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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  May 24, 2024 9:00am-10:00am PDT

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thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the bodies of threeisraeli hostages are found in gaza. the cia director will try to revive talks. the humanitarian situation in rafah is disastrous. the order is largely symbolic. where do we stand in the 2024 campaign? joe biden lags in the polls and donald trump prepares for a verdict in his hush money trial. a day after being a guest at the state dinner at the white house, hunter biden is back in a delaware court for a pre-trial hearing in his federal gun trial. that trial is set to start a week from monday. we will have a live report.
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new reporting on how the white house is strategizing for dealing with the upcoming trial. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the nation heads into the long memorial day weekend, cia director bill burns is traveling back to europe with an urgent push to revive cease-fire talks and get hostages out of gaza. the world court today ordering israel to immediately stop the rafah invasion, citing an immense risk to civilians there. israel says it will not comply. there's little the icj can do to enforce the order. the u.s. is expected to veto any enforcement in the u.n. security council if it comes to that. after an intense military operation, israeli forces brought home the bodies of three more hostages killed in the
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october 7 attacks. the remains were taken into gaza by hamas. more than 80 hostages are still being held hostage and 40 bodies are being held. israel wants them back so the families can have a decent burial. eight americans are among the missing, three acknowledged to be dead. a million pounds of food and aid have been delivered into gaza by the pier, but most is being held in warehouses and transfer sites. israel is blaming the u.n. posting, food is flowing into gaza while crossings from the israeli side are open. we will facilitate. the u.n. says it cannot send workers into a war zone. that does not include the rafah crossing where truck drivers say food is rotting on egypt's side of the gates, which have been closed for three weeks amid security concerns.
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inside that gate with the fuel depots for the trucks. president biden and egyptian president el sisi are expected to hold talks to get something moving. we begin with raf sanchez in tel aviv. start with the ruling by the icj, as distinguished from the international criminal court. how that's being received in israel. all of the reporting is that it rallied israels behind benjamin netanyahu. >> reporter: it's been three hours since the international court of justice laid out the ruling ordering israel to immediately halt the military offensive in rafah. we haven't had any official reaction from prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he met with senior government ministers as well as legal advisors. as you say, andrea, this is the
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second move by an international court against israel this week, following the international criminal court's prosecutor saying he is seeking the arrest of prime minister netanyahu and israel's defense minister, accusing them of deliberately starving civilians in gaza, accusations israel denies. israel basically dismisses the international criminal court out of hand. it says it's not a signatory to it. the international court of justice, which ruled today, israel is bound by. its rulings are final. they are binding under international law. if israel doesn't comply, then it's breaching international law. the court has no enforcement mechanisms. it will be up to the u.n. security council to impose any enforcement. the israelis are hoping that the united states would use its veto power in that forum to shield israel from any international
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action. it was really striking, that ruling was being read out by the president of the international court of justice at the hague a little after 9:00 a.m. this morning, and at exactly the same time our team in gaza says israeli air strikes were raining down on a refugee camp there. little optimism inside gaza or outside at this point that this ruling is going to actually have much of an impact on the ground. >> raf, you as well as i have talked so often with hostage families. three more bodies of israeli hostages were found, reported by israel overnight. these families want their loved ones home. it's not just closure, it's burial, it's religious. it's all sorts of emotional weight. they don't want their bodies to remain in gaza.
