while the number of those vaccinated keeps going up. but u.s. health policy leaders warn that was a -- that scenario was for several european countries. who are now suffering a surge in cases amid the variants, and easing restrictions too soon. they are now returning to tighter mandates including in some cases a lockdown. now, the cdc director and other health officials urge that restrictions remain in place but at least 16 states now have no mask mandate and the tsa says its screeners just broke a pandemic record with more than 1.4 million people traveling through airports nationwide. on thursday. there is no progress on vaccinations. president biden marking today the 100 millionth dose, two months ahead of the goal he set. in total more than 115 million vaccinations have been injected into arms. more than one in five in the u.s. have received at least one dose, and more than one in ten in the u.s. are fully vaccinated at 12.3%. my next guest says that her coronavirus vaccination led to a surprising benefit. she believes that her pfizer shot eased the symptoms that she's been suffering from long after she got sick. she considers herself a covid long hauler. these, of course, are the survivors who suffer effects of overwhelming fatigue, brain fog, stomach problems, more than two months after infection. rebecca neff is with us from los angeles. you say you were never tested since this was at the start of the pandemic and you couldn't get a test. that's the case for many people. you were extremely sick last march. what were you feeling like at the beginning, and then what symptoms did not go away over the months? >> well, for me, the biggest impact was brain fog, extreme fatigue. but i never had a fever. and one of the challenges that -- at that time people were always looking for fever and i was basically told i could not get a test unless i felt like i was going to die and i should go to the hospital. and i thought, well, i feel pretty awful but i think i can get through this. >> and rebecca, after you got your first pfizer shot, tell us how you felt. >> actually it took about a day but the next day i woke up and my head was clear. i had not realized how foggy it was even on good days but it felt almost normal, like before i was sick. and i could focus, i could see. my sinuses cleared up. it was wonderful. and also the fatigue lifted. that was a big thing. it's hard to describe the crushing fatigue that you feel all the time. >> have you talked to your doctor about this? what have you been told? >> well, that's perhaps another story but i've had seven insurance plans over the last five years. i don't really have a doctor. i've been doing contract work which took me to three different states and i know this is typical of a lot of americans but when you don't have a doctor relationship or you have high deductibles and other things you don't have someone to call. so no, i didn't. >> so no, you haven't been able to get information on that. have you been able to get the second dose? >> not yet. i had my first dose a week ago monday and i still feel pretty good. in another two to three weeks i will hopefully get the second one and i got the pfizer. very happy. >> and you got the pfizer. well, rebecca, thank you so much for joining us. we're so glad you're feeling better. obviously, you know, this is a really fascinating development you've experienced that we know medical professionals and public health experts will be looking into as we try to learn more about coronavirus. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> president joe biden and vice president kamala harris have just arrived in the atlanta area where they will meet with asian-american leaders as fear and frustration grip the community reeling from a horrific shooting at three area spas that killed eight people, six of them asian women. investigators are piecing together the exact movements and motive of suspect robert aaron long. police say he's claimed responsibility for tuesday's attack, and now calls are growing for long to face hate crime charges. cnn's natasha chen is following all of this for us. natasha, we're getting new information about some of the victims, can you share that with us? >> reporter: yeah, brianna, atlanta place -- i'm sorry, fulton county medical examiner released the names of the four people killed in the city of atlanta at two different spas. and i want to go over their names briefly here. 74-year-old park, 51-year-old grant, 69-year-old kim, and 63-year-old yue. that's in addition to the four people killed here at a spa location in cherokee county. of the four people here that's 33-year-old yaun, 49-year-old ton, and 44-year-old fung. i want to mention that we did speak with the husband of delaina yaun killed in cherokee county. it was a difficult conversation, an interview held in spanish. he said he and his wife had gone to the spa for a massage that they were happy that she had just come from work and of course did not expect this. he said about an hour in almost at the end he started to hear shots and he started to think that it might have been in the room where his wife was. so very emotional. all these families right now, just reeling from the trauma of this. and also dealing with why this happened and of course the community is asking questions as you mentioned the majority of the victims were women and six of the seven women were asian. and so the question is, how is this being handled? will it be considered a hate crime? that's something investigators are looking into. here's someone we talked to about the way the suspect has been described and treated, especially during a press conference when the spokesperson here at the cherokee county sheriff's office said that he had, you know, been at the end of his rope, that the suspect had a bad day. here's the reaction from someone who came to honor victims at one of the spa locations. >> as a muslim american we face terrorism, people telling us we're terrorists and, you know, we've gone through those difficult times and people like it's not fair for people to blame -- sorry. it's very hard to go through this. people treat people of color in such a different way. and then for someone to say because he was white, he was having a bad day, how is that okay? >> yes, and so, you know, this is a difficult moment for people