tv The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper CNN March 3, 2024 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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>> united states of scandal with jake tapper new episode tonight at nine on cnn >> welcome to the whole story. i'm anderson cooper, a year ago, a gunman armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, shot and killed three children and three adults. the covenant school in nashville. it was one of the deadliest school shootings in tennessee's history. there's led to a renewed push for gun control with thousands of people protesting in the state capital i don't three democratic lawmakers joined that protests and two of them were then expelled from the state house representatives. and unusual move that highlighted the power of the republican it's in the state legislature tennessee is considered one of the most conservative states in the country, with some of the most restrictive laws and abortion and voting rights. but it wasn't always run by republicans for decades, democrats rule the legislature and the governor's office than the party shared power until about a decade ago so how did this state end up with a republican super majority? cnn
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political commentator van jones grew up in tennessee as a democratic activists. he wanted to find out how and why republicans came to dominate his home state what he found surprised him for the next hour, he'll show you not only how deep the divide is between republicans, democrats, but also how the two sides are not as different as you might think. >> the gop dominant i didn't house voting to expel two young democratic lawmakers because they've taken part in a gun-control protest >> representative justin pearson, both black, were expelled from their seats representative johnson, who was
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white, was nearly spared >> it struck me, yeah. so real i'm like that's my home state legislature. i used to work in that building and now it's being broadcast all around the world talk, to my family who lives in tennessee, but i wasn't really on top of what was going on after the expulsion that started paying a lot more attention >> i actually saw it as tennessee again, being part of this national tug of war over the direction of the country and really over democracy itself. expelling state legislators is something that happens very rarely throughout american history >> presented also, the gentleman shows no remorse. it's clear that he wants to be
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expelled. he and two other representatives effectively conducted a mutiny. >> a >> mutiny, which to this body into the state has been unknown in its 227 year history. you simply cannot allow one much less a group of members to hijack proceedings on the floor of the house. >> what that represented was more norm erosion legislative norms of bipartisanship that you don't expel a legislator because they say something that you disagree with. and this showed again, republican can sort of out in front on those eroding norms. >> so you have a democracy index and tennessee is dead last. why is it when we think >> about electoral democracy, what i'm we're talking about free and fair elections, where every individual voter has an equal say, an equal voice in setting what the government from it does and who is elected to office and so i use 51
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different variables in this measure. all of this comes together to make tennessee that 50th out of 50 as of 2018 >> the makeup of tennessee's general assembly, it is a republican supermajority jordi, as you can see, that super majority holds true in the senate as well. >> it's becoming more and more difficult for democrats to be heard. >> you get the gerrymander. it gives one party control. so there's really they know democracy with the super majorities we have in both the house of representatives and the state senate were able to pass legislation without actually negotiating with anyone on the other side of the aisle. >> all right. well, left her long time ago coming back and say very different place i just don't understand how did things get to that point. i
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hope i can find out this week are you doing hey good to see february get younger. >> i have done with regard to the expulsions when they happen, were you surprised >> no i wasn't surprised. they wanted to make an example of, you can not come in here and do this can you walk me through how you go from having a bunch of kids and a private school gunned >> down to chew black lawmakers getting so now, it does seem like how did that happen >> i think part of that goes back to the issue of the super majority. the super majority can silence the minority and so the tennessee three felt like the only way for them to really be heard was to do something completely an orthodox rather man who this see how you doing,
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sir. no, >> well, welcome to the people's house. >> is that what it is hopefully, it's good to see you. >> thank you for shining some light. here. i was born on the welcome back to your home state >> the first time you came in in this building, how did it feel to you? i mean, do you remember my first we can legislature the senate republican leader as want you to know that you're worthless. you don't belong here. and that was my welcome to this place. >> he said to your face, to my face >> i don't think people understand the level of youth activism which you were part of. yeah. >> i was arrested when i climbed up and we cover the statue nathan bedford forrest, the first grand wizard of the kkk and enslave or competitive general with a black sheet to say that this is not a symbol we wanted our state anymore there's another statue over here of the first black
