that greg abbott will not touch because it exposes his weaknesses. he has done nothing to protect the electric grid. even after 700 people died due to his negligence during the recent winter storm. but democrats we stand ready at all times to work on real issues, thank you. >> before your mark congressional members again, it is my honor to introduce the dean of the texas house democratic caucus. [applause] >> i'm going to say well i am up here, i am not appear to take a vacation in washington d.c. when i look at the african-american museum i thought about the struggles of my people fought in this country to get the right toth vote. in that right is sacred to my constituents i represent back in houston, texas for it i am up here because i do not plan to be a city person in that legislature. i am not going to be a sitting -- you're not going to be a sitting duck? >> i am not going to be a hostage. [applause] [cheering] my constituents right be stripped from them. we have fought too long and too hard in this country. that is what texan called johnson pr

in some ways allen west primarying of greg abbott doesn't surprise me or not. whether greg abbott is vulnerable has a lot to do -- his job approval is in the mid-40s as you showed on that chart. is that primarily driven by disaffection with his style of governing? it's not necessarily about left or right but the handling of things like the energy crisis in texas, if you have moderate republicans who may have been fans of abbott but aren't necessarily -- allen west isn't necessarily the cure for that issue. if on the other hand his numbers are sagging because far right republicans are viewing him more skeptically, then that's where you have to take this seriously and there's no real one way that over the last decade more conventional republicans have beat back primary challenges other than take it seriously. make sure that your opponent doesn't get free rein and define the race is what's helped republicans who have beat back challenges from the far right to do so. >> but my concern is the take it seriously is precisely the issue. west shows up at a protest of co

in some ways allen west and primary of greg abbott doesn't surprise me a lot. whether greg abbott -- his job approval right now is mid forties as you showed and that chart. he's not primarily driven by disaffection with his style of governing. it's not necessarily about left or right or about the handling of things like the energy crisis in texas. if you have moderate republicans and fans of abbott that are not necessarily -- added allen west is not necessarily the care for that issue. if on the other hand it's sagging because far-right republicans are viewing him more skeptically that's when you have to take it more seriously. and there's no real way over the last decade, more conventional republicans have beat back primary challenges with the exception of one thing and that is take it seriously. taking it seriously, putting your effort in to making sure that your opponent doesn't just get to have free reign and defined the race and doesn't have anything to have republicans beating back challenges from the far-right to do so. >> okay but my concern is some way

abbott, slammed the move in that statement saying texas democrats' decision to break a quorum of the texas legislature and abandon the texas state capitol inflicts harm on the very texans who elected them to serve. at the end of may, democratic lawmakers through national attention when they staged a walkout on this very same bill priscilla, you spoke with one of these democrat lawmakers earlier. what did you hear? >> those lawmakers are expected in washington, d.c., within the

and before i turned it over to the congressman, i just want greg abbott and the republican leaders in texas, florida, georgia and anywhere else to know that we are not going to stop. we are always going to push back against these sort of bigoted, racist jim crow 2.0 style voting laws whenever you decide to bring them up. >> thank you all of you who have spoken. most of the focus around here these days is about infrastructure. in its right that we should focus on crumbling bridges. but today we are here about something much more important, and that is the infrastructure of democracy. about broken voting rights. this chose not to be accomplishments by being steamrolled in austin. it took courage to do it they are doing. i served also. at a time i was a killer be when 12 of us chose to depart and won a victory on an issue involving election integrity. they had a much bigger challenge. because i like the position we were in decades ago, no matter what they do, greg abbott and his group of extremists will never change. what can change is right here in this building. and as was mentioned, w

todd: governor greg abbott takes action. >> reporter: deflection came from the deputy press secretary after being asked why vaccinated americans are being told to wear a mask and positive border crossers let loose in texas. here is the response. >> cvp provides ppe from the moment they are taken into custody and migrants are required to keep masks on at all times. if anyone exhibit signs of illness they are referred to local health systems. >> reporter: governor greg abbott signed an executive order restricting ground transportation of migrants at risk of having covid 19 into texas communities that allow stopping of any vehicle with suspicion of the violation. merrick garland is threatening legal action against the order and for abbott to rescind it garland says the order is dangerous and unlawful. the border would jeopardize the health and safety of noncitizens in federal custody and families and communities. the order directly interferes with implementation of federal immigration law. top house republicans lay down a proposal for the border wall to stop the migrant crisis. >> to res

