Good morning and welcome to morning, Joe. It's Thursday, October 7th.

Joe is off today. With us, we have White House reporter for the Associated Press, Jonathan

Lemire, and professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas,

MSNBC contributor of Victoria

DeFrancco Soto. We have a lot of ground to cover this morning. COVID cases continue to drop

across the country as the White House credits mandates for increased vaccination rates.

It's the question we've asked before. Are we past the worst of it? Or is there the

possibility of another wave coming? We'll address that today. Plus, we have the latest on the 18-year-old

student facing charges after opening fire yesterday during a fight at his Texas High school near Dallas. Also developing overnight,

a federal judge blocked the enforcement of the strict new abortion law out of Texas.

We'll look at where the legal fight goes from here. And the Dodgers walk it off in LA last night. last night, beating the Cardinals in the bottom of the

ninth. It was a late night, Willie. Walk off home run for Chris Taylor. We'll show the highlights

of that coming up in just a minute. Meanwhile, Republican Democratic leaders appear to be edging

toward a temporary deal to lift the nation's debt ceiling.

Minority leader Mitch McConnell offered a short-term fix that would allow Democrats time to work

on a more permanent solution. NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander has the

details for us. What could be a new short-term solution to the looming fiscal disaster,

top Republican Mitch McConnell offering Democrats a deal to allow the government to extend its ability to borrow money to pay its bills for another two months.

We view that as a victory. We view it as a temporary victory, though, with more work to do.

Democrats have been blasting Republicans for refusing to join them to raise the debt limit that covers past spending by both parties. An effort Democrats say has always been bipartisan.

President Biden accusing Republicans of playing a dangerous game. Doesn't have to be this way.

My Republican friends need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy.

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