good evening. i'm van jones. welcome to the van jones show. what a week a bunch of craziness going on. ramping up the tariff stuff, trade wars. we got concerned about the safety of the elections. we'll get to the crazy stuff. but first i want to tell you i'm so glad you tuned in today, tonight one of the show's missions is to keep you attuned to the heartbeat of the country. under all the chaos and non-sense. what do every day americans want? and tonight you get answers. for starters you hear directly from a family of trump voters in ohio who may finally be souring

on the commander in chief. but why? you'll find out. also we're taking you into the minds of two major voting blocks. black voters and rural voters. what do any really want? can they come together can kmkts unite them we don't know we find out. plus wisdom from a modern day saint who goes into american prisons defending people who are condemned to die. what can brian stephance teach us about what's right and wrong in america today? tonight i promise you you will be informed, inspired. but first let me depress you, okay. let's talk about the past week. possible mueller maid rare public compensates and confirmed that russia is indeed attacking our democracy. he reiterated that his investigation did not exonerate the president of any crime. and he said that charging the president was not something his office could pursue anyway and put the ball in the hands of congress to do something about it. in other words, the moment of reckoning is upon us.

america now faces a complex threat externally and internally with no easy answers. congress can either drag us into a national, bitter impeachment fight, divide us, weaken us in the short-term or congress can ignore trump's obvious misdeeds? i mean the guy cooperated with the investigation but he also tried to undermine it. if congress does nothing that sets a precedent that the u.s. president is above the law and that could weaken us as a country in the longtime. there is no easy answers here. but i have some observations. some democrats are afraid that impeaching trump could back fire politically. they say the republicans paid a heavy price for impeaching bill clinton. that's not true. okay. just two years later the gop was in control of the house and the senate and the white house. okay? so that doesn't make a lot of sense. at the same time, pro impeachment democrats should be careful. the republican media is telling half the country a completely

different narrative about what's going on. and it would take a herkle even effort to tell the country about impeachment and the republican held senate won't remove trump. meanwhile trump is out there saying he is a victim and martyr and being ounded that could play to his base. it's a tough choice. i don't know the right thing. i know this my fear is that the real danger is ignored in the middle of all of this. in 18 months we got an election. and the russians can undermine our democracy again. the one person who most loves this whole spectacle is the one person we talk about the least, vladimir putin. all in division and distrust accelerates his plans to weaken us from within. so even as we debate the fate of the president, pelosi and the republicans should come together to convene a parallel set of bipartisan hearings to defend our democracy from a foreign threat. all americans should be united

on at least one principle, that american elections should be decided by americans. and if we can't come together on that, something is really really wrong. and let's face it, we are still reeling from the last election. speaking of the last election, 2016, i spent a lot of time trying to understand the messy truth behind donald trump's victory. you might remember i talked to an ohio family that had voted for obama twice and then voted for donald trump. the psychs family. you mate remember them. two and a half years later i went back to the same house and talked to the same family. i think you might be surprised what they have to say about donald trump today. take a look. >> all right. well i'm back here in trumbull county, ohio. right after the trump election i visited with the seitz family, they had been loyal democrats years and years but voted in 2016 for donald trump.

they were getting hammered out here economically. i want to go back and talk to the family to see how they are feeling. >> hey, buddy. >> how you doing. >> i'm back. >> good to see. >> you come on in. >> the last time i was here it was right after the trump election. >> trump seemed to come through here and he is speaking change again. we're always wanting something more, something better. and we're hoping he does that. >> are you as hopeful today as you were the last time i saw you. >> well, van, to be honest with you things have gotten a bit worse. the company i work at arconic. titanium we build the f-35 fighter jet and we're 11 months without a contract. lordstown general motors lost had thousand employees. we're about 5,000 jobs down since trump took office here locally. >> that's hard to imagine because he is out there saying he has been a miracle for this economy. wall street is happy, the stock

market is happy. what's the disconnect. >> i think he sold us on broken promises in this area. i think he sold us on promises he knew he couldn't keep. i don't believe he understands the devastation in this area. a lot of families are moving away from this area. and where trump told us don't go, don't pack up don't leave this is all going to stay here and work out, well where is it at? like what's happening? just going downhill from here. >> the bleeding has not stopped basically. you were bleeding. >> we're still bleeding. >> still bleeding. >> we're not that realistic the steel mills are coming back and flourish in in area. it's not happening. but thing need to replace what they are taking away. >> mark wanning, a good friend of mine. a car enthusiast getting a job at general motors was his dream job. up to the lose the job or take a transfer to another location. it took him away from his