. >> reporter: republican governor greg abbott calls this partisan politics and says by democrats leaving they have prevented important legislation from getting passed in the state but people who left tell me they plan to stay out of state at least 30 days until the legislative session is over to make sure the bill doesn't get passed in texas. norah. >> o'donnell: mireya villarreal, thank you. tonight president biden says the u.s. stands with the cuban

now, governor greg abbott wants to crack down on bail bond laws, making it an emergency item for the state legislature's special session. in chicago, the mayor's office is facing criticism for letting top aides take time off for independence day despite warnings of a bloody webbing end. -- weekend. the mayor's office defending the move, saying working in the mayor's office is a 24/7, 365 job and members of the mayor's senior staff are constantly connected. while senior aides for mayor light foot were able to get a couple days off around july 4th, not police officers, who had their holiday time canceled. todd: lauren, thank you. ashley: a manhunt us underway in georgia for an extremely dangerous suspect, you accused of shooting at officers. dalton county sheriff's office says the man fired multiple shots at police after a car chase. he fled into a wooded area which

mike: the number of border crossings and apprehensions taking up as greg abbott adds border security to the list of topics he wants to deal with during the state legislature special session jonathan serrie is live them away in texas with the latest from the border, good afternoon. >> good afternoon i am standing in front of incomplete section of the u.s. border wall which began construction during the trump administration only to seize construction as soon as president biden took office. let's go to the aerial shot from fox flight drone overhead and from the area get a sense of the wide gaps on the border wall where it's easy for undocumented migrants or anyone to walk around that's what appeared to happen this morning when a group of migrants came over in many families women and children that we see coming over who their first move when they get into the u.s. is to voluntarily turn themselves into authorities to be processed this is a group of young men that were obviously trying to evade capture we saw border virtual agents searching through the brush and if you take a look at the

and he is now running against greg abbott because he doesn't think greg abbott is far-right enough. after all that greg abbott has done he's arguing that is slum is not a religion but it's a tolerant the crowded political ideology. he suggested that black communities were stronger and better during segregation and so he's anti-doctor king. he's called democratic hate and outs, quote unquote, the most insidious form of slavery remaining in the world today. and he's viable, susan, in your party. thoughts. >> qanon and succession. here's the thing, you talk about fascism early on. really, i've been looking for a new word for trumpism because i hate it because i think it goes deeper than just donald trump within the republican party. and i keep coming back to the same name. it's neo-fascism. forget trumpism, it's neo-fascism. that is what the grassroots of the party looks like right now. and in some ways, in a really weird way, people who believe in democracy and normal republicans and democrats and independents should be almost happy that adam west -- island west is running. why? becau

that greg abbott won't touch, because it exposes his weaknesses. he's done nothing to protect the electoral grid. even after 700 people died -- the electric grid. even after 700 people died. it is time to work on real issues. thank you. [applause] >> before we hear from our congressional members again, it is my honor to introduce the dean of the texas house democratic caucus chair, presented of thompson -- representative thompson. [applause] >> i'm going to say why i am up here. i'm not up here to take a vacation in washington, d.c. when i look at the american museum, i thought about the struggle of my people starting this country to get the right to vote. that right is sacred to my constituents, and i represent them back in houston, texas. i am up here because i don't plan to be a sitting person and that legislature -- in that legislature. i'm not going to be sitting -- i'm not going to be a hostage. [applause] but my constituents ought to be stripped from them. we have fought too long in this country. president lyndon b. johnson in 1965 fought so

