thanks for spending time with us on "the beat." our time is up. "the reidout" with joy reid starts now. good evening, everyone. the music always gets me. we're just one hour from the closing of most polls in the

michigan primary. with president biden facing the possibility of a significant protest vote over the situation in gaza and nikki haley hoping for something, anything positive with donald trump expected to easily win the republican primary and the nomination. we'll get to all of that shortly. but first, we want to set the stage just a little bit for where things stand when we talk about the republican party. so we begin "the reidout" tonight with the freak show. the weekend was the annual conservative political action conference, cpac, a showcase of just how extreme the once grand old party has become. how extreme, you ask, well, as nbc news is reporting, nazis mingled openly at cpac, spreading anti-semitic conspiracy theories and finding allies. yes, you did hear me say nazis. nbc news noted in previous years, conference organizers have ejected well known nazis

and white supremacists such as nick fuentes from cpac. this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn't meet any perceptive resistance at the conference where donald trump has been the keynote speaker since 2017. cpac has repeatedly denied it, calling nbc's reporting fake news and grossly manipulative and going so far as to smear the nbc news reporter who was there talking to those very nazis that cpac says weren't there. saying our reporter was carrying the water for hamas. in his reporting of the recent middle east conflict. really, guys? well, nbc news has the receipts. including both photo and video evidence of prominent white supremacists attending the event. now, unless this was someone other than a nazi giving a nazi salute in the lobby of the conference hotel, there you have it. they are letting literal nazis into their den of idolatrous

trump worship. also serving as the coming together of those pushing white replacement theory and anti-immigrant bigotry, and not far from that conference in washington, d.c., you have almost the entirety of the republican party in congress worshiping trump too. you have this guy. >> there's no question, none, that president trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. no question about it. >> even senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, who clearly knows better, is reportedly in talks to endorse trump. despite the fact that trump has repeatedly mocked himerse reportedly calling him a dumb son of a b-word, mocking his wife and former trump cabinet member elaine chao. today, mcconnell along with mike johnson who just last week made

the pilgrimage to mar-a-lago for the mandatory thumbs up photo with the man pulling his strings, joined senate majority leader chuck schumer and house democratic leader hakeem jeffries at the white house with president biden to discuss the looming government shutdown. if there's any potential to prevent a government shutdown, it's not mcconnell or johnson who will decide that. they need to turn to donald trump, and right now, trump's concern has nothing to do with whether the government shuts down. he may prefer it, believing it will help him in the upcoming election. remember, he wants the economy to crash before november. and that is where his concern lies. not to become president to provide for the american people. no, no. it's all to save himself from accountability from the 91 criminal charges that keep him awake at night. it's clearly driving him crazy. just look to his low grade twitter knockoff where he screams in all caps that all these fake political prosecutions must be immediately

halted. and part of that is because he's also really worried about all of those legal bills. and it's not just the tens of millions of dollars he continues to need to pay for his lawyers. there's also the matter of the more than half a billion dollars he owes from his civil judgments including the fact that the meter is still running on his new york civil fraud trial to the tune of $114,000 a day in interest on top of the $355 million principle. that explains why he's so desperate to get complete control over the rnc, to help cover his legal costs. and to make that happen, he's pushing for trump loyalists to run the rnc, including his own daughter-in-law, lara trump. and what you're seeing is the entire republican party rolling over for him. even though he's a weakened candidate as we have seen, based off his latest primary wins where he's lost about 40% of the vote and faced problems not just with independent voters but also with a large swath of republican

voters who are not willing to drink the maga coolaid and who say they will not vote for him once he's a convicted felon. it's a problem that trump may very well see again tonight in michigan. joining me is maria teresa kumar, msnbc contributor, and rick wilson, cofounder of the lincoln project and a former republican strategist. nazis, really? >> look, there's a problem with this, my grandmother used to call it the turd in the punch bowl. once you have one nazi in the door, you're not a conservative organization anymore. you're a pro-nazi organization. the fact these people were there on the floor perfectly comfortable, the fact these people are circulating there now because they're all part of a philosophy that steve bannon infected the gop with called no enemies to my right. which is why they were fine with charlottesville, with these people. they look at them as their best guys, the people who are going

to go out there and metaphorically or literally swing at their enemies. and so, you know, matt schlapp should be ashamed of himself. >> for a lot of reasons. >> for a lot of reasons, but he has no possibility of understanding just how corrupt and corrupted this is. once you're okay with nazis there, and they clearly like to see the pr damage, but the guys were in the facility, you know, giving the hiel hitler. one is too many. >> nazis have been marching in tennessee, marching in florida, in some cases carrying banners for desantis. he says nothing, they say nothing. let me play a compilation of some of what they were saying about immigration, because what's driving this, the nazis vote too, keep them in the tenlt attitude, is there is this hysteria about immigration. here they are at cpac talking about immigration. >> the immigration issue is extremely simple.

