fine, no one leaves the tablefine, we'll sleep here. ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. ♪ ♪ good evening. i'm van jones. welcome to "the van jones show." there is so much crazy stuff going on. it feels like it's scary. it's another sad chapter, another sad week in our history. we have a divisive, political impeachment happening. foreign policy decisions are realigning the world order overnight and the top leaders in our country cannot even sit in the same meeting together. look, even without all this, let's remember, we have some actual big problems out there externally, china is trying to

beat us out economically, and russia is running amok and chaos and the gap between the rich and the middle class gets bigger every day and robots may wipe out millions of jobs and the digital media is isolating us from each other and rather than educating us about each other. sometimes i think in all of this we lose the big plot line. who are we? what are we trying to do as americans? what is this all about? >> want to take a big step back because usually when our country faces major challenge we unite to meet them together whether it's to beat the great depreg depression and win the cold war. american democracy has proven itself capable of dealing with insanely tough problems over and over and over again. it should be no different for us in this century, but instead of turning to each other, we're turning on each other. why? who is stoking these divisions? who is benefiting from it the most?

it's not just donald trump or nancy pelosi or any political party. it's vladimir putin. putin is benefiting while we're fighting, he's laughing. russia intervened in our election to create this chaos because putin wants america dysfunctional, divided and discredited because if that happens we're not able to solve our big problems and we can't stop him from dominating weaker nations. so america, let's keep our heads on straight. don't let putin win. he's got too many victories already. we left a big power vacuum in syria which is a big win for russia. we have to keep speaking up for american allies like the kurds who trump just abandoned and we shouldn't get bogged down in crazy conspire see theories. let's stand up for the people of ukraine, whose territory the russians have taken and when trump starts to undermine our allies and that strengthens putin's hand in europe and the middle east. we've got to stop that. we have to stand up against that

and let's not strengthen putin's hand right here in america because division and disfunction is what putin wants. so let's minimize the rancor and the name calling even in our toughest political fight. because you know who suffers when america is divided? poor struggling folks, nothing done in our country. no matter what party you're in don't let putin win. my next guest is a lead are. he sees the big picture. he believes in unity, common sense and common ground. please welcome to the van jones show, alabama senator, doug jones. ♪ ♪ >> how are you doing? >> good to see you. thank you. thank you very much. first, it is just so good to see another great jones. >> absolutely. they're trying to keep up with us. but welcome, you know? i appreciate you and admire you

so much. i was born and raised in tennessee and i know the challenges of that. you stood up on the senate floor and gave a beautiful speech about this whole impeachment drama and the divisions in the country. you said you were having sleepless nights. >> yeah. >> why are you having sleepless nights? >> this is not something that any american would want to go through. this is a really serious matter. impeachment is something that our founders thought was a possibility, but i don't think they really believed that it would really ever happen and now we're going to probably go through our fourth one. it's a really difficult time and it is going make the divisions in this country that you just talked about, i think, even worse because people are already going their partisan corners and that's the most troubling thing about this. >> one of the things you said in that speech is you said people should not circle their wagons around the president. >> correct. >> people should not rush to judgment on impeachment. dude, you're standing in the middle of a big food fight. >> yeah. >> how do you think we can do

what you're talking about? i don't know if we can do it at this point. here's part of the problem, van. this man took office before he even took his hand off a bible. i had a congressman from alabama who was calling for hillary clinton's impeachment a year before the election assuming she was going to win, so we've gotten to a point in this country that if you don't win the election maybe there's another way to get rid of somebody. so a lot of those calls early that really had no basis and no merit are really hurting now. >> it poisoned the well. >> everything is seen through a partisan lens. i got asked yesterday, i can a call-in. if the articles of impeachment came over today how would you vote? what articles? we don't know what charges and everyone needs to look at this factually, because there are serious allegations here and when they do i think they'll get out of their partners and corn e

