and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. georgia is on everyone's mind. i'm michael smer conish in philadelphia. the state's republicans on thursday passed a sweeping change to its election law. the bill passed both chambers in a few hours and the governor brian kemp signed it into law that night. here is what the bill does, among other things. it imposes new voter identification for absentee ballots and empowers state officials to take control of the local election boaters and limits the use of ballot drop boxes and a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.

it proved immediately polarizing. republican governor kemp quoted, said the bill was another step toward ensuring our elections are secure, accessible and fair. that is not how the other sees it. president biden called it un-american. sick. stacey abrams likened it reinstating jim crow. by thursday evening, a lawsuit challenging the new law had already been filed by a trio of voting right groups. georgia bill is the most prominent of many pieces of legislation that republicans have initiated all across the country. per today's "the new york times" in more than 24 states, republican-led legislatures are advancing bills in a broad political effort that is the most aggressive attack on the right to vote since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. joining me to discuss is greg bluesteen, a reporting for the "atlanta journal-constitution." this is a solution in search of

a problem, right? there was not fraud documented in georgia that would justify this whole change? >> exactly right. no systemic fraud whatsoever in georgia and that was even backed up by top state republican officials, including the secretary of state brad raffensperger who debunked the conspiracy theories and governor kemp talked about a confidence all of those false claims and lies about election fraud had instilled in many republican georgia voters. >> i thought that your newspaper's lead editorial today made a great observation and i'll put it up on the screen . it makes a great point, right?

>> yeah. that is right. we have asked many lawmakers who have brought up the point, you know, their support for these voting restrictions, that same question, what about your election? what about your win? what about your victory? and none of them are willing to have a recount, a retabulation, overhaul of their own election victories. >> okay. so my view of this is that it's a solution in search of a problem. neverlts i don't think that some of the component parts are as onerous as they have been presented. if i vote in person in georgia, must i show an i.d.? >> yes. >> okay now the new law says if you're voting by absentee you likewise should have some form of identification. karl rove said this.

am i right that even a survey by your newspaper found overwhelming support in georgia for some level of identification when people vote by absentee? >> yeah. a ajc poll found three-quarters of georgia voters supported some new of requirements for i.d. verification. what critics of this say is essentially about 3% of registered voters don't have a license or state i.d. number on file and they would need to

submit additional documents and they would so obtain a voter i.d. or provide a military i.d. or passport. it still creates a new obstacle and takes away essentially adds another restriction even if it's broadly public lip supported by georgians. >> okay. so my take on that would be let's make it real easy for those folks to have some form of identification that would be required but the notion of there being some level of identification, to me, is not in and of itself out of the box. here is another one getting a lot of attention. you'll have to explain this to me. what is line worming? and what is the change in the line. >> line warming is in atlantic precincts hours long lines. groups come out and they offer

coca coca-cola, they offer water, snacks, pizza. at night, they offer hot chocolate to people waiting in line for hours. in georgia, i've witnessed basically an evolution as people start to bring lawn chairs as accessories to vote because in some precincts, there are five, six, seven, eight-hour lines and some come with snacks and bags full of books and things to do and others are not prepared for that sos t these line warmers m sure they stand in line by offering them food. >> is it true you can't politic or approach someone and curry with them a particular candidate while in line? >> yes. within a certain area around a polling site, there is strict bans on any sort of campaigning but critics of this measure feel like it could be a last-minute sort of plea to influence voters in crucial and final moments. >> understood. okay. here is my take from a thousand

miles away on that. what a shame that anybody in georgia or anywhere in this country who have to wait for hours before casting a ballot. greg, thank you. i read your coverage when i want to know what is going on in georgia. >> thank you. what are your thoughts? tweet me or go to my facebook page and i'll read responses throughout the program. this comes from the twitter world. the voter suppression having to show proper i.d. and register and figure out where to vote? how dumb does the left think we are? it takes more to sign up for cable, set up a cell phone account. he just explained 200,000 folks in georgia don't have the type of identification that would allow them to vote by mail, vote absentee i should say more specifically. i know georgia has offered to provide that free of charge. let's milk it easier for people to vote and make it easier for people to be identified when they are going through that process. i don't want to preclude anybody, nor do i want fraud.