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>> reporter: they don't want the bodies to remain in gaza. they don't want the bodies to be used as bargaining chips by hamas. those three bodies were recovered from an area of northern gaza, a refugee camp. that brings a total of seven bodies recovered from that area in the last week or so. one of the men whose bodies returned today is a dual french mexican national. the body of his girlfriend was discovered last week. both of them were at the music festival on october 7th when they were killed. >> may their memories be blessings. thank you, raf. joining us now, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, congressman jim himes. thank you for being with us. speaker johnson announced last
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night at israeli independence day celebrations here, that prime minister netanyahu will address a joint meeting of congress. he should be focusing on freeing hostages, not on charming legislators. are you going to attend? with senator schumer saying he will sign the letter of invitation, the senate will be joining. >> you know, i have a blanket rule for myself, which is i attend these things. part of the reason is that we had the japanese prime minister here. if i were weighing every single presenter before a joint session, the japanese prime minister, they didn't do enough to atone -- you get into a spiral. i will attend. i will tell you, i think it's a terrible idea. why is the prime minister, who should be focused on freeing hostages and prosecuting this war, hopefully in a more humanitarian fashion, why is he going to take two days to come serve the speaker's naked
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political interest? we passed the $16 billion in aid. it's not like he is advocating for that. the speaker is doing this because he sees an opportunity to highlight a rift within the democratic party. he likes that idea. why the prime minister, given all he has to do with respect to hostages, would take the bait, especially since -- you will remember when prime minister netanyahu came here to argue against president obama's policy with respect to pushing the iran nuclear deal. the whole thing just strikes me as a terrible idea on the part of the prime minister if he chose to attend. >> what can the u.s. and international groups, the u.n., do to get aid in? netanyahu is claiming he is giving interviews saying the aid is getting in. they are not starving people. for a lot of reasons with rafah closed, an egyptian decision, the president will call there
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today, and aid can't be delivered because the fuel delivery area is at rafah. the u.n. also saying that it can't send workers in to active war zones. >> you know, as you know, any given week the delivery of humanitarian situation is different. some weeks jordanian convoys get held up. other weeks we get a floating pier up and aid is moving across that. checkpoints open and close. the larger point, regardless of what's happening on any given week, is that all parties, egyptians, israelis, united states, need to commit to a dramatic improvement around the aid being received. we are having this conversation about whether there's starvation in gaza. people get into the definitions of starvation. what is clear is that we need to do a better job of getting aid in over time. the israelis need to allow
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convoys to move more rapidly over land. we all need to be doing a better job. the humanitarian situation is untenable in gaza right now. >> nbc news has exclusive reporting about something that has not been noted enough probably in the intel community but not widely, is that russia and north korea might be planning to take military action close to election day in a, quote, october surprise. what can you share? we have not covered all of the advances in north korea and the ballistic missiles as well as the help that north korea has been providing for the past year at least to russia in its fight against ukraine, military help, weaponry and getting technology from russia and now putin is planning to go back to north korea for another visit. >> it's a really concerning situation. the story on north korea has
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been clear for a very long time. every time the north korea dictator feels like he is not the center of attention, the spotlight is else as it is right now, he tests another missile or takes another aggressive act. it's enormously almost child-like, but very dangerous. as you point out, the nexus between russia, which is using north korea for ammunition, artillery shells, guess what they are getting in return? they will giving technology to the north koreans. that's more severe for us. north korea has been on a slow but steady march to the development of weapons which could ultimately deliver a nuclear weapon to the continental united states. that's a massive risk and concern for the american national security establishment. >> i just want to flag that donald trump yesterday on social media said if he is re-elected, vladimir putin will release
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wrongfully detained "wall street journal" evan. >> i remember when donald trump was running for president. he promised he would build a wall across the southern border. the mexicans would pay for it. didn't happen. donald trump and his self-agrandizing and failure to deliver is not a new story. i don't know how putin thinks about this. hard to imagine this is helpful in a critical effort to bring that reporter home.
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>> congressman jim himes from connecticut, have a safe and happy memorial day weekend. >> thank you. decision 2024. where the candidates are and the campaigns stand heading into the summer stretch, including what donald trump will to say at a rally in the bronx last night. that's next. we'll be right back. "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 90 seconds. you are watching msnbc. . (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence. (vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. you know, i spend a lot of time thinking about dirt. at three in the morning. any time of the day. what people don't know is that not all dirt is the same. you need dirt with the right kind of nutrients. look at this new organic soil from miracle-gro. everybody should have it. it worked great for us. this is as good as gold in any garden. if people only knew that it really is about the dirt.
