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tv   Velshi  MSNBC  March 3, 2024 8:00am-9:00am PST

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missouri, and michigan. he is projected to receive every single delegate that was up for grabs. plus, super tuesday is just two days from now. 16tates plus the territory of american samoa will hold democratic and or republican nominating contests on tuesday. there aren't enough delegates up for grabs on super tuesday to allow trump to officially clinch the nomination. he'll probably only have to wait one more week to close out the republican primary. four states will hold contests on march 12th. barring something unexpected, they may have enough delegates to push trump over the threshold. so, he's gonna be the republican nominee by the end of the month. some doubt continues to hangover trump's campaign. as we continue to wait for the supreme court issued its ruling regarding the former presidents eligibility to even be on the ballot, that's a decision that could come at anytime. during a hearing last month, the majority of the justices appeared skeptical or hesitant at best about the effort out of colorado challenging trump's
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ability to hold public office ever again based on a reading of the insurrection cause of the 14th amendment. it appears likely that trump will probably be allowed to remain on the ballot but we just don't know exactly how the justices will rule or what kind of implications that may have on both the primary and on trump's legal cases. speaking of which, the federal election interference trial in d.c. was supposed to start tomorrow we had it not been paused due to trump's appeal of the decisions against his ridiculous absolute presidential immunity claim. a supreme court hearing on that claim has just been added to trump's calendar for april. even though that trial has been delayed, trump will still find himself a criminal defendant this month. beginning on march 25th, manhattan district attorney, alvin bragg, will be the first to bring his case to court against the former president. trump's former personal attorney, michael cohen, and the adult film actress, stormy daniels, are among the witnesses expected to testify about how trump tried to
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conceal the effort to pay off daniels to keep quiet about their affair which trump denies took place. meanwhile, in georgia, we'll certainly learn a fulton county district attorney fani willis will be allowed to proceed with her election interference case against trump's. allegations of an improper relationship between willis and nathan wade, the special prosecutor she appointed, have derailed the case for the last couple of months. hearings have recently been held about those allegations. after closing arguments were given on friday, the judge, scott mcafee, says he intends to rule on the matter in the next two weeks. march came in like a lion but it's not going out like a lamb this year. joining me now, erin hayne, the editor at large for the 19th news, host of the new podcast, the amendment, and an msnbc political contributor as well as ruth ben-ghiat, a professor of history and what you, author of the lucid newsletter, tax threats, crocs threats to democracy, the author very important book, strongmen, mussolini to the president. good morning to both of you, thank you for joining us.
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erin, it's good to see you, my old friend. last week you wrote about parties, both parties having sort of poor messaging and outreach toward voters of color. quote, identity politics are reality of elections. why aren't the presidential candidates and either party better or talking about race, particularly to the black voters who were already such a focus of the 2024 campaign? on the republican side, former president donald trump is again returning to a racial playbook that exploits and weaponizes stereotypes. his lone rival, nikki haley, largely avoids discussing identity, despite being the only woman in person of color is still standing in the contest. president joe biden in vice president kamala harris, working to show up black support head into november. while they're effective at responding to racist rhetoric, their message to black voters, a key constituency in their reelection victory strategy isn't yet resonating, and quote.