beers, but you need to floel facts. >> you have confidence in people and it seems people are putting faction over facts every day and we're being trained in that. you're a lawyer and you've done this before. what gives you confidence that even though once the facts are out there that we'll hold the country together? >> i'm not sure that i have that confidence is not as great as i might portray sometimes because right now -- everything is going to be looked at as far as 2020. the minute this all happened we started getting asked this question. doug, how will it affect this race and how will it affect the presidential? it's incumbent on leaders from all parties and all walks of life, and state, local as well as federal to say, don't look at it in political terms. >> we already have some facts, but what do you make of the facts so far? >> are you seeing something

that's troubling? >> absolutely. there are lots of things that we've seen that are troubling. we saw yesterday mick mulvaney who came out and explicitly talked about a quid pro quo. not that a quid pro quo is necessary in something like this. everyone tries to make this out like a criminal case. it's not a criminal case. it's an impeachment case. the conversation that the president had with the president of ukraine was very troubling. >> why? what's wrong with it? >> he said it was perfect. >> yeah. okay. it was anything but perfect. it was anything but that. >> why? >> this was the president of the united states who has by his statement to the president of ukraine, exercises a lot of power over that country. this is a country who needs the united states. russia has already been messing with them internally, externally. this is a country who needs our defense systems and needs our military support. it said specifically in there you need us. germany, other european countries.

they're not doing anything for you. we're doing it and the president talks then about, let me ask you something and let me tell you what you need first, you need a favor and i'll tell you the second thing and from a perspective of both foreign policy and a legal perspective. what bothered smee when he invoked the name? i want my personal lawyer to talk about this. he's already had one lawyer, a personal lawyer go to prison any you in he's putting his other personal lawyer in -- the fact that he included the attorney general, whether or not he was involved or not and the fact that he would invoke the name of the attorney general is really, really troubling. >> listen, when you go home and you're in alabama and you're talking to people you are in a tough spot because on the one hand you are in the reddest of red state america, but you were

brought to office and powered by the passion of black women. you are stuck between maga hats and black mamas. how do you deal with that? that's a tough road to ride. >> van, it's not. it's only a tough road to ride if you look at it in political terms. >> you're a politician. >> i understand that, but you know what? that oath and what my job is means more than being a politician, and i really mean that. when i first got elected to the senate, even during the campaign, i made sure that they knew that we weren't following polls and we weren't putting our finger to the wind to see which way the wind was blowing and my staff knows they weren't supposed to argue with me about taking a particular position based on what they think the good politics are. i think we need more people that would follow their conscience and i just consider it doug my duty and doing what i took an oath to do, and i really mean that. >> i think it's extraordinary that you've done that and you took a tough vote against cav

thaw and a lot of them would go the other way. let's talk about the situation in syria and i was appalled and sickened to see the kurds. -- >> i think it's a tragedy. i think it's a disaster for the united states and the foreign policy and the world stage. we have lost the moral high ground around the world these days. america used to have that moral standing where we -- after world war ii, we rebuilt our enemies as well as our friends. >> yeah. >> and we don't have that now. and remember, this just didn't happen with a phone call with erdogan a week or so ago. this started back in december of last year with a phone call to erdogan and there was an announcement and that gave turkey the green light to start building up to do exactly what they want to do, and to just kick our allies to the -- to the side and do it in such a

flippant manner that the president's done on his press conference. it's appalling, and i think you're seeing now a real huge bipartisan rising up. look what the house did just the other day. 300-some-odd to 60 rebuking the united states and if it comes to the senate it will be overwhelming numbers like that, as well. >> i'm just glad we have them like you. i want to keep you here. when we come back, last week's democratic debate was a return to the moderates and the sent rifts came back fighting with progressive ideas and policies. coming up i want the senator's take on all of that and how will this impact his own re-election when we get back. is that net carbs or total? eh, not enough fiber. chocolate would be good. snacking should be sweet and simple. the delicious taste of glucerna gives you the sweetness you crave while helping you manage your blood sugar. glucerna. everyday progress.

