that doesn't for the weekend. we will see you next saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern. i can say that. be sure to follow the show on social media at the weekend. somebody said something funny. don't forget on tuesday, beginning at 10:00 eastern, tune in to msnbc for special coverage of closing arguments in trumps new york criminal trial. but velshi with charles coleman starting right now. take it away, charles. >> how is it going? great show today. michael steele, i am with you on the three-piece , on the sunday. we are doing our sunday best. i appreciate it. you are looking great, my friends. >> i feel like -- this is what

they want. you going to talk about me and alecia's outfit? >> alecia splash looks amazing today. >> i had to beg for it. it doesn't count, charles. >> we don't want these little afterthought complements. you came here for the chairman, you got it. we will let you have it. >> you are fired up about the supreme court, i can tell. i saw the discussion and i can tell how fired up you were. now i'm catching the energy that the senate should be catching about not putting ethical constraints on the chief justices and everyone else. so i will take that. i will take that on behalf of the country. >> that is what you call a pivot. >> keep your pivot. have a good charles -- good show , charles and happy memorial day for folks, who we are commemorating their service. put that in your cookie and crumble it. >> things, guys.

velshi starts now. good morning, it is sunday, may 26 and you are watching velshi on msnbc. i'm charles coleman jr. filling in for my friend and colleague ali velshi and we have a lot to talk about. it is not just talk to say that there is a very big week coming up. donald trump had a relatively light court schedule this week but that was just the calm before the storm. and about 48 hours from now, is going to get real. closing arguments will begin in the first-ever criminal trial of a former united states president. and after 20 days in court, that future more than 80 hours of testimony from a total of 22 different witnesses, a jury will deliberate whether the former president should be convicted of a crime. it is simply something that has never happened before and trump could face more trials in the

future to come, and that is if he doesn't want a second term in the white house and shut down the remaining prosecutions against him. but this is all happening as questions continue to swirl about where things stand with his three other criminal cases. right now, none of them, none of them not a single one, has a trial date scheduled on the calendar. that is partially because of how successful and effective the former president's delay tactics have been. for example in his federal election case in d.c., that remains indefinitely postponed because it is pause until the supreme court issues its decision regarding trumps claims of presidential immunity. interesting in that decision has grown higher for obvious reasons. the scandal over the supreme court and supreme court justice samuel alito and his apparent political bias has been met with more calls for his recusal on this and other trump related cases. however justice alito has given us no indication as to whether

he would actually recuse himself. regardless, even if that decision came out today, it is uncertain whether trumps case could go to trial by november. that likely means hush money trial taking place in new york will be the only one that donald trump will face before this year's very important election. joining me now, is molly john fast, special for comment -- correspondent of vanity fair and msnbc political analyst as well as dr. jason stanley, professor of velocity at yale and the and co-author of the book the politics of language. good morning to you both. happy sunday, happy memorial day weekend. molly, before we drive -- dive into the trial, let talk about trumps mind-set. he's in a very different place right now than we have ever's in him. he also probably has a brief ego because last night, he was mercilessly booed at the libertarian convection in washington, d.c.. what were

your thoughts on that appearance and how it may have impacted him? >> he definitely is not a person who likes to be booed. that was such an interesting clip that i watched modes -- most of the speech and cannot get ahead of the fact he was being booed by the screw. other speakers talked about how, the guy is, a lot of these libertarians have actual -- not my values but they have values and they value a certain kind of lack of government intervention. trump is all about a kind of crony capitalism, which is very much about putting your finger on the scale and making some companies do well and other companies do poorly. and that is really the opposite of libertarianism. >> jason, i want to look at donald trump social media activity and look at this timeline. he has been extremely active, particularly this weekend on truth social and sort of ramping up his rhetoric saying

things like 2024 is our final battle. or joe biden's radical left democratic party is a fascist movement. this is not new for donald trump necessarily, but it does seem to have with it, a level of urgency that we haven't seen before. this is only may. we are going into june. we haven't even had the respective conventions for each political party. what does that tell you about the headspace that donald trump is in and what we can expect going forward. >> will obviously he views himself as a victim and is very resentful of the treatment he has received. so he is and bring up the rhetoric because of , i believe, his own emotional makeup and that is kind of dangerous because the rhetoric we are seeing justifies political violence. and this kind of complete normalization of this rhetoric,