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tell me more about this. >> well, it's good to be with you again. thanks so much on your comments about voting as we observed the anniversary of bloody sunday this weekend. we're preparing to mark the actual anniversary on the day that president biden is gonna deliver his state of the union speech. listen, regardless of what happens with the former president, his legal challenges, voters are the ones that are best position to weigh in on whether or not he's gonna become president again. this election is about whether we get to have more elections. so you know, race is already factoring into the 2024 campaign. i can't imagine president biden naive saying this moment on thursday to address black voters in particular, even though the state should be reminder to all americans about the stakes of defending democracy. yes, i mean, we're seeing former president trump going back to the same playbook that he's been going to. talking about how his legal challenges somehow gives him a sort of kinship with black
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americans as if that is the only way that they have value or that he can connect with them. that might be a strategy that he thinks will connect with black voters but in the end may end up galvanizing black voters to vote against him because they continued understand that he doesn't understand, you know, with their issues and priorities are. in terms of president biden and former president harris, making a case but what they've already done for black americans in their first term and acknowledging what they haven't been able to accomplish but what they want to do, also obviously not just reminding them about what the alternative looks like, it's what is going to motivate people. while there is still time, there is a message that needs to be out there. i think it might be a message we see, especially on the other side of the state of the union as they begin to kind of crisscross the country, taking their case to voters. i think, you know, just seeing where they end up going headed out of the state of the union
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that's gonna send a message about which voters they're prioritizing and -- they put together that coalition if they're gonna need to get reelected. >> ruth, as it relates to messaging, donald trump has added a new talking point at his rallies and speeches. i don't think this guy could keep coming up with new material that falls into the same type of category. he's not warning about languages that are coming into this country. he mentioned it during his trip to the border last week. let's listen to this. >> nobody explained to me how allowing millions of people from places unknown, from countries unknown, who don't speak languages, we have languages coming into our country, we have nobody who can speak those languages. they are truly foreign languages, nobody speaks them. they're pouring into our country. they're bringing with them tremendous problems, including medical problems, as you know. >> so, i don't know about the grammar on that one, and the languages are bringing in the
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medical problems. ruth, funny that may sound to some of us, again, an age-old tried and true thing. you don't even have to look to muscling the are hitler for this one, it's one we used in america. it's one we use when the italians were coming to america, it's one way is when the jews were coming to america. it is tried and true. we don't speak their language. as a guy who lives in manhattan, i have no issues with anybody who speaks any language or no language. my work gets done, my foot gets delivered, my life manages just fine. for some reason we'll manage to talk to each other just fine in the city. >> yeah, well, he's not making any sense. that's a very good clip to show about his own cognitive decline or whatever his problem is when he's limbaugh -- rambling and making no sense. this is not just dina phobia, this is a program of national security which dictators have always engaged in, whether they're right or left.
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you know, in fascist prime minister in italy, he's having a campaign to stop foreign words from entering the italian language, just like miscellany. this is more attempt by trump to other people to dehumanize people who are not white, christian, who only speak english. so, it's an attack on a multi racial democracy, more fantasy of trying to deny what we really are. speaking languages is very important for doing business in the world, for diplomacy. trump knows this very well. he's the biggest glove list of all. his business model was licensing his name abroad, you know, laundering money for foreign criminals. this is all just propaganda designed to bait races. >> yeah, he actually ironically doesn't have a problem with people who speak other languages from other places, as long as he's making money off of it. aaron, one of the biggest most consequential issues in this
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year's election's reproductive rights and gender issues in general. this is an area that you and your colleagues at the 19th specialize in. it has been a very successful issue for democrats and a very unsuccessful issue for republicans ever since the fall of roe. we have seen the degradation of women's reproductive rights across the country, we have not seen electoral successes related to. >> yeah, for democrats, certainly have seen successes, which is why i think you're gonna continue to see democrats hammering abortion between now and november. i mean, abortion, specifically the larger issue of reproductive rights is on the ballot. access to that is absolutely on the ballot for women, for lgbtq+ people, for people of color. this is what we're hearing from voters. we know all of these are groups that are obviously disproportionately impacted by the dobbs decision.