family. >> that's too hard. he ended up taking his own life through depression and whatnot. ended up committing suicide. we need some real help in this area. >> you know, the trump tax bill was touted as something that was going to help the economy a great deal. a lot of people said that that trump tax bill helped rich folks more than working people. what is your view of the trump tax bill? >> well, we spend in taxes this year, $3,400 we had to pay in this year. and my actual paycheck was $2.46 more each week. >> you used to get a refund now you pay in. >> yeah we used to get a refund. >> you did not get a refund this year? >> no we ended up paying in more this year than we did any other year. >> health care costs. he said everybody is going to have the best doctors, everything is going to be great. he said it's going to be easy. >> van, you know i helped my mother out every chance i get.

and i moved her home from arizona so i can help her and be closer to to her. six or seven years when obama institutionalized obamacare, of course her prices went up a little bit. and we were a little upset about that. but you know what happened since then? they doubled. she is barrel making it. things we thought were getting better have gotten worse under trump. >> democratic party had you guys, had you since 1972, since before you guys were born, had had you and lost you? what do democrats need to do to get you guys back on in side of the fence? >> it wouldn't take much to get us back, just one thing. jobs. that's it. come through here. >> come through here. >> and promise us jobs and actually produce them. >> there is a lot of candidates in the democratic party. i -- i'm anxious to hear all their sides.

joe biden was who i wanted to run last time and he did not run. and so he is in it. so -- but i want to see how -- he still needs to lay it out for me what he is planning on doing. >> i think me and my mother will disagree on this. i'm not a huge fan of joe biden. i think if bernie gets the nominee i think he would -- he could win. we need something that can stand for something. i think there is 23 democratic candidates right now. and a lot of their ideas are just take down donald trump. and i don't think that's going to do it. >> see, a lot of us here, van with old school democrats. we firmly believe that the democrat that is come thu here should represent the american blue collar worker. we're the ones that built the system. and i firmly believe that if they come through here and give us some hope we could certainly go back. >> some people might say when you say stick up for the blue collar worker they might see you're saying don't talk about the black community, don't talk about the gay community.

don't talk about knows communities. is that your view that those issues have crowded in too much. >> well, the democratic party has actually switched focus. instead of representing the american blue collar they're representing immigration. they're representing, you know, the gay community and whatnot. what they fail to understand is this when you're a union brother and sister, you're working with blacks every day. you're working with gays every day. you're working with women every day. and in this area we're all in this together. as true brothers and sisters together. >> i think there was a time when right after the election people who were critical of the trump voters, saying, you know, these guys -- they don't care about this group they don't care about that group or that group. he had the muslim ban, doing the family separation stuff.

does that move votes up here. >> we are so economically strapped here that that's all we really concern ourselves with. i know that sounds terrible. but it's the truth, van. and the basic thing that we talk about in all of our break meetings and lunch rooms and whatnot at work is what we are going to do here financially. it's not build the wall. it's not not build the wall. >> what about this impeachment stuff? some democrats say there is enough evidence he should be impeached. other people say let's move on to other topics. how does the whole impeachment bob mueller how is that playing up here. >> for what he has done here in trumbull county i'd like to kick his -- but i don't understand the process of the mueller report. they say they didn't find anything. some people say they did. we concentrate on jobs more than anything else so we don't get

into drama. >> who is opening for voting trump possibly. >> i'm open. i need to see what the other candidates offer. >> fool me once shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. and that's what i think about trump. >> we really thought trump was going to help us. and he hasn't. he's made it worse. he's not pulling through on his promises. he came here like the businessman that he is and the salesman that he is and sold us on things that he knew he wasn't going to be able to makeview true. and we fell for it. we need to get him back here in a positive way. and i want him at my plant. and i want him to walk through and see what's actually going on. because these are real life stories here. we got real life here in trumbull county.