seal the border, deport all the illegals. >> who the hell can win when you have 16 million people pouring into our country from places unknown? diseases nobody has ever even heard about. i'm sorry, i feel badly for the people, but we don't want to have this contagion in our country. >> our leaders are determined to repeat every mistake that led to the collapse of empires before us. here are just a few of the common themes from history. mass immigration and infiltration by foreigners who don't share our values and culture or even our language. >> contagion. they get even a jewish fellow, stephen miller and ben carson, an african american, to say the words, the things. >> i think one of the biggest challenges is for us to remember what was life under trump when he was president. and it was a constant anxiety across all of america. and we seem to forget that those words they speak of actually

have consequences. it was the el paso massacre, the person who conducted that crime against latinos who was inspired by trump's then president feed saying there was a mass mexican invasion, and 23 people lost their lives. those words are going to translate into something else, and my hope is that as we're going into the state of the union from the president of the united states, is that he uses that opportunity to remind the american people the contrast between him and trump. and that under his presidency, we are thriving multicultural america. my concern is for that child right now who is of immigrant descent saying i don't belong and being othered and being bullied. there have so many instances we're seeing right now of racial profiling amongst ourselves. that are not even reported because feel they cannot. so what he's actually creating is an incredibly dangerous tension that is going to pit americans against each other. the only people who benefit from that, he will benefit because he

will grift, and so do foreign actors. >> and the ting is, i'm glad you said we need to remember, because there is this mismemory where people are trying to remember the trump four years as the good old days. a million people died of covid. kids were being screamed at on basketball courts if they were latino and called illegallies. it was awful time and people were so exhausted they elected joe biden. you know what joe biden is planning to do now, going to the border. both he and trump are going to do trips to the border. the biden team is saying they're doing it essentially to shame republicans who refuse to vote for that border deal, which is i guess smart politics. what do you make of the fact the response on the biden side as a strategist is they too are going to the border? >> they're going to take away the one thing trump claims he has, which is strength on the border. biden has offered and the democrats have offered the best and most balanced border security bill that's been out there in 45 years. and the people that are siding with the cartels and the coyotes and the smugglers and all the

catalog of demons the republicans talk about every day, the one guy keeping the border open is donald trump. >> demanding it. >> and biden has a chance to invert the alleged strength that trump thinks he has. if i were biden, i would say he built a wall that's a joke that we paid for. he never did anything except talk on this, and the dangerous parts of the border, especially on the drug smuggling side, the fentanyl smuggling side, those are people who now rely on donald trump for their business model. >> and he's going in the midst of these polls. is illegal immigration a very serious problem. 91% of republicans say yes. 41% of democrats too. so it's become a thing where it's increased among every single group from 2015 up to 2024. it's a shared concern. >> and i think one of the things we also have to realize is that by the time that someone gets to the border, joy, that is not our immigration policy.

we have to recognize that the reason we got to this moment was that trump himself dismantled a lot of the programs where people could go ahead and file for some sort of visa or work permit in their home countries. and in an effort to rebuild that, you had covid that really upended latin america specifically. close to 16 million middle class latin americans that went directly into lower class. they went into poverty. there was no response internationally from any of this. as the president goes in and talks about how tricky the situation is, how it's a western hemisphere issue, i hope he also recognizes that there are essential workers that are demanding relief, that have been here for ten, 20, 30 years that have been paying their taxes, who have american children who are ready to vote for him if he actually recognizes their contributions. >> what trump is saying he's going to do is deport them all. >> how is he going to know who is -- >> i think anybody latino is