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>> i'm back with democratic senator doug jones from the great state of alabama. listen, that last democratic debate that you saw klobuchar come out strong. you saw andrew yang come out strong. you saw mayor pete come out strong challenging elizabeth warren challenging the agenda. did that make you happy? >> i think you see the voice being built over the last couple of debates and they got drowned out early on. full disclosure, you know i've endorsed my friend joe biden. i think he had it very strong and i think the whole challenging and what is perceived to be all of the

momentum and the democratic party being from the left, i think you saw the other day that that's not the case. >> what worries you about the progressive momentum and the progressive ideas? just for instance, a lot of poor folks in alabama, tennessee, where i'm from, what's wrong with saying we want to have medicare for all and free college. why wouldn't that progressive, economic populism appeal in the same way that trump's populism and appeal. >> it does appeal to a point, though, but i think there's also an appeal that folks don't want to be told what to do and they don't want to be told they have to get this health care. they like the health care that they have if they have it, but it does appeal to them to a point, but i think once you cross a line and you get into it to something where the government is making you do x, y, z. that's the tipping point. >> that's why when mayor pete says medicare for all who want it, he's trying to pull -- that's basically the biden plan. it's a public option.

i ran on the public option in 2017 when repeal and replace and that's what was going on in the senate. >> when we say public option. if you want to be on the government program you can. >> and it's going to be paid for. >> know you've known joe biden and you've worked with him close up and i got to work with him in the obama white house, and love him to death. i feel some disquiet. i feel like he's lost his step and the air is coming out of the tires and are you worried about the missteps and the fumbles and the senior moments? a lot of people are talking about that behind closed doors. >> those moments are not senior moments and they're joe moments and it's what makes joe. i really think, van, to some extent people want authenticity. >> true. >> there is no one on the stage that's more authentic than joe and i'm being honest about that, and the age fact o i think we had a wonderful answer the other day because we're seeing a

situation right now where experience and wisdom and getting to know leaders have around the world would be making a huge difference if he was sitting in that oval office today. >> i think people would have confidence in him and certainly dealing on the world stage. in 2020 you are on the ballot. are you concerned that if we have the wrong person at the top of the ballot that it would hurt you and other red state democrats? >> it can always make it for a challenge, absolutely. what we're trying to do in my race and what i've done as u.s. senator is make sure that the people of alabama understand that what i'm doing for them. i've got their back and it doesn't matter who at the top of the ticket is. >> if you like either one of those, that's fine, but know that i've got your back whether it's health care, jobs and the economy. i think that's the real key is to making sure that people look at that and understand what -- they're not going to agree with me on everything and they're not going to agree with me on a lot of things and if they know that i'm listening and i've got their back, that is the most important

part of any election and so that's where we're going to set ourselves apart from what i think whoever my opponent will be at the end of the day. >> you're trying to pull people together, not just for your election, but for the country. what do you think can. you're close to people in the heart of this country. what issues unite people these days? i think there are issues that unite us is that political leaders don't let them unite us and i think gun violence can unite us if we meet in the middle and not let political leaders on extremes of either side keep us apart. i think health care can unite us and maybe want extreme medicare for all and not going pure, private anymore and trying to work with what we've got. >> let's talk about the gun violence thing, though. you have beto and he's out there saying listen, if you are out there with ak-47. >> and i'm tired of the message. >> there are too many people in states like mine who go back and remember, what i said about

medicare for all and you don't want the government telling you, you've got to get this health care and you don't want the government coming in and telling them, we'll take your gun, no matter what kind of gun it is. i don't agree with that. i think that that's wrong. folks talk about guns in the context of hunting and that's not right. people have guns for protection. people have guns because they like to shoot them. that's the way i grew up, but i do think this. i think overwhelmingly and they want to close the loophole and the charleston loophole and they want the cdc funded to less-studied gun violence and this is not a gun problem and that's a mental health problem. >> look at it. those are issues if we can pull the extremes off the side and pull in and we get something done. >> speaking of extremes. one of the reasons i love you so much because you jumped into a situation, 1963, was there a horrific bombing, murder of four

little girls. >> that case was unsolved for decades and you decided to -- and we had extremism of the kind that killed those little girls growing in america today. are you worried about that white nationalism? ? i've been worried about that for some time. in fact, when we were trying to finish that book, we were talking about and the end of that book was initially warnings about what we saw coming up, the rise of the rhetoric and we had warnings that we had and all of a sudden they became true. we had dylan roof kill nine people in a church in charleston and all of these things came true and words matter and words have consequences and i believe they still do. >> listen, the people in alabama are lucky to have someone with so much integrity and such a long track record of doing the right thing even when it's hard. give this brothers a round of applause. ? thank you. >> listen, coming up, this week

