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>> wait. what's that? >> donald j. trump. donald j. trump! >> he's come to get me. i knew it. it's the muslim stuff, right? it's for calling mexicans rapists. >> no. >> i am not a crook, okay? plus i bet nixon only got one scoop of ice cream for dessert, but i get two scoops. do i think i care about optics? look at me. i sit on every chair like it's a toilet, okay? >> well, tonight in a statement trump is calling the reporting fake news. but it fits the pattern that there was never any issue too small or too personal for trump to misuse the power of the presidency over. sad. we'll be right back.

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republicans blocking democrats' sweeping voting rights bill tonight.

not one gop senator would even allow debate on this crucial issue. plus sources tell cnn that house speaker nancy pelosi will appoint a select committee to investigate the capitol insurrection. it's one of the few options left after republicans blocked a bipartisan commission to get answers on january 6th. and president joe biden tweeting his support for carl nassib, the nfl's first active player to announce that he is gay. and kumio, yolk yama. the president saying that these athletes are helping countless kids see themselves in a new light today. and we're following the early results coming in from new york city's mayoral primary as andrew yang is conceding tonight, telling supporters, i am not going to be the mayor of new york city based on the numbers coming in tonight. let's get right to our political commentator charlie dent, a former republican congressman and senior political analyst ron

brownstein. good evening, gentlemen. we have a lot to talk about. so we're hearing, ron, that the house speaker nancy pelosi is going to appoint this select committee to investigate january 6th. this news coming just moments after republicans blocked that sweeping voting rights bill. on so many levels, we're witnessing a struggle for truth and democracy in this country. how do you think this is going to play out? >> yeah. look, you're right. this is all part of the same struggle, and it is certainly the greatest struggle over the fundamental tenets of american democracy since at least the jim crow era and possibly since the civil war. you see that the vast majority of the republican party both in the states and in washington are operationalizing trump's, you know, discredited claims of fraud in 2020 and moving forward with an incredibly aggressive voter suppression agenda that they are passing, don, importantly on a party line basis in state after state. and in washington they are locking arms both to defend that and to block any further

investigation into what happened on january 6th. in this world, the one lever the democrats have to fight back is their unified control of the congress and the white house. and the critical question on all of these fronts is, are democrats going to use that power, or are they going to be paralyzed by this argument that they have to give a veto to the republicans in the senate who are, in effect, defending what's already happening to roll back democracy in the states. >> republicans have used the filibuster to kill the bipartisan commission to look at the capitol insurrection, to stop even taking up debate on a voting rights bill. how can the gop even say that they are standing up for democracy at this point? >> well, let me first address the filibuster, don. i wish you could have been in the house republican conference after the tea party victories when i used to listen routinely to house republicans talk about eliminating the filibuster. and they wanted to do that because they wanted to jam and

roll the other side. i objected to it then. i object to it now. it has been abused and misused on votes like the commission, and they should have allowed the vote to proceed tonight. that's not to say that because of that -- we should reform the filibuster. on the voting rights legislation, there are some flaws with this for the people act. i mean should the federal government be mandating same-day registration? i think that's an overreach. independent commissions, i think, are valid, but that's a prerogative of the state government. should there be federally financed congressional campaigns? these are serious policy questions. i can understand why a lot of people might object to those. >> charlie, let me ask you because i think it's interesting and it's good that you say reform the filibuster. i think many people would say, okay, fine. let's take a look at that. and also if you think that there needs to be -- if the bills aren't perfect, why not bring it to the floor and debate it and let the american people hear it?

>> well, i would agree. one other thing about the for the people act. that bill was written long before these clays were being made at the state legislative level. i know there are plenty of democrats who have reservations about it but they're happy to hide behind joe manchin on this one. i still think they should pivot to the john lewis voting rights act. i think that addresses the supreme court decision of a few years ago in shelby. that's what i would do. >> would it address what's happening around the country with these restrictive bills? no. >> no, because it's not retro retroactive, right? so the only way they can address -- the only lever they have to address what's happening in the states is to set a nationwide floor of voting rights. i think to represent dent's argument that it was too sweeping, i think we're going to get a test of that. senator merkley told me today that the democratic response to this is going to be to negotiate a slimmed down bill based on the compromise that manchin offered

a few days ago and basically all democrats will unify behind something like that and then ask manchin and sinema and others who claim that this can be done, whether they can find ten republicans. and if they can't, it becomes another proof point in what is really this process, don, that's going to go all the way on for quite a while of trying to move manchin, sinema, and maybe others off their resistance to changing the filibuster by demonstrating to them time after time that there are not ten republicans willing to come to the table. that rather than promoting compromise and negotiation, the filibuster actually makes it easier for republicans to simply stonewall because now they know they can block completely what democrats want to do. if they knew something was going to pass, then they might feel more pressure to actually negotiate. >> charlie, quickly jump in. >> just on the filibuster, look, my experience was that filibuster really facilitated compromise during my time. i would see the house republicans at times would pass