going to be targeted or anyone with an accent, and anybody black or brown. he wants to formulate this program that's based on what they call operation wetback, sorry for the horrible words, but that's what they called it and that's what he wants to do. a mass cruelty program. what he's keying in on is people are angry and they want to see something cruel. the same people who didn't mind that children were being taken off the breast of their mother as they're breast feeding and essentially stolen from their parents. they didn't mind that. they want that back. >> they want the cruelty. that's the purpose of their movement. there's no ideology or policy or philosophy. they want the show. they want the spectacle of cruelty. they want to see the kids being separated from their parents. and this idea that is fundamental to so much of what they're doing of close the border, stop abortion, all these things, the core of it is this white replacement theory panic that they're all having. the core of it is a sickness where they believe that performative cruelty and mass

deportations and all that somehow make them strong. this is a country that was always -- it was never about blood and soil. it was always a propositional nation. when my family's people came here in the 1800s, in the 1810s, they were german, the scum of the earth. then we had successive groups where everybody who came in, they had that transitory moment. right now, we are, i think, breaking a vital cultural vow that we made in this country, when people come here pplay by the rules, america was for everybody. it's not just for stephen miller and steve bannon. >> by the way, stephen miller's family was a family that came here by migration. so did ron desantis's family. hegrandmother got here like the year before donald trump's too, before the immigration laws. >> we don't level with each other because one of the reasons why we are enjoying such an economic bump -- >> immigration. >> it's immigration. literally the folks who have crossed the border and said, you know what, and this is what we forget really unifies us.

the folks that come to the united states as immigrants, they come with this idea that they can be the best version of themselves in this country. it is -- we have our ancestors of entrepreneurs and we forget that is the loofblood that again, who is afraid of that? the russians and the chinese. we have to be very, very clear that what is happening right now on social media when they're trying to separate us, yes, it's the far right, but the algorithms fed to us are also foreign actors recognizing that our achilles heel is the racism. that our unity and our multicultural strength is what allows us to compete. >> that's the thing that is so maddening. russia doesn't have to, like, invent conspiracy theories to hurt the u.s. they just have to take the people's already existing anxieties. >> that's exactly right. >> and it's working. it's working because people here are letting it work. thank you very much. great discussion. coming up next on "the reidout," in less than an hour, polls will start to close in michigan. in what could be a crucial moment for president biden. who is facing a progressive

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polls will be closing at the top of the hour in the michigan primary. one thing we'll be looking for is how well president biden does

with the protest movement. he's faced significant opposition from not only michigan's large arab american and muslim community but also black voters and young voters. president biden said monday he's hopeful there will be a cease-fire in gaza by next week. he discussed the potential path forward. >> look, first of all, there are -- the hostages being held must be released, and we have a principle agreement, there will be a cease-fire while that takes place. ramadan is coming up and there's been an agreement by the israelis they will not engage in activities during ramadan as well. in order to give us time to get all the hostages out. that gives us time to begin to move in directions that a lot of arab countries are prepared to move in. >> the muslim holy month of ramadan begins march 10th. for now israel and hamas have downplayed any hopes for a breakthrough in negotiations, but to be perfectly blunt, a

cease-fire would help people stay alive in gaza. but it also underscores the political challenge president biden faces in michigan. one of those protest voters is michigan congresswoman rashida tlaib, the only palestinian member of congress said she was proud to vote uncommitted. >> when 74% of democrats in michigan support a cease-fire, yet president biden is not hearing us, this is the way we can use our democracy to say listen, listen to michigan. listen to the families right now that have been directly impacted. but also, listen to the majority of americans who are saying enough. no more wars. no more using our dollars to fund a genocide. >> congresswoman tlaib wasn't alone among voters using their voice in today's primary. >> i want president biden to take us seriously. talk about the subject more seriously. >> i'm hoping that it will tell

the democratic party that they are making terrible decisions. >> i voted uncommitted to let joe biden know that we do not support genocide. >> i'm not so happy with how the government is running with foreign policy. the fact over 10,000 children have died in gaza is unnecessary and needs to be stopped. there should be a cease-fire. >> no candidate will receive our votes if they continue to support genocide in gaza. >> joining me now is former michigan congressman andy levin, and dana williams, dean of the graduate school and professor of african american literature at howard university. thank you both for being here. i would normally do ladies first, but i want to go to you first, andy levin. talk about this protest vote. how large do you expect it to be? and what the message being sent to president biden? is it not getting these votes in november or something else? >> it's great to be with you. the message is that we need this horrible war to end right now.

people here are so upset about it. yes, arab americans, muslims more broadly. people of color, young people, a lot of the president's base are just beside ourselves at the carnage in gaza. it has to end. that's the message they're sending. there are over eight months, joy, between february 27th and november 5th. so we're not talking about november 5th now. but i'm very worried about november 5th if he doesn't change course. this is a huge message to him to change course because you cannot get re-elected as president of the united states without winning michigan. and you can't win michigan with this many of your base members upset. >> and very quickly, what do you expect? do you have an estimate? i know 10,000 votes were the goal. there have been protest votes in every primary. what would be considered victory for you all?