but there is a way to get this done. still to come, while americans are getting vaccinated at the average rate of 2.6 million per day, on friday, brazil recorded its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. 3,650. even if herd immunity happens here, will we be safe if new variants of covid are raging in the rest of the world? after decades of discrimination, black residents of evanston, illinois, poised to become the first in the nation to start receiving reparations. will other communities follow suit? according to gap llup 30 million americans smoke pot. many new hires in the biden administration are in trouble for having partaken. will the policy have to change? i want to know what you think. go to my website smerconish.com and answer this week's survey

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planning helps you live your dreams today. the chicago suburb of evanston is poised to become the first community in the nation to gib paying reparations to black residents. the first initiative of the plan is a program that would distribute up to 25,000 for housing per eligible resident. so who is eligible? according to "the new york times," eligible applicants could be descendants who lived in 1919 and 1969.

will this plan work and cause a model for the rest of the country? joining me now, is ron daniels. dr. daniels, is this really a case of reparations? because in this instance, it's not tied to enslavement. >> well, yes, it is a milestone enter that it is reparations and we really want to congratulate all of the residents of evanston, particularly robin simons and those who worked with her on this. it is important to point out from an education app point out enslavement is an important part of it and our nation needs to learn that but it's for all of the racially exclusionary policies after emancipation. the home stead act and fha and

those who fought in the ped second world war and then shot in his driveway. and it's about redlining that many of our citizens have faced. in evanston, illinois, this initiative is starting because of redlining and when the national african-american reparations committee went into evanston to help develop and certify this particular model, and it is a model, we looked at the records where houses were moved from one section of the city to another in order to accommodate the creation of a new neighborhood and whatever. records showing this complicity city in redlining. >> is the door then open, dr. daniels, to other groups, victims of similar discrimination to then come forward and make a claim as

well? >> i think when we talk about reparations in the united states of neamerica, we are talking abt the transatlantic slave trade and there are other groups have a claim, particularly native americans certainly have a claim. but it is the particularity and uniqueness of the historical cross generational struggle of african-americans that reparations is starting to. you talked about one of them in your previous segment and that is the whole question of repeatedly being black and blunted from the ability to vote. blood on the bridge and we are now being traumatized once again. reparations is about healing and. our ability to get beyond having to repeatedly -- >> understood. >> -- overcome the barriers set forth including -- >> it's just that the more that i've read in on the particulars of evanston, the more it strikes me as a trial attorney, as the

resolution of civil litigation or the resolution of a class action where there was none, rather than something tied to the original sin of this country. >> but by definition, as you asked me earlier, by definition, reparations is for enslavement but it is also for redlining. it is for racially exclusionary policies where it was targeted. in this incidence in evanston there was targeting black community and, as a result, a damage, there was a ham inflicted in terms of the loss of wealth and the trauma of, in fact, losing your community. so that is what reparations is about. i appreciate your being a trial attorney but there are international standards that govern this. so, you know, the jews and nazi germany, the holocaust, that was a specific incidence. in this country, not the first time reparations were paid.

japanese americans were in concentration camps and then in 1988 reparations paid to that community because they were targeted and in concentration camps. reparations is a specific set of definitions that don't apply to ordinary public policy. >> dr. daniels -- >> it occurred today that you want to remedy but that is ordinary public policy. that is not reparations. >> it will be interesting to watch how this plays out in evanston. thanks so much for being here with your expertise. >> appreciate being on with you. checking in again on tweets and facebook comments. what do we have from twitter? i -- katherine, can we put up on

the board the survey results that i intended to get to with dr. daniels. 20% of taxpayer money is being used in such circumstance. there it is. they found only 20% support. what they are doing in evanston is different from that. but it's precedent setting so interesting to see how it plays out. a slower rollout of vaccines in most countries across the globe has led to more lockdowns in europe and higher risk of large waves of new cases, like in brazil, the health care system is outmatched by the surge of patients. should the united states be sharing more of its vaccination doses with the rest of the world? should past marijuana use disqualify you from government service? several white house staffers under excrete knee for this very

issue. that is today's survey question. go and vote at smerconish.com. should past marijuana use disqualify you from government service is? >> that isn't about anybody's pe personal point of view. it's about working through the history and modernizing to address the fact that want is a legal in some states across the country but still illegal federal, right?

