i'm back from vacation one day and have already eaten 20 seconds of "the last word" already back to my terrible habits. that does it for me. now it is time for "the last word" where ali velshi is in for lawrence tonight. good evening and thank you for filling in so ably while i was away. >> it was great and as i always

say your team gets a show that is not hosted by you as close as possible to a show hosted by you. when i was listening earlier i googled how many knots could there be for catching striped bass? quite surprised. >> yes. >> the improved clinch knot seems to get the most googles. i was a bit surprised. >> yeah. i could go on. trust me. >> yes, no doubt. in your seat one week ago tonight i interviewed lieutenant colonel alexander vindman and it was a remarkable interview about the moment in which he realized donald trump had done something illegal and that can't stand and he will do something about that. and maybe bj pak went through something like that and maybe jeff rosen went through something like that where he said this can't stand. i am most worried that our democracy cannot rely on the fact that people will make good judgments. i'm really glad some people did and alexander vindman did and he

is a hero for doing it but i would really like to know there is something else that will prevent somebody like donald trump from undoing democracy as we have learned there was a full plan to do. this wasn't a whim. this was a plan as you pointed out. >> yes. you know, it is exactly right. you can't have a system that depends on super human heroism. there has to be consequences for putting people in circumstances where the only way to move forward in public service is to be self-sacrificing and heroic on a daily basis. today is the anniversary of richard nixon's resignation from the presidency. there were consequences for what nixon forced people to do in terms of being heroic in their efforts to save the republic against him. there were confidence ferences for nixon and a reason his name is an epithet. if we don't ensure that same accountability moving forward then the sacrifice and heroism of the vindmans of the world is something we're not honoring. >> and we're not there yet.

>> it weighs on me. >> it weighs on me, too. great to have you back. thank you my friend. have an excellent night and work on those knots. well donald trump did try to overthrow the election not just with sore loser tweets. he tried as we have discussed to use the office of the presidency and to coerce others into using their federal offices to actually overthrow the election. so as rachel says why isn't he being held accountable for not only telling the big lie that the election was stolen but actually trying to make that a reality? these questions demand answers especially as we learn even more about trump's efforts to use the justice department in his scheme. the "new york times" reports jeffrey rosen trump's former acting attorney general met with the justice department's office of the inspector general on friday and delivered damning closed door testimony to the senate judiciary committee on saturday. jeffrey rosen detailed efforts by jeffrey clark, this man, the

then acting head of the justice department civil division, to help trump subvert the election results. according to "the times" rosen told investigators clark quote admitted meeting with mr. trump and pledged that he would not do so again end quote. it never seems to be that simple for people in trump's orbit. "the times" reports clark quote continued to press colleagues to make statements about the election that they found to be untrue. jeffery rosen also told investigators that, quote, clark had been engaging in unauthorized conversations with mr. trump about ways to have the justice department publicly cast doubt on president biden's victory. end quote. and to top it all off, jeffery clark, quote, drafted a letter that he asked mr. rosen to send to georgia state legislators wrongly asserting that they should void mr. biden's victory because the justice department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the state.

here is the senate judiciary committee chairman dig durbin earlier today on msnbc. >> there's a lot of information we'd like to gather from mr. clark, will help bring some clarity to the situation. it certainly raised a question and mr. rosen understood that mr. clark was waiting in the wings and if he didn't do president trump's requests, comply with those requests, he very easily could have been replaced. >> donald trump abused his office. for anyone with eyes or ears before the 2016 election you could see the potential for abuse was high. it is possibly even more alarming that trump's abuses were the abuses of the people around him. from people who were not gold toilet grifters like trump. people like jeffery clark all too eager it seems to break the law for a man who lost the election. before we start sanctify the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen note that he sat in