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lawmaker who entered into this building, exactly 150 years ago. samsung cable, the only statue of a person of color maybe someday >> you'll have many statutes. you never know they'll vandalize it >> how are you, sir? >> good to see a man in this lesson, that bless yes. and days back in the people's house i worked in the summer of 1989 as the house majority leader, jim naifeh, fees in turn. so last time i was here democrats ran this place. i believe it or not. >> so a lot has changed anything different in the state of tennessee? >> probably one or two things are different than then democrats are not in the majority, are not on the way to being speaker of the house. and the next couple of years here it's a long-term game i think one of the biggest changes are transitions that have happened is the radicalization of the conservatives in the republican
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party. i think we're seeing white supremacy codified in legislation in ways that probably would not this case in similar ways, then those are fighting words, those it's true that her bill in the tennessee legislature would make it illegal >> to display the pride flag and a public school representative, genome bolsa introduce that bill if i were to categorize, our representatives in the republican caucus in the house i'd say you'd have the conservative members. those who are more conservative those who are most conservative. and so when we're looking at legislation it normally is debated between and among those different groups, which those three camps to place for something. >> i think i'm in the most conservative camp. >> i don't know if you heard advance, but there was a recording released of their caucus meeting after our expulsion. it just showed the mentality they really saw this as a continuation of the civil war hopefully, we're at war
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fraud. well, what was because they get the southeast game over? have you got to protect is pretty republic here. that of ceo noah. all go to hell home >> i've heard that there was an audio that was leaked. i have not heard it, but i was in the caucus meeting, obviously tennessee does represent values that our country has held since its founding. and so it cannot fall to the type of wokeness that we've seen go rampant. and some of the other states that are not doing so well. so as goes tennessee in many respects, so goes the country >> they need everybody on the same page or as they're going to lose what they believe is some war. >> i don't want to sugarcoat it there was some wall political uses of power when the democrats controlled the state house but it wasn't this sense
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of, we've got to win at all costs because sorry. retired culture is at stake. >> i hope brings us a white supremacist wow. see that the job that you're walking town hall, that the greatest has ceased watson, disrespect to say that i chose to move to fire gallery has got to stop justin jones, who was expelled, then reinstated on monday. >> he has great democracy will win in the end of justin pearson has been reinstated now by a tennessee county board >> do you feel like it can be effective lawmakers in an environment like this? >> a good lawmaker isn't the one that just gets a law passed. because if we wanted to pass a law to allow everybody to get an ar 15 tomorrow that might pass does that make you a good lawmaker? >> ahead into the shoeshine
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place, an arcade where the citizens were that dissent is a message to the future. we may not have the votes now, but each time we did, we are letting the future know that there's still somebody who would not bow down that they were people who fought to make this state what it ought to be i'm just sending a listen to you talk and i've just feel like the proud, and also a little bit ashamed because i don't think that >> my generation kept that same fire we talked so much about ancestors. do you think about what they endured and what they were called, depths away from earth, capital >> i think part of why people are so impressed with you, young people is that you didn't back down >> tennessee is the birthplace of the ku klux klan but also the nashville student movement so we have this dual history and i think that's really the history of america i really felt
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>> talking to those young justin's like i was talking to civil rights leaders from hamas a century ago, these young people made themselves people who could not. >> there must have been how it felt to >> talk to a john lewis agreed to be jonathan, justin, young people telling older generation they need to do better you don't realize sometime how far away you vered from your own values or your own shoe north until somebody reasserts it and when a young person reassert said it's a specialty bracing, 321 like you said people have a good fight it together. >> you say in the right to breathe with so many >> choices on booking.com, there are so many tina fey as i could be. so i hired body doubles to help me out,