we need this time but secondly, i think people in the state of texas are tired of greg abbott's games. he only responds to the right wing of his base. this is red meat he is feeding his base. he has two right wing republicans pushing him to do these kinds of things because he is generally worried about being reelted or winning his own primary. what i think is happening is people in the state of texas are seeing this and instead of repairing the grid you saw in the news a few months ago where people work freezing to death -- we lost between 400 and 500 people that literally froze to death because we did not have power because electric grid in the state failed. instead of trying to fix this, he's dealing with these issues like voter supession, like preventing transgender children from being able to engage in sports and in order to satisfy his base instead of taking care of the needs of the people in the state of texas. i believe the people in this state are going to get tired of this intel g -- and tell greg abbott -- amy: let me end with representative johnson who fled the state with t

abbott que le sigue sus pasos con políticas de texas invitado por gobernado de texas, greg abbott que le sigue sus pasos con polÍticas de mano dura en temas migratorios >> joe biden estÁ destruyendo e paÍs con el ingreso a l inmigraciÓn ilegal dijo el expresidente de los estado unidos, donald trump par respaldar las medidas contra inmigrantes en texas est gobierno estÁ abriendo el camin a criminales que salen desde centroamÉrica >> (informaciÓn en pantalla) >> (informaciÓn en pantalla)cri centroamérica >> (información en pantalla) >> (información en pantalla) >> en una reunión con alguaciles de texas a favor de las políticas del gobernador >> en una reuniÓn con alguaciles de texas a favor de la polÍticas del gobernador y donald trump se quejaron del incremento del 2000% de drogas como el fentanil >> (informaciÓn en pantalla) >> (informaciÓn en pantalla) >> (informaciÓn en pantalla) >> (informaciÓn en pantalla) >> seguidores del expresidente de los estados unidos, donal trump salieron a protegerl >> protegerlo de los invasores que vienen a hacer daÑo al paÍ >> en r

notably absent is texas governor greg abbott. and just as you heard at the top of the hour, his office says with the border and with the special legislative session that he was going to skip this conference and stay in austin instead. lieutenant governor dan patrick and attorney general ken paxton, however, some notable texas republicans that are here. a big weekend, no doubt, in texas. jacqui: all right. casey stegall, thank you so much. griff? griff: joining us now fresh off his appearance at cpac, republican senator if tennessee, a member of the senate appropriations committee, bill hagerty. senator, thank you for taking time. let's start with your address to the folks at cpac. what did you tell them? >> well, griff, it's great to be back with you. we talked a lot about the threats that face our nation and the fact that the biden administration is opening the door to so many of the adversaries that we had done such a good job under president trump's leadership of showing strength and the fortitude of america. what we're seeing

the trumper governor there, greg abbott, called a special session today to push this agenda. and it is very campaignish. a revised vote

onto the border crisis and the threat of covid greg abbott has taken action this time to restrict the movement of illegal suppose a risk of carrying the virus attorney general merrick garland threatening a lawsuit to stop him i'm jackie deangelis and for elizabeth macdonald "the evening edit" starts right now. good evening and welcome 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill 2700 plus pages is being debated by the senate democrats say they have the votes needed to pass the three and half trillion dollar budget resolution they will push that there without any republican support to a massive spending package chock-full of priorities i migration reform and climate change joining me too discuss former white house deputy chief of staff karl rove good evening always great to see you. let's start with the op-ed in the title was the american jobs plan is a call to arms for the gop lay out what your argument is.lf >> is the administration social welfare bill items packed with every left-wing agenda item from pre-community college to free childcare and eldercare and so forth the price tag is said to be

joining us now, texas governor greg abbott. governor, welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> my pleasure. thank you, chris. chris: let's start with the voting bill that casey was talking about. that became the big issue when democrats were successfully able to block it in a regular session. here is a democratic state legislator. take a look. >> we do not have a voter fraud problem in the state of texas. our secretary of state testified that elections in techs as were safe and secure, the 2020 election was safe and secure. chris: the texas attorney general's office spent 22,000 man hours looking for evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election and they apparently came up with 16 cases, 16, of people filing false addresses on their voter registration. so my question, governor is, is this a problem in search of a solution? >> absolutely not, chris. remember this, and that is before that i was governor, i was the attorney general of texas and i prosecuted voter fraud cases across the entire state and my successor, ken tax upon, has