the vilification of the opponent, is, and vilification of the opponent in ways familiar from the past, to label all democrats, all the entire opposition, communist and marxist. this is familiar from authoritarian regimes and it is a way to take essentially emergency action against him. >> so molly, i really appreciate the big picture that jason laid out, but i want to talk to you specifically, in another big picture manner around the electorate. we talked about the fact he was at this libertarian convention and it did not go well for him. do you think that is a signal that somehow there may be a shift in the electorate, against donald trump? granted, he still presumptive nominee for the republican party but as it pertains to the

rest of the electorate or even persuadable voters, do you see what happens last night as a potential sign about some degree of change? >> so this is the sort of $10 million question, is well the electorate shift and one of the reasons we see these polls that are not great for biden is because pollsters are trying to pull this 2016 electorate, which was the hidden trump voter. these are voters who didn't vote in elections, historically. but somehow came out for trump. the question is, will the voters come out for trump? they did in 2020 but have never come out in midyear election so they really are expressly trump voters and even if you look at them a little bit, closer and look at the -- a lot of the voters will vote for down ticket democrats, but vote for trump so there's a lot to sort of unpack. the question again, is trump is still, you look at these republican primaries, nikki

haley is getting 10, 20, 30% of the vote. so are they voting for a zombie candidates, because they want to express their displeasure with trump, or are they voting for a zombie candidate because -- i think that is the big question. there are definitely cracks and it is a fragile coalition. remember when trump was president for four years he never once tried to grow the electorate which is historically unusual to have a president that doesn't want to expand his base at all. and so the answer is, none of us really know, but i think there are real opportunities for democrats here. that a lot of the voters are actually persuadable voters. >> you talked about what many referred to as the silent majority, that donald trump was counting on in 2020 and sort of predicted or somehow knew existed. that weren't being pulled, that weren't being counted. i think right now molly, there's a lot of concern about what the polling numbers say.

if you are the campaign, whether the biden campaign or the trump campaign, you are handling that one way, but if you are someone who is a citizen, who every other day seems like is reading a different poll, how much stock should you take in that concerning where things stand right now, understanding that we still have a whole summer to go and anything can happen before november. >> we have a summer and i fall and i was a if you are sitting here watching, cable news and freaking out, there are incredible opportunities with down ticket candidates. people like amanda, who does run for something. all sorts of organizations will help you. the thing that has happened is republicans have run from the down ticket ballots. they have run for school boards and run for state houses, and there are opportunities for democrats who are worried about

the top of the ticket, to get involved in the bottom of the ticket. what we have seen is that they are wildly close and when democrats come out, they win. and we saw this even with the wisconsin judge and with abortion rights in ohio. when voters vote, they win and so i do think there are a number of opportunities for democrats who are worried, and everything from the dogcatcher to the school board. they are elected positions you've never heard of and democrats haven't done for them because they are in red states and if you run for a seat, it helps the top of the ticket. >> jason, molly said i asked the $10 million question and while i appreciate her being kind, i think that the $10 million question is, how is it or what would it take, if anything, to shift some of machination away from donald trump? even if they want to stay to the right, we have seen

impeachments, we have seen investigations, we have seen indictments, we have seen a trial. we have seen the reversal of roe v. wade and the dissolution of women's rights with respect to agency over their own bodies, and yet and still, there is a constituency in large part, in many cases dealing with women who are unmoved as far as donald trump, even after he has been found liable for sexual assault, for example. what is it going to take, or the question is, why is his hold so strong on his loyal and faithful accolades? >> i think there are multiple fact is here. one factor, and i am's empathetic to the spec or, is that american politics has involved a lot of corruption and self-dealing that is allowed by the laws. but a lot of american people are still seeing it.

a lot of american presidents leave office, worth $100 million or more. with $500,000 speaking fees or whatever. and donald trump is saying look, this problem, he's making it explicit. so he saying, why don't we do the corruption explicitly and of course that is a terrible way to deal with these problems. what we need to do, is we need to admit that there has been two -- too much self-dealing in politics. the democrats have to say, crony capitalism is not the solution. we have to get better at dealing with it. and then the patriarchy, as you mentioned, which is always popular unfortunately. >> unfortunately indeed.