to experience. a lot of emotions from the community reacting to this, brianna. >> and the suspect's church is speaking out, natasha? >> that's right. the suspect's church spoke out, issued a statement really condemning the acts, saying that there is absolutely no blame here to be placed on the victims here, that this is entirely the act of mr. long who is actually now here in custody at the detention center behind us in cherokee county, brianna. >> thank you for that, natasha. live house staffers asked to resign or work from home after past marijuana use. a rare interview that says the insurrection made him sick to his stomach. china and the u.s. are trading barbs as the biden administration gets aggressive with america's foes, the stunning battle caught on camera. of well... me. but it's time to expand. see, visible is wireless with no surprise fees, legit unlimited data, powered by verizon for as little as $25 a month. but when you bring a friend every month, you get every month for $5. so i'm bringing everyone within 12 degrees of me. bam, 12 months of $5 wireless. visible. as little as $25 a month. or $5 a month when you bring a friend. powered by verizon. wireless that gets better with friends. not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 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commit crimes. brianna? >> whitney wild, thank you. former president george w. bush is breaking his silence on the capitol riot and weighing in on a number of divisive issues facing the country and the republican party. in a rare interview he talked about how far some issues the republican party has drifted from the bush brand of being a compassionate conservative. in his first on camera comments since the insurrection at the capitol he talked candidly about his emotional reaction to the riot and false claims that the election was stolen. >> i was disgusted. i can't remember what i was doing. but i remember feeling a sense of -- i was sick to my stomach. and then to see our nation's capitol being stormed by hostile forces. and it really disturbed me to the point where i did put out a statement and i'm still disturbed when i think about it. it undermines rule of law and, you know, the ability to express yourself in peaceful ways in the public square. this was an expression that was not peaceful. >> you are a lifelong republican. you and your family have been st stalwarts in the party. i need to ask you directly and simply, do you believe the election was legitimately conducted or if there was any taint whatsoever to the outcome? >> i think the election -- all elections have some kind of improprieties. i think this election, the results of this election, though, were confirmed when joe biden got inaugurated as president. >> mr. president, with respect you didn't answer the question. was the election stolen or not? >> no. >> well, that's an important thing to say and i appreciate the fact you're willing to say it, sir, thank you. did you believe our own government in any way was putting our democracy at risk? >> no. i think what's putting democracy at risk is the capacity of people to get on the internet and spread all kinds of stuff. but democracy -- checks and balances work. it's a -- you know, it's a balanced system and the courts work. you know, the legislative process needs a little work, particularly like on immigration reform. but it's -- no, i thought the system worked fine. >> evan smith is the ceo of the texas tribune. you'll recognize him because he conducted that interview with former president bush. evan, what did you think about how candid he was? i mean, this, i guess, is the post-presidency, right? >> well, i never expected president bush to be as specific as he was on some of those answers. you know, the interview was mostly about his new book, which is on immigration policy, and that part of the conversation he actually broke from republicans in saying he believed there should be a path to citizenship for people undocumented in this country and he acknowledged that a book coming out at this point about immigration might be seen as a rebuke since the past four years, when we got into the election, i thought he felt like a guy off the leash, didn't have any reason to be constrained, saying what he believed. president bush when he was governor bush was a fairly candid guy in moments like this and i think at this point he's free to say what he wants and he's not running for office, doesn't care what people think and, you know, so we got the unvarnished bush in this interview, brianna. >> i really preappreciated thatu pinned him down on your question about joe biden being president and i wonder what you think, you know knowing him and covering him, i wonder what you think about his initial answer and sort of having to pin him down on that. >> well, i mean, look, you ask a question, you expect an answer. i don't care if it's a guy on the street or the president of the united states if you're a journalist the job you have is to ask a question and get an answer and press if the answer doesn't come the first time as many times as necessary. i read the statement the president put out at the time of the election and at the time of the inauguration and he absolutely did say he believed joe biden was president, there's no question about that. but we have been treated to a procession of republican officials over the last few months who continue to refuse to say whether the election was actually legitimate. there's nothing that we can conclude other than the fact that they believe the election was stolen. if they didn't think that they would say so. there's a quinnipiac poll that shows three out of four republicans and one of four independents believe there was a taint in the election. it was important to pin the former president down, he was one of five former living presidents, his point of view, as i said, matters. >> and he's in this no man's land, i think, that some republicans who have not gone the way of trump are, and as you mentioned the reason you were talking to him is because of this new book he's come out with, he's taken a painting in force after the presidency and this is one that features stories and portraits of immigrants. we have to remember that he is someone who tried to push immigration reform through congress, he failed narrowly. i