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it's prime video. all my shows and movies are here. it's nonstop, joy boundless math convulsions of for volatile >> so nice >> boston, all your screening and one app with one password prime video, find your happy place. >> when you stop wayfair, you get big deals for your home every day. so big i big deal you are because it's a big deal when you get a big deal, wayfair deals so big that you might get a big head because what savings so real, you can get your dream sofa for the phrase wait there, it's always a big deal. >> way. you could just what i need we want young tennessee be there to make the democratic process works. >> so let's take a step back
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>> convention roles on the keynote speech kicks off the days big political activity he knows her as governor frank gq, climate of tennessee >> tennessee was run by southern denmark crafts through the 20th century, through the early 2000s, you had a number of moderate or conservative democrats. you had very progressive democrats from places like urban nashville and memphis. this created a more moderate state with a divided state government and the 2010 wave election, tennessee becomes unified republican for the first time since really the civil war and reconstruction it seems like 2010 was a really pivotal moment obama came in 2008 there were some counties that are ruby >> red today that we're actually obama counties and await here in our state we
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begin to see that shift after all of the birth certificate and the tea party and all of that hot, heated rhetoric if the message loud and clear one that i believe those individuals who were on the >> fence or just holding on to the party just because they've been democrats all these years. we're now aligning themselves more racially and culturally than they were with party identification. >> but it wasn't so much the views of tennessee. it's changed. i think you had the democratic party that was continuing to lurch towards the left with what i really wanted to come to you. i am of republican. good morning. >> being seen as a party that is radical pro-abortion, anti gun soft on national security. jackson, fire mental, i mean, to the point of extremism a lot of southern democrats now probably vote identify more as republicans
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>> democrats become republicans, counties that they had gone blue for obama and suddenly become red? >> yes, absolutely. that's 2010 that's the worst year for y'all to get work because then they got they got a chance to redistrict that gave the republicans the power to >> gerrymander everything, correct? that's correct. do they use that power? they use it. do they abuse it? >> abuse it was surgical precision. >> tuesday night's results were decidedly republican. >> it's a fair die she in our state. >> republicans now have a super two-thirds majority in the house and senate >> and in this moment, they start taking increasingly conservative policy changes around all sorts of policy areas. guns, health care, abortion, but especially when it comes to democratic institutions like voting rights and distracting what happens in tennessee is going to happen in nearly any red controlled state after this time period. but tennessee is really leading the charge in many ways. >> i didn't learn the pass without a late-night deal.
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tennessee lawmakers passed one of the country's most restrictive abortion laws >> the first state in the country to restrict drag show performances hennessy legislature has declared war on queer people >> in tennessee. the puzzle is, why do these parties stay in power and states when they're passing things that are not all that popular. and part of that reason is restricting democratic institutions like voting rights, even with things like strict voter id law below average, wait times for in-person voting. felon disenfranchisement in a series of other things that make it more costly and burdensome to vote a 60% of tennesseans in a presidential year will vote for the republican but if you look at the state house republicans have 76 for some of the seats. if you look at the state senate, republicans have been
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82% of the scenes i think that creates a situation where people feel like it's, it's useless are you visiting nashville? as he from nashville to yeah. >> yeah. >> you might have. we talked to you. now, go ahead. come on. come on. thank you. yeah, good guy. grabs >> i would say the word that comes from long is a certain amount of just smear. the disappear part of it is. >> does your vote counts >> does it make a difference? especially in bigger picture of tennessee? i already described hilary as the redness of the red states. >> the rest of the red area to area the gerrymandering is definitely take nashville where when they drew the congressional lines instead of keeping a community together,
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they did what's called in the redistricting community, cracking and packing. so they cracked nashville to create more republican district tricks and get rid of a potential democratic district >> this concept political maps being drawn in a way that might tend to favor one party more than another has been something that's been going on since the founding of our country do you believe that? but for gerrymandering, you would be in the us congress >> absolutely i went 75% of the vote here in nashville i was doing well. >> but they deliberately created a district that has 14 counties because in two different states to make it impossible for you to win, yeah, they crack nationally across every black community, the sounds too black vote and voices >> though the biggest city with a third of the economy doesn't have anybody from nashville and washington, dc.