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with time off in the court the last few days, donald trump took advantage of that and held a rally last night aimed at black and hispanic voters in the bronx. he is the first republican presidential candidate to campaign there since ronald reagan, in a bureau with many immigrants. he pushed his rhetoric about immigrants and migration. >> you don't have public spaces. they are occupied by migrants in tents. you have languages that people don't even know about. we're not talking about just south american. we are talking about countries from africa. i think they are building an army there, 29,000 people over the last -- i think they are building -- they want to get us from within. i think they are building an army. they cannot say we will immediately begin the largest criminal deportation operation in our country's history. >> joining me now, white house reporter sabrina siddiqui, susan
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del percio and sam stein. sabrina, the language we hear from donald trump -- first of all, he is in a beautiful park in the bronx saying there are no more public spaces because they are inhabited by tents. just saying. he had a big crowd. officials said there about 7,000 people. the trump campaign, which was what they were permitted for, trump campaign saying thousands and thousands more. but it's a big crowd. >> yeah. i don't think that there's some dramatic political realignment happening when it comes to voter demographics. but what we did see in the 2020 election was that former president trump, although he lost, he made some inroads with latino voters. some recent polls have shown he is continuing to gain some traction with not just latino voters, but an uptick in support with black voters, specifically black men. i don't think that there's any
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doubt that president biden will likely carry the majority of black and hispanic voters in november. but if trump even makes some progress on the margins, then that could matter in closely contested battlegrounds. not in new york. i don't think the trump campaign, whatever they say, is operating any illusion trump would win the state of new york or even carry the bronx. this is really about chipping away at the margins when it comes to some of the key communities that comprise the democratic base who are frustrated or disenchants with president biden. >> that messaging is going nationally. in nevada, president biden is eight points behind. i was talking to a nevada elected official yesterday. they are really concerned about that. arizona also in play. wisconsin, small margins. in a number of battleground states with large diverse
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communities. michigan. this could make the difference. >> it can, andrea. nevada is hard to survey and get good results on. in the bigger picture, in the bronx, for example, donald trump did 7% better in 2020 than 2017. i'm not suggesting he is going to win the bronx or new york. but it is those small chipping away at voters. it's been two months since the state of the union where biden was supposed to hit the road and shore up his base. we haven't seen that yet. i think the rally actually made sense for donald trump. it was a national media opportunity. he took it. >> sam, let's talk about the libertarian party. donald trump will address their party convention tomorrow. rfk junior is speaking there tonight. how important could their vote be in november?
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broaden it to the third party votes, which could be decisive. couldn't they? >> yeah. what we are talking about with respect to the bronx applies here. the election will be decided on the margins. the candidate that can pick up those votes will win. that applies to black and hispanic voters, young voters, the green party voters, libertarian voters. frankly, in past cycles, it would have been crazy to think the libertarian party would entertain donald trump. he is a government conservative. in the clip, he talked about a deportation force coming in and ripping up communities. that's a big government conservative policy. that's not what libertarianism is about. but they are entertaining him, inviting him to the convention. trump is wise to go there. because as we discussed, what it comes down to is, can you get votes here, there, everywhere? if you can get a percentage of the libertarian vote, it might matter in a state that is won by .1% of the vote overall. >> sabrina, after nikki haley
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announced she's going to vote for him, she told a local news outlet that she will be on his team somehow. he ruled her out as vice president. what is she talking about? >> this is not dissimilar to 2016. think about everything that florida senator marco rubio or ted cruz said about then candidate trump, when they were running against him. then in the end coming around and supporting him nonetheless. and becoming some of the biggest cheerleaders of his presidency. with haley, she's thinking about her political future. >> i misspoke. it was trump that told a local reporter there that she could be on his team. he is holding out the possibility. he knows that she was getting 20% of the vote recently. >> she was drawing a good amount of support in the republican primaries, even once she dropped out, which shows trump has a vulnerability, else with college educated white voters, some of
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the independent voters she was appealing to. i don't think this endorsement, despite everything she said during the campaign, should come as a surprise. she's probably someone who wants to seek office in the future. the republican party still very much is in for a president trump control. just like the other republicans i mentioned from 2016, she now is falling in line. >> sam, very briefly, nbc news is reporting the white house does have a strategy in terms of how to handle the trial. they have not been talking about the trial. but once a verdict is reached, if he is convicted -- that's a big if -- they have a way that they're planning to roll out some sort of direct attacks. right? >> yeah. the biden white house and the campaign have taken a vow of silence up to this point, saying they respect the independence of the judiciary. that's not sustainable once a verdict comes in. they are preparing for the possibility of a verdict and how to capitalize it. they don't think this resonated
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with voters that much. they are preparing for the possibility of an acquittal or hung jury, knowing trump will say he has been exonerated and exonerated by a justice department that he will claim went after him at biden's behest. >> with no evidence at all, in fact, to the contrary. thanks to the three of you. the president's son. we will go live to wilmington, delaware, where hunter biden is in court for a pre-trial hearing on federal gun charges. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence. (vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. bladder leak underwear has one job. i just want to feel protected! especially for those sudden gush moments. always discreet protects like no other. with a rapid dry core that locks in your heaviest gush quickly for up to zero leaks. always discreet-