we saw president trump and speaker pelosi accusing each other of having meltdowns and pointing fingers and all kinds of names and sadly, their respective supporters are doing the same thing. is it possible to de-polarize america? one group is doing an interesting survey to see if they can get conservatives and liberals together. i'll have that when we come back. ♪ sport drumming starts [ referee whistle sounds ] [ cheering ] when you need the fuel to be your nephew's number one fan. holiday inn express. we're there. so you can be too. ♪ t-mobile's newest signal reaches farther than ever before.

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♪ all right. sadly this week we saw politicians aking li politicians acting like preschoolers again. a meeting that was supposed to be about syria turned into name calling and what's worse, this behavior is around the country. it's tearing up friendships and families. i recently found a group trying to heal this division and it's called better angels and since 2016 they've been hosting work shops all over the country bringing folks together to find common ground. i went to one of their red-blue work shops last weekend in evanston, illinois. take a look. >> the goals are more understanding, seeing if there's something in common. >> here's something special. conservatives and liberals sitting side by side talking, smiling, actually listening to

each other. >> hamilton here as a red, i'm coming here out of frustration in some ways because i feel like, you know, we've been ex communicated from a lot of our friends in the last couple of years and it makes me sad. >> they're here for a work shop put on by the better angels group. their goal is to help bridge the divide among liberals and conservatives and committee members have come to watch. >> i came here as a blue today. we need to be able to have real constructive dialogue among each other and even among issues that we may disagree on. >> they split up into reds and blues. reds for conservative and blue for liberal and they discuss the stereotypes they think the other side believes about them. >> judgmental. >> judgmental. >> anti-religious. >> and are there any gains of truth to these perceptions? >> pc, okay. what is true here? >> people are saying the words

rather than attack the words themselves. >> is there a kernel of truth that the reds are closed-minded and intolerant? >> there are principles that i stand by. it may look intolerant in some ways, but abiding by the rule of law with respect for immigration any abiding by the rule of law for things like that it looks intolerant. >> both say they're surprised by what they hear by the other side. >> a lot of reds recognize that they're the descendants of immigrants and they're pro-immigration and a lot of ink and tv air time has been spilled on some of the sensational and very dramatic things that have been occurring at the border and that really obscures, i think, the more nuanced conversation of the nation having control of its borders and welcoming immigrant, but doing it through appropriate channels and means. >> what really struck me when larry said we believe in science and we want to use science to

solve issues such as climate rather than rushing to a sweeping government program which is like -- we recognize for yourselves, oh, yeah, we kind of do that. you said yeah, you do that. >> the other side has principles that we live by and we have principles, too and it seems we both get into trouble when we have absolutes. >> the liberals are asked to sit in the middle of the group and are asked why they think progressive ideas, and they're allowed no rebuttals. >> and equality, people feel like burn it all town. in the interest of preserving capitalism we need to engage in, as you say, leveling the playing field, redistribution and giving people a stake in the system. >> blue values in terms of being

accepting and open to their diverse points of view are open-minded about moral value, right? so it seems like sexual orientation and gender fluidity, these things are good for the united states because they're acknowledging and giving a voice and including groups that have been historically marginalized and have had no voice. >> what are your reservations or concerns about your own side, about the blue side. >> in a lot of cases if you don't adhere to every single value or every single position then you're marginalized and you're seen as sort of betraying the cause in a way. >> yeah. >> i agree that words matter and that words can hurt, but i see arguments being shut down. i see people not being allowed to speck. in next, it's the conservative's turn. >> think what's great about the

red vision is it emphasizes personal freedoms and i think in order for people to soar to great heights freedom is partially responsible. >> the ability to progress and allow a society to reach and people within the society and individuals to achieve the most that they can achieve with the least amount of interference from outside, for me is a positive thing. >> what are your reservations or concerns about your own side? >> i think with personal responsibility, and personal freedoms, there will be people who are lost. i think it's a harsh truth. we lose our messaging and we lose our principle of caring and compassion by saying, hey, free market, right? sink or swim, we have to acknowledge that people sink and make sure that we take care of those people. >> at the end of the day, everybody said this experience is going to impact their personal interactions with people on a day-to-day basis.