[ applause ] >> president trump, 2020 democrats, you know, here is your chance. that's real wisdom, powerful, powerful invieth from real people who made the difference in the last election. now the presidential hopefuls today are making strong stands on a lot of hot button issues from abortion, impeachment, some are causing division inside the party. but what do voters want, real people want? we're getting incredible insight from grass roots leaders on the ground every day talking to very different kinds of primary voters. you are hearing from them when we get back. [ applause ] an incomplete jobept from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country.

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patients that i see about dry mouth. they feel that they have to drink a lot of water. medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. i like to recommend biotene. it replenishes the moisture in your mouth. biotene definitely works. [heartbeat] [ applause ] welcome back to the van jones show. we got abortion, immigration, tariffs, health care. we hear all the pundit it's and pollsters talking about this stuff. we want to get a better sense how this resonates with real people. we have two progressive community leaders spent years on the ground talking to regular folks. welcome to the van jones show a

alysha garza. a leader of black lives matter. currently a work for the domestic worker alliance. also patty judge, a former lieutenant governor of iowa and chairs the group focus on rural america. welcome to the van jones show. i grew up in rural america and i've been black my whole life. so i'm excited about this whole conversation. this is good for me. help me understand, you know we've been talking about the mueller investigation this week and impeachment that kind of stuff. with your constituencies how big a deal is the mueller report and that stuff? number one, number zero where are we on that. >> well it is not number one. as i travel in rural iowa, talk to people, very rarely if ever does a voter bring up the mueller report, possible impeachment, sorting and so on. that's not where in re heads are. they are really talking about jobs, economic opportunity. >> what about you alysha. >> similarly, i don't hear a lot

from black folks about the mueller report or what's happening in that realm of things. and what i do hear is that people are not excited necessarily about impeachment, that impeachment doesn't mean that trump is leaving the white house white house and so why expend that energy. >> should democrats drop it then? what do you think. >> i think congress has a duty to -- to investigate. they've also got to be able to walk and chew gum. they need to be doing business that's in front of them and looking at the real issue that is voters care about. >> you had the biggest survey of black voters ever, 31,000 black voters, all 50 states. i -- i didn't know there were black people in all 50 sfats. you found the black people in alaska. >> it's a lot. >> so what did you discover. what do you think the markets running for office need to know about black votersing a they go

to south carolina. >> here is what we found in the black census is the number one issue people cared about was wages too low to support a family. we saw that in the last clip. right. >> absolutely. >> the economic issues are pressing on people's spirits, dreams, hopes. the brother on the clip just now said, we need hope. and i think that that is exactly what people are looking for. and people have solutions for what that hope can look like if only politicians would ask. >> so economic stuff, i mean does in sound familiar to you. >> absolutely. clip you just ran, i see that over and over. people are working at two or three jobs to make a living for their families. they feel like they've been left behind. and i think i hear that -- you're saying the same thing about the black community. somehow this good times has missed part of us. >> i mean, so interesting because you guys are sitting here literally saying the same things about what's going on for

your various bases of support. i want to just play one clip that stood out for me though from my friend scott seitz and get your reaction. let's roll the clip. >> he has the muslim ban doing the family separation stuff. does that move votes up here? >> we are so economically strapped here that that's all we really concern ourselves with. and i know that's terrible. and it sounds terrible. but it's the truth, van. >> so -- so let's get into that. because if we're going to have a democratic coalition we need to kind of care about each other somewhat. but are we asking too much? how do you think about the empathy gap that sometimes gets exploited to split the party? >> i think the voters first care about that economic opportunity. and then if that's taken care of or if there is a solution then it's easier to think about and worry about the other issues, like the muslims, or lgbtq

rights, or women's rights. >> does it bug you to hear a white guy, union guy saying he doesn't care about these groups? or do you understand? >> i understand it. and i think that the strategy of the gop in particular has been to use groups like muslims, like immigrants, like gay people, like black people as the reason why people are not advancing economically. while i roe people are saying there is a hierarchy, the thing i care about the most is economic issues. what people do who want to distract you from the reason that the economy is not working for you is they try to point your attention towards the people that they are saying are taking what you should be having. so i think that what we've got to be mindful of is it that it's not so much that people don't care about what happens to groups that they may not identify with, it's that they're being told that those groups are to blame for them not being able