molly jong-fast and dr. jason stanley, thank you both for getting us started the sunday morning. in an unusual move, the presumptive gop nominee for president kicked off his memorial day weekend by speaking at the libertarian party's convention. we will talk about what trump had to say, and more on how it could impact the election. a major ruling this week from the supreme court, that will have a generational impact on the voting power of minorities across the country. and alabama library board took up book banning, blocking kids from checking out titles even with parental permission. i'm charles coleman jr. and you are watching velshi on msnbc. is smart here, right? feel more confident with stock ratings from j.p. morgan analysts in the chase app. when you've got a decision to make... the answer is j.p. morgan wealth management. we thought we climbed every mountain, and then... ll cool j.

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donald trump is used to playing to a crowd unless he's in the courtroom. the former president thrives in the presence of adoring fans, maca merchandise, hyping him up after each and every word. but this wasn't the case last night. and is pension for the unprecedented, donald trump, presumptive nominee of the republican party gave a speech at the libertarian party's convention, taking place in washington, d.c. and suggested that they nominate him, too. >> the libertarian party should nominate a trump for president of the united states. that's nice. only if you want to win. only if you want to win. maybe you don't want to win. maybe you don't want to win. thank you. only do that if you

want to win. if you want to lose, don't do that. keep getting 3% every four years. >> a tough crowd. joining me now is nbc news capital correspondent julie sirkin. trump is not used to that sort of reaction. what was he trying to achieve last night by going to the libertarian convention and do you think that it was accomplished? >> charles, it is funny you asked the question that way because it is the ugly how the former president opened up his beach. i was in the room before he even took the stand, the stage. i spoke with libertarian party members, to organize this. they all believe in free speech. the amendment to the constitution is important to them but some of them really didn't want to hear from him at all. they disagreed with what he did during his presidency,

especially his handling of the covid pandemic, of adding to the deficit. these are people who want limited government. they don't think trump follows those protocols at all. i posed the question to one organizer, if she would ever consider voting for either trump, depending on what he said that night or biden, any of the major parties. take a listen to what she told me pat -- told me. are you committed to voting for the libertarian party no matter what or could you potentially be swayed by what he has to say? >> i would rather eat my own foot out of a bear trap. i only vote for terry in. -- libertarian. >> that is a crowd trump walked into last night and it was evident when he told them, support me, endorsed me. if you don't endorse me, vote for me. that was the wrong direction to get this crowd. other members i spoke to told me they hope to to hear trump be apologetic for the things he did wrong during his

presidency. they didn't expect that but they wanted some humility from him and those are traits the former president doesn't really portray when it comes to public speeches. so certainly not a warm reception for the former president, something he's very used to at his normal rallies. >> i guess that i am struggling. if the bear trap -- nevermind. that was nbc's julie sirkin. thank you so much. have a great day. why the president of the naacp legal defense fund says the supreme court just green let racial discrimination. i'm charles coleman jr. and there's more velshi after a quick break. ick break. r bac? it's fineeeeeeee! [splash] before advil: advil dual action fights pain two ways. advil targets pain at the source, acetaminophen blocks pain signals. advil dual action. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day

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this thursday, the supreme court cleared the way for south carolina to continue using a congressional map that was already deemed an unconstitutional racial

gerrymander by the local court. in a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines the supreme court super majority of conservatives said the civil rights groups that bought this case did not have enough to show republican state legislators were motivated by race rather than partisan concerns when they moved thousands of black voters out of south carolina's first congressional district. this decision will not have a direct impact on the 2024 election because italy and the ruling meant the map that was in question was already going to be used in this year's election. but this ruling that came down on thursday, is going to have consequences beyond south carolina and way beyond this year or this election. it is going to make future efforts much harder for minority groups to bring cases that allege that they are being siphoned out of voting district by making it much easier for those to dilute their power, to make that happen. these challenges about maps on

the basis of racial discrimination are going to continue. this ruling has significant implications for paying that if the mapmakers can claim that they were focusing on politics and not on race, the map itself can't stand. of course and estate by -- like south carolina where black voters vote for democrats, it is almost impossible to separate raise from political party. in a scathing dissent, justice elena kagan wrote, what a message to send to legislators that mapmakers about racial gerrymandering the reasons i have address, those actors will often have an incentive to use race as a proxy to achieve partisan ends. and occasionally they may not -- might want to suppress electoral influence of minority voters. this court says to state today. joining me now is associate director counsel for the legal defense fund, which is one of