he's running against greg abbott because he doesn't think far right is far enough after all greg abbott has done. he has argued islam is not a religion. he has suggested black communities were stronger and better during segregation. so he's anti-dr. king. he's called democratic handouts the most insidious form of slavery remaining in the world today. and he's viable, susan, in your party. thoughts? >> he also believes in qanon and succession. and here's the thing, you talked about fascism early on. really i've been looking for a new word for trumpism because i hate it and i think it goes deeper than just donald trump in the republican party. i keep coming back to the same name. it's neofascism. forget trumpism, it's neofascism. that's what the grassroots of the party looks like right now. and in some ways, in a really weird way, people who believe in democracy, you know, normal rips and democrats and independents, they should be almost happy adam west -- allen west is running. why? because he may win. if he wins, he will be a very weak challenger to whoever the democrats put up. we are

and on to the border crisis and the spread of covid, once again texas governor greg abbott taking action, this time to restrict the movement of illegals who pose a risk of carrying the virus with them. but now attorney general merrick forwardland threatening a lawsuit to stop him -- garland. i'm jackie deangelis in for elizabeth macdonald, "the evening edit" starts right now. ♪ ♪ jackie: good evening and welcome, everybody. the $1 is.3 trillion -- 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill is being debated by the senate. democrats say they have the votes needed to pass that 3.5 trillion budget resolution. they're going to try to push that a through without any republican support leading the way to a massive spending package chock full of progressive top priorities like immigration reform and climate change as well. joining me now to discuss it, former white house deputy chief of staff karl rove. karl, always great to see you. >> thanks for having me. jackie: let's start with an op-ed you penned in the "wall street journal," and lay out what your argument is here. >> well, the american jobs pla

greg abbott laid out 11 issues he wants to prioritize. among them, so-called election integrity, aka voter suppression. border security. addressing alleged social media censorship, and you guessed it, critical race theory. also, bail reform, restrictions on abortion drugs, and banning transgender athletes from competing in high school sports because that's a top priority for texas. notably not included in the right-wing red meat dinner plate, doing anything whatsoever about the power grid, the one that failed millions of texans during a freak winter storm, and then texans were asked to conserve electricity during a heat wave last month, butnic about that. at a news conference with activists from black voters matter, the chair of the caucus spelled out what's really on greg abbott's agenda. >> we have a problem keeping the lights on in the state, we learned this year. that's what greg abbott ought to be focused on, not on his next primary election, not on pandering to donald trump and his extremist base. >> ah, yes, the primary. that said,

texas governor greg abbott addressing reports that matthew mcconaughey wants to take his job. carley shimkuss has the trending stories next. there's matty and there's shimki. ♪ because i want to be a cowboy, baby. ♪ cowboy, baby ashley: welcome back. as thousands of cuban protesters take to the street and demand an end to the country's communist dictatorship, u.s. lawmakers are speaking out in solidarity with their demonstrations. todd: senator person ben who previously defendedded some policies of fidel castro is noticeably silent. carley shimkus is here with more. hey, carley. carley: good morning, guys. thousands of protesters in cuba joined in over the weekend, demanding a change to the system in the communist country. many lawmakers here in the u.s. speaking out in solidarity with demonstrators but vermont senator bernie sanders has yet to issue a statement, this after he defended fidel castro during the presidential election. take a look. >> we're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of cuba. fidel castro has a massive literacy program. is that a bad thing? carle