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this is not just a health care issue for them, this is an economic issue, it's part of what they answer when, you know, when you ask what they think about the direction of the country, this is about their freedoms and liberty. this ivf decision out of alabama is literally about the pursuit of happiness and trying to start a family. it's a gender equity issue. frankly, it's also a democracy issue. to have a healthy democracy that folks have, people are interpreting that as, you know, how free, how clear, and how equal they are in terms of their participation in this democracy. you know, there are no such things a single issue voters. for people who may be concerned about the economy, abortion is right up there as one of the top issues that is motivating and galvanizing them to use their voice at the ballot box in november. i think, just like we saw in the 2022 midterms, or gonna see that in november. >> ruth, one or more of trump's trials now appear that they are going to face additional
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delays. the federal election interference case may or may not go to court before the election. you have spoken to me plenty of times in the past but how donald trump is running for office, as our other leaders, or as have other leaders around the world to beat charges, to avoid going to jail, to avoid convictions and avoid trials. for whatever reason, for donald trump, some of it is working. what do you make of this? >> yeah, this is a playbook where you know, regular politicians who have legal problems, indictments, they don't want to run for office. there's too much scrutiny. strong men are compelled to run for office or run again. so they can get back into power and domesticate the judiciary and shut down fare free elections and make their legal problems go away for good. ali, i wanted to say, i feel there is very something surreal about this moment when we're talking about super tuesday,
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getting nominations, where we're going through these rituals as though it's business as usual when in fact one of the candidates is saying, if he's elected, he is gonna be a dictator, he's gonna deport and jail millions of people, and he's gonna let putin do whatever he wants, even encouraged putin to attack nato allies that's likely starting world war iii. the more he speaks like this, the more the republican party becomes his personal tool. this is a very strange moment in american history despite respecting the rituals and media coverage of the rituals of politics such as nominations, super tuesday, this is not normal. it's not supposed to be like this in a democracy. >> yeah, from your lips to everyone's ears, there is nothing normal about this. whether donald trump clenches is the week after super tuesday or sometime by the end of the month, it needs to be on everybody's mind about what
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their binary choice now is. thanks to both of you. aaron hands, editor at large of the 19th news, host of the amendment podcast and msnbc political contributor. ruth -- professor of history and why you, author of the lucid newsletter, and author's important book, strongmen, from mussolini to the present. coming, up the brennan center for justice studied a billion voting record vows over years of election and found an alarming new trend. white voter participation is not only systemically higher, systematically higher than people of color, the gap is growing. -- supreme court gutting of the voting rights act in 2013. i'll dig into the data with center president and ceo michael waldman and civil rights attorney, charles coleman. plus, we're checking in on the republican party from the swing states that donald trump targeted in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. today, we head to colorado where we find former bush and mccain aide, mark mckinnon, who is gonna help us understand the stated republican party in his own home state.
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>> we promised to check in on the swing states that donald trump targeted in his attempt to overturn the last election as we head into another crucial election. today, that journey brings us to colorado where an alleged attempt to meddle in the 2020 election came from a woman named tina peters in mesa county. peters was a county clerk and a vocal supporter of then president donald trump. she was also a supporter of trump's baseless claims of election fraud. peters was indicted last year on charges of election tampering and official misconduct in connection to a security breach of mesa county's voting system. the trial is that to begin in february but has been postponed until this summer. peters is accused of allowing unauthorized people to break into mesa county's election system and tamper with the equipment in search of evidence of voter fraud. ironically, donald trump won
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mesa county by 28 points in 2020. peters has denied any wrongdoing but was barred from overseeing elections and mesa county after she was indicted. the story doesn't end with tina peters. she is actually just the beginning. peters went on to run for chair of the colorado state republican party. she dropped out of the race and threw her support behind this guy, dave williams, another staunch trump supporter and election denier. williams one and has been the leader of the colorado republican party for about a year now. williams, in turn, continues to support peters through her election tampering legal troubles. with williams now leading the party, apparently the entire state party supports her too. last month, an email went out from the official colorado official republican parties email dress with this subject, the gop stands with tina peters. it urged republicans to, quote, unite in prayer and support