the groups that tried the case. she's also a former federal prosecutor in the civil rights division of the department of justice. thank you for being here. can you just explain, for all of us, what does this mean, exactly, for the future of black voting power in america? >> first, thank you so much for having me charles. it is a pleasure to be with you this morning. listen, today and last week, the supreme court ruled against black voters and denied them the chance to have fair maps in the 2024 election. this is meaningful because they really turned on its head, as the dissent said, the standard applied for bringing racial discrimination claims when it comes to a racial gerrymander. and that is significant because it makes it so much harder for plaintiffs to make out the case. >> i get to take my glasses off and here's the thing, i take my

glasses off when i talked to a lawyer. now i want to ask you to help me square the following factors. we are talking about trying to untethered the notion of race from partisan politics but at the same time we know at least in presidential elections, black people generally vote for democrats in upwards of 85 to 90%. so is it even possible or plausible to do that, and is that an argument that those plaintiffs could have made in terms of saying look, you can't untethered these things from one another and how does it play out spoke what i say first is it is absolutely not impossible. the facts, the experts and supreme court precedent told us that you can disentangle party from race. in this case, it is specific. we presented expert testimony that did exactly that, that showed that race and not party predominated. in this instance, black democratic voters were treated differently than white

democratic voters. as you explained before, about 62% of charlton county's black population, which is roughly 30,000 voters were bleached out of district 1 and moved into district 6. there was already a primarily black majority district. the constitution says you can't sort people by race without a compelling and justifiable reason and partisan ends is not one of those. but this supreme court case makes it so much more difficult, to make out the allegation at this time. >> the president of the legal defense fund talked about the fact that this essentially was going to open the floodgates for additional measures, for different mapmakers across the country, to dilute the voters, who are black, in certain districts and minority in a certain district. when the sort of ruling comes down, and you see this expanding, what's direction,

what are the marching orders for people who want to fight against this, because we are like going to see it pop up in other places and, what sort of guidance does this opinion give us around how to bring cases into court, to try to fight this? >> sure. i want to flag charles, what is troubling is this suppression tactic is not new. in south carolina, voters have turned to the courts in every redistricting cycle since congress enacted the civil- rights act and the voting rights act of 1965 to address these types of claims. one thing that was troubling about the majority's analysis of this case is that they gave quite in deference to the so- called good faith of lawmakers and that flies in the face of what history has taught us about race discrimination in south carolina when it comes to access to and exercise of their franchise. and the same could be said of other states across the south. brinkley what i've got to say is that black voters have to

have their voices heard and their votes counted equally. so because this decision opens the door for even wider discrimination based on race when it comes to redistricting, we have to now turn to other tools in our toolbox to address this. and that means we've got to turn to congress. congress has got to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act so we can prevent this type of racial gerrymandering and the district thing in the first place. >> attorney tona boyd thank you for your time and your work . after the break, we were going to have imported breaking news out of the middle east regarding the israel/gaza war. much to talk about. i'm charles coleman jr. and this is velshi. stay tuned. tuned.

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turning to breaking news out of the middle east, where hamas says it has launched what it is calling a missile barrage at tel aviv. as you can hear, the military sounded sirens in tel aviv for the first time in months and nbc producer on the ground with this at least two rockets being intercepted by israel's iron don't defense -- dome defense

system. meghan fitzgerald, what more can you tell us about what is going on? i think we're waiting for her to get up. we are going to keep you updated on the situation as information comes in. up next, parents and community members taking up the fight against a local library board that restricted access to crucial books, from kids. we will talk to two of them after this short break. hort break. when enamel is gone, you cannot get it back. but you can repair it with pronamel repair. it penetrates deep into the tooth to actively repair acid weakened enamel. i recommend pronamel repair. with new pronamel repair mouthwash you can enhance that repair beyond brushing. they work great together. you know what's brilliant?