>> i think 10,000 votes is great. i think we're now expecting to get at least one uncommitted delegate to the convention, and i think there may be more than that in michigan's rules, if you get 15% of the vote in a congressional district, you get one delegate. so i think it's going to be a very successful night tonight. i tell you what, joy. my biggest fear is not that so many people come out and it's seen as oh, my gosh, so many people are voting uncommitted. my fear is that people stay home, and he doesn't get the message because i don't think he can win in november here unless he changes course. >> let's talk about this, professor williams, there is two pieces of what you have to do to win michigan. you need a robust vote among the arab american community. also the african american community. you're talking about you really need detroit to come out. let's talk about this. howard university, you all did something through impact research, a poll that talked

about what black voters think. what did you find in terms of the feelings about president biden and donald trump. >> we're looking at all black voters which is unique in and of itself. it gives us the opportunity really to do an analysis at a really more intentional and complex level. so what we found interestingly enough was that the contemporary polls don't bear out exactly what we bared out in terms of where the support is. some of the things broad strokes are absolutely true. there are some instances where black women are still the stronghold. black women are committed to the democratic party. what we're also seeing is democratic voters are far more liberal if they're black, and it doesn't matter what part of the state they're in. their concerns have shifted a little bit. we asked them questions like over the last five years, how have your politics shifted? and overwhelmingly, they shifted to the left. >> let's go through some of these numbers. joe biden getting in this poll of black michigan voters 49% of the vote. trump seemed high to me at 26%.

did that surprise you, and 9% for kennedy. >> it did, but i think there are nab of reasons we can begin to think about. it's a little higher in michigan than it was when we did the national poll, which will focus on super tuesday coming forward. but those numbers vary based on religious affiliation, based on inissues they identify with. so if you're asking folks who identify more with threats to democracy, the numbers shift just a little bit. we were a little bit concerned. >> that it's that high. the other pieces that black michigan voters, reasons you wouldn't vote. don't like the candidates, don't think it matters. don't think it changes anything, and what would get you to vote. 18% saying me vote will change my life for the better. that does seem to be important. >> it is because we're also trying to understand why people are making certain decisions. our big thick is getting people out to vote. it's nonpartisan so we really want to know what would make a difference and where are we failing with messaging because

part of what we want to be able to do at howard and with this initiative especially is to make sure that we know that our voices are being heard. >> we have last one, concerns about biden voters, age, it did show up. with trump, it's morals, ethics, and his track record. >> that's an obvious one. we're all very endeared to our elders in every way, but the reality is people are concerned about the age. what we didn't show as much as the concern about like the replacement, so i think black folks are still very comfortable with kamala harris. >> last question, did gaza come up in the poll? >> it didn't as much as we imagined it would. we asked the question explicitly. we know there are affinity groups and black folks relate specifically to arab americans in michigan. but the biggest number for black folks are the economy, which economy and jobs which suggested there is still a messaging problem because it's a strong economy and the unemployment

rate is high, so messaging seems to be the biggest problem. >> andy, what does the coalition look like in your group? because i know, you know, just polling the unofficial poll of people i know of young black people, it seems to be an intense concern on gaza. but this poll is showing that's not necessarily across the board. what does the coalition look like that's trying to send this message to president biden? >> no, joy, i think you're right. young people are really upset about this. you have got to understand michigan, we're the most intensely arab american state. if you're a college student at any one of our campuses, you're african american, you have arab american friends. across young jewish progressives, there are many black muslims in michigan, and we have in the black church, ame bishops across the country. and over 1,000 black pastors telling the president, this is unconscionable, you must change. i think there is a really strong african american component to this movement as well as a whole