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with tina peters. and even solicited donations from her -- and are corrupt judicial system. this prompted 33 current and former state republican officials to sign an open letter published in the denver post, slamming the state gop support for the election denying peters. that letter reads, in part, quote, we ask our fellow republican colorado party members to support your local republican clerks and reporters who administer with integrity and election system that serves our constituents and every coloradans casting a ballot. according to the daily sentinel, several state republicans have called on dave williams, the chair of the party, to resign over his support of peters. now, while colorado's republican party appears to be flailing, williams is also running for congress now to represent the state's fifth district. he's been criticized for easing the parties official email list for his own campaign is. tried running, by the way, for the same congressional seat in
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2022 and he sued to be allowed to go by the name dave let's go brandon williams on the ballot. priorities. he lost that battle, by the way, he also lost the race. at the end of last year, the colorado republican party, led by williams, asked the u.s. supreme court to overturn the states ruling to remove trump from the ballot based on the 14th amendment section three. williams was bursting with pride when his intervention got left from trump himself. williams wrote to supporters saying, quote, trump personally called after my fox & friends interview. president trump complemented me on the press interviews defended him. we both express to each other how the fight is far from over. that's nice. we all need cheerleaders. we can't blame dave williams for all of the problems facing colorado's republican party. much of the turmoil comes from a general divide in that state between trump loyalists and
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more traditional members of the republican party. these divisions come at a critical time from the colorado gop following several rounds of election losses which have led to the lowest number of republicans in the colorado legislature in state history. last month, colorado's republican party became only the second state party in the nation to endorsed donald trump in his second bid for the white house. it's not surprising but in bucks colorado tradition gop zone bylaws states that it can't take sides in the republican primary. to that, williams responded saying the colorado republican party is more than happy to stand with president trump because he risked it all to stand for this country. after a quick break, i'll be joined by someone who knows colorado all too well. mark mckinnon, creator and executive producer of the circus on showtime. circus on showtime. and this is her john deere 1 series tractor. ♪♪ it gets straight to work, ♪♪ and easily connects to everything she needs,
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where he took on the epidemic of violence against women in the congo. i see a fighter, a tenacious problem-solver... who will go to congress and protect abortion rights and our democracy. because he sees a better future for all of us. i'm peter dixon and i this election is about who shares your values. approved this message. let me share mine. i'm the only candidate with a record of taking on maga republicans, and winning. when they overturned roe, i secured abortion rights in our state constitution. when trump attacked our lgbtq and asian neighbors, i strengthened our hate crime laws. i fought for all of us struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. i'm evan low, and i approve this message for all of our shared values. >> joining me now is mark
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mckinnon, former senior adviser to george w. bush and senator john mccain. also the creator of the executive producer and the co- host of the program, the circus, on showtime. mark, good to see you again. thank you for joining us this morning. as a native coloradans, what do you think our viewers should know about the republican party there and the way in which a state party like the current one run by dave let's go brandon williams could affect or should affect their decision- making? >> thanks, ali, thanks for having me on. first of all, that was an excellent summary of what's going on out here. you know, colorado is a purple even leaning blue state these days. joe biden won the state by 13 and a half points, which was the largest margin since lyndon johnson. so, the republican party has been in bad straits for a while. instead of trying to expand the tent, they're narrowing it, ironically, and climb their way to the bottom. i mean, this guy named
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william's is, first and foremost, an election denier and he's chair of the party. despite being a chair, he's running for congress. despite their bylaws, they've endorsed donald trump. so, you know, all of these things may help him and his race for a very republican district, congressional district, of which there are three in colorado. but it's not gonna help him statewide, it's not gonna help improve republican chances and colorado or donald trump's chances in colorado. in fact, it's gonna make it worse. it reminds me of arizona where you may recall kari lake sort of said, we don't need mccain republicans. that's basically what williams is saying here in colorado. they're calling everybody like me rhinos saying we don't want you, we don't need. you sign, will go somewhere else. >> what does somewhere else look like? you've mentioned arizona. a lot of republicans, you know, like in colorado, republicans are very proud of the republican conservative traditions and they felt the