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hunter biden is in federal court in wilmington, delaware, for a pretrial hearing. this is the federal gun trial set to start june 3rd. the president's son pleaded not guilty, you will recall, to three counts of possessing a gun while being addicted to narcotics. prosecutors intend to call, in addition to other witnesses, his ex-wife, along with beau biden's wife. a second trial has been postponed on tax charges until september. last night, hunter biden was at the state dinner for the kenyan president. nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian joins us from the
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courthouse in delaware. sources are telling nbc that the president will monitor as a concerned parent, not as an the president. he will not respond on a case by case basis. what are we expecting at the hearing today? >> reporter: you just showed the image of hunter at last night's state dinner at the white house. we saw him walk in with his lawyers to this federal courthouse where he will sit in a courtroom at a pretrial hearing setting the stage for a trial that could cost him his freedom. the trial begins june 3rd, with jury selection. today's hearing is about motions to exclude particular evidence by either side. for example, the prosecution doesn't want the defense to argue that this is a malicious prosecution or that the allegations stem from a russian disinformation campaign. the defense wants to exclude mention of the other case you mentioned, the tax evasion charges against hunter biden in
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california and any mention of his child support battle in arkansas and the fact that he was discharged from the navy after testing positive for cocaine. those motions will be hashed out today. there will be other scheduling matters. what today underscores is that here we are nearly a year after a plea deal fell apart that called for no jail time. he would plead guilty to misdemeanors. now he is facing two felony criminal trials. >> a major point in the political campaign of his father. ken, thanks so much. coming up next, pressure points. prime minister netanyahu under fire at home and abroad as last-ditch efforts to revive hostage talks are about to get underway again. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility.
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the decision by the u.n. court of criminal justice today ordering israel to stop its military offensive in rafah and the separate decision earlier this week by another u.n. court, the prosecutor requesting an arrest warrant for netanyahu and for hamas' leaders, is now galvanizing support among israelis for their controversial leader. president biden today called the icc's decision -- or the other day called that decision outrageous. netanyahu's political rivals at home offered their support. president biden just wrapped up
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a phone call with the president of egypt. we are expecting more on what they spoke about soon. we believe it's the holdup in aid at the closed rafah crossing. ambassador, thank you for being with us. from what i'm reading from afar, but talking to people there, the anger at netanyahu over the failure to get the hostages out, over some of the humanitarian challenges, over the continuing war, and over the political paralysis in israel, is -- some are rallying around the prime minister being compared to the hamas leaders. >> they are not. these two concepts are not mutually exclusive. the resentment, the anger, the
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criticism over netanyahu's responsibility for the october 7th debacle and his mismanagement of the war remains and persists. at the same time, there is a lot of frustration in israel over the icj, the international court of justice's provisional ruling that israel must halt operations in rafah within 30 days and as you mentioned correctly, the i icc, the international krim criminal court, which may issue arrest warrants. people are frustrated with that. they don't like the moral equivalency they feel is made between hamas and israel. they don't understand why the aggressor and the victim are bunched together here. that doesn't translate into rallying around mr. netanyahu.
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>> let me ask you this. defense minister gallant and the opposition member of the war cabinet, benny gantz, both former generals, they came together, even though they are rivals -- political rivals, but they came together to give netanyahu two or three weeks to make a decision about rafah and make a decision about the day after, about how to get out of the war, what will happen next, about what role the palestinians will have. they made their own red lines. that still would not be enough for him right now to lose his coalition, if they really quit the cabinet. he still has the right wing members. he could keep his government going, correct? >> absolutely correct. he has 64 seats in parliament even if gantz and his party, which amount to only eight members of parliament, even if they withdraw. the thing is, it's a qualitative
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measure, not quantitative. it's not bringing down the government, but it's going to conceivably allow the public to feel less constrained and more encouraged to stage mass demonstrations. it's true that they came together in the war cabinet. it's true they set this what he called a red line. you know how red lines are. they become increasingly pinkish, and then they sort of disappear all together. benny gantz said, i need to see a plan by june 8th or else. well, the question is, or else what? you leave? nothing is going to happen. what about this plan? netanyahu can scribble a plan in 20 minutes, show it to gantz and say, this is what i intend to do, even though it's not implementable. the interesting thing is that gantz's demands for netanyahu to come up with a implementable and
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viable and coherent plan for post-war gaza and even the icj's ruling in terms of the military offensive in rafah, they are both consistent with the language that the u.s. -- the biden administration has been using. the u.s. is impressing netanyahu for almost eight months on a post-war gaza plan, so-called day after. the biden administration has been repeatedly warning netanyahu of the possible consequences and humanitarian crisis and civilian deaths that may result in an operation in rafah. mr. netanyahu is under tremendous pressure. he may pretend to like the pressure, because it shows i'm standing up and i'm resilient and durable and i won't cave. okay. but there's a cumulative amount of pressure here that he may not
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be able to sustain. >> of course, he will come to the u.s. we don't have a date yet. to broaden that appeal to the u.s. constituency. >> that deserves another conversation between us. >> exactly. >> he is going to the u.s. to weaken biden. there's no other way of looking at it. >> exactly. not the first time he has done that. >> correct. >> against a democratic president, namely obama, or tried to. great to talk to you. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. supreme shift. the impact of the supreme court's decision in that south carolina gerrymandering case, setting what civil rights are calling a terrible precedent for racial justice. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence.