silence for nine or ten months before speaking out against these abuses. now for every jeffery clark who is willing to subvert the law there is a man like this, alexander vindman, who risked his career to provide the evidence that helped to lead to donald trump's first impeachment and that is heartening. but relying on good faith actors is not sustainable or healthy for our democracy. that is the lesson of the trump presidency and a lesson we are still learning even with trump gone. leading off our discussion tonight daniel goldman who served as the house impeachment inquiry majority council for the first impeachment of donald trump and also served as the assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. daniel, it is good to see you again, but not under good circumstances. this question is a big one. we have evidence falling every day about someone else who seemed to do something that looks like they were breaking the law and there is still a former president walking around without facing legal consequence

for damaging democracy in this country. >> certainly as things drip out from the senate judiciary committee and department of justice it is looking worse and worse as if it wasn't just a one off, it wasn't just one instance where donald trump tried to convince the attorney general to get involved. it was a calculated, premeditated plan to pressure the department of justice and not dissimilar to the saturday night massacre where two attorneys general had to resign before the solicitor general at the time would actually do president nixon's bidding. donald trump had similar plans to fire jeffrey rosen and fire richard donahue and then to elevate jeffery clark to be the ag so that that letter we now know could go out. this is scary as you point out.

but the thing that gnaws at me in reading this reporting is it's all well and good for the senate judiciary committee to pursue this investigation, and they should, and it is all well and good for the department of justice inspector general's office, which initially evaluates whether or not individuals, employees of the department of justice violated regulations or protocols or perhaps laws, but they are not a prosecutorial arm of the department of justice. the big question here is what is going on with these allegations and the ongoing january 6th criminal investigation? it is clear that the information that jeffrey rosen has, that b.j. pak is going to give in a couple days, relates to what happened on january 6th. we do know there is a massive, criminal investigation related

to january 6th. we don't know at this point whether that investigation has included any interviews that -- with jeffrey rosen or richard donahue or b.j. pak. we don't know that. my fear is that everything of course in congress is leaked so that's not a surprise. but the ig's office for the department of justice generally keeps their investigations confidential. and if that is leaking to the press, my concern is that the -- there is no leak about any jeffrey rosen testimony to the fbi or to the u.s. attorney's office. and so i am concerned that we haven't heard about that. it's possible it is going on and we don't know about it. but that is where accountability really lies at this point. it is not through the senate judiciary committee even though that is important. it is through a very intensive

and close evaluation of the facts and evidence to see if crimes were -- >> this has gone past politics. people you know very well, joyce vance, lawrence tribe, barbara quaid wrote something in "the washington post" yesterday a road map for the justice department to follow in investigating trump. they wrote this before we knew all of this stuff about friday's discussions with rosen, saturday's testimony with rosen. who is in charge of this? as you said, there is a january 6 investigation, an i.g. investigation. but to us lay people with no legal training it feels like laws were broken, crimes were committed that imperilled democracy in this country and we need to see somebody taking action that seems consequential and apolitical. who is the person to do this? who is the body to lead this? is it the department of justice? as rachel said the problem with

the department of justice, the attorney general, the poor guy goes to work every day at a crime scene. >> it is the department of justice. there is accountability in all sorts of different ways. i would argue there will be accountability potentially at the ballot box in 2022, which is going to be the first election since january 6th. and there is accountability that can occur in congress. they can pass laws to correct some of these issues that -- this impropriety that donald trump used to abuse his power. and there in fact is a law in the house drafted or a number of laws drafted by adam schiff to correct this. the trick here, and this is where sort of our urge for information conflicts with how the department of justice works. and that is that these criminal investigations, particularly one of this magnitude, related to january 6th, take a very long time. and it's very important that

they remain confidential for a host of reasons that anyone who wants to see accountability should support. you know, our system is based on the rule of law and that is essential that we don't change our view of the rule of law depending on which party is in power. and so there's this desire to see something happening, to understand that, oh, the department of justice is interviewing this person, interviewing that person. but that's not the way that it works if it is working properly. and so the bottom line is that we just need to be patient and have faith that the u.s. attorney's office in washington, d.c., which is spearheading the january 6th investigation, and the higher ups at the department of justice who are overseeing this investigation pursue every single lead to its logical conclusion. and if ultimate -- at that point they will have more information than we have and that is when