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carry lakes of the world were actually betraying them. a number of those statewide races in the last election in arizona where very very tight but they were won by democrats in many cases supported by republicans. >> i think that's what's gonna happen in colorado. listen, nikki haley was out here week ago and is the only candidate that's been out here, it tells me it's not really a competitive state. it's not. you know, i think that nikki haley is, the kind of republican that colorado voters will support and would support her if she were the nominee. that's the irony of this all, she would be such a stronger nominee for the republican party than donald trump. >> going back to this whole idea of williams and those folks clung people like you names, saying get lost if you don't want to join this. what does it tell you at large about the divide between these maga trumpian republicans and
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traditional republicans. i'm asking you in the context of the normalcy, what little normalcy remains in the republican party, the phoenix that we may want to rise from the ashes of the republican party one day. >> it's a great question. for people like me who feel like they're on an island these days. it's like, we keep hoping there's gonna be a resurrection of the republican party. hopefully and some version of compassionate conservatives. that's what germany to the republican party. the idea of compassionate conservatism, i don't see much evidence of compassion in the maga world. as i said, it's a political cul- de-sac ultimately. i don't think that extends the party had only narrows it. ultimately politics is all about addition. right now, the mega world is all about subtraction. >> you are one of those people whose trying actively to amend political wounds and diminish
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political polarization. you're involved with no labels. you can i've had this conversation. in normal times, i love that idea, except for not a normal times. how do you contend with a very real reality today and heading into the next nine months that anyone who cast the ballot for anyone other than joe biden could be helping donald trump and that crowd when? >> well, yeah, you're right, ali. i helped start that organization. i haven't had an affiliation in quite some time since i started producing the circus. in theory, i support the idea of the problem solvers and bringing people together, working across party lines, giving people another option. the one thing the organization has set on equivocally is that it will not launch an operation that in any way helps donald trump. if that's the case, i think they're gonna pull down the effort, they won't want to. >> what is the effort? i know not specific specifically to do with that, what we don't want to do is to reduce polarization in this
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country, we're in the situation where everyone has got to look at this election coming up as binary. >> it is binary, the unfortunate thing is that we have an election where three quarters of the country are unhappy with the choices. i mean, to me, to be the greatest democracy in the world and to only have two choices, cook, pepsi, no mountain dew, it seems antithetical to the philosophy of a great democracy. you know, listen, i think organizations, specifically no labels, has said, whatever we're gonna do, we'd like to launch something the offers a third option, if it in any way would help donald trump, we're not gonna do it, i don't think they will. >> mark, great to see you as always, thanks for taking time to be with us. former senior adviser to george w. bush and senator john mccain, and the creator and executive producer and co host of the show, the circus on showtime. all right, coming up, the brennan center for justice is that with an important report revealing a significant gap in
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voter participation between white and black americans. all signs point to the gutting of the voting rights act as a major contributing factor. major contributing factor.
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already did. see if you could save at progressivecommercial.com. >> black voting rates are decreasing nationwide for the first time in decades, according to a brand-new study released this week and by the brennan center for justice. it's studied voter data from each of the last eight federal elections and found that there are now growing racial disparities and rusher turnout for the first time in decades following a 2013 supreme court ruling that removed voter protections in states that had a history of racial discrimination. bear with me through grief primer on the history of voting rights in america. in 1870, five years after the end of the civil war, congress passed and ratified the 15th amendment which states, quote, the right of citizens of the
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united states to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. almost immediately, states and primarily former confederate states in the south began implementing measures like poll taxes, literary, literacy tests, all white primaries, felony disenfranchisement laws, grandfather clauses, fraud, intimidation to discourage black americans from voting. in fact, this pamphlet from roughly the year 15, i'm sorry, 1900 list state specific requirements that black voters faced, including advice like, be on friendly terms with your white neighbors. african americans fought for for voting rights for decades, facing segregation, other jim crow laws, and the second rise of the ku klux klan, which often posted up at polling stations to threaten and intimidate black voter participation.