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>> this has been a democratic stronghold for close to 200 years. wow, and the three congressional districts that were made in nashville are all now represented by republicans >> you know, somebody like you should probably run for office >> i've heard that before. >> elliott spitzer crusading governor by de wanted to be president in united states client number nine i'm buying nights. >> this guy who is a pre-seed or against human sex trafficking is actually a customer. >> united states of scandal with jake tapper, new episode tonight at nine on cnn. >> so would you get to nashville hot tenders and three mandarin orange tenders? >> what about you? three classic tenders? >> for big butterfly, srand for of a kind, i win >> oh, okay. >> he said always a competition. >> i am the shrimp bought deal board no deal is back >> but this time that steel or no deal island you're gonna go the group by urine it for
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spent a lot of >> time with the maga folks and i've been able to find some common ground on some issues could you describe anything that you think might allow for something to break here? >> i mean, this issue of gun violence isn't issued that maga republicans and our state said they wanted to see address. so it's a possibility >> the problem is the people who are in >> office are not willing even to listen to their own constituency on this issue >> most of those parents from the covenant a wealthy white, private christian school or republican. and they're the ones begging fractionate. they're out there with signs and say republicans for red flag laws. >> but i think something so important, the black mothers who i've been grieving for a long time are the people on the front lines of the fight >> shaundelle is one of the
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steadfast mothers in the movement who is testifying in the legislature long before thousands of people gathered, she went there sometimes by herself testifying before the lawmakers talking about her son, akilah i guess this law she's one of the strongest people i know >> a deadly shooting this morning at a waffle house restaurant. four people are dead and more identified as taurine sunday underlain. joe perez devaney groves, and akilah dasilva, 23 years old >> it's five years not having my son here so to have pain there's probably never going to go away because he's not >> i >> remember going there by myself testifying, pleading thanking for my heart out. >> it is impossible to imagine the pain i feel when your loved one is one murdered until you experienced it yourself the pain is like no other. >> use heroin were out of time.
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thank you. >> didn't make a difference. >> now, >> lawmakers here at different clark take the role >> mr. chairman. you have seven eyes and to nose king, a handgun without a permit, and tennessee is now legal for most adults i know you had. another son that also was shot but survived >> someone asked him perform and after leaving the venue, someone started shooting outside and there we go. that call again. your son shot how's he doing now >> better, he's recovering. the bullet is still in the head. it's in his brain. it's gone through physical therapy so still sort is there there's so much more that is wrong and
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that's the painful part because i'm grateful he's here, but he's not the same person and no family should have to go through that once i twice. yeah. >> it's hard. >> but i have to keep going. keep calm >> we have four young people now lost their lives. and it was like nothing but now we have the covenant shooting when rich neighborhood more people are showing up. tennessee got more attention. now for me. >> thank you for the opportunity to come together tonight. we're so thankful for the countless ways you've cared and loved our community since the tragedy on march 27th >> hi, everyone
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>> thank you all so much for coming. i feel like this is how we really bring change in tennessee c is to have real conversations and in honest, safe space >> i grew up conservative. i was a gun owner after the shooting we realized our entire state and truly the nation is a disaster with gun violence >> on march 27 my daughter was in the third great class, three of their >> classmates were murdered >> and i'm telling you, like there are pieces of my daughter that are missing i'll never get back. >> i thought no way it's going to happen to us. >> we're this beautiful school >> and it wasn't, i'm not and it makes me so angry to be at special session, we met all summer with these >> men and women in privately say something and then publicly they go and do something
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completely different >> when you're meeting in person with someone especially someone who is suffering from every recent tragedy, you tried to be as empathetic and his understanding as you can be, and in the meetings that i've had with some of the covenant moms. i've been very candid with everyone about what my positions are on the second amendment republican lawmakers saying the governor's proposed red flag law is unlikely to pass after little children were >> slaughtered in a christian school, there this is a really sad day for our state. >> we're gonna keep showing up every session and we're going to do that until we get change >> my name is melissa alexander. i would encourage everybody to not give up if there's a state like tennessee with gun owners, with conservatives that can say, look, this is not acceptable anymore. we need change if that can happen in tennessee, it can happen across the country three