greg abbott wants to be president or vice president so he is on the side of trump all the way. there is no problem with voting in texas. they just want to make it harder. guest: ink you for your advocacy and your inc. -- thank you for your advocacy and your encouragement. i am trying to speak with our congressional leaders and ask them to please pass legislation as soon as possible to preempt what is barreling down our face in texas. host: when you here's -- hear people say " we want to make it easier to vote, harder to cheat" what do you say? guest: how does that make it easier to vote? there is nothing in it that makes it easier to vote at all, and there is nothing that even addresses cheating at all. it is a talking point, but it does not make it easier to vote if you are going to deter an elderly person from being able to receive a mail ballot knowing that many elderly people, that is the primary way they vote. when you criminalize that and make state jail felony is on innocuous -- felonies on innocuous actions with no sign of criminal intent, people will stay away. otherwi

maria: joining me right now the governor of texas, greg abbott. governor, good to see you, two house democrats have returned to texas at this point. they are back at work. when do you expect the rest to return home and will you apprehend them if they don't cooperate and do their jobs? governor: first i think there's a fraying in washington, d.c. because they are accomplishing absolutely nothing in washington. they were hoping to coax the democrats in washington, d.c. to change position to vote out hr1 or some other election integrity bill in washington, d.c. and they met with a stonewall with regard to that and so will have gone up there for their mission and done nothing while all at the same time spending texas taxpayer money to pay for special session and their salaries and salaries of their staff, et cetera. but also at the same time the democrats who did remain in the state of texas, they were able to work on a bill in the texas senate did accommodate some of the requests by the democrats. as opposed to trying to negotiate with people in wash

texas governor greg abbott was back at the border saturday. this time joined by florida governor ron desantis. well, the pair highlight at the partnership between the 2 states after florida answered the lone star state's call for help to tackle the surge in the border crossings. reporter wes rapaport has the latest. there. >> hi there. there's no clear timeline on when florida's resources will head back to the east coast. but governor desantis said it was no hesitation to send support here to the lone star state because during hurricane season, texas offers to lend a hand. >> this is a situation where all states need to be a part of the process of stepping up because the best place to interdict this criminal activity is not in florida is not an hour is right here on the border when texas governor greg abbott called florida's governor ron desantis answered. he sent boats planes and people to the lone star state. >> to help address the surge in border crossings. i asked some of my folks at the state levels is something we could support. >> but i

greg abbott took money out of the texas budget which states are normally doing and put it on the border. and you know what he didn't do? he didn't fix the electric grid who went down here for a week and a half and everyone gets out in the cold and lost the water. so he is paying for -- but not fixing the electric grid in texas. it's just so out of whack but it has to do with the changing diversity of the country in a layer of white populations that is aggrieved by that. and that is what fundamentally the republican party. is today. >> matt, 20 question. is it fair to ask where is the secretary of defense, the attorney general and perhaps a federal judge or two before a state national guard is hired for a gender reveal party in somebody's backyard to put an end to this traveling across state lines to international border? >> that's a great question brian. i think the biden administration is great but i think it's actually slow to understand and slow to respond about what we're facing today. this is a fire alarm fighter and dealt with immediately and so when this occurred in the rumor of

let me give you an example of greg abbott, the governor here. greg abbott took money out of the texas budget, and put it on the border. you know what he didn't do? he didn't fix the electric grid that went down here for a week and a half and everybody was out in the cold and lost their water. he is paying for a border wall but not fixing the electric grid in texas. it's so out of whack. but it has to do with the changing diversity of the country and the layer of white populations that's grieved by that. and that's what, fundamentally, what the republican party is today. >> is it fair to ask where is the secretary of defense, attorney general and a federal judge or two, before a state national guard is hired for a gender reveal party in somebody's backyard to put an end to this traveling across state lines to an international border? >> that's a great question, brian. i think what the biden administration has done has been great. but they're slow to understand and slow to respond to what we're facing today. this is a five-alarm fire that needs to