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paul, first to you. justice alito writing for the majority. he said, without an alternative map, it's difficult for plaintiffs to defeat our presumption the legislature, in reference to south carolina republicans, acted in good faith. what does this mean for redistricting? for justice alito to say that they should not -- they should presume they acted in good faith after the history of racial gerrymandering and discrimination against black people in the south? >> yeah. this is south carolina where republicans control six out of seven of the congressional districts. there's one district that is led by an african american congressman clyburn. nancy mace won this district in
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2020 by just 1%. the republican lawmakers in south carolina wanted to make it a safer district for republicans. the way they did that, according to three federal judges who heard evidence, was they bleached the african americans out of the district. they moved them to congressman clyburn's district. that's what the supreme court was considering. three federal judges -- >> south carolinian judges? >> yes. they said that they heard evidence to lead them to the conclusion that the motivation was race. what justice alito said in his majority opinion yesterday is, it was politics not race. even though they are closely intertwined, if it's politics, then the supreme court shouldn't intervene. it's all good is what the court said. >> if it's not race, it doesn't violate the constitution, allegedly. the ldf argued against this map
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before the supreme court. your reaction to the ruling? kagan wrote for the dissent. it's just stunning considering the trajectory of voting rights in our country in the last -- since 2013. >> it absolutely is stunning. this was a clear case of a racial gerrymander. we gave extensive evidence at trial of the fact that the court -- the lawmakers relied on race. they had data in front of them as they were drawing the maps. they were looking at black voters to create a partisan advantage. we know that eight years ago the supreme court backed away from adjudicating any partisan gerrymandering claims. but they did say that if there is a racial gerrymander and it violates the constitution, that's a case that they will take and look at. we made the strongest case
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possible with over 600 exhibits, over a dozen witnesses, days and days of trial. we received a unanimous judgment from three federal judges who saw the evidence and said, this is clearly a racial gerrymander. when the supreme court reviewed the case, their only task was to determine whether these three federal judges clearly errored in their judgment. the idea that they did based on the volume of evidence that we presented is just preposterous. this is clearly a politically motivated decision. it's extraordinarily disheartening considering the crisis our democracy is facing. >> also, something that really was striking to me is justice clarence thomas in his concurring opinion with the majority, he went after brown v. board of education.
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clarence thomas took the seat of thurgood marshall, who argued for the legal defense fund. this landmark case that changed america forever. i can't get over that. tell me what your reaction is. >> we know justice thomas took the seat, but he did not fill it. what he did in disseminating disinformation about a landmark decision whose commemoration we just honored this past friday, 70 we see a supreme court justice who benefitted from brown, as did every american, and misconstruing it and suggesting that it stands for something that it does not. brown requires that we provide equal access to our democracy through education, and it's anchored in the idea of citizenship. brown said that one of the most
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important functions of local and state government is to provide an education for purposes of citizenship, and citizenship could not be more clearly exercised than through the voting process, and what the supreme court has done in alexander versus south carolina is completely distort that process, manipulate it, and allow partisan actors to completely capture that process in a way that directly harms black voters. it's an invitation to exploit black voters for partisan gain. >> which could, of course, affect in a closely contested house, could affect other states and could affect who controls the house. one quick footnote, and i don't know if this is fair or not, but it's certainly been talked about, elena kagan in her dissent against justice alito's majority opinion twice, twice used a phrase, no at commonly used phrase of this is an upside
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down way of thinking. upside down. could that be a reference to the flag? >> in dissent justice kagan used that phrase twice to describe justice alito's reasoning. again, it's an uncommon phrase. supreme court justices take months to draft an opinion could she have taken it out? she could have. she chose not to. >> i can't think of two better people to talk about this case, this decision. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. and demanding action four years after george floyd's death, what actions have been taken to prevent similar abuses. that's next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. g "andrel reports" only on msnbc (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence. (vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon.