to have food on their table or make rent or pay the mortgage. >> right, right. >> or be able to take care of loved ones who might be sick or ailing. >> part of it we're pitted against each other maybe triktd. but there are differences now. >> of course. >> what about the issues like guns, issues like abortion? those are not economic issues where people are tricked. those are values based issues. what about abortion? >> well, that's -- that's a tough one, because that is one of the wedge issues that the republicans have used to get -- gain the stronghold in rural america that they have today. and maybe we'll never agree on the abortion issue. but if we agree on issues around economic opportunity, if we agree on issues around good schools and health care then it makes it much much easier for people to decide to vote exact. >> can you do that and get knows rural voters to feel good without making the black voters

feel left out? because you have black women who are the base of this party, the back bone of this party? can you deal with the rural folk and at the same time deal with your folk? ? let's get into it you guys are so nice. if everybody was like this we'd have 10 oh% of the vote. >> i think we're just clear that black people live in rural areas. you just said you grew up in a rural area. >> true. >> but we are arguing with the black census report we just put out is that what candidates do in the kban is any engage us symbolically and don't engage us around the substance of experiences. >> what does the substance look like. >> substance looks like talking to us about how you're going to deal with the health care issue in this country but looking at it from racialized lens, understanding that in communities throughout the south which are concentrated with black communities, that gop legislators are refusing federal dollars to panned programs like medicaid. what that means is that there are a whole swath of people who don't get access to affordable

health care. it's not just health care broadly that black folks in the south care about. black folks care about not being able to have access to things that other people have. i think what candidates in their campaigns sometimes try and do is any say well we're only talking about the things that we think can reach the most people. but the reality is the way that we live, we wear race on our backs every day. i can't take off the fact that i'm black. and i can't take off the fact that being black shapes my life outcomes. and so if you don't have solutions to talk about how you are going to remove the racialized barriers, to me accessing health care, to me accessing education, to me getting a job or make as much money as my sister who is working in the same place that i am but sme happens to be white, we're not going to be able to come together as a country, because i'm going to be making 20 cents less than you're making process. and you're making 20 cents less than the wyatt guy next to you. >> i want to ask two final questions. short answers.

the farmers are getting hit by the tariffs. >> oh, boy. >> is donald trump going to lose the farmer vote? or are the democrating going to blow it. >> it's a great big deal. this is a mess. and farm income is down about half since 2013. people are on the ropes. and we're in -- we're in a world of hurt. you know it. international trade is about relationships. and this president is -- seems to be unable to build -- build those relationship that is have to happen. >> there is an opening there. and then you. you didn't back hillary clinton because she voted for the 1994 clinton -- i voted for her. hold on. >> you voted her. >> in the general i didn't endorse her. >> you didn't endorse her. right. >> fair enough. is the clinton crime bill going to prevent folks like you from supporting joe biden? >> what's going to prevent people like me from supporting

joe bide isn't joe biden not telling the truth about the role that he played in the issues that impact mo my life. don't treat me like i don't understand history or you stood on things i know you stood upon things i cared about. we have to be clear that right now voters are increasingly cynical. cynical about the role of government, about the honesty of elected officials. this is an opportunity for us to get real so that we can reconcile what's going on in this can country. what's going to prevent me for -- or encourage me to vote for someone is somebody who can talk to me about the issues i care about from the way i'm experiencing them and somebody who can tell the truth if their mind has changed about their stance that is they may have taken 20 years ago? >> okay now. that's really good np patti and alysha thank you for being here. when we come back president trump is attacking joe biden for his role in the 1994 crime bill. i'm happy they're having the fight and we'll discuss the

impact of the legislation with one of america's greatest criminal justice champions when we get back. [ applause ] .

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it's a look what your wifi can do now store. a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. welcome back to the van jones show. you know president trump keeps going after democratic front runner joe biden. this week he tweeted anyone

associatewood the 1994 crime bill will not have a chance a at being elected. african-american also not vote for you. i on the other hand was responsible for criminal justice reform which had tremendous support and helped fix the bad 1994 bill. going on to say that was a dark period in american history but has sleepy joe apologized? no. now, look we got to talk about the non-sense in a second. i can say -- you might be surprised -- i was actually thrilled to see the two big heavyweights fighting over who is the best person on criminal justice reform. i've been working op criminal justice my entire adult life. for most of the time two two parties were working to prove who is you haver on crime. build more prisons lock more people up. now leaders from both parties feuding about who is a better advocate for criminal justice reform to have fewer people locked up? to me that's amazing. i hope the fight continues to 2020. and there is no better person to talk to about this than my next