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here in the u.s., we are seeing positive news when it comes to vaccination numbers. the number of covid-19 doses reportedly administered in u.s. set a new daily record on friday. 3.38 million. more than 48 million americans now flooel vaccinated. but in other countries around the globe, they are not so fortunate. what you're seeing here is, in part, the result of drug companies that developed and won authorization for vaccines

agreeing to sell most of the first doses to the u.s. european countries and a few other wealthy nations or as the w.h.o. put it in "the washington post," the entire population and the global imeconomy are in crises because of that approach and vaccine's nationalization. a "the new york times" echoed the country write this. and while it may sound fair to make sure that our own needs are covered before helping others, it may actually pose a threat to ourselves. an example in britain where the vaccine rollout has been strong health officials have tracked a virus variant that emerged in south africa where vaccine coverage is weak. that variant may lessin' the effectiveness of vaccines

meaning even vaccinated people would theoretically get sick. joining me now, is thomas boyke. he warned of the impact of vaccine nationalism last summer and we discussed the issue right here on this program. just today "the atlantic" published his brand-new essay. the u.s. is getting vaccine diplomacy wrong. why should our doses before all americans are fully vaccinated? >> it's understandable that u.s. leaders and the leaders of the other wealthy nations that are using many vaccine doses would want to vaccinate their own populations first. as you rightly noted a moment ago, it's prolonging the pandemic for the world, potentially giving rise to new dangerous variants of this virus. it's also a disaster diplomatically because while the u.s. and these other wealthy democracies are largely providing cash, countries like

china and russia are providing doses to the countries that need. >> we discussed this during the course of the campaign and i remember well -- of course, donald trump, you know, wore on his sleeve america first. i remember wondering at the time what would be the policy of the biden administration and i remember we couldn't get them on the record when we tried. here is the question for you -- is there a discernible ki difference the trump administration versus biden administration on vaccine n nationalism? >> you were on this issue from the get opinion go and said this is the issue that nobody is paying attention so thank you for sticking with it. there is a difference between how the biden administration has handled this and how the trump administration has. first, the u.s. is now supporting the multilateral initiative to distribute vaccines. u.s. has given $4 billion to that effort. just in the last two weeks, the

u.s. has promised to loan mexico doses of vaccine. that is notable because, first of all, it's the largest pledge we have seen, 2.5 million. secondly, it's going to a country in great need. mexico only trails the u.s. and brazil as having the most deaths from this pandemic. last, the u.s. is a democracy and loaning these vaccines now in a loan that may not need to be repaid later, provides a way of getting doses to countries that need them now. >> okay. but you would not presumably written for "the atlantic" today the u.s. is getting vaccine diplomatsy wrong if we were doing all you think we should be doing. what is it the biden administration is not doing? >> we need to present a compelling alternative to the token donations that are being given by russia and china and others. we need to ramp up global manufacturing and supplies.