>> it's just great to, like, hear reasonable conservative voices in the room and when i'm in my friend group and people make an extreme comment, and i can say well, not all those people, let's just pull back. right? >> we started out with why are we here and i said something basically to the extent of being excommunicated from some of my friends, friends for many, many years, friends that i love. so i have some phone calls to make, and i have some listening versus talking. >> my takeaway is there is a monolith and there is a recognition that these are thorny problems that we're trying to address and that there are going to be some very nuanced solutions to those problems. >> so you were an observer the

whole time and you were taking copious notes and what would happen and whether it was a weekend like 100,000 of these things went down? what do you think would happen in america? >> i think people would be better equipped to have these sorts of conversations and think in terms of working together towards solutions to problems rather than seeing the other side as just a barrier to progress. >> we got to know each other a little bit better as people. >> what is causing you to want to be this deeply involved in this bipartisan world. >> it's about rirps. i'm a physician. i'm a daughter. i'm a spouse and i'm a friend and they're built on communication and we do it very poorly and we're getting worse and worse at it. >> heaven and hell, and yet for some reason we're at a point in time in history in this country where you can't disagree about policy. >> do you feel like you learned anything today that might help you bridge that gap? >> absolutely.

to be able to hear, try to be as non-judgmental as possible and just to pay attention and try to listen as opposed to trying to prove or defend, it was just a good exercise. >> one woman said the experience made her more comfortable sharing her voice as a conservative who lives in a liberal town. >> i'm apprehensive about coming because sometimes today i don't feel like maybe being a conservative or having a conservative voice is pc and so, i think maybe there are a lot of people out there that maybe have this point of view, but they're not really saying it. >> i really believe if groups like this can get together and take the next step, talk about issues, and sit down and hash it

out, i really think we could come up with some solutions and we may even do a better job than some of our politicians. >> you couldn't do worse. >> there you go. [ applause ] >> they are signs of hope and more hope to come. the first capital of the confederacy and the former heart of jim crow now has its first african-american mayor and we'll talk to the man who made history in montgomery, alabama, when we come back. i wanted more that's why i've got the power of 1 2 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy. with trelegy and the power of 1 2 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems.

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♪ this week we lost a real giant. congressman elijah cummings passed away thursday at the age of 68. he was the son of a sharecropper and grew up to be a dedicated leader for the country and his city of baltimore and he always tried to work across the line and across the aisle and his legacy can be seen in countless messages of love from democrats and republicans and everybody piling on and he set a great example for all of us and especially for young leaders who want to continue his fight and there is hope and it's coming from an unlikely place. montgomery, alabama, was the capital of the confederacy experienced horrific racial violence for years under jim crow. it's also the birthplace of the

modern civil rights movement and dr. king, and rosa parks led the protest that changed the country and in 2019 more history got made. the city elected its first-ever african-american mayor. please welcome to "the van jones show." the mayor-elect of montgomery, alabama, stephen reid on "the van jones show." hey, brother! [ applause ] >> congratulations. >> i appreciate it. >> wow! >> thank you. >> hey, listen, so first of all, congratulations. everybody's been so excited. when you were a kid growing up, did you ever think that you would be in that long line of history makers coming out of montgomery accident montgomery, alabama? >> not at all. when i went to morehouse college in atlanta, i told my parents i was never coming to montgomery. >> you were gone. >> i was ready to go to the big

city and everything else. >> what brought you back? >> what brought me back was the potential of the city and seeing things that there were things that we could do better and we could do differently and i wanted to be a part of that. i tried it behind the scenes and i it didn't work so well, and -- >> give me the wheel! let me try. >> exactly. >> montgomery got a young plabl mayor. selma, got a young black mayor? mississippi. did i miss a memo, is something happening with the young black folks? talk about this wave of african-american leaders stepping up and grabbing the wheel. >> this comes as a natural progression. some of it is also a byproduct of our president obama's inspirational leadership and his candidacy, as well and challenging many of us in our generation to be leaders and lead in our own communities and to lead at a local and state level, and i think that's what we've seen around this country, and i think in the civil rights area where we have is an