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and so it's up to us in this room. it's up to our state >> every republican is so afraid they're gonna get a primary challenger who has been a side that there were week own gun i want to take your guns away. that these associations don't even have to do anything anymore it's baked in. >> it seemed as though governor lee at first came out in i think he honestly wanted to do is open. >> i think that we have an obligation to set aside politics and prod, and accomplish something that the people of tennessee want us to get accomplished. >> the head of the tennessee firearms association sat down with me on camera. if republicans support a red flag law will there be consequences at the ballot box from your group? >> oh, absolutely. and i'm probably in the courts as well >> all the red flag law it says is that if what are your loved ones has a gun and is acting crazy, you can and as law enforcement to help their position is they would rather lock up the person than lock up
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their gun. >> that type of legislation is both ineffective and it's unconstitutional. and it's nothing that we would ever consider passing in tennessee >> i want to have a chance to talk to somebody just as passionate that we need guns to be gilboa protecting their people are very well organized. you to go very passionately. the other way >> get tradition of tennessee and to keep it's been bear arms for lawful purposes. preexist the founding of this state this right, come from god not from government. >> you represent a growing force in this state you are a pardon organization called the tennessee farms association. i think that's pretty well respected. >> grip the last ten years, i would say that we've had some modicum of success and putting good conservatives and office that is giving us a leg up. >> you think everybody should be able to carry a handgun for it? i wouldn't bother you have
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no permanent that'd be fine for you, correct? >> we have that in tennessee have entered through >> right now, so they didn't bother you at all? >> i think about those kids that were at that private school in nashville. i just don't understand why you aren't war moved by that. >> do you know what the largest loss of life from the school massacre in the united states was? >> i do not. >> okay. it was michigan when a gentleman ran for schoolboard and he didn't win the race, he lays the underside of that school with dynamite and with gasoline, and that's the largest loss of life. there wasn't a single firearm used in that at all. >> well, first of all, i would be happy to support any law against blowing up a school okay. so we agree on that. >> and so therefore, >> passing a law does not take away a person's crime. >> but what you're saying does not make sense to me because people pass laws all the time it's true they're all violated. but a lot of people in the middle are deterrable by what the law says. if i
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listened to you, i would think, well, why pass any laws? and i'm worried about you. i think you're going to take away more guardrails. i think we're going to have morphinan. that's my fear. >> well, i disagree with your premise wholeheartedly because i understand this that the only person that i can count on to protect myself and my loved ones is me. and if the second amendment says you have the right to keep and bear arms for your common defense. what would be the next right. that you would take away? >> i, think more convinced than ever that i'm living in a bubble california and new york with guns being essentially passed out to everybody and no ability to elect someone to represent them people way that it's a much tougher world here. i can see the disconnect a lot better frank sinatra had
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conservative, christian values, right? >> and their mission is to restore the county to judeo christian values and fall a constitution literally, i have sources who are very solid, moderate republicans, who are appalled at what they see happening we're not here to replace the republican party of sumner county. our job in our minds is to take the republican party and pull them to the right. >> there illustrative of what happens when you have one party system, when you have a one-party state everything that goes on in sumner county is really wow. >> so these are hard right? groups. >> i mean, this this is not just conservative, it's not conservative, it's not anything i would call republican >> i understand how hard it is to try to change a pillow so-called party's direction in trajectory by also have a lot of trepidation because as best
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i can tell the direction they're trying to go in is not one. i think it's helped sumner county administrative building. here. nice building we will find some nice people the first question i wanted to ask, why did you agree to talk to me >> well, almost didn't kind of a coin flip here, right? so if i'm being honest, you're going to come here. you're going to tell the story that you're going to tell. and so i might as well tell the story that i'm going to tell how the heck did you wind up becoming a political figure for me, it was rodney king that was my big moment. >> i want to talk to you about the resistance and what we are doing, at least the northern california that seems to be working. >> you mentioned 2020. i think covid was maybe a big turning point for a lot of people, including covid, the presidential election, social unrest, and you look up and you're lucky, you know? >> the