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tomorrow will mark four years since the murder of george floyd, the 46-year-old black man was unarmed when a white minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck killing him. floyd's death was caught on video, then viewed by millions sparking weeks of protests throughout the u.s. and really around the world against police brutality and the mistreatment of black people in america and demands for justice and change. nbc's yamiche alcindor has a look at the promises and reforms which came after george floyd's death, many of which remain unfilled. >> say his name! >> george floyd! >> four years ago across the country, protests erupted after
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millions watched video showing the murder of george floyd. in the aftermath, widespread calls for a national reckoning on racism and police violence. for floyd's brother, the outcry for justice was touching. >> so many people, they felt the same pain all across the world. >> reporter: but since then, some of those efforts for change including the federal george floyd justice in policing act have stalled or been reversed. >> what is making you emotional as you think of this? >> it's different. it's really like you don't have the understanding of how you can sit there and witness that somebody murdered your brother and four years later there still hasn't been any change. like what is it going to take? >> reporter: in recent years, many red states and some blue states and d.c. passed tough on crime policies. when it comes to the new measures, critics say florida is ground zero. >> we want to have florida be a
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law and order state. we don't want abusive law and order, but we want moral law and order. >> reporter: since 2020, republican governor ron desantis has signed several bills into law, among them a law that may curtail protests and laws that limit the power of police civil yan review boards and mandate that anyone filming first responders stay 25 feet away. alex rizzo sponsored the so-called halo bill. >> some critics of the bill you've sponsored say that it's an unfair backlash to the filming of the death of george floyd. if that bill were in minnesota, we might not have seen the murder of george floyd on film. what do you make of that? >> i don't agree. you can still film. what this does is allow for a safe space for the first responder to go ahead and perform their duty. >> reporter: the debate flared many march when miami police shot donald armstrong after his mother called to get him health
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during a mental health crisis. his lawyer says he was hold ago small conductor baton. armstrong is paralyzed and in jail. his attorney plans to file a civil suit against the city but says he wants to resolve the misdemeanor probation charge quickly so armstrong can get help. preston baldwin filmed the shooting on his cell phone from roughly 100 feet away. >> it was heavy because it was like, dude, that really could be me. like i could be this guy. it could be you. it could be your friend, your cousin. >> for philonise floyd and his wife, it was their family. >> it seems like now everybody's trying to sweep it under the rug. they're not as angry as they used to be, but we are. we lost george. >> i'm going to continue to turn my pain into purpose, and this bill needs to be passed because my brother's blood is all on this bill. >> it's so striking, yamiche alcindor joining us now, washington correspondent. yamiche, sheila jackson lee, the
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congresswoman from texas has introduced a bill, the george floyd policing act. what chances does that have in the republican house? >> i would say there are really no chance for that bill to pass right now in the republican-controlled house, and it's still going to be hard even if republicans lose control of the house because i think there's still a lot of negotiation that needs to happen. philonise as you saw him get emotional during that interview, he is determined to keep fighting. he's had death threats. he's had to move multiple times. he showed me messages of people sending him the n word over and over again. he also told me that george's daughter, who is now growing up without a father, that he's worried that she's going to one day grow up and really understand exactly how her father died, so they're really determined to continue to do this. you know, it's the memory of his brother that's keeping him pushing. >> it's just inspirational, but they've backtracked so, cory booker was leading with tim scott, and that fell apart in the senate. there was legislation. >> there was legislation, there
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were negotiations, but part of it was this issue of qualified immunity and whether or not that was something that officers were going to be giving up. so there was a lot of back and forth, and philonise talked about that, he said he met with lawmakers personally and he was very disappointed in the room, they would sound like they were going to back the bill, but when they left, they didn't do that. he said politics it felt like was all a game. he's very worried and very angry at that. >> yamiche alcindor, thank you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show on social media @mitchell reports. have a safe memorial day and remember our veterans. you can rewatch the best parts of our show on youtube. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. ♪♪ good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. just minutes ago we got our first update from hunter biden's hearing ahead of his trial