guest, a lawyer who is dedicated his life to making america a more juft nation. arch bishop tutu calls him america's nelson mandela. he has saved dozens from the death penalty. michael b. jordan plays him in a movie next year. he is the subject of a hbo documentary called true justice out the end of june. i could go on and on. he is my mentor, friend, hero, please welcome to the van jones show brian stephenson. oh, man. it's just an honor to have you on the show. >> thank you. >> you know, let's just talk really briefly about that 1994 crime bill. how bad was it? what was the impact. >> yeah, well it was bad. there is no question about it that it subds subdiezed problems we have. but as you know crime justice policy is mostly controlled by states not congress. only 10% of the prison are in

federal prisons. what the crime bill did though was actually export federal dollars to states to do some bad things. our prison population went from 300,000 in the early 1970s to over 2 million because the crime bill subdiezed the construction of prisons. we were spending $6 billion in 19807. $807 billion last year. that change the landscape. because now we built the prisons states needed to fill them. and that problem made us the country with the highest rate of incarceration in the world. but they did other things. it expanded the death penalty. legislate myselfed mandatory seasoning when we started putting people in prison for life for drug possession. the horrific laws. it did some things that many people thought were good. it banned federal machine guns, automatic weapons. there was the violence against women act. but the price at a that was paid for those provisions was way too high. some of what the bill did was straight up mean. we ended education to people in prison. >> correct. >> here we have the highest

number of people in jails and prisons and said don't educate them we don't want to provide them training. don't want to provide them opportunities. we want to create conditions where they just suffer and come out angrier tan they went in. and the legacy of the about sil a devastating legacy for the country today. >> well, you know, i mean you were loud against the stuff the whole time do you feel encouraged when you see republicans and democrats now beginning to at least rethink the -- the unintended consequences some people predicted? >> yeah, i do have some hope. because it's worth pointing out this was a completely bipartisan effort. >> both parties. >> both parties were preaching what i call the politics of fear and anger. my own view view van is that fear and anger are the essential grenlts of injustice when we allow ourselves to be gofrped by fearen a anger we tolerate things we shouldn't. we allowed children to be superpredators and put thousands of kids in adult presentence investigationing, condemn to die in prison. we have 13 dates li states today with no minimum age of trying a child an adult.

i sometimes represent 9 yldss facing 40, 50 years prison sentencing. created through the mindset. i'm encouraged through the work of a lot of people we have made it safer, easier for people from both political parties to talk about criminal justice reform. but we're still in the early stages. and as you know, if he with don't articulate real goals if we don't start talking about reduces the prison population by half if we don't talk about eliminating excessive punishment we'll celebrate too early. that's highway see happening. the first step back was important. but it was called the first step because it's a first step. >> right. >> we haven't even made it to the 5yard line let alone gotten a touchdown. i don't think we appreciate that until we see the scale of the problem. one in three black male babies born in this country is expected to go to jail or prison during his lifetime. one in three. >> crazy. >> one in six latino boys that wasn't true in the 20th century when we were born. not the 19th century but it's trued to today. the worse i say is going in poor

communication and having honest conversations with 12-year-old boys and they expect to be in jail or prison by the time they're 21. they're not saying it because navy seen it on tv. any say it because it's happening in the communities. and we just failed. we said in the 90s -- this is what the crime bill did tao. people with drug addiction and dependency we said those people are criminals. we didn't have to say that. >> that's right. >> alcoholism we say a decease. if we see a alcoholic going to the bar we don't call the police. we should have said that people with addiction and dependency haves a health problem and we need a health care system to respond to that plm. and those are are the ideas that i hope elected leaders will start restoring to the conversation. because we need a health care intervention to deal with the kriez of addiction and dependency. we need to provide infrastructure for people coming out of jails or prisons. we do need to create hopeful strategies that reduce crime. and i still don't hear enough about that. >> part of the thing that's so amazing about you is you have