they make a decision as to whether or not there are crimes that were committed or whether there should be some other referral or some other report or some other mechanism for accountability. but i'm concerned that jeffrey rosen is testifying in front of all these other entities because it just indicates to me that the department of justice is not, if i were a prosecutor, i would not want my witness to be testifying all over the place. because you're creating conflicting testimony, which can be used for cross examination if there ever is a trial. so it's perfectly plausible that they don't care about that but that is a real concern for me as someone who is a former prosecutor watching this from afar. >> your counsel is appreciated for us and our viewers because these are things we do not understand but you not only understand but, boy, i remember talking to you in the days before the first impeachment. things have moved quickly and continue to. good to see you again. daniel goldman, thank you for

joining us. we appreciate your time. all right. coming up the trump rum please of republicans who are still refusing to accept that joe biden actually won the presidency is just one of the ways a recalcitrant minority is holding the rest of us hostage in this country. another is avoiding a vaccine and spreading a deadly virus, stopping us from getting back to regular life, and putting your kids at risk. enough is enough. david plouffe and eddie glaude join me after this. damage. new parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum seal tight. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste. we were alone when my husband had the heart attack. he's the most important thing in my life. i'm so lucky to get him back. your heart isn't just yours. protect it with bayer aspirin. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. that's why i started medhaul. citi launched the impact fund to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything i've got to my company, and my community. i got you. for the love of people. for the love of community. for the love of progress. citi.

it's taken a lot to get to this moment. ♪ grew up at midnight - the maccabees ♪ dreams are on the line.

you got this. refresh... it all, comes down, to this. ♪♪

qanon is reappearing on a ballot near you. this is dangerous stuff. qanon lies and people die. right now fueled in part by qanon adherents a massive covid-19 disinformation campaign is convincing americans not to get vaccinated. it is time for the republican party to expunge these conspiracy theorists from their ranks for the sake of democracy. breaking news tonight the united states has crossed 36 million confirmed coronavirus cases including 1 million more cases in just the last eight days. delta is spreading like wild fire in a country where vaccine is free and has been available to all adults for months. quote, we are failing one another. that is how "usa today" described america's fourth covid surge on their cover this weekend with a map highlighting the devastating spread of the delta variant among states with

high rates of unvaccinated people. the united states is now averaging more than 100,000 new cases of covid every day. that is the highest since february before the vaccines were widely available. this is nonsense. roughly 30% of the new coronavirus cases are coming from just two states -- florida and texas. and republican governors are doing real harm by blocking mask mandates for kids and downplaying the virus. but it is not just covid. as david plouffe president obama's first campaign manager put it, quote, a third of the country is holding the other two-thirds hostage preventing us from beating the pandemic, from reaffirming that we are democracy. we need the two-thirds to unite. not forever but now. joining us now david plouffe, former campaign manager and white house senior adviser to president obama and eddie glaude chairman of african-american studies at princeton university. both gentlemen are msnbc contributors. david, you make an important

point right at the end. you do not have to unite forever. you do not have to put aside all of your differences. we don't even want that. we are a pluralism. we don't need people to put aside their differences. you just have to be on the side of not dying from a deadly disease and not seeing your democracy disintegrate in front of you. >> right, ali. the threats to our democracy, to the existence of this country, our health, ability to beat this pandemic and prepare for the next one are existential. yes, i'd love it if democrats got two-thirds of the vote everywhere. that is not going to happen. we need to be realistic about this. there are structural reasons the minority has too much power. gerrymandering, the way we elect united states senators, electoral college. right now we have about two-thirds of the country that entirely drive republican primaries and are the activists, get all their information from sinclair and breitbart, who are holding us back. on beating this pandemic,

dealing with climate change, dealing with the gun carnage in this country, on immigration reform, saving our democracy, on all of these things. and i think, you know, there's been a lot of -- understandably saying we're too divided to get anything done. politicians might be divided. the most amazing thing is on most of the issues should people have gotten vaccine, should we have worn masks through the pandemic, did joe biden win the election? is climate change real? should we pass an assault weapons ban? should we have a pathway to citizenship for immigrants snb two-thirds to 80% of the people agree on this. the question will be for voters who don't agree with what the hard core of the republican base is doing, the forever trumpers are they going to show up in 2024 and say for these couple elections we'll side with you then we can go back to fighting about health care coverage and tax rates and all the things that seem quaint right now.