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>> people in charge clearly are not worthy. well, i'm a republican. heard the term fascist throw around and when it comes to republican, but i mean, good grief. it's to me, it's pretty fascist so tell people they have to take a, an injection. >> it felt like the government was overstepping. >> it was i mean, that's not a feeling that's i mean, that was the fact. >> so there was overstepping, so you need to step up >> the truth of the matter was it wasn't that noble. what started in my house with some friends, we kinda network together and i think we were deciding like we're going to take out who are we going to run against forced to listen to us. people put a gun to my head and said, we're going to take your job if you don't comply. >> and i was >> gonna get fired over, taken a vaccine and i listened, i got the message. so now we're going to threaten these politicians jobs and now they listen. >> so you challenge existing incumbent republicans and you
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get 14 seats. >> why did >> you feel as republicans you to challenge other people who are also pretty much already republican, you claim to stand for individual liberties, but you're not you're not standing against the govern over h. you're either actively participant in it or you are acquiescing to it. in either case, gotta go >> well, look, i spent a lot of time trying to move my party more in direction. i believed then. and so i respect you guys because it's tough. i mean, it wasn't till 20 he 16 that the democratic party had any criminal justice plan at all. >> well, you did some work on this, right. but certainly with president trump, the first step act there's nothing more important than freedoms i'm exported that. >> i appreciate that. >> may not believe it, but i grew up four, so i believe in criminal justice reform. so in that six or seven kids that i grew up with, three of them
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didn't make it 40 one of them died in police custody. now, the cynical side of me looks at that and says, why didn't they get any attention? i think that these rural areas got totally forgotten >> i love all prepared to have a big conflict given everything i heard about the movement, he represents these conservative, but he's not a clown. he's great guy, seems like a great guy. he felt like the system wasn't serving and he stood up and fight back. >> i >> mean, when democracy is supposed to be all about i think if something really going wrong here where i don't see a lot of difference between that's the two justins or mr. shelf. this story just got a lot more complicated lachlan min lee you were to come me, i
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may do it >> all right. >> thanks, everybody. we're going to do some power mapping, talk about the issues that matter to us, to our communities. >> so identifying who are the people, who are the institutions, who are your allies, who are the people that are movable, that in convinced to be on your side. >> all right >> so come on up. >> let me get this >> the reason why we do it like this is the conversation. so after this, we're going to go into a discussion round let me just ask a couple of questions. >> where were we were in sumner county? >> half but hey well why don't you go to sumner county? >> because we don't feel like we work in i feel like i'm always harassed by police was really happening now, is that there's some cognitive dissonance, right? they really
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think that they're the good people in their mind. >> and i'm sure that they believe that we are in here doing some satanic witchcraft >> not me. >> i think that there has been an active effort to separate us so that we don't go to sumner and they don't come here and we all believe were evil. but that is actually not true. >> and they said they got together probably just like you ran for office, just like you trying to stop big corporate power should running over them and it was very disorienting to me because a lot of those people sounded like y'all. here's what i will say. nobody is a villain in their own movie. >> you. all right. >> thanks >> guys. thank you. reject you so it's been a lot of kind of goose bump moments, kind of pitched be moments talking to odessa. i mean, i i was her i moved to oakland after law school and i was working at the
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community level and they can on these tough fights. and she said she was inspired by something so if we were doing in oakland, so there's all these kind of full-circle moment and that was a rather good were very special people because they know what they're up against and they're still fighting elliott spitzer crusading governor by day, wanted to be president in united states >> client number nine by night's this guy who was a presale you're going to human sex trafficking is actually a customer >> united states of scandal with jake tapper. new episode next on cnn. >> so would you get to nashville hot tenders and three mandarin orange tenders? >> what about you? three classic tenders for butterfly, shrimp? >> for the >> gun. a baby when it looks like somebody needs a new hand, things for sure. >> i'm not the buffet you guys. >> here's to getting better with age here's the beaten these two, every thursday help fuel today with boost type protein complete nutrition, you need >> without the stuff you don't.