this deep level of empathy for people that most people run from. you run toward. i think you have a strategy for building more empathy. and you talk about proximity. >> yeah, well i do thing think one of the problems politicians make is they make policies from a distance. and i don't think we can understand problems until we get closer to people who are suffering. people who are excluded people marginalized people who are poor. when you get close to parts of the communities where people are struggling you hear things you can't hear from a distance. you see things you can't see from a distance. and that dynamic is what allows us to come up with solutions. if you come in with a slugs you're not hearing or listen. you got to get there and listen. most of the us were taught that if there are bad parts of the communities we should stay as far away from the bad part as possible. i think if you are an electsed official if you are somebody caring about justice you have to do the opt zbliet that's right. >> get closer to the people marginalized and struggling go into jails and prisons. i just think we have an

opportunity when we get proximate to hear and see things that change perspective. proximity has caught me basic things. i believe we are all more than the worse thing we've done. i believe that for every human being. if somebody tells a lie they're not just a liar. if they take something you're not just a thief. even if you kill somebody you're not just a kill are. and justice requires that we know the other things you are and you'll not get that until you spend time with people who have made terrible mistakes who are struggling for redemption who are the capacity to forgive and help other people and show remorse and that is the dynamic that i think we haven't captured in american politics or in american society. because everybody has to do that, right. you don't have to be just electsed politician. >> that's right. and you're in the a politician and you're doing it. we have so much more to talk with brian when we come back. he also wants us to overcome the legacy of racial inequality. and to do that he says we have to confront the history. he is doing that in an

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i am back with brian stephenance, the founder and executive director of equal justice initiative and helped to create the national memorial for peace and justice honoring more than 4,000 african-americans

lynched in the south. it's a powerful thing. oprah went there when it opened. and people were in tears. why did you do this? people say it's so 0 years ago. 150 years aigt. why do we need to talk about lynching and slavery today in 2019? >> yeah, well i went into law because i'm a product of brown versus board of education. i group in a community where black kids couldn't go to public schools. i started my education in a colored school. and lawyers came into the community and made them open up public schools. that's how i got to high school. that's how i got to college. that's how i got to law school. and i believed in the power of the law to protect disfavored groups. you know if we were trying to end life without parole for kids we couldn't do the political process. we need to write. and that's true for many people of color for voting. about 20 years ago i began to fear that we might not be able to win brown versus board of education today. i'm in the sure the court would do something disruptive on

behalf of disenfranchised or disempowered people. because they haven't actually evolved narratively with this history. and because of that i just decided we had to start talking honestly about the environment outside the court. i see the claims turn backs on claims of racial indifference to people innocent or wrongly convicted it's almost as if they don't care about people who are poor, black, brown. that history of not caring is the history that we have inherited. and for me we have to change that. i don't think we really are free in this country. i think we are burdened by a history of racial inequality that created smog in the air. doesn't the do much to limit conflict or division. it's exploited by politicians as you pointed out. i think we have to change that. i think it means we have to talk about things we have never really talked about. because they continue to weigh us down. there is a presumption of dangerousness and guilt that gets assigned to black and brown people that manifests in the

disproportionate consequences in the criminal justice system. and to get to that we're going to have to go back and talk about now this narrative of racial difference, how this ideology that black people aren't as good as white people, that brown people aren't as god as whieite people some people with better than other people because of color evolved. and then we have to confront it. >> you know a lot of people would just say, look, i don't feel that way. you know, i got friends that are black. i got friends that are -- you know, and they mean it. and they're going to say you're picking at old scabs, picking at old wounds. if we stop talking about all the bad stuff just move on be better what do you say to them? >> i say that they're not scabbed. we haven't gotten got a scab. it's an open bound and bledding and create -- listen i live in montgomery, alabama. and alabama confederate memoryual day is a state holiday. jefferson davis's birthday is a state holiday. we don't have martin luther king day in alabama.

weather watcher monitor luther king roblt e lee. the two largest hiesz rsz robert e leeann jefferson david. we live mid-19th century in this country. there are thousand of kfrt memorial across the south. we should stop talking about that doesn't make sense if you grow up and you're black and go to robert e. lee high or jefferson dafsz when i moved to montgomery you couldn't find the word slave or slavery anywhere in the city. we we were talking about history all the time. we haven't talked the history of native genocide and when did to native americans when europeans came. we haven't talked about slavery. and the narrative we haven't confronted. and because we haven't we see the horrific disparities. i just think we are not being honest. we believe in memory and memorial that's why we built the national memorial. we had the 9/11 traejd and we in a memorial in less than 15 years. i think that's good. but we haven't done anything to talk about what hppened to black people.