diversity of other groups. and we are saying that you need to change course right now. i think the professor is so right on the economy. i'm ready to go out and campaign for joe biden on the economy. i was so proud to pass the investing in america agenda with him. we are creating a lot of great union jobs in michigan and across the country that we can talk about. the problem is, you know, donald trump won michigan by 10,000 votes in 2016. and then joe biden won it by 150,000 votes in 2020. that itself is still pretty close. and if a lot of young people stay at home on november 5th, it's going to be big trouble for joe biden. >> and you said, dana williams, it is about messaging, messaging. what kind of messaging were the voters you were talking to wanting to hear? >> they want to know exactly where the money is in relation

to support for jobs, economy, affordable housing, health care. obviously, reproductive rights was a big part of the conversation as well. the income inequality and racial justice or injustice i guess i should say were the top issues. >> where the federal money is being spent. i hear that a lot, too. former congressman andy levin, professor dana williams, thank you both for being here. coming up, when people show you who they are, believe them. republicans are in full panic mode now that america has realized they are trying to send america back to the 1950s with abortion and ivf restrictions and the looming threat of rights rolled back on birth control and even divorce. that's up next.

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earlier today, the alabama state senate took up a new bill that would shield clinics providing inviteio furt llation treatments or ivf from legal action. at least until 2025. it comes after a ruling from the alabama supreme court stating that frozen embryos are children and actual people could be held liable for discarding or destroying them. it's plunged the national republican party into full blown freakout mode. with several right wing congress members rushing to say yes, yes, they support ivf, even though

many of them previously backed the life at conception act that could restrict or make aspects of the procedure illegal. republicans have good reason to be nervous. not only is ivf widely popular, but no pooling shows voters are also worried about what might be the next target. birth control. a new poll from impact research found that most voters across the political spectrum believe that their access to birth control is actively at risk, and 81% say they support the right to contraception act, a bill that would insure access to cont reception nationwide, a bill that 191 house republicans including mike johnson, voted against in 2022. joining me now is molly murphy, president of impact research, which conducted this poll. molly, thank you for being here. your top lines, what did you find out? >> the most important thing is that birth control is popular, and contraception is popular across the board. we don't need to split hairs and say is it the pill, an ied, an

emergency contraception. popular across the board. >> across party -- >> across party lines. most people don't think this is a controversial issue. so they are now thinking maybe it is more controversial. maybe these republicans are coming for it. it's why you see two-thirds of americans are concerned about their right to access contraception. >> i think finally people are waking up. people didn't think roe was going to go down. now that it's gone down, they have to reorient themselves on the possible of what could happen in your state. if your congress member is opposed to the right to contraception, how would it affect your likelihood to vote for them. 58% said les likey. how concerned are you the supreme court will overturn the right to contraception. 61% say it's very or somewhat likely. i'm surprised a third are not too concerned because they're going to do it. >> they're going to do it. that third is the republican ultimate base. that's really who republican elected officials care about at

the end of the day. pretty much anyone else who is not saying you could virtually do anything and be a republican and i'll vote for you are saying they're concerned about this. and this is a real shift from what we saw before the dobbs decision. when people ultimately didn't think abortion rights were going to go away, and the first thing we heard after that decision came down from people is, what's next? and so it makes all of these things more credible, and they're starting to think about these things. it's important to note this poll was conducted prior to the alabama decision. i think these numbers might have been larger if we had gone into the field this week as opposed to two weeks ago. >> what's next? let's go to missouri where there's a total ban on abortion, where once you're pregnant, you're state property. they have a new law that says pregnant women can't get divorced. democrats are trying to overturn this law, it bans a woman from getting divorced while they're pregnant. three other states have similar laws. texas, of course, arizona, and arkansas. once you're pregnant, you're not only state property, you're your

husband's property. >> time after time, when voters are presented with this information, they're willing to vote on this information. that's another thing that this poll finds. >> they have to be presented with it in a campaign. >> if you're trying to live your life, not following politics, you're busy. you have kids and work and commitments, you would never think in a million years, is there a law that prevents a pregnant woman from getting a divorce? now, of course not. so the goal here is to get in front of people and let them know this. one of the things we also found in this poll is while most people a plurality of people believe it's democrats who are pushing the right to contrasepgdz act, they're correct. about a quarter of them believe this is bipartisan. and the reality is it's not. and so i think getting in front of voters and telling them, these rights are under threat, which you well know, and some of the things you think are common sense, 68% of republicans support the right to contraception act. their elected representatives, the people they're voting for