>> which is fine. happy to have those conversations again. eddie, you are the chair of the department of african-american studies. there is something about this one-quarter or one-third of deniers or whatever you want to call them. there is a lost causeness about this. it is like the other side of the civil war. the antimask stuff, big lie in the election. now the politicization of vaccines, the sense that it is us and our lifestyle and culture that you all are imposing something on. >> absolutely. in some ways they are the new redeemers. of course the redeemers were those persons trying to roll back the victory of the civil war trying to in some ways block the way to the u.s. becoming a multi racial democracy and of course were successful in that regard. the south may have lost but the lost cause continues to in some ways animate our politics. i want to add something to what

david said. i think he is right that one-third has had the country by the throat for generations. that one-third is only powerful because among the two-thirds there are those willing to coddle them. there are those who are willing in some ways to stand by silently as the pro slavery folk define the politics of the nation and pass the fugitive slave law of 1850 and force slavery as a national issue to say folks in boston and chicago must return those who have escaped slavery. there are those who aren't the members of the kkk who weren't rabid segregationists but who were okay with the way in which jackson, mississippi was organized. there are those folks like joe manchin and sinema who are coddling in the name of a commitment to a procedural rule. it is not only the one-third. it is those portions, the members of the two-thirds who are willing to stand silently by as the one-third grabs the

country by the throat. >> which gives them more power than you would think one-third or one-quarter of the population would normally have. the nonsense out of people i didn't associate with nonsense in the past. i associated them with beliefs that weren't exactly the same as mine but we could always debate them, david, is fascinating. i want you to listen to what rand paul posted a video to twitter today. let's discuss it on the other side. >> it's time for us to resist. they can't arrest all of us. they can't keep all of your kids home from school. we don't have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. we can simply say, no. not again. we will make our own health choices. we will not show you a passport. we will not wear a mask. we will not be forced into random screenings and testings so you can continue your drunk with power reign over the capitol. no one should follow cdc's

antiscience mask mandates >> i don't even know what to say, david. he is talking about resisting and petty tyrants. this is a man educated in science by the way. i wouldn't have guessed that. where does the energy for this come from where it is not just the right fringe to eddie glaude's point. it is not just the right fringe but people who were otherwise main stream conservatives or libertarians who have gone over and crossed over some line into ridiculous. >> that is the united states senator we are talking about. of course there is a category of a quarter to a third who actually believe all this stuff. then there's a bunch of people following the ball like in a 5-year-old soccer game. where is the ball going? where are the primary voters going, where is tucker carlson going? where is laura ingram going? i think there are a lot of people cowardly who fall into that category. eddie makes a great point. this is a crossroads for america. it is not hyperbole to say

democracy's -- could be coming to a close or that we may not survive this pandemic much less get ready for another one. it is hyperbole to say we may not lead the world to save the planet. that will require the people in the other two-thirds who know better. who believe we are democracy. who don't believe the big lie. who believe public health professionals. who believe science to say even though i don't agree with the democrats in anything these people pay a price. the rand pauls of the world, what is happening is they are speaking into this distorted, per verse world that is created for them by fox, by sinclair, by news max. that is their world, the mirror they look into every day, and they get applauded for these crazy, infan tile, dishonest things they say. until they really pay a price at the ballot box let's not forget donald trump of all people almost won re-election. there has to be a real

reckoning. the 2022 election has to be the beginning of it. if you give people like rand paul all the power you better turn out the lights on this country in my view. >> not only that did donald trump come close to winning election he came very close it now seems to stealing an election. eddie, one of the discussions we've had in the past is everybody else has to put their back into this. so voting rights now completely intersect with election fraud but not with the way republicans want you to think about it in the way donald trump and cronies at the justice department about to send letters to the georgia republicans and the governors to overturn the election in favor of donald trump, that is the only election fraud we've got here. so folks not affected by voting restrictions like me because i've never had a problem voting here. i don't have line-ups. i vote easily. everybody's got to get their back into fixing this problem. >> you remember, ali, the late