>> what are people getting out of this -- now it's becoming a pilgrimage to the site literally a pilgrimage. what are peopling out of the pilgrimage. >> i think what they get is we have the courage to tell the truth about the history some amazing things could happen. i'm not interested in talking about history because i want to punish america. i'm not interested in making people just feel bad. i'm interested in talking about this history because i think we need to to be libertied. there is something that feels more like freedom and equality and justice than we have experienced in this country. i don't think we should look at each other, burdened by all of the presumptions about what people mean. and i think that's what i have seen. people have had the courage to come and they were worried. and when they came out they were motivated to do something they weren't prepared to do before. across the world we have seen truth and reconciliation change societies. but in this country we haven't done that. so the tensions persist. and what i see is people being willing to have conversations. they haven't had before.

being willing to think about why segregation can be wrong. bigotry can be wrong. and all the violence is wrong. i think when we open our minds to what happened then we can open our hearts. i really do believe that. i've always believed that the truth shall set us free. we haven't told the truth about our history. because of that we are not yet free. and if we can create spaces like this, i mean for me the hope is we have a holocaust museum in d.c. a powerful place. when you walk through the museum you get to the end it and you're prepared to say never again. i was prepared to say never again. i want to create places in the country where we look at the history of what happened to native and black and brown people and immigrants and we say never again. because we make that commitment we can create a different future. >> i'll tell you it's beautiful when you talk about the truth setting people free your work as set people free people that would have been put death now home with families because of you. i cannot tell you how much you mean to me and this country. i want everybody to watch in

documentary called true justice. brian stephenson fight for equalpy premeerg on hbo june 26th at 8:00 p.m. up next, june is pride month. this year renewed concerned about lgbt rights. still fighting for rights. we're talking about that we with he get back. up a up a. tremfya® can help adults with moderate to severe

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so here i am in new york city, in front of the stonewall inn, the site of the uprising that started the civil rights movement for lgbtq americans. >> the landmark decision of the u.s. supreme court has ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriages. >> the fight from equality is far from over. >> as your president i will do everything in my power to protect our lgbtq citizens from the violence and oppression of the hateful foreign ideology. >> donald trump made history back in 2016 as the first republican presidential nominee to mention lgbtq americans in his address.

instead of being a champion, his administration is actually rolling back protections that could hurt lots of people. for instance, trump's health and human services department just announced it wants to get rid of a rule that bans health care providers and insurers from discriminating against transgender patients. if that happens it would be even easier for doctors and clinics and refuse services to trans people. that could affect the lives and health of the estimated 1.4 million adults who identify as transgender in the u.s. today. also trump's housing department has announced plans to reverse a law that says homeless shelters cannot deny access to people based on their sex or gender iet identities. this is especially cruel because homelessness is a big problem for lgbtq youth. a study found 40% of homeless kids identify as trans, lesbian

or gay or bi individuals. the administration has banned transgender people from being in the military. >> there is nothing about my being transgender that has any impact on my ability to put on my uniform and serve my country. >> in may, the democratic house passed the equality act which would ban discrimination in housing and other areas, an extension of the 1964 civil rights act. the trump administration is opposing the bill , saying it undermines parental rights. he said in 2000, "i like the idea of amending the 1964 civil rights act to include a ban on description based on sexual oppression. amending the civil rights act

would grant the same protection to gay people that we give to other americans. it's only fair." if only he would go back to that donald trump, we would be all right. but look, this pride month, let's remember the brave americans at stonewall 50 years ago who launched this movement and let's never stop this fight, eight so importa it's so important. "the redemption project" airs tomorrow on cnn. this week's episode has an ending i promise you will not see coming. please check that out. i'm van jones, "the van jones show." peace and love for one another. [ cheers and applause ] this is the couple who wanted to get away

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you are live in the "cnn newsroom." i'm jessica dean in for ana cabrera tonight. tonight people in the city of virginia beach, virginia have a few more answers but are still reeling with deep shock and grief after friday's horrific workplace shooting. 12 people killed, nearly all of them public servants. all shot in death by a man state officials call a disgruntled employee. they know his name. they know his background. they know how he got his guns. what they still don't know is why the gunman did it. and they can't ask him because he's also dead, either killed in a firefight with responding police or