bills that had no chance of becoming law, and the only way we could make these bills reasonable was for adults in the senate in a bipartisan way to come to a consensus, and that's how we would make law. that filibuster helped us reach compromise. i realize it's abused, but at the same time, i'll tell you what. the senate will look a lot like the house and we'll have majoritarian rule. we will have new laws. they will not be durable or sustainable, and that's a shame. you need a bipartisan law in order to make sure these laws are sustainable. i worry about this going forward. >> it's going to be the last word. tough both. i appreciate it. >> thank you. joining me now, democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon. he's one of the chief authors of the for the people act. senator, good to see you. thanks for joining. >> very good to be with you, don. >> so you have said if democrats can't protect voting rights, it will be -- and i quote here -- political armageddon. republicans blocked your bill tonight, so is that where we are? >> no, not yet.

this was just the round one battle. there's going to be a round two, a round three, round four, round five until we get this done because just fundamental constitutional values at stake here. the rights of every american to cast a ballot and help determine the future of our country. >> senator manchin proposed a compromise that includes many parts of the for the people act but would require some form of identification to vote. check out this new monmouth poll. 80% of all americans in favor of this requirement. are you going to support it? >> the way that i've viewed his approach is to say, how does this serve the fundamental premises of which there are four. one, does it stop billionaires from buying elections by getting rid of dark money? the answer is yes. the second of all, does it provide early voting opportunity and absentee voting opportunity so states just can't play shenanigans on election day to prevent people from voting.

the answer is yes. does it provide commissions to be able to stop gerrymandering? the answer is yes. and does it address conflicts of interest that create a lot of corruption so that we can have public servants actually serving the public? and the answer again is yes. so we have a lot to work with here in the manchin proposal. i'm sure there's points that people will bring expertise to bear and say, hey, do you realize how this would work in my state or another state? but we've got a very fundamental proposal. we worked in communication with his team throughout the weekend, and i think there's still some conversation to occur. but i think we've really made big strides. >> so not fully onboard yet but working it out? because the question was are you going to support it? >> yes. well, i think manchin is open to some adjustments as we take information back. we actually haven't seen text yet. >> mm-hmm. >> he may have released it tonight. he said he might be able to release it tonight. so we'll go through that

version, and i'm sure there will be some suggestions. but the vision of working together to produce this bill that he supports, that he has laid the foundation for, i think is very much on track. >> okay. >> the next step will be reaching out to the republican caucus. and if that fails and there's only 50 of us in the senate who will defend the constitution, then those 50 of us have to figure out how to get past the mcconnell veto because we have that responsibility, the oath we took. >> that's the filibuster. if manchin had perhaps been on with changing or carving out or making some sort of changes to the filibuster, perhaps he wouldn't be in this position. and speaking of, senator kyrsten sinema is out with a new op-ed explaining why she is against getting rid of the filibuster to pass voting rights. she says, to those who want to eliminate the legislative filibuster to pass the for the people act, i would ask, would it be good for our country if we

did only to see that legislation rescinded a few years from now and replaced by a nationwide voter i.d. law or restrictions on voting by mail in federal elections over the objections of the minority? so we've heard that argument, but does it stand up in the moment that we're in right now? i have been saying this is a break the glass moment. what do you think? >> so the argument does stand up in this sense, that in that article, sinema said we need to have a vote on process and we need to listen to each other's concerns and considerations. and when people come together to listen to each other and say, what are the pros and cons, then we have the possibility to move forward. we don't have to eliminate the filibuster. at the heart of it was the courtesy of making sure the majority doesn't overrun the minority. and that courtesy has existed from the beginning. then that courtesy was abused for 80 years to stop civil rights legislation, so it had a very dark jim crow connection.

and then it was kind of used on everything by mitch mcconnell to paralyze the senate. the other half of the majority listening to the minority was that ultimately the minority could not paralyze the senate. robert berg made many changes to keep the minority from paralyzing the senate. our founders said don't allow a supermajority to paralyze the senate because they were under a supermajority when they wrote the constitution. so when we get together and share our concerns, i think we can have the ability to restore, reinvigorate, improve kind of the best concept of the filibuster rather than the worst. >> senator merkley, thank you, sir. >> thank you, don. now i want to turn to adam jentleson, the former deputy chief of staff. thank you, adam. good to see you again. >> good to see you again don. >> now that republicans have blocked this voting rights bill,

all eyes again are on the filibuster. you say the question to reform the filibuster boils down to do we want a functional or dysfunctional government? tell us why, adam. >> that's right. well, you know, the question we're facing right now is something that the framers actually predicted when they created the senate. and, you know, one of the big myths about the filibuster is that it's this foundational feature of the senate. that's just simply not true. the framers created a senate that was a majority rule body. this myth that there would be wild swings back and forth is not something that they were afraid of. and they specifically explained in the federalist papers, in their personal correspondence, in the notes of the constitutional convention, the framers specifically explained that if you impose a supermajority threshold and require bills to get more than a majority to pass the senate, that the result would be gridlock. and so this 60-vote threshold that we have in the senate today is something that has only

evolