out a victory in the governor's race against terry, and if it works, he could be a playbook for republicans to seize on frustration over covid school clo

trump is giving greg abbott hell that they're not doing an audit in texas, oh and somebody should remind the president's sudden he won texas, and he won a big. >> so, james, to take mark's argument in turn it upside down. if you wanted to fuzz up the results of the 2020 midterms, and the 2024 presidential in advance, you'd launch a nationwide campaign to fuzz up confidence in our electoral system. >> see georgia, five january 2021. he kept on this crooked election so, some republicans didn't show up. it's 30% of the people in this country they don't believe in evolution. we have geology departments, we still have medical schools. i mean, these people who believe this are just chronically stupid, and we have to just paint attention diamond move oven. he is such a buffoon. we can't tied down by these idiots, everybody else got to get to get together and hammer out a deal, let's get this country rolling in here. we've got some good things getting ready, let's get in the groove and will see. but this is insane, how many times you gotta tell people the earth is round. it just is. and if you d

. >> the texas governor, greg abbott, the position of secretary of state in texas had been unfilled, and unlike -- its imported by the governor, he appointed a lawyer named john scott to be the texas secretary of state who is part of donald trump's team trying to block this certification of pennsylvania's election. what do you think about someone working on that issue, trying to stop your states votes from counting, now been tasked with running the elections in the same of texas. >> it's like drafting player from a team that went one and 59 the last season. so this wasn't exactly home of, this was an italian farm that really generated a lot of victory, again one for 59. it does illustrate in my mind that texas isn't serious about actual voter fraud, because when you analyze actual voter fraud it's five cases out of 7 million ballots like it is in pennsylvania. bear in mind, chris, we did to risk limiting audits, one with statistical, generated by law, and when that was 63 out of 67 counties participating, and found zero evidence of any fraud whatsoever. i mean, these results were sec

the more we've seen from acolytes like doug abbott or ron desantis, they want to continue the work they tried on january 6 and do it all across the country. and we can't let them get away with it. >> since the capitulation on the debt ceiling vote last week, mitch mcconnell has been feeling the heat from members of his own party led by donald trump himself. in an apparent attempt to save face, i sent a letter to joe biden complaining about majority leader chuck schumer for identifying republicans as the culprit in holding the economy hostage over the debt ceiling. mcconnell promised in his letter that republicans would have struck the process again in december. but sarah, didn't we all assume that was going to happen anyway? if anything, doesn't this early confrontation that democrats will have to do this alone strengthen their position within their own party? >> maybe. i'm not sure about that. i mean, look, i think that mitch's histrionics are ridiculous and they were being obstructionist. but 11 republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling, as they should have. schumer, it wasn't a gre

what the heck site and while texas has its cast of characters, i guess we'll call them out there, greg abbott, dan patrick, ted cruz come to mind, one texas politician this weekend showed how crazy some fringe thinking in the lone star state has become. his name is allen west, the former congressman from florida who called for the impeachment of president barack obama and is challenging greg abbott for the gop nomination for governor. he was hospitalized with covid-19 this weekend after attending a crowded fund-raiser. it's his actions after being hospitalized that's been getting attention and coverage. west who is unvaccinated and has been a mjor opponent launched a tweet storm in which he condemned vaccine mandates and promoted controversial treatments including admitting he has taken hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. we wish mr. west and his wife the best. we hope they get better from covid. this is from the washington post. west said he and his wife who is vaccinated have received treatment with antibodies a move a number of people argue with his remarks against vaccine. antibodies are c

. >> interestingly, governor abbott was expected to speak to everyone from the border today. we may yet hear from him on this issue. congressman when we have a shooting, particularly like this in a school, some say in the immediate aftermath that it is too immediate aftermath it's too soon to talk about the politics of guns in this country and some who say if the shooting has already happened, it's too late to start talking about the politics of guns in this country. i don't have to tell you, texas has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country. you have potentially an 18-year-old with a handgun at school. what do you make of the situation on the ground in texas as it relates to weapons laws and how it may or may not impact the violence like this that we see in a suburban high school. >> absolutely. look, we know that there are certain areas when it comes to gun safety where democrats and republicans are just, you know, miles and miles apart. but i think that commonsense gun legislation that would help situations like this, perhaps, again we don't know all the detail