and former president trump and the governor greg abbott. this is a town hall. we will have some questions. ma'am, welcome to the program. >> sean: what is your first name? >> my name is janet brown and i live in eddie berg. >> sean: welcome. >> i am hispanic. i actually came from nicaragua and south american. i am very familiar with south america and i live two years in honduras and then nicaragua. i came to the united states in 1960. i won't tell you my age. but anyway, i came here legally. and it is really sad to see what is going on at our borders here. my question is, president trump, what long-term damage and destruction will be 18 open borders agenda due to the country, and what is it costing law-abiding u.s. taxpayers? >> former president trump: so, it is a very fair question. and i know you know the answer probably as well as anybody in this room. it is incalculable how bad this is. we have not hundreds of thousands, but millions of people storming into the country. some of them as we discussed are from prisons and arpad and murderers and all the things

we are joined now by texas governor greg abbott. a lot to get you, including mask layering in schools. the american academy of pediatrics suggesting that kids as young as two years old should be masking up when they got back to school. what do you plan to tell people in your state? >> well, first, the set up, what you have all been talking about the past few minutes, and that is all the information that we get from washington, d.c., and the supposed leaders about responding to covid have been, as john talked about earlier, shifting. they keep moving the goal posts throughout the entire pandemic, and all that really does is so confusion among the american public. no one knows what to believe, and as a result, people have lack of trust and confidence in the information coming out of washington, d.c. the one thing that we do know is that, and that is that those who receive covid vaccine shots are far less likely and highly protected against -- far less likely to get covid. and so the state of texas is working with local communities to

several texas lawmakers are in washington dc after leaving their state to protest greg abbott's special pledge light of session to approve several republican voting bills. >> i am here with these people of >> i am here with these people of courage, these feed him -- these freedom fighters who came

i want to read part of attorney general merrick garland's letter to greg abbott. he says -- >> yet there's thousands of people, covid positive, many of them, crossing the border and these jurisdictions have no idea these people are in their borders, in their towns and what the attorney general is saying is that texas and arizona and new mexico and california have no right to defend themselves. >> well, the solution is simply for me. you cannot threaten a lockdown for covid and not lock down the border for the same reason, that being covid. yesterday we just saw the biden administration threaten yet another mass and potential vaccine mandate on this country. our governor is doing his best to keep us all safe to prevent the spread of covid, the delta variant, throughout our state. this is hypocrisy at its best. if you wonder why there's vaccine hesitancy, look no more at the mixed mets singles biden is sending to the country. governor abbott is doing his job to keep his citizens safe and i applaud him for that. >> trace: governor abbott is right when he says the adm

now texas governor greg abbott wants to crack down on bail bond laws, making it an emergency item for the state legislature's special session. and in chicago, the mayor's office is facing criticism for letting top aides take time off for independence days despite warnings of a bloody weekend. more than 100 were shot. local officials say it shows a lack of commitment by mayor lori lightfoot's administration. they say working in the office in a 34/7, 365 day a year is a job where you're always connected. police officers had their holiday time canceled. ashley, todd. ashley: lauren blanchard, thanks so much for that. we appreciate it. . todd: trey gowdy says democrats made a lethal mistake by calling to defund police. listen. >> you were told last year we needed to he defund the police. you were told we needed to eliminate the police many you were told we really needed more social workers and psychologists. you were told that crime would go down if there were fewer cops. you were told there are things cosh yule gists -- you knew it was a dumb idea when you heard i you knew we really don'

>> reporter: texas governor greg abbott making it clear his stance remains the same as it has over the past several months not only ending that mask mandate but banning future mandates as it relates to covid and the numbers really speak for themselves. of all the statistics flying around here, as the delta variant spreads through the south and here in texas this state has seen hospitalizations grad are quadruple over the past month, numerous metropolitan areas, houston, dallas, the city of austin raise their covid threat levels going forward and with this new recommendation from the cdc, one group in particular in this state, that is highly concerned, is that of the texas state teachers association, about 50,000 members strong. i had a chance to speak with them yesterday. has there been any dialogue between your group as the school season approaches and the office of governor greg abbott. there has not been and here is what the president of that organization had to say regarding this ongoing threat. take a listen. >> i think the governor is attacking our public schools. for this whole