political theorist at harvard said america didn't really become a truly genuine democracy until 1965. prior to that large portions of the country did not have access to the vote. and so americans were okay with that. so we need to understand how fragile this thing is. i think david and you are absolutely right. we are at code red. this is a crisis point. this is not simply about black folk being denied the vote. it is not simply about poor people and young people being denied the vote. it is about undermining the very fabric of our country. i should say this quickly. for 40 years we have been governed by an ideology that has turned us into self-interested persons in pursuit of our own aims and ends. we can live in our get ad communities. we were okay with the gaps between those who have and those who did not have. we were okay with the argument that government had no role in our lives. it has produced a planet on the brink and no genuine conception

of the public good. and a pandemic of selfishness in the midst of a virus raging in the country. we are at a crisis point and have to respond together or we will not make it through this. >> we'll need a road map how to do that. you articulate the problem well but i don't know how you don't see the climate warming, how you don't see voters rights affecting you but we have to figure out a way that everybody understands there is a dividing line now and you need to be on the right side of it. thank you. we appreciate your time tonight. coming up we got more proof that in the biden economy power is shifting to workers. we'll talk about that next. wkes we'll talk about that next

♪ ♪ ♪ aloha! isn't this a cozy little room? sorry your vacation request took so long to get approved, so you missed out on the suite special. but lucky for you, they had this. when employees are forced to wait for vacation request approvals,it can really cramp their style. i'm gonna leave you to it. um, just— with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in a single, easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com and schedule a demo today.

one, two! one, two, three! only pay for what you need! with customized car insurance from liberty mutual! nothing rhymes with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ [sfx: psst psst] allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! all good i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. (piano playing) here we go. ♪♪

[john legend's i can see clearly now] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ make your reunion happen with vrbo. your together awaits. vrbo

while our economy is far from complete, and while we doubtlessly will have ups and downs along the way as we continue to battle the delta surge of covid, what is

indisputable now is this. the biden plan is working. the biden plan produces results. the biden plan is moving the country forward. >> and we should note the biden plan isn't just working for a few but actually for everybody. today the labor department announced that for the first time ever there are more than 10 million open jobs in the united states. more jobs are coming. according to moody's the bipartisan infrastructure deal that congress is on the verge of passing will create 650,000 jobs paying an average annual salary of $70,000. much higher than the median. another indicator the biden plan is working is that the average pay for grocery store employees, the essential workers who kept us fed through the pandemic, now tops $15 an hour for the first time ever. other industries are following suit. "the washington post" reports overall nearly 80% of u.s. workers now earn at least $15 an hour up from 60% in 2014.

job soits and recruiting firms say many job seekers won't even consider jobs that pay less than $15 anymore. for years, low paid workers fought to make at least that much. now it has effectively become the new baseline. end quote. joining us now the former chairman of the council on economic advisers for president obama. he is a professor of economics at the university of chicago's booth school of business. william spriggs is an economics professor at howard university and the chief economist for the afl-cio. welcome. william, this is quite a thing. the minimum wage, federal minimum wage $7.25. we have been talking for years about $10, $12, $15. now we're at a place where wages are higher. that'll create higher incomes. that'll create more spending. even the small businesses that in the moment feel like they're feeling pinched by the higher wages, they will -- people will spend more money with them and

we'll end up like some of these countries where costs are higher and income is higher. >> absolutely. what we've done i think is emphasize what many of us believed that we faced a labor market filled with the power of firms to set wages and that they had set them too low. many of us argued as you said for a long time. we have workers organized at so many places to fight for $15 and union and this became the norm, the acceptable wage. and now we see firms no longer in this environment able to hold workers because we've broken i believe the grip that many firms had where they had workers captured and small job net works that weren't open to all the possibilities out there. the need for workers to find