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it kept them relatively low for decades. the voting rights act of 1965 changed all of that. passed after the brutal televised police attack on voting rights, demonstrators on the bridge in selma, alabama, 59 years ago today, the voting rights act ensured the promise of the 15th amendment that no state shall be denied their right to vote on the basis of race. section five of the voting rights act included something called preclearance. it basically said that some states, mainly those with the most egregious histories of discrimination and suppression of non white voters would be required to get preapprove all, preclearance from the u.s. department of justice before changing state voting laws. it worked. for decades after the bill was enacted, black voter turnout increased significantly. there was still racial disparity in voter turnout. there was a clear trend of progress toward unequal voting
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turnout. however, in 2013, the u.s. supreme court effectively struck down section five of the voting rights act. the narrow conservative majority at the time ruled that those southern states with a history of discrimination no longer needed that federal oversight and that they should be allowed to change voting laws without that preclearance from the department of justice. now, thanks to this new report from the brennan center for justice, we're seeing the consequences of that supreme court decision to illuminate section five. after decades of closing the turnout gap between white and non white voters, after decades of progress and getting fair representation, that trend has reversed for the first time. coming up after the break, i will discuss this with michael waldman president ceo of the front and center, which published the study, and the civil rights attorney, charles coleman. go nowhere. charles coleman. go nowhere.
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same room with me, if he's here, i'm not, if i'm here, he is not. it's nice actually have you here. michael, thank you for being here. this was a remarkable report in that it shows us what many of us thought might happen when we first saw this developed ten years ago. one of the findings of the studies that in the past couple federal election millions of non white voters have essentially been lost from the system. tonight the correlation is on that. is it that the system became harder for them to vote or protections for their vote were lost or impediments were put in. >> yes, absolutely, especially in the states that used to be covered by the strong voting rights act. has been a wave of new laws making it harder to vote. some are worse than others, but they accumulate and especially if voters are not used to voting, if their new voters, they get discouraged. we don't know the mechanics, but the facts are very clear, the racial turnout gap, the gap
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between participation by white voters and voters of color, it's grown all over the country for bunch different reasons. in those states that used to be covered by the voting rights act, it's grown much faster. that's just these voter suppression laws actually to suppress the vote. >> interesting though because in these days, voter suppression laws don't have to be as explicit as they were in 1870. they don't have to target black people they can target zip codes, they can target states where you think the majority of voters who come out to support a particular party will be of color. georgia is the perfect example, you can't take water to people standing in line. they know where the lines are, they know who's standing the lines where you can't drive people from church to vote. they know what they're doing >> right, i think it's important to understand that that's one of the reasons why data is so valuable. now, in 2024, with the sophistication of how we can break down data and understand how it functions, it has enabled this sort of exclusive video around democratic
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systems. let's be clear about something, black people in america have protected, have promoted, and participated in democratic systems, unlike any other ethnic minority in this country. for many years, we're only outvoted by white voters by very small margin if you look at it. what we're looking at right now, ali, is the intersection of a perfect storm around the law, around a very very bad narrative around what democracy hasn't has not done for black people in america, and around an influx and a very very high piece of white grievance pushing a strong majority of white voters to the polls in a different race. this is a black -- bad place for democracy to be. and >> let's talk about this concept of preclearance. we talk about this a lot many years ago, that conversation has gone away for a lot of people. from your study, it writes, we find the gap is consistently growing, this is the captained way in nonwhite voters, since 2012, it's going most quickly in parts of the country that
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were previously colored under section five of the 1965 voting act. grumbles twice as quickly and formally covered jurisdictions as another parts with similar demographics and socioeconomic profiles. that's the part of the phrase that interests me with similar demographic and socioeconomic profiles. in other words, it's literally in the places that had serious voter restrictions or impediments that has sprung back into those things. in the rest of the country where there may still be voters segregation or demographics segregation it has been as bad. that's right, at those parts of the country that were subject to preclearance, these were places that had a history, a demonstrated history of racial discrimination in voting. the idea was, you have to get permission in advance, and it turns out as they say, conscience is the idea that somebody somewhere maybe watching. they held back from doing some of the small things, closing
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polling places, redrawing -- passing discriminatory laws. now these things can happen without the scrutiny, basically, of the courts or the federal government. that is accumulated, and it is -- one of the things that's important here is this study was done by the team a political scientists over many many months, using a billion voter files. real records. this is not speculation, there is a cynical view that you sometimes hear, these laws and practices don't matter. this shows that it actually does matter, and the progress we are making unfortunately is getting reversed. >> charles, let's talk about that concept of someone might be watching. one of the reasons people didn't worry so much about preclearance going way was two things. they thought the problem had been solved, in many cases, and certainly what we've seen the last couple elections certainly hasn't been solved. and this idea that somebody doesn't need to be watching. we've been faraway enough from the voting rights act that habits have changed, and we don't do that.