we saw diagramically that it's not enough just to have money. you need government policy support to scale up manufacturing in a pandemic. we need a similar sort of effort, a global operation warp speed of sorts to do that globally. that doesn't keep us from distributing doses domestically. it ramps up supplies, which helps the world now and it may help us later if we need those vaccines to address new variants. >> so i'm hearing, i think, a three-fold argument from you. one is the moral that we shouldn't let people suffer while we have large ess. a second it could come back to haunt us because there could be a variant that we are not prepared for. the third, i think is, the china and russia are filling the vacuum, where the united states is not doing all it can do. is that it? >> that's it. certainly it's a moral issue that we, right now, have

distributed globally 520,000,000 vaccine doze and ten countries are responsible of 3 out of 4 doses administered. still nearly 70 nations with around 900 million people in them that have yet to administer a single dose and we are close to five months into this global vaccine rollout. that is the moral issue. the health issue is the one you outlined that it keeps this pandemic going and it may give rise to new dangerous variants of this disease. the last is, frankly, diplomatically, the u.s. is having its lunch eaten by other countries that are willing to provide very small amounts of doses but still appreciated in countries that are desperate for more sgupplies. we need to engage on ramping up capacity and supply to providing compelling alternative to nations like china, just simply pursuing their national interests in this crisis. >> thomas bollyky, thank you for joining us on this important issue. >> thank you so much for having me. let's see what you're saying

via social media. i think this is from twitter. david conte, you heard my guest explain that is not what we are doing so that would need to change. ahead in 1974 the year president nixon shook the country by resigning, hollywood was shaking up the culture. ron brownstein is here to discuss how los angeles in the '70s changed america. despite the fact that pot is in some form legal in over three dozen states and the dricket of columbia, several white house staffers asked to resign or are suspended or working remotely after background checks reveal past marijuana use. is that fair? i want to know what you think. go to my website smerconish.com and answer this week's survey question. should past marijuana use disqualify you from government service? it didn't for these folks.

>> do you have people in your life who consistently used marijuana? have you used it yourself? >> i have a handful. times a long time ago. >> when i was a kid, i inhaled frequently. that was the point. >> do you smoke? >> i have. >> and i inhale. i did inhale. listen, i think it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy in the world! if you wanna be a winner then get a turkey footlong from subway®. that's oven roasted turkey. piled high with crisp veggies. on freshly baked bread! so, let's get out there and get those footlongs. now at subway®, buy one footlong in the app, and get one 50% off. subway®. eat fresh. a capsule a day anvisibly fades the. dark spots away. new neutrogena® rapid tone repair

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so we made a plan to turn bath time into a business. ♪ ♪ ftonight...i'll be eatingl loaded tots for march madness. ( doorbell ) thanks boo. ( piano glissando ) i think you better double them tots. no, this me was last year. i didn't get my madness last year, so we're doing double the madness this year. should smoking marijuana preclude a person from government service? the answer to that question plagued many, especially younger people who aspire to work for the federal government. several white house staffers were either asked to resign, got suspended, or are working remotely after their background revealed past marijuana use and exposing consistencies in the biden administration policies and despite the fact that recreational and marijuana use is legal in 36 states and in

d.c. it's still illegal on the federal level which is why the white house press secretary said last friday in a tweet and again on wednesday in a press briefing they updated policies to ensure that past marijuana use wouldn't disqualify staff. five people ended up losing their jobs. additional security factors were in play in many of the cases involving staffers who were no longer employed. including for some hard drug use, a white house official told cnn. a source close to the matter also told cnn that the marijuana policy was not made clear to staffers before filling out their questionnaires. in a letter sent to the president on thursday, 30 house democrats called on president biden to clarify his employment suitability policies and apply these policies with consistency and fairness. president biden has taken office in a time when the nation's attitude toward legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana is drastically changing.

last year, gallup survey showed the highest level of support for legalization among americans to date at 68%. and 12% of u.s. adults said they smoke marijuana according to a gallup 2019 poll that is over 30.6 million people. with the tides turning, is this security clearance policy overkill? joining me now, is someone who knows the security process intimately, andrea bikai and at the campus rose legal group a law firm. andrea, how many individuals are we talking about who work for the federal government in some capacity and need a clearance where this could be an issue? >> well, thank you for having me on. . impacts anybody who works within the department of defense and in the intelligence community in particular and anybody who requires a security clearance or any kind of access to classified