understanding of how progress happens. we couunderstand that it doesn' just happen by itself. that we have to lead it and initiate it and those of us who have been running for mayor and now are mayors are seeing an opportunity to change the narrative on those cities. >> it's an amazing thing to watch. you had everybody, hillary clinton was tweeting about you. e eva duvarnay was tweeting about you, but i'm curious. what was it like on the ground in montgomery. there must have been old folks coming up to you with a different conversation than even the hillary clintons. >> no question. it was surreal. we didn't run to make history. i ran to make the future better for the city of montgomery and the people that live there, but as the campaign went along i started hearing more testimonials from people who had been in the civil rights movement, people who grew up in montgomery and who were emotionally excited about the opportunity for us to have a black mayor in the city and many

who thought it would never happen. >> right. >> i'm not sure i grasped that probably until the end when there were people in grocery stores and knocking on their doors or churches just coming up saying i'm praying for you. just hugging you and hugging you very tightly in a way that was more than just we're happy to see you. this is something bigger than just an election. this is a signal that we want to send to the country, and so to be able to be a part of that makes you understand that it's not just about you. it's not just about your campaign message. it's about something more for so many people, and i think, you know, after to get the response that we got nationwide was something that we didn't anticipate. >> i think because montgomery is a global icon. you're the head of an iconic city and so much history has been made there. >> in fact, you have the memorial to the lynching that was created.

how is that piece being in concrete form impacted the city. >> very easily, it's brought 500,000 people to the city itself. it's brought millions of dollars in tourism, but i think that the bigger part of that is what brian stevenson and the justice initiative has done regarding race and reconciliation and the conversations that are being had around that, where does montgomery stand and where do we stand in the world as it relates to race and reconciliation and how can we be a part of that progress? it's been fantastic to be at the center of that and brian has been the driver behind a lot of those positive conversations. >> your timing could not be better in terms of hitting the city at a time when all of that stuff is going on. i'm curious about how you see the country. you're young. you're black. you're a mayor of a blue city in a bright red state. i mean, red state! the state got a maga hat on.

how do you see this election? are democrats talking about the right things? how do you make sense of what's at the national level right now? >> i think democrats are talking about issues that impact everyday americans. there are a lot of americans who don't vote who feel frustrated with the process and they feel frustrated with both parties and they don't feel like national leaders are listening to them and while certainly, we have a lot of issues at the national and international level, i think what a lot of people want to know what are our solutions to address the issues regarding health care? what are our solutions regarding access to colleges? what are our solutions regarding what the job environment is, and what do national leaders do about that? what national leaders do you think would be able to cut through with the people you deal with every day or what solutions do you have? >> i think there are a number of solutions that we have -- and certainly, i want to hear that the workforce development has improved and people have access

to earn a livable wage, and i think it's important that we focus on the infrastructure to make sewer that our cities are able to grow and the cities are getting the necessary funding and support that's needed and rural america has certainly been left belinehind. i don't know how a number of them are focused on them as much as the hot-button issues and for me, i think when we look at 2020 we want to make sure that we are inspiring voters and what i found in my campaign is it wasn't just enough to roll out the policy platform. people wanted to be inspired to aspire, to great are heights and to greater understanding about their brother in the city, in their community, in their state, and i think that's what we're trying to reach out and do. >> you didn't mention the impeachment one time. how is it playing out in the heartland? >> it's not playing very much at all. i don't hear a lot of talk about it. what i hear is where are the jobs going?

can we get higher-paying jobs here? can we get access to junior check colleges so my kidders on my grandkids can achieve the american dream. what am i going to do if my aunt gets sick or my grandparent gets sick and how do we afford health care and what are we going to do about that. >> i hear about that ten times more than impeachment. >> i'm going to be seeing you for the next 20, 30 years. i have no idea what you're going to do and i appreciate everything that you represent and you represent a lot of hope. give this brother a round of applause. i'm glad you're here. congratulations. >> listen, when we get back, there is a big push to stop big banks from helping to finance immigration detention centers and private prisons and some progress is being made. we'll talk about that when we get back. ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows

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all right. this week california governor gavin newsom signed legislation effectively banning private prisons and private immigrant detention centers in california. and on the campaign trail a lot of democratic candidates have promised to do similar stuff at the federal level. but it turns out you need more than just government action to solve this problem. big corporations also play a big role here. my next guest is an expert on the topic. please welcome to the "van jones show" author, investor, and criminal justice reform activist morgan simon, in the house. well, listen, i've watched your activism progress over the years. you are one of the most effective change makers i've ever met. what is wrong with private prisons? if you get a private prison that could do a good job and save a little money what is wrong with private prisons? >> private prisons make money by locking people up. that means that they are fundamentally a symptom of the broader problems of

incarceration and immigrant detention. america is pretty unique. we lock up more people than anywhere else in the world and we rely often on private prisons to do so. 10% of incarcerated people, over 70% of immigrants in detention. >> so 70% of the people in those detention centers we see, those are private, for profit companies locking them up? >> correct. those companies are making as much as $700 for every night. we might as well be putting people in the ritz-carlton. >> wow. >> this goes back to when you have companies incentivized to lock up more people, well then you see them lobbying intensively, over $25 million over three decades, participating in groups like alex lobbying for harsher laws on immigration and incarceration. >> the longer people are locked up the more money they make. >> exactly. that is really where it is not just about public versus private prisons but about the soul of the country and how we want to treat people. are we about locking up more people and making more money in the process or are we about

giving people second chances, about drug treatment, about mental health treatment, about restorative justice? >> you've actually been able to be effective as a financial person. what is the connection between your heart and your smarts when it comes to having real victories here? >> absolutely. i'm an impact investor. i spend my time investing money in companies that have social and environmental value as founding partner of can deed group and i often look at the money story behind the story. how is it that on every social issue there is some big corporation or big bank having an impact? this caught the attention of the over 10 million activists as part of the families belong together coalition who were seeing these images and immigrant detention and saying, wait a minute. what is my money and my role having to do with this that it is my money in the bank that's been financing these private prisons? i'm not okay with that. so sometimes we think, well this is trump's policy or this is a corporate policy. this is all of us. and the good news there is we can do something about it. >> what can you do?

i was surprised in learning more about what you've been doing. you got money in your 401(k). you got money in your pension. people don't know their money is going to companies that are locking people up for profit. what have you been able to concretely do about that and what should we be thinking about that? >> sure. we have gotten 100% of the known banks providing credit and term loans to geo group and over 60% of that to core civic. those are the two largest private prison companies pulled out. that means that those companies are going to be struggling when it is time to raise more money to lock up more people. >> how did you get, you're saying the big banks basically cut up the credit cards for these private prison companies. how do you do that? >> essentially we use the power that we all have as economic citizens. i know we think often about voting as something we do every four years. but we really vote every day with every dollar that we spend or we invest. we came together saying, it doesn't matter if you have a hundred dollars in the bank or a hundred million. you have a vote. you get to tell those banks this

is still my money and i want to make sure it is reflecting my values. that is exactly what we did and what we'll continue to do. >> basically you got people to put pressure on the banks. i can't tell you, i'm just proud to know you. so many people say they want to make a change in the world. you wrote the book "real impact" which had a real impact and now you've been able to follow up. give her a round of applause for making something positive happen. good to see you again. now listen, i want to thank all of my guests. thanks for watching. i'm van jones. peace and love for one another. t-mobile's newest signal reaches farther than ever before. with more engineers. more towers. more coverage! it's a network that gives you ♪freedom from big cities, to small towns, we're with you. because life can take you almost anywhere, t-mobile is with you. no signal goes farther

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you're live in the cnn newsroom. thanks for being here. i am ana cabrera in new york and the republican resistance to impeach president trump is showing small cracks tonight. there are still no sitting gop congressmen calling for impeachment but more leading voices in the party are sounding off against the president. florida congressman francis rooney tells cnn that he would not rule out voting to impeach trump. as he also reveals he will not run for re-election. and just a day ago former ohio governor john kasich told me this. if you're asking me if i was sitting in the house of representatives today and you were asking me how do i feel do