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let me play for you the texas governor, greg abbott, tweeted out a video in which he defended the law that they're trying to pass that will limit the ability to vote. take a listen. >> president biden and the democrats must stop the misinformation. texas is very simply making it easier to vote and harder to cheat. >> that is the talking point. the easier to vote, harder to cheat talking point. it's easy to understand when you read the letter of the law that is not true. i wonder if democrats are because of the way that it's being framed by republicans, republican framing always seems to win because they're good at it, it's sort of a nest at the advertising d.c. democrats. do you understand why democrats seem -- in d.c. seem much more to be prioritizing cutting deals with republicans and doing bipartisan bills with them and normalizing them than having the urgency to say, this is not -- this is not a normal republican party? i say this all the time. my father was -- if he had been an american citizen would have been a republican. he loved the republican party. he was a raganite. he's r

but because greg abbott and other republicans are so intimidated by the trump base of the republican party and they're really indistinguishable now, the trump base is the republican party, they are moving forward with these anti-voter bills and democrats are going to fight them every step of the way and we're going to do all we can to protect the voting rights of all texans. >> i mean, given all that, though, they do have the votes to pass what they want in this bill. you can walk out again, i assume. but they have the votes. >> well, you're absolutely right about that. which is why we need congress to pass hr-1, the for the people act, and hr-4, the john lewis voting rights act, to safeguard voters in texas and across the country against these republican efforts to make it more difficult for people to vote and their efforts to rig the system. and it is just imperative that the u.s. senate do whatever it has to do to pass those bills so that we can protect the voting rights of all americans, in texas and all across the country. >> yeah, we just talked to senator bernie sanders about

governor greg abbott is now threatening their arrest once they return home. tensions are high in austin, the impact is also being felt in washington. so we are going to bring in nbc news political reporter vaughn hillyard and nbc news white house reporter lauren egan. what is the mood there as we wait to see who blinks first, the texas democrats or governor greg abbott. >> reporter: the texas democrats have indicated their staying in washington, d.c. through at least august 7th when the special session ends. but the republican governor greg abbott has said he will call as many special sessions as needed until those texas democrats return here, and that that legislation in the house and the senate, what democrats call voting restriction bills, are signed into law. actually just talked with one of those state house democrats over zoom while he was in washington, d.c. and i asked him the very question about what is the operational goal here in the days ahead? they have met with senator manchin. cherry looking to meet with senator sinema and they're looking for e

straight to the border crisis, greg abbott bans transportation of migrants who could be infected with covid. >> to protect communities after illegal immigrants into local hotels. tensions -- griff jenkins joins us as whistleblowers claim biden officials ordered them to downplay a covert outbreak. what is that about? >> good morning. a lot happening, this executive order is interesting, governor abbott banning ground transportation by anyone other than federal state or local wasn't official to stop the spread of covid in texas communities and authorizing the ps to pull over anyone who violates that? >> the biden administration cares more about people who are not residents, one senator trying to mask up and vaccinate our fellow americans but by allowing free pass into the united states of people with the highest probability of covid and then spreading that covid in our communities. >> reporter: this after news the catholic charity placing covid positive migrants into a local hotel. a police sergeant said they only found that when a customer at a whatohberger witnessed and amassed migran

and governor greg abbott says the lone star state is all alone in handling crisis. well, we're never alone, as long as faren fraud sack is around and she's gonna tell us just how much texas take matter into its own hands and arresting anyone and everyone trying to cross over even though the federal government may have abandoned their responsibility, we are not going to bed and our responsibility just weeks ago, texas governor greg abbott was joined by former president, donald trump at the us mexico border where we held a border security briefing with law enforcement from border communities about the continuous search of migrants entering the united states. so if you look on a month by month basis, what you will see is an increase your over a year of $800.00, not 100 percent. sometimes almost a 1000 percent abbot says texas still hasn't received any help from the binding administration. so he's going rogue, we're not playing games anymore. i've deployed the national guard as well as the texas department of public safety. the bite administration plan is to catch and r