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welcome back to velshi. we've been able to get back nbc's meghan fitzgerald. what can you tell us about the barrage of missiles fired at tel aviv this morning? >> reporter: it is good to be with you. we know according to the idf, eight missiles were launched from rafah to israel's territory. we understand the iron dome was able to intercept a number of

those missiles. at this point no reports of casualties. what we do know that a few people were injured, like the injured, the idf said they were trying to make their way into a shelter. but the sirens you are hearing is the first time israel has had to sound those sirens in four months. now hamas is taking responsibility for the attack saying it was bombing the city, with a large missile barrage in response to what it called the zionist massacre against civilians. incredibly significant. it shows that nearly eight months into this war, hamas still has, they have the capability of launching missiles into israel. of course, this comes just a two days after the international court of justice, u.s. highest court ordered israel to immediately halt its offensive and rafah. israel has not shown any signs that they are going to abide by that order, which is binding. but the international court of justice has no way of enforcing

this. and also, we saw cia director bill burns yesterday in paris meeting with the prime minister of decatur, ahead of the -- the mission was to revive negotiations around securing the release of hostages, of getting to a point they can have cease-fire. according to a senior u.s. official telling nbc news, there was progress made. will this recent attack impact the progress, that certainly is something that is yet to be seen but something we will pay close attention to. >> nbc's meghan fitzgerald, thank you so much. we will continue to watch the story and bring everything we know throughout the day. bringing your attention now to ongoing issues that our velshi reviewers know all too well. moyle day, the unofficial start of summer. of course that is going to mean there are blockbusters to see in theaters and all sorts of movies. me tell you about a plot of a

new release that will hit theaters soon. and ultraconservative group infiltrates a local group or library board and uses newly minted powers to ban books, limiting visibility of folks, to threaten education and push censorship. all jokes aside, i wish it was some sort of film where the hero prevails and saves humanity from this nightmare of an attack on free speech. unfortunately it is a very real narrative we are all too familiar with right here on velshi. this time it is happening to a public library board of trustees in the town of prattville, alabama. back in february the library board in cahoots with an attorney from the ultraconservative group called cleanup alabama passed new rules on what can be displayed in the libraries children section. the so-called selection criteria policy lacks the library from acquiring or displaying any material for children under the age of 17

that includes obscenities, sexual content, intercourse, orientation as well as gender identity and gender discordance. this makes no distinction between what a 6-year-old or 16- year-old gendry. it also forbids minors from checking these things out from the adult section, even with parental approval. so even if a parent decides the choice is appropriate for the kids, the act of approval is forbidden. board members handcrafted a list of 113 books to be removed from the under 17 section. 95 of those books contain lgbtq+ content, 58 of those books were flagged solely for lgbtq+ content. and several books did not meet any of the board criteria but were seemingly on the list at the request of the group, cleanup alabama. prattville parents and community members are suing the

library board alleging the new selection criteria filed the first amendment. the complaint, calls for the new rules -- calls the rules quote, vague and overbroad. it highlights egregious examples of what these book bans can do. one point is a mother named samantha diamond was looking to check out books for homeschooling her children. she found two of the books, what was stonewall and what was the aids crisis were removed from the library's counter. that is not obscenity. is not fictional sex scenes. it is history and now unavailable at a public library. and op-ed, the alabama clinical reporter plaintiff's right quote, despite the expansive nature of the rules, the board's intent is clear. the board is to attempting to rid our libraries of books discussing diverse characters or themes with a particular ire for lgbtq+ streamlines. as alabamians, and library patrons, the best way we dare

defend our rights as our state model calls for, is by challenging these unconstitutional laws in court and we will never stop fighting because censorship is not an alabama value. joining me now are two parents and plaintiffs who filed lawsuit against the plattville public library, matthew lane, whose president of alabama library association and angie hayden, founding member of read freely alabama. matthew, thank you for being here. take us back to the moment you decided to take action against the library board. talk to me about your personal connection to what we are seeing happening in prattville. >> to clarify, i am -- alabama library association. i passed the torch on about a month ago. at this began, as soon as i was sworn in as president of the library association. things were already blowing up and in prattville, all this

past year we have been dealing with challenge after challenge. then in february, when this new board past the policies, we knew that we had to do something. so that became the time for us, instead of being reactive, to take action and challenge what was happening in prattville. because it is our feeling as library and, that -- librarians , that parents have the right to choose for their children what is the right material for them to read as a family. so this group of extremists have decided that their narrow view of what is acceptable should be acceptable for everyone. and we are arguing that everyone should get to pick their own books. >> angie, one of the things i