jobs meant they broke those job networks, they searched for new jobs, and now firms are actually competing for the first time. this is creating a more competitive labor market. it is a good thing for workers and many firms have found out higher wages, more output, bigger sales, better profits. exactly what we have always predicted would be the case. >> there is some republican orthodoxy that we must never increase taxes on the wealthy or corporations and in fact for the last several years we have decreased those taxes. there is a same orthodoxy that suggests you can't give low wage and poor people any kind of break because they'll just sit on their sofa and not actually do anything. give me some sense of the return on investment. how much better the return on investment is when we do what we've seen in the last few months where you give low wage

and poor people benefits that they don't go to switzerland and spend. that they don't put into investment accounts. they actually spend it in your economy and stimulate your economy. >> indeed, it is almost like they gave us a natural experiment, ali. >> yes. >> donald trump cut taxes for big corporations and high income people more than they've ever been cut. and they promised us it was going to lead to $5,000 increases in average people's wages. they promised us the tax cuts would pay for themselves. and would bring like manna from heaven massive increases in growth and investment. none of those things happened even before the pandemic. then the pandemic occurred. now you have a totally different approach which is cut taxes and give relief and do things to increase wages for just ordinary, working people in the country. and you got to say that so far it's working pretty well. i mean, at moments like now are

like the moments at the end of the 1990s when bill clinton was president there are certain moments when the economy is growing rapidly but it is being shared and wages are going up not just for the top, not just giving tax cuts to people that could afford a lobbyist or that sort of thing and and as you look back periods like that are really good for the economy. this isn't just a charity type of arrangement. >> that's right. >> this is when we grow the fastest. >> this is the point. it is not charity. it is actually effective public spending of your and my tax dollars. william, republicans are floating this fear that this infrastructure bill, the bipartisan bill and then the other bill that is coming and these things the biden administration are doing are all going to cause runway and rampant inflation. your response? >> no. that is not what is going to

happen. it is going to make the economy far more efficient. one of the shifts we've been seeing in this labor market because we increased demand and firms are hiring in response to that is a shift of women out of low wage jobs increasing their share in construction, transportation, and warehousing. we're increasing the nation's productivity by shifting workers out of less productive jobs, higher paid jobs, and jobs where their productivity is higher. that is how you grow the economy without getting inflation. >> gentlemen, thank you for your time tonight. we always appreciate those conversations and will have them more we hope. coming up the delta variant is different and endangering kids who cannot get vaccinated. we'll talk to a louisiana doctor whose hospital is treating dozens of children who are fighting to breathe right now including babies. she fears it is going to get worse. that's next.

♪ ♪ oh, focaccia! ah, there's no place like panera. enjoy the toasty, saucy chipotle chicken avocado melt on freshly baked bread. panera. order on the app today.

♪all by yourself.♪ you look a little lost. i can't find my hotel. oh. oh! ♪♪ this is not normal. no. ♪♪ so? ♪♪ right? go with us and find millions of flexible options, all in our app. expedia. it matters who you travel with. like many people with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease, i was there. be right back. but my symptoms were keeping me from where i needed to be.

so i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with uc or crohn's disease. and humira helps people achieve remission that can last, so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. ♪ ♪ ♪ with humira, remission is possible. ♪ ♪ ♪

hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

so get this idea that covid doesn't affect kids out of your head. delta is different. that is the message from pediatricians sounding the alarm about the very sick children and babies showing up in their hospitals. the cdc estimates that an average of 216 children with covid were hospitalized every day last week. doctors say it is clear the highly contagious delta variant is behind the surge in childhood infections and sending more children to the hospitals in parts of the country with low vaccination rates. according to the cdc at least 81 children in the united states have died of covid between march and july. and many doctors warn that the situation is likely to get worse. if there's ever been a time to put aside your politics it is now. there is no reason for these kids to be getting sick. joining us now is the medical