are not with them. >> the new republic has a piece about the hypocrisy here and this alabama ruling. there's a woman named michelle steel. she tweeted on thursday, she's a congresswoman. she tweeted, as someone who struggled to get pregnant, i believe all life is a gift. ivf allowed me as it has so many others to start my family. still solidarity with alabama and ivf patients rings hollow considering she cosponsored the life at conception act which could make ivf illegal. these politicians are saying i'm for ivf, but they're actually voting to make it illegal. >> that's right, and michelle steel is a republican congresswoman. republicans have control of the house of representatives. she's in a position to do something about this. what is she doing? these are incredibly hollow words, and in fact, i think we'll see in the senate that they're going to block senator duckworth's bill, and all of these words about i support babies and i support families is fine, but show me what you're going to do about it. >> you know, student nutrition,

kids getting school lunch, they're not really for anything that has to do with kids. in our previous segment, we talked about the fact it's a messaging issue. a question of people don't know so they're not acting on knowledge. is this also a situation where if democrats were messaging on this, it would be more impactful. >> absolutely. i think we saw that in 2022. from the time the dobbs decision came down, to the time that voters voted across the country, this was a relentless conversation about the threat to abortion rights, and we saw that that worked. especially in places that had competitive elections. if you don't talk about it, people are not going to find it on their own. so this is an incredibly important thing to continue to drive. it extends the conversation beyond what people already know, which is abortion rights in this country are now under threat. people are waking up to that reality. but now they need to know what else is coming down the pike, and i think these opportunities like what happened in alabama allows democrats to say, we're not spinning a tale here. this is the truth. this is happening.

look around you. we see this two-thirds of people are worried these restrictions are going to keep happening. >> they are going to. the reality is believe them. they said they're going to do it. molly murphy, thank you. coming up, tennessee saw all the recent republican chaos and draconian laws and said hold my beer. more with democratic state representative justin jones, one of the iconic tennessee three, next.

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as you have probably noticed, things have gotten out of control. just last week, neonazis marched down the streets of nashville in broad daylight, carrying flags with swastikas while those modern day hitler fans were marching in the streets, tennessee house republicans were passing laws that ban different flags. on maemd, they approved a bill that would ban idealogical flags in schools including pride flags and black lives matters flags. the bill does not, i repeat, does not explicitly prohibit the flag of the nazi or confederate flags in schools. they also passed a bill to make street protests a felony. democrats pointed out such a law would have prevented john lewis and dr. martin luther king jr. from marching across the edmund

pettus bridge in selma, alabama. they have also signed a law that allows officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages if it goes against their beliefs. while republicans are targeting same-sex couples, the law opens the door to people refusing to marry people for a whole host of reasons including race, religion, and national origin. joining me is justin jones. representative jones, what in the hell is going on in your state? >> joy, the former confederacy continues to be a birth place of bad ideas. >> clearly. >> and the terrifying thing is this is where they're testing out the ideas before they nationalize them. these ideas are being waged, the battles are being waged on the front lines of our state houses but they're going to be nationalized in states like tennessee and alabama and mississippi where we have to fight for democracy. >> i reposted your instagram because you were actually there when the nazis were marching through nashville. how is it that they're now pushing through a law that would ban marches for black lives

matter but not nazi marches? >> i mean, they're showing us who they are. just yesterday, as i tried to tell them that their policies attacking immigrants, attacking the lgbtq community, banning black history are inviting these neonazis to come, i was silenced from the speaker of the house and stopped from speaking. we try to raise these concerns that we're welcoming hate. it's creating this morally insane environment where we're not even engaging. there's the saying, speak truth to power. we're speaking truth to insanity. >> i think we have a picture of you with your hand raised. you said it was two hours. like two hours of you not being recognized, not being allowed to speak. they're now pushing through a law that if you are they are now pushing through a, law that if you are expelled, which you were, and justin pearson, and of course miss gloria were also expelled, you could actually run again. that is their new plan.

do you think they are planning to expel -- >> i mean, that bill passed the house last night without even, i was even allowed to speak on that bill. and this is just showing us that they are so intent on silencing voices of dissent, because they are trying to show us that this is not a multi racial democracy anymore. so, there are threats that we may be expelled, but we are not afraid of that. because what they are trying to do is intimidate us, these are tactics of intimidation, these are -- last, year when they expelled, us and we walked back three days later. this is what they are trying to stop, they cannot stop the momentum, the movement, the light that is shining across tennessee in the south. >> there was even an attack on a grammy winner. so there is, there was a proclamation that was supposed to honor alison russell, who is a black country music artist. but allowing a similar measure to pass for a group called parent, or who are white. that seems so obvious, you think they wouldn't try, but they did. >> they did. i mean, they went after a black queer immigrant woman, who has spoken about a more inclusive state, who had a song that she won a grammy for called -- and they didn't like the title.