information so it impacts thousands of people and both government employs and federal contractors and members of the military. >> i want to differentiate the white house, whether it's the biden white house or any other white house, from those in national security. so let me first ask about the white house. who sets policy on this issue for any particular white house? >> that will be up to the executive order of the president, presumably the president of the united states to implement those policies with respect to the white house. but the president also implements those policies and procedures when it comes to access to classified information and what allows to be suitable for access to classified information to include drug policies. whether it's before federal employment or -- >> but my point is, though, the white house doesn't necessarily have the same policy as, say, the national security community. >> that's true. and those policies can change if they want it to. but presumably, they would want to maintain consistency with

what everybody else is required to do within the federal government so treat their own staff differently. >> if i were seeking employment in the white house and i came to you as my counsel and said, oh, no, they are asking me on a form to acknowledge whether i've smoked pot currently or in the past, what would your counsel be? >> first of all, i would advise that they answer the form truthfully because if you lie on a security clearance form and that comes out, then you can be permanently disqualified from obtaining a security clearance because nothing comes closer in time to your truthfulness and candor and liability and judgment than at the moment you're applying for a clearance when you're filling out that form. that said, going to the issue of marijuana use, i would have to ask them a number of questions. when was their last use? if it was more than a years ago i would feel better or a onetime use i would feel better or the past year i'd say it's probably not going to work out. if it's heavy use over a period

of time, there is going to be some mitigation that has to be involved. there may be a situation where, you know, if somebody used marijuana, say, 15, 20 years ago and it was a handful of times, we can mitigate those concerns because it's about mitigating the concern. if it was heavy usage or more rent recent or the past year that could impact the ability to get through the process. >> if i wanted to work in national security and i have to fill out the sf-86, i note that -- put it up on the screen if we have it. it says the following questions pertain to the use of illegal drugs, yada, yada, yada. yor accordance with federal laws and then asks me if i used drug illegally the last year. i could be in d.c. appropriate d.c. law but because it asks me federal law i have to say i've done something that was illegal?

>> you have violated federal law. and the issue that carries -- what drives the train here is the federal law. did you violate federal law? the answer would be yes. anybody who is filling out that form has to read those questions carefully. if you misstate something, then i have to make the argument if i have to -- if you hire me to appeal or revocation to say yes they may have used marijuana but they didn't lie here that this was an oversight. you have to read the forms carefully and provide truthful answers. >> it just seems fundamentally unfair if i were a chemo patient take -- smoking pot for medicinal purposes, somewhere in the country, right? with a prescription and legally, i would still have to say on this form i've done something illegal. true or false? i'm limited on time. >> yeah. so that goes to mitigation so you may have have a concern about smoking weed previously but if it had something to do with medicinal reasons and

evidence to support why we perhaps can mitigate the issue and get you through the process. one thing i want to flag i've had clients recently had their clearances suspended for using cbd oil. >> oh, my god! >> that is -- >> that is ridiculous! >> i'm sorry? >> sorry. i interrupted you simply to say that is ridiculous! andrew, thank you. we will have you back and continue this. it's a really important conversation. >> absolutely. i'm using cbd oil and i've had my application to serve in the federal government flagged? you must be joking. what came in from facebook? take a peek. . right. right. syd, says -- is that sid barrett? it should be required for everyone working in the government! i want to remind you to answer

this week's survey question smerconish.com. here it is. i'll be curious to see which way this goes. should past marijuana use disqualify you from government service? still to come, on tv, the 1960s cultural revolution came slowly. "green acres" "the beverly hillbillies" they ruled. in 1974 "m.a.s.h." and help how americans thought about movies and entertainment from los angeles. my next guest is here to explain. aliens are real, alright. there's just too much evidence. but ghosts? not so much. i mean where's the proof?