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i'm going to put up a map of states that have enacted restrictive voting laws since this came down in shelby county, -- wow. is all i've gotta say. >> then naivety of that support, particularly justice roberts, if you go back and read the shelby decision it's very decision disturbing. it strikes as being very out of touch. we're seeing it manifest so much of what many of us knew when we read that opinion, and that -- the talk about the remnants of what was in terms of the need for the voting rights act, no longer being the case, and no longer being necessary it made every one of us who knew better say this is going to be a problem, and now we're seeing it. but more importantly, i think it's also important to understand the studies distinctly lays out what the solution. is pass the john lewis voting rights act, and get this thing before it gets even worse. i think that anyone claims to care about democracy, about
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voting rights, if you're legislator and you're looking at this is not enough to say this is terrible. it's not enough to say section five is gone, section two is now been gutted, that doesn't -- eliminates the notion of redress for private citizens, and puts it in the hands of federal government. you can as a congress do something about this if you really care about it and that's the scary thing, is because we're not seeing that happen yet and so how invested are you really in democracy are not willing to codify it and stop this madness before it gets worse. >> congress can act. it has to have the political will to act. they're -- the john lewis voting rights -- which was national standards passed the house and had a majority in the senate. but the filibuster blocked it just as in the earlier era senators need to have the political will to say you know what, we're going to fix the senate rules so this law kick this bill can become law, and
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restore the promise of protection for multi racial democracy's. >> i think it's interesting, because probably this particular congress is not going to be the one to take that up again. usually we see things like this dying congress, in the house, not the senate. your point is very valid, that if we can get a congress that will pass this and do it again, the senate can do the right thing and thanks to your study that proves this wasn't conjecture on the part of charles and others who said this is how this is going to go, i appreciate both of you being here, this morning. >> michael walton is the president and ceo for the brennan center of justice and law at nyu law, and author of multiple important books including the super majority of the year the supreme court divided america, and the fight to vote. charles coleman junior is a civil rights attorney, former prosecutor in brooklyn, and msnbc legal analyst and host of the charles coleman podcast. a quick programming note, this evening -- politicsnation live from selma, alabama, to mark the 59th adversarial bloody sunday, and to talk about the
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state of voting rights in america ahead of this year's presidential election. watch politicsnation today at five pm eastern only on msnbc. coming up, how a disabled man fought his own way out of homelessness and then work to create a space for people like him. people who have actually experience poverty and homelessness. to help find solutions for others in the situation. we'll discuss his small act of courage, next on velshi. of courage, next on velshi. i'm a flight nurse on a helicopter that specializes in trauma. i've been doing flight nursing for 24 years. as you get older, your brain slows down and i had a fear that i wouldn't be able to keep up. i heard about prevagen from a friend. i read the clinical study on it and it had good reviews. i've been taking prevagen now for five years and it's really helped me stay sharp and present. it's really worked for me. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. >> woman: why did we choose safelite? it's really worked for me. we're always working on a project. while loading up our suv, one extra push and... crack!