director of the pediatric intensive care unit at our lady of the lake children's hospital in baton rouge, louisiana. also joining us an internal medicine physician. welcome to both of you. can you tell me, because there are people in your state and people around this country who just think this is a myth. it's not really happening. tell us about the kids that are coming into your pediatric ward, what their symptoms and circumstances are, please. >> absolutely. so we are seeing children between the ages of 3 weeks up to 17 years of age. covid is unfortunately affecting our children and the severity really ranges from just mild symptoms, you know, a cold, runny nose, cough, congestion, and some kids are worse off. they have oxygen requirements, some end up in the intensive care unit which is where i come in. if you have those patients -- a

few of those patients end up requiring essentially a breathing tube to help them breathe. >> the reporting here is we don't have enough data to indicate why this is happening but there seems to be two things. right? one is the contagion level of the delta virus, the viral load is greater, and the fact that kids under 12 can't get vaccinated. the two things are coming together. do you have any sense of which is more important or is it just the confluence of the two? >> i would think the confluence of the two and the fact we also have adults who are not vaccinated. if you are in a household and not vaccinated and chances of your children contracting covid from you is not as high but if you are in a household where no one is vaccinated and your 11 or 9-year-old are not vaccinated your chances are much higher. i was going to add that we know

the delta variant is highly contagious and this is what we're seeing now. >> you're coming to us from our hometown of toronto where you were saying folks are wearing masks. we don't seem to have this big movement in america around the mask but we are discussing now, still struggling with masks and whether people should be wearing them. most of our cases right now, more than half our cases are coming from texas and florida where both governors have said you can't institute local mask mandates. plus we have this feeding frenzy of not getting vaccinated. you are a health professional. what do we do about this? >> good evening, from our hometown of toronto. as you just said, i am here because my parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. i felt, my brother and i felt it was safe to have a small party among fully vaccinated, close relatives and family friends because honestly canada has done

a fairly good job of containing this pandemic. the vaccine rollout in the beginning was slow but today 80%, 81% of the population has at least one dose of the vaccine and a little over 68% fully vaccinated. everywhere i went everyone was wearing a mask. so i felt safe and i wanted to of course protect my elderly mother and father. so the first thing, you said this right in the opening and hit the nail on the head when you said get rid of this idea children, that they are not affected. it is just mild. they get over it really quickly. that is clearly not what the data is showing. when you see experts like the doctor in baton rouge, louisiana, it is just not what we're seeing at all. children are getting infected and cities and neighborhoods, cities and counties that have the highest test positivity rate cases and infections, that is where we're going to see kids get infected, too.

we need to get politics removed from the pandemic response. the best way to protect kids is to make sure the adults and kids above 12 are vaccinated. that is the best way to protect children. >> we've been talking to people in louisiana for a few weeks because of how serious the situation is weeks because of hw serious the situation is in your state, including baton rouge. you're a feeder. you're the place that helps other people in louisiana, other hospitals when they need help. and you're struggling with that. are minds being changed by the news and the coverage of what you and your colleagues are facing in the hospital? >> you know, we hope so, and we think so. i think the people of louisiana are very smart people, and our governor has done a lot in terms of reinstating the mask mandates, and our schools are reopening, and we're hopeful that they'll do the right thing. it's unfortunate that we're here where we are today. but we tell the parents, and we

tell everyone this is not over. we still have work to do, and we need to keep our kids safe. >> it is not over. we still have work to do, and we need to keep our kids safe. just keep saying that to people. thank you for the work that you and your colleagues are doing, dr. iheagwara. it is sad 18 months after this last year people didn't have a vaccine and we understood it. now we've got a vaccine. and i appreciate the work that you and doctors and nurses and health practitioners across this country are doing. thank you for your expertise. give my love to toronto. dr. lipi roy is an internal medicine doctor. dr. kelechi iheagwara is at our lady of the lake children's hospital in baton rouge. coming up, well, it's going to do more to combat climate change than any legislation ever in the history of the senate, and it comes as the u.n. has issued an environmental code red for humanity.

feel the cool rush of claritin cool mint chewables. powerful 24-hour, non-drowsy, allergy relief

plus an immediate cooling sensation for your throat. feel the clarity, and live claritin clear. [relaxed summer themed music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ summer is a state of mind, you can visit anytime. savor your summer with lincoln. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses.