they >> didn't like the title? >> they didn't like the title of the song, because again trying to erase peoples identities, trying to erase reality, and erase history. >> let's talk with the last two things. because the one about -- pride flags, what would that mean? so you could have a pride flag in your class, with that actually mean you would be fired? arrested? >> i mean, you could be fired, you could be sued. i mean, this is just the madness that we are dealing with, is that they were questioned, they had actually an amendment to keep confederate flags in the classroom, because they're considered quote unquote battle flags. but pride flags, which are about inclusivity, they feel are a threat to their dominant narrative of white christian nationalism. this is what i actually -- rather than address this and answer questions, -- and chose to shut down debate, and not let us even talk about this, and ask the questions that our constituents have been downgraded to ask. >> is there any sign that voters in tennessee are going to start punishing republicans for this? because we could just do this, we could do ten more of these. i was telling, i watched the tennessee -- on social media. they do ten of these today.

is there any sign that voters have had enough, and will start to vote these people out? >> i mean, we are seeing a movement that is rising up, that is multiracial. we are seeing people -- and we are tired of, because they're getting ready to -- which will destroy these rules, public school districts. and we already have more rural hospitals closed per capita than any other state. so either go they are going to wake, up or they will find themselves in a place where they can't get a -- . and so, what is happening is that we need to continue to shine a light, to show that they are hurting their own people, when they are attacking public education, when they're keeping people -- when they're denying them healthier. this is your rural districts. so, we need people to say, to put that reality over these tactics of division, of white supremacy. because that is their strategy, is to divide us and make us not talk about how we are fighting the same system that is a small group of extremists, who are controlling our state. >> the last pill i want to talk about is this marriage bill. because, it does appear that it will allow public officials to refuse to marry people based on lgbtq. but, is there anything that would block somebody who, there was a famous tennessee pastor

ten years ago who said he would marry people that were interracial couples. could that, could that also be, something could say i'm not going to marry interracial couple? >> i mean, this is what it has opened the door for. and this is what they want to open the door for. they are taking us back in time, literally joy, every day in that building, you've got to set -- your clock back 50 years, cause that's what's happening. and so this is terrible, but really what we should be clarifying for, us we have to take these people seriously, we have to fight them. this is not the time to try to make friends with these folks, these extremists in our legislature. i'm not here to make, friends i'm here to make change in our district. and what that means -- silenced, being expelled whatever, we are going to fight for their constituents to, and i hope that the people of tennessee, the republicans particularly wake up, and see that these folks are not serving their interests, because what is happening is that they are using them as pawns, and getting them to come out and say this is about beating up on a few young black men. but really, it's about beating up on our system of democracy, that is silencing them, and serving corporate interests. that's what's >> and allowing the gun lobby just run rampant, because anything to do with guns, that

will pass. >> that's the only bill we passed after the shooting, the mass shooting in nashville, was it -- from being sued. the only gun bill we passed and sent -- that got national attention last year. >> last time you were here, you were moving to have the speaker sanctioned, for his actions as speaker, and his attacks on yourself, justin pearson, and gloria johnson. any movement on that? >> so we have filed our motions, they have -- response motion to that. my attorneys, now we are waiting for the judges to respond. but speaker sexton continues to act unconstitutional, he continues to be the george wallace of the 20 was -- the bill connor of the 21st century. and they are trying to ban history, because what history looks down, his children will be ashamed, and he is shaming the south. but we represent a new south, and we are not afraid. >> you definitely are unafraid, that is for sure. tennessee state representative justin jones, glad you are in d.c. unable to come onset and talk with us. good luck, and godspeed. we will be right back. luck, a. we will be right back.

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we are seconds away from most of the polls closing in -- primary in the state of michigan. special coverage led by my colleagues chris hayes, alex wagner, and of course steve kornacki at the big board, it's going to start in literally 12 seconds, if you are in line, stay in line. your vote counts, don't get out of line. but polls are going to close and five, four, three, two, and here we go. stay with. us here we go. stay with. us