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the current state of our world and collective future can be daunting, and the endless news cycle certainly doesn't make it easy to see a light at the end of the tunnel. we face existential challenges the team insurmountable, like poverty, homelessness, climate change, war, hunger, and the threat to democracy itself. one of the reasons that some of these issues don't get solved is that most of the systems and infrastructures that could solve them a run by people who can't relate. people who have never experience things like poverty, or homelessness. for many people who fall on hard times and find themselves and facing homelessness it happens quickly and without warning so most people don't know the first thing to do, or where to get help. the boston health care for the homeless program is committed to helping individuals and families experiencing homelessness, by providing health care and other supportive services and resources, when unique benefit that the program offers might seem small but it goes a long
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way, put together a pamphlet to guide people who enter a stable housing for the first time, answering questions like how do i buy groceries, how do i open a bank accounts, how do i stay connected to family and friends. these questions might seem obvious to those of us who live in stable homes with stable jobs, those of us who have computers in tvs and subscribe to a building but only those who have actually experience homelessness themselves would know how critical these answers are, the man who draft help drive that pamphlet was worn muggy, he was born with cerebral palsy which affects one's ability to move and maintain balance, mcgeachin-y issues were further compounded by his bicycle accident in his twenties which broke his spine in multiple places. maggie says his experience with disability has made advocacy a part of his dna. when he was in his 30s, mcgee was appointed by consecutive massachusetts governors to the states rehabilitation
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commission, which provides services for the disability community. in 2011, muggy's life circumstances took a turn, and he ended up being homeless for three years. after suffering a stroke from the stress of living in a shelter, he ended up at the boston health care center for the homeless program, ultimately they helped him move into permanent housing where he now resides. mcgee now works of the boston health care for the homeless program, using his voice and personal experience across the northeast. his acts of courage are helping people lived safe and dignified lives. warren muggy joins me now, he's the co-chair of the consumer advisory board for the boston health care for the homeless program. warren, thank you sir, thank you for being on our show this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> you are an advocate for the homeless community after having been homeless yourself, and on one hand i want to say for only three years because some people are almost four decades but i can't imagine three days being homeless. tell me about how you chose to
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stay involved with this despite getting out of the circumstances that got you into it? >> actually i was homeless for six years, -- the first three years and then -- spend all night sleeping on public grounds transport station platforms like the mbta, sleeping in the boston common, when you're disabled and homeless that's a double stack against you, and then on top of everything else your minority in the neighborhood so you have three strikes against you as it is, but i managed to pull through by having faith and god almighty, that's number one, my
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support system, people that love me and my daughter, so i was able to go through it, but it was a tough battle. >> why doesn't matter to have people like you have who have been through a system that sometimes fails involved in these organizations? to be on the board of the organization like you are? what do you bring that didn't exist, because all the people on these boards and who work at these places, they mean well, they want to solve the problem, what do you bring that they don't have? >> what i bring's hands on experience from both the homeless perspective and being disabled at the same time. it's two different categories but it serves one purpose, number one as you stated earlier in the introduction, when i did work for -- state
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rehab council, and what we did was basically go down to the state house allocating funding for programs such as -- the deaf and hard of hearing, so we were able to budget things that i've done that i was advocating for people they can't speak for themselves on the flip side of that when i became homeless i've got open to a whole other life because when i was at the walk in and i was able -- i've seen homeless people in the streets all the time. i would never look down on them, i would give the money if they needed something to eat, i would take them to the local shelter the if they needed shelter. but when i became homeless it
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was like a culture shock to me, so when i bring to the table is firsthand knowledge of what it's like to sleep in a train station at 3:00 in the morning, after the service to shut down, and you've got a warm blankets with a -- and a battery charger, and three backpacks on the back of your chair, and rolling walker. you try sleeping in a train station, hoping you can get some kind of piece but you gotta remember here in the train station at four, 5:00 in the morning. the first train comes through, so you've got to be up before that train moves on. and it's bad enough some of the local transit officials don't know you're in the station so you're ducking and dodging firsthand, all the time.
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all the time. it's dangerous for people with disabilities being homeless, but it showed me how to survive it made me stronger. >> i hope everybody as they do, like you do, because everyone of us who lives in the city walks by people who are homeless, and how people think differently about that we don't always and that's why your being in your position eccentric difference. warren thanks for doing what you do, thanks for having the courage to keep undoing. it thank you for joining us this morning. warren mcgee is a co-chair of the consumer advisory board for the boston home health care for the homeless program. that does it for me, thanks for watching. inside with jen psaki begins now. when it comes to the criminal trials facing donald trump, timing is everything. specifically, more time. and by taking up his claim of presidential immunity, trump's friends and they -- threw him a major lifeline in the

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