wonder about, is how much warning did you all see in terms of this movement, getting to the place it is. 's counter movement to remove books, was it something that you saw incrementally in terms of steps that were taken, in the moments you built or did he catch you all by surprise in terms of how much momentum it immediately took, with respect to getting books off of the shelves lacks >> no, i think we certainly expected it. we can kind of see the writing on the wall from the beginning unfortunately and really spent the entire year trying to keep it from getting to this point. and as soon as the new board was put into place, they had these policies ready to go. as soon as we saw them, we knew that it was time for the courts to step in and preserve the rights of alabama families. >> and what advice do you have

for people who are in districts across the country, who made themselves, as he put it, seeing the writings on the wall in terms of their libraries being under siege from people who want to suggest what people and teenagers can and cannot read. if you are a parent in a district like that and watching this, what advice do you give them about how to prepare for this? >> the most important thing is to show up. former relationship with librarians because the year has been incredibly difficult for them. and show up to your library board meetings because the extremists certainly are showing up in numbers. and show up to your city council meetings. start forming connections with people. and try to get ahead of it as much as you can, because there is certainly a lot of misinformation that these groups spread. and the fear and anger that they depend on, it really counts on that this information. so the more involved, rational

parents are, i think the better it is for the entire system, and i think it can head off a lot of the problem. >> matthew, there is an article you wrote where you talked about the fact that even as you are suing the school board, you made it clear that most of you come from different walks of life. you have different opinions, different perspectives. and that is fine. how do you make that point to people, whom ideological may disagree with you, that there should be access to these sorts of materials, even as you may be someone who has a problem, so to speak, with what the material actually is >> right, there is an adage that any good library is going to have something to offend everyone. so by no means does a librarian adhere to every concept in each

book that is in the library. we are there there to get the right brick and in the right patron's hands. when you come in, if you were to come to my library and say that, i want to get something for my child, i don't want it to have anything to do with magic or witchcraft, i'm not going to give you harry potter. we go through reference interview to define the exact type of book that you want for your family. and the idea that one other person can choose for another individual what they should read, is absurd. it is unacceptable, and we will take this fight as far as we have to, to defend the rights of alabama and, to read what they choose to read. >> one of the things about this that i find fascinating is that the conversation about parental choice in education is one that has very strong roots in the south, and you are talking about alabama, angie, where now even for parents who have made

the case, as to choosing to homeschool their children, or choosing to decide what books they want their kids to read, that choice is being stripped away from them. how do you reconcile the argument in favor of parental choice, and what parents should have the option to do, with this sort of movement in the midst of the overall conversation plat >> it is kind of ironic because alabama is such an individual rights kind of state. small government is often the i. and what we have discovered is that a lot of people only mean that when it applies to viewpoints they agree with. as matt was saying, there should be something in the library for everyone, for every type of family and by default that means that there probably will be something that is not for you and your family and the beauty of the system is that everyone has the right to pick up what they want and put down what they do not want. in fact, that is the kind of

freedom that we are supposed to have in public spaces, that i think is important for us to defend. >> matthew, we have seen the fight before and i lead in with the motion -- notion of a movie. it happened in florida where we saw books like shakespeare's romeo and juliet removed from shelves or come under fire and now we see books like harper lee's to kill him arkenberg -- to kill him arkenberg come under fire. is there room for further definition of what should or should not qualify that would potentially create a compromise, or is there a fight where folks that dug in and it is all or nothing quite -- nothing? >> when i read the policy that the library word of trustees came up with, it is some of the worst written policy, i really thought it was completely absurd. what -- know books should be on

the shelf that mentions a boy or girl, any book that has a mom and a dad. they are trying to say, gay without saying gay. that is the long and short of it. but what they have done is written a policy so incredibly broad that no children's book while if ice to be on the shelves of the prattville library. as far as compromise on the policy, if they rewrite it, but as it is written, it is just, it really needs to be thrown in the trash and the need to consult real librarians. in writing their next attempt at a policy. >> i may not like what you choose to read, but i respect your right to read it. matthew lane and angie hating, think you both. another hour of velshi will get started after a quick break. i'm charles coleman jr. don't

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