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politics and hollywood have shape america and its values, sometimes in tandem, oftentimes at odds. a terrific new book by ron brownstein identifies 1974 as a pivotal year for our cultural and political life. los angeles, it was the epicenter for this change. the political landscape was being torn up by president nixon's resignation, while simultaneously a revolution was reshaping the country in other ways. pop culture provided a bridge, giving the 1960s a permanent place in our consciousness. there were tv shows on air like "all in the family" depicting the older generation losing its power. the mary tyler moore show and "m.a.s.h." gave license to mistrust of the military and

authority. anti-hero movies like "chinatown were box office smashes and "shampoo" transmitted permissive attitudes about sex and drugs. nashville was filming the very night that nixon stepped down and exposed the dark underbelly of the american dream. southern california musicians like jackson brown, linda ronstadt, were gathering in laurel canyon and singing about such changes in their lyrics. that's all part of ron's new book, called "rock me on the water: 1974, the year that los angeles transformed music, movies and politics". you know him as a senior political analyst and senior editor at "the atlantic." we thought you were the political guy, the number cruncher. what makes you such a culture

maven? >> well, kept. an excellent summary of some of the main points of the book. i've always been fascinated by the interplay between culture and politics, how they play off each other, intersect and how they both kind of respond to or backlash against changes in the way we live. and this story, as you point out, about los angeles in the early 1970s, really fascinated me on two levels. on the first level, it is just an unbelievable constellation of talent. it must have been a lot of fun to be there, because we are talking about linda ronstadt and carol o'connor, mary tyler moore, alan alda, warren beaty, jane fonda, and two generations of directors simultaneously, the great directors born in the '20s and '30s, and the first real contributions from what would be

known as the movie brats. george lucas, steven spielberg. so this is an incredible confluence of talent, but at a deeper level. as you note, this was the moment when the '60s critique of american life was cemented into popular culture, never to be removed. when you hear people on the right say we can win elections, but we've lost the culture, i would argue this was the moment it happened. when you look at movies and television in the 1960s, they did not send message of suspicion of authority, they mostly avoided what was happening. but all of that changed in the late '60s and especially the early '70s in l.a. under the pressure of the growing buying power of the baby boomer. >> i would say the book provided me two things. one, i love the stories. i mean, you show me l.a. through the eyes of warren beaty in 1974, which is not a bad way to

experience the city. >> literally from the penthouse. >> to appreciate the way the '60s crystallized in 1974 los angeles. it's a love letter from a queen's bred writer and political analyst. go figure. >> yeah, exactly. you know, i tried to do two things in the book. i tried to give people a feeling of what it was like to be there at that moment, because it was, as linda ronstadt said, kind of like a prism through american culture was focused in those years. and there were lots of times when i was writing the book in the last few years, very tumultuous, difficult years for america and i wish i could walk through the time machine and wake up in 1974 and be part of it. l.a. was a very different place. it was a small city. and you had all of these people working and living together, you know, literally blocks from each other, all in the family and chinatown and all of this was

being created at the same time in the same place. and i would argue, as i said, under the pressure of the same kind of dynamic, the growing force of the baby boomers was changing culture even as nixon was winning two elections by mobilizing the voters most uneasy about the changes that they were bringing to the culture. that is, to me, a reminder that culture can be ahead of politics in predicting what the country will become. i would argue that is a very similar situation we're in now. if you look at the pop culture that rivets the millennials and generation z, i think that is a better predictor of how we're going to be living in ten years than trump's success at mobilizing a backlash among the voters who are most uneasy about those changes. >> ron, the book is great. i'm rediscovering jackson browne, all bus of you. thank you. >> thank you for the careful read. still to come, more of your

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i didn't get my madness last year, so we're doing double the madness this year. it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute.

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23,000 and change have the correct answer. think about it. i'm going to have a scotch tonight, i may have two scotches. but if i get high in a state where it's legal, i'm precluded from government service? that's malarky. see you next week. good morning to you. it's saturday, march 27th. i'm victor blackwell. >> and i'm christi paul. you are in the "cnn newsroom" and we're so grateful to have you. we're talking and begin with the nationwide outrage we're seeing over new voting restrictions in georgia. >> president biden has joined the response saying that the justice department will look into what he called jim crow in the 21st century. voting rights groups have filed a flurry of lawsuits challenging the law. they argue that it is designed to suppress voter turnout. >> the president, who wo