want to listen to some of this interview of what he had to say about this. >> i was deeply concerned about the rhetoric around immigration. it's been an issue that i've thought about for a long time. as a matter of fact when i was president i tried to get the congress to reform a broken immigration system. and so i thought it was appropriate to basically say to american people, let's refocus our attention on immigration in a way that understands the contributions immigrants make to our society. not only do i think immigrants renew our soul and bring spirit to our country but also it helps our economy. one of the problems of immigration is it's become overly politicized and it's really a rebuke of congress's inability to come together to get something done on immigration. >> but we have seen in recent years is a demonizing of immigrants as the other. of immigration as a drag on our economy, and a threat to our security. what do you think of that? >> i disagree with that. >> you know, it's exactly to your point, evan. he's showing immigrants as human beings which isn't something that we saw a whole lot of coming from republicans in the last four years. i wonder how you think he thinks of his role in what is really an immigration crisis right now and even just how this nation views immigrants. >> well, i think he obviously believes he can be a positive contributor to the conversation, whether it's through interviews like this or through his book. his position, as you point out has been pretty consistent, 15 years ago he tried to pass something like he advocates for in the book and was unsuccessful. one of the things about politics in our republican party, is the landscape has shifted. i don't know that george w. bush could get through a republican primary in texas today. with policies like the ones he's advocated for. i think people have memories of president bush as president and think about him as the definition of someone who they considered to be conservative but the definition of conservative has changed. and so i think he feels like he can play a role but i also think he understands the political realities on the ground. he was a pretty smart political tactician. whatever else about president bush when he was in office he understood the politics of the time he was in. it's a hard position he takes to be the mainstream position of this republican party. >> i try to imagine any number of republicans signing on to that immigration effort of his too as well. evan, great interview, thank you so much for being with us and sharing it with us. white house staffers asked to resign or work remotely after revealing their past marijuana use. hear why. plus, how did president biden feel about his secretary of state's tense meeting with china, the one that was caught on cameras. and we'll roll the tape on other infamous challenges after vladimir putin challenges biden to a live debate. he 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district of columbia, the biden white house is weeding out dozens of staffers who have admitted to past pot use even though some say they were formerly told it would be overlooked. kaitlan collins has more on this. help us understand this. if a staffer comes from a state where recreational marijuana is legal what for them? >> reporter: well, no, nothing different, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to get a pass on these security clearance forms that white house staffers often have to fill out as they are getting background checks, of course that was a big thing we talked about during the trump administration. that's because these background checks help make sure that federal government employees cannot be blackmailed, for example. so often staffers when they're applying and have to go through this are pretty detailed about past drug use so they can be up front about it. some staffers are saying they were told they could be up front about it and when they were they're not being granted these clearances or they're being fired from their jobs. the white house has said only five people have been permanently fired from their positions because of what they have said on their background checks but the white house press secretary said in a statement that there were other factors at play, and many of these cases of those five who were fired. but there are other staffers who say they have been either suspended or are now being told to work remotely because they were honest about their past marijuana use on these background clearance forms. that's been the big question here and the white house says the biden white house we should note they did work to make this a more lenient policy so if you do say on a background clearance form that you have used marijuana in the past that it doesn't automatically disqualify you from the job. and there are cases where they are essentially going on a case by case basis as they are evaluating these people to get granted top secret security clearances. a lot of that has to do with whether or not they are committed to taking a drug test now that they work for the federal government, if they would say they would not take or use marijuana any further going forward now that they are in these jobs. that's the question going forward. but there are other staffers who are saying that, yes, this is affecting their day-to-day work as a result of this. though the white house says only five have actually been fired because of it. >> interesting. i don't know. i suspect more people will be dishonest on these forms going forward just hoping they don't get caught in the process. so we'll see, kaitlan, thank you so much, very interesting story out of the white house. president biden responding to vice president's challenging joe biden to a debate. we'll roll the tape on other infamous political challenges. plus in texas police say a man stabbed a restaurant manager over his mask policy. se... so that you can live that 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of a tracking device. >> you've heard that? >> oh, yes, yeah, does it make you infertile. >> do you think the vaccine is actually a vaccine? >> no. >> what do you think it is? >> i don't want it. well, yeah it's a vaccine but i don't think people have tested it enough, and i don't think people know what's in it. >> do you think there's a tracking