all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place. kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions, and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections. while no cases of pml were reported in rms clinical trials, it could happen. tell your doctor if you had or plan to have vaccines, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. kesimpta may cause a decrease in some types of antibodies. the most common side effects are upper respiratory tract infection, headache, and injection reactions. ready for an at-home treatment with dramatic results? it's time to ask your doctor about kesimpta.

breaking tonight, the senate will vote on final passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill at 11:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow morning, or at least that's when they'll start. the vote needs just a simple majority to pass. right after that, the senate will immediately vote on the motion to proceed to the democrats' only budget resolution, one of the many provisions in that budget resolution would, quote, allow the senate to make the most significant investment in tackling the climate crisis in u.s. history. now that investment could not come at a more critical time. the u.n.'s intergovernmental panel on climate change. that's the big panel. that's 244 scientists. just released, a new code red warning that human caused climate change is now, quote, irreversible for centuries to millennia. joining us now is democratic congressman joe neguse of colorado. he is a member of the house select committee on the climate crisis. congressman neguse, good to see you. i don't know what to think about

this. they studied i think 14,000 climate reports. they said very clearly there is no basis on which to doubt the human affect on climate change, and that climate change is occurring. but even if you didn't see those studies, you just have to live a day in america with the sweltering heat, with the wildfires, with the floods. and yet not everybody is on side about this right now, particularly in washington and in congress. we are still fighting this battle about whether this is real as opposed to fighting climate change. >> well, i couldn't agree with you more, and it's good to be with you, ali. look, i think the message from global scientists today was quite clear from the ibc report, which is the time for reaction is over, and it's time for folks to put politics aside and take decisive action to stop the climate crisis. i really view this report as a final warning to the global community, and i'm hoping that my colleagues will listen. i believe that ultimately they will, because the report is confirming what so many citizens across our country are witnessing each and every day,

which is that climate change is here. here in colorado, we have had mega wildfires. two of the state's wildfires in our history have occurred in the last year. flash flooding that has tragically taken the lives of folks in my community. and just this last weekend, the worst air quality literally in the entire western hemisphere. so my constituents are fed up. they're tired of inaction in washington, and they are demanding that policymakers take this serious and treat it as the crisis that it is. and fortunately, ali, as you said, the senate and the house are poised to do precisely that under the president's build back better agenda to pass generational investments in clean energy and renewable energy, and really take decisive steps to save our planet. >> and i'm glad we're doing that, but the center for american progress in march issued a report that says there are still 139 elected officials in the 117th congress, including 109 representatives and 30 senators who refuse to acknowledge the scientific evidence of human-caused climate

change. climate deniers comprise 52% of house republicans, 60% of senate republicans, and mother than a total of the number of elected officials in congress. can we make progress, congressman, with that kind of opposition? >> look, ali, i think that that position, the notion of denying the climate science and clearly what we see with our own eyes is going to quickly become politically untenable. the reality, as i said, is that climate change is here to today. anyone who lives in the rocky mountain west here in my state of colorado knows that to be true, given the visceral impacts of climate change that we're experiencing every day. at the end of the day, we're going to work to make sure that the reconciliation bill, which i said, includes incredible investments in the fight against climate change, like a climate conservation corps, get across the finish line and get to it his desk for signature. >> you were saying you had the worst air quality.

saturday was the worst air quality in the world. i'm i hope i'm wrong on that. congressman we will talk much more about the things that are going to happen once this bill is passed. thank you for being with me tonight. democratic congressman joe neguse of colorado. that is tonight's "the last word." williams begins right now. >> good evening once again. day 202 of the biden administration. it's good to be back. let's see, where were we? oh, yes, it seems the news has gotten worries. the nation is fully in the grip of an escalating health crisis brought on by this relentless new delta variant. tonight the u.s. reached anew milestone in this pandemic. over 36 million cases. we are now averaging over 100,000 new cases a day. if that number sounds familiar, it's because that's the rate where we were seeing last winter. just over six weeks ago at the