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before. >> but a harrys.com slash shave to claim your $7 trial. >> vegas. the story of sensitive in 98 ten on cnn closed captioning brought to you by mesobook.com >> our firm has offered a free book about mesothelioma for over ten years. mesothelial is really all we do. >> 80087 to 4901 so we only a couple of blocks away >> from the new headquarters? yes. for the state democratic party? absolutely. tennessee led by you live you are the first black share of the democratic party in the history of the state. given how many black democrats are already state, that's weird by itself. but you inherited a party that was getting worked. how good the bergerac party get beat this bad. >> i don't believe that the party took the necessary steps to fortify its majority 30 that it hadn't house and the state
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senate at the time. i think the party i got comfortable. >> i saw some stats that showed that half the time these people run for office unopposed given the stakes that's just strikes me as criminal, there's a sense of hopelessness. >> people believe that, you know, why run >> why should i run? i'm, i'm going to lose. they need to be looking back and saying, i can run for office in my county. i have something to offer i just wonder what's the democratic party doing? >> nothing? >> laugh hard to imagine. >> well, to be honest, i think the democrats became very complacent with that super majority. folks who would like to vote democrat, they vote republican because they you don't have any other option for whom to vote on the one hand, you've got the gerrymandering and then you have no competition anyway. that seems to make this whole thing a lot harder to fix all right well, leaving nashville
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had to jackson, tennessee, my hometown i go back once a year either for thanks. during a christmas and a place like jackson, a political party, as an organized entity, doesn't matter. i was going to matter as what charge you go to what sports team you like that's gotten play a bigger role it's a small town. >> we're not to get a lot of people that that little bit more than a little bit less, people who are white people or black he can't get away from each other. so people do figure out ways to get along absolutely more talking my sister. i left here 30 plus years ago he never left. so she's been here the whole time and she's seen the changes up close and personal
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>> when we were. >> little you i'm telling you now, i wasn't always telling you. you're bigger than me and my protector >> i just two more than being that must undo. okay? >> dealer, we thank you for this food that about, you receive. thank you for letting anthony, angela have a safe trip over here and let them have a safe trip going back let's hear a man about to eat onion >> no, ma'am. >> why >> make that? well >> it has work for you working for you? but here's what i know. it when somebody on me something to eat, they not eating >> the whole thing that a little so when i lived here, democrats ran the state i come back, its run completely by republicans what difference is
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that? mate? just living here in tennessee, you having the republicans in charge with memphis, you know, democrat run memphis the state republican front of state values. i look different like now a gun issues. anybody who could just go get a gun, that's how i governor made it. so you don't have to have a license and anything. you can just go get a gun that's the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. and it affects big time because you always hear about shooting every day >> and they used to be a time like telephones, couldn't get it done. well, now the way they have it set up, you don't have to have a background check to get a gun. >> sound like a lot of problems in memphis when you look at the state legislature, when you look at the governor, do you feel like they are helping know
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i don't >> forget his name. the represent a younger yes >> justin from justin pearson. >> now, he's trying to help his face he's trying to help big time but when you go to nashville, and is run by republicans, know, i just don't believe what they say >> they don't tend to true for all time you know, it's funny. i think it's hard to hate up close i met with republicans and you sit down and immediately people we'll start trying to figure out a little bit more common ground there might be some issue that they could compromise on, no, because some of those people are in counties here in tennessee, white folks, they thought they're getting run over two it's like they have they're getting their rights violated by big corporations, developers, not type of stuff >> probably. are, and they probably are probably the most
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cynical and jaded person at the site. all of the things you talk about. >> we >> can find common ground. everybody runs away from. >> there is something building. i think this much extremism is starting to finally to create our reaction and a response that overtime i think we'll be able to take tennessee in a better direction, i hope. but we had to come here on the ground and tried to find it. is it's not obvious at this point, except for the two justins. they are quite obvious and not alone. they're not alone >> i'm headed >> back to california tomorrow. and being back it's been really bittersweet for me on the one hand, it's just good to talk to regular people fighting the fight. but manager feel feels like people are our way. and i don't see any dynamic that's going to bring people closer together and that's really heartbreaking to me when i see something like this where
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there's saving a pretense of bipartisanship or even partisanship, just pure. one party domination it makes me worried if this month adl spreads to more and more states were really in trouble because we need each other i think there's a discontent with the status quo on all sides. and so it seems like the energy levels going up on both sides. it seems new voices are coming in from both sides. the question is, is it going to be more chaos or any common ground be surfaced >> tennessee is one of the 16 states and territories that will vote in this week's super tuesday primary are former president donald trump is expected to dominate in the past two presidential elections, the former president won the state easily with more than 60% of the vote. thanks for watching the whole story. i'll see you next time.
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