you've also got governor greg abbott down in texas who just issued an executive order that would prohibit any entity, including private businesses, from imposing vaccination requirements on employers or customers. what do you make of that move by the texas governor, especially as texas is coming out of its summer spike? >> we're certainly going to see legal challenges around that. i do think these kinds of mandates are going to be really important across the country to boost our vaccination coverage rates. you'll see osha doing spot inspections. you'll see fines. very importantly, you have inspectors embedded in every single workplace in the form of the workers who work there. they can report those violations, the lack of vaccine mandates and enforcement to osha. >> i've had it said to me by doctors and employers, it is a testing mandate. the vaccination is the way out of it. that's the way a lot of people politically are trying to watch those mandates, particularly in red states where they may be less popular. thank you for your time. >>> any minute now we expect to see house speaker nan

chair of the statewide texas republican party before resigning that position so he could challenge greg abbott. and his approach to covid has been what you would expect from a far right figure. railing against the vaccine while promotingal tern thif treatments. when he tested positive, he tweeted he was already taking hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin protocols, two things that have not been established to help covid. then he said he underwent monoclonal infusion therapy. we want people to get better. one of the aspects of the right's thoughts of covid are they're searching for a way for it to be not a big deal. that led them to strange obsessions with treatments like the a fore mentioned over the more effective vaccines. now, just to be very clear here, unlike hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, the antibodies seem to work. they are authorized i think under emergency use, the fda, which explains they're laboratory made proteins that mimic the immune system's ability to fight off harmful antigens. so they're manufacturing proteins to fight the virus in your blood and it seems to work. it's how

and in texas, governor gregg abbott signed a bill into law, banning transgender athletes from playing on a public sports team that aligns with their gender identity. the law will impact student athletes in elementary school through college and will go into effect in january. >>> coming up, house democrats hope to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill on wednesday. do they have the votes? we'll be speaking to a congresswoman, talking about the very latest and where things stand, next. t and where things stand, next. mm. [ clicks tongue ] i don't know. i think they look good, man. mm, smooth. uh, they are a little tight. like, too tight? might just need to break 'em in a little bit. you don't want 'em too loose. for those who were born to ride there's progressive. with 24/7 roadside assistance. -okay. think i'm gonna wear these home. -excellent choice. in business, setbacks change everything. with 2 so get comcastsistance. business internet and add securityedge. it helps keep your network safe by scanning for threats every 10 minutes. and unlike some cybersecurity options, this hel

trump is giving greg abbott hell they don't do an audit in texas and somebody should remind the president he won texas and won it big! >> so james, to take mark's argument and turn it upside down if you wanted to fuss up the results of the 2020 midterms and the 2024 presidential in advance, you would launch a nationwide campaign to fuzz up confidence in the electoral system. >> crooked election. so some people say, republicans didn't show up so look. it's 30% of the people in the country that don't believe in evolution. we have geology departments and medical schools. these people that believe this are just chronically stupid and have to move on. paul gosar's relatives came paned against him. we got to get going and to president and son to manchin and the -- everybody else to hammer out a deal and get the country rolling. we have good things ready to happen and get's get in the groove and we'll see but this is insane. how many times have you got to tell people the earth is round? it just is. if you don't believe it, okay, fine. they don't need an argument anymore. it is a waste of time an

democrats are sick of it and they blame the far right and trump and ted cruz and desantis and greg abbott and all these wing nuts who know better for the most part, and are simply catering to the worst instincts of human beings and it's wrecking the country and we're not going to put up with it anymore. there's a solid majority that's fed up with it. >> governor howard dean, breaking it down. appreciate you, sir. >> yeah. thank you. >> yeah. now i got to go to tell you what's up next. we have billionaires heading into space while democrats are looking to tax them right here on earth. then as i mentioned, i want you to stay with us. there is some major legal developing news on this story we brought you about a man on death row, a trial involved proven racism by a juror. new questions. by a juror. new questions. riders, the lone wolves of the great highway. all they need is a bike and a full tank of gas. their only friend? the open road. i have friends. [ chuckles ] well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that's jeremy, right there! we're literally riding together. he gets touchy whe