device. >> at one point it will be that. >> miguel, that is so illuminating to hear what people think erroneously. so you spoke to a lot of people who are wary of getting the covid vaccine in georgia. tell us more about what they told you. >> look, this -- so we focus on dalton, georgia, a big town, a small city in north georgia. it's emblematic of what the country went through. we are ptsd america, ptsd world right now, over a half million people dead, 30 million people have contracted it in this country alone. it's almost impossible to put that into perspective. so we focus on one town with a great help of jim murphy, and michelle rocha who found this place, the flooring capital of the world, a big latino population there, it's a very conservative county, a very religious county. all those things sort of -- that the country was dealing with, this just unbelievable grief and then the fear, the distrust, the conspiracy, all of that wrapped up into this one little place so it was very illuminating, tough to do after talking about this and dealing with this for over a year now, really, really hard to take a look at this place and talk to people and hear these stories. but very worth doing as well. >> it's certainly important, we appreciate you sharing it with us. we want to remind you of the special report tonight, the cnn -- this is the human cost of covid airing tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern. i will be watching. moments from now president biden and vice president harris will meet with asian-americans in atlanta after the horrific attacks there and they'll visit the cdc as experts are waerning of a looming surge. just in, 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alternative to a rules based order is a world in which might makes right and winners take all and that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us. >> a short time ago president biden reacted to blinken's comments and whether he plans to speak with putin. >> what's your reaction to china last night? >> very proud of the secretary of state. >> are you going to take vladimir putin up on his offer to talk live with you? >> i'm sure we'll talk at some point. >> joining me now is gary lock, the former ambassador to china during the obama administration and the former commerce secretary. ambassador lock as you are looking at what we've seen here, this first sitdown between china and the u.s. for the biden administration, maybe you can illuminate for us how china sees this, especially, you know, there have been -- there was a moment here where even as the u.s. is calling china on human rights, china sort of throws it right back at the u.s., talking about black lives matter and the treatment of black lives matter folks. how does china view this sort of, i guess, aggressive push out of the gate by the u.s.? >> well, i think they're used to it. certainly not unexpected. perhaps a little bit colder and more testy than they might have expected but they were -- they knew that the united states was going to be raising these very deep seated long standing issues between the united states and china covering not just trade and the trade war, intellectual property but especially human rights. that's a subject matter they're very, very sensitive to because they think it's other countries meddling in their internal affairs and they're trying to push back and say basically who are you, the united states, to lecture us on human rights and civil rights and so forth when you have your own problems? so they're feeling their strength, they're feeling their economic rebound. their country has really come back, life is almost back to normal in china whereas here in the united states we're still struggling with the coronavirus and our economy is still in tatters, although it's also rebounding. so china's feeling a bit of strength and confidence, but they also want a close relationship with the united states. and so they're hoping that these talks will kind of set -- reset the relationship. but the united states is being very, very firm in saying, no, we have very, very deep seated concerns over many, many issues. >> and, you know, the former president donald trump really took an aim at joe biden painting him throughout the campaign as soft on china. when it -- i wonder how much that either forced in your view if at all the biden administration to take a tough stance or even liberated the biden administration to take a tough stance on china, what do you think? >> no, i think that the biden administration has also shared these concerns and many of the people, whether it's antony blinken or jake sullivan and the folks in the national security council or even the diplomatic security agencies have long had deep concerns about china's practices. so it's been building for quite some time. >> it's not just russia that the u.s. is being aggressive with out of the gate and it wasn't just tony blinken either. it was after north korea criticized the u.s. and south korea for resuming military drills that were paused due to covid. the defense secretary lloyd austin warned that american forces are ready to fight tonight. what are the ramifications of those comments? >> i think what you're seeing is the united states trying to present a more unified, consistent message of strength, of resolve, but at the same time saying we want to work diplomatically with other nations. and quite frankly with respect to the trade war with china, while the concerns were legitimate under the trump administration, reflecting deep and long standing concerns by american businesses and government over the trade and economic policies of china, the strategy was wrong and what you're going to see under a biden administration on many other issues is enlisting the support and the collaboration of our allies so that we present a united front. >> i wanted to ask you, while i have you, at this moment that we're in with the attacks that we saw in atlanta, that have highlighted anti-asian, anti-asian american rhetoric, and violence, and incidents that we've been seeing, especially increased during the pandemic. what your thoughts are as you -- as you look at this moment that america is facing. >> well, it's really, really sad. i mean, obviously we have issues in terms of the discrimination, systemic racism toward many ethnic groups and especially african-americans and black people in our country. it's a terrible history. but one thing that antony blinken mentioned to the chinese when they were lecturing america on our own internal issues of racism, secretary of state blinken said at least we acknowledge it, and that we are always striving to be a more perfect union. and we have mistakes and we have made mistakes. we will continue to make mistakes but we try to be open about it, we try to learn and we move forward. >> thank you, ambassador gary locke for that interview. in an attempt to settle their drama, vladimir putin is challenging president biden to a live debate. relationship. more over, i just thought about. last nim the initiative of the telephone conversation came from president biden. i want to the invite biden to continue this discussion. but on condition that we do it live, online, without any delay, in an open, direct discussion. i think it would be interesting. >> now this is hardly the first time in history a dispute resulted in in kind of invitation. most of the bluster, not surprisingly involves politics. in the 1964 landan johnson turned down union requests to face barry galled water in a debate. ronald reagan passed on the face-off with dwuch. reagan lost iowa but won the nomination and ultimately the white house. then more recently minority leader mitch mcconnell challenged his opponent without notes, props or audience. and last year susan collins's democratic opponent sara gideon suggested they do five debates and collins flipped the skripd countering with a proposal of 16 debates. in the event they went one-on-one just once. jeff sessions wanted debates with tommy tuschlville. tuberville debated sessions. zbljts and john cornyn was challenged to three televised debates. it's not all domestic politics. in 2015 after the iran foreign minister poked atom cotton implying his opposition to the u.s. lifting sanctions on iran was irrelevant. cotton suggested they work it out in a public war of words at a time of your choosing to debate's iran's record of tierney treachery and terror. javad the sahrive sgrantinged ct on the birth of his new child. on president obama while he was a republican presidential candidate. >> as your nominee i will challenge you to seven debates, two adults talking about the nation. >> and ginrich made sure to offer up the sarcastic concession. >> i've already said that if he wants to use the teleprompter that would be fine with me. >> ginrich made a habit of challenging people to debate duals, including mitt romney during the primary. >> i'll meet him anywhere in iowa 90 minutes just the two of us in a debate with a time keeper no moderator if you want to run a negative campaign and attack people at least be man enough to own it. >> proving one's macho man upona fids. jim gill rm's kwecht for presidency lasted about pass long as pepsi. i had i challenge a debate on the 14th debate. speaking of trump jeb bush tried to put an exclamation in his name with this overtour. >> donald i'll take you on one-on-one on a debate any time any place you name it i'll do it trump was ahead in the polls and that never happened maybe it did we just don't remember. really it didn't happen. and ted cruz also challenged the future president. >> donald is so scared he doesn't think the people of pennsylvania deserve a debate. if he actually understood the problems facing this country he should welcome a debate here in pennsylvania before next tuesday. >> i would like to invite him on your show to participate in a one-on-one debate between me and donald, manno a manno. >> tomorrow cnn has two townhalls back-to-back. an hour with me an hour with donald trump in the exact same location. we should make it a debate. let's make it a 2-hour debate. let's combine the events. cnn already scheduled. you've got a venue, location, got the tv cameras. the only thing missing is donald trump because he is scared to debate. >> it's worth noting this was an interview cruz gave shortly after trump insulted his wife. also worth noting cruz's animosity for trump is a collector item. he is one of trump's biggest defenders and enabler of trump's big lie. the let's debate it out bluster is not exclusive to america though. >> i invite her to go to cambridge and debate her policies, debate hero record, and let the public make up their minds. >> and the bluster is certainly not exclusive to elections. >> hi, i really wanted to make a direct appeal to alexandria ocasio-cortes i'll offer $10,000 to your campaign today you can come on the special and talk about all the topics under the sun probe your belief system. if you want raise charity and do it as a debate we can do that too. >> ocasio likened that cat calling not responding to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions. not just for the olden days when alexander hamilton through away his shot against aaron burr. the iraqi vice-president suggested that bush 43 and zaum hussein settle differences in a dual. refereed by the u.n. to which the white house responded. >> tell the can be no serious response to to an irresponsible statement like that. >> sometimes the challenge isn't to a war of words. it's to a war on drugs. >> i said what the hell is he taking? and we'd like to ask him. and i said that we want a drug test. we want a drug test. we'll both take it. >> biden said no comments. but his campaign couldn't resist the setup saying, if the president thinks his best case is made in urine. we expect nothing less from donald trump who pissed away the lives of 200,000 americans when he didn't plan to stop covid-19. it stands to wonder which is the original why woe talk about why vladimir putin who loves to embrace his strongman image challenged president biden in the first place. almost always as you can see the challengers comes from a position of weakness. ahead as europe faces a third coronavirus wave, moments ago, dr. anthony fauci with a warning about the new variant here in the u.s. plus we're now hearing from the husband of one of the victims in the atlanta shootings who had just gone to one of the spas for a couple's massage together. but they can't be held back. they want to be set free. to make the world more responsible, and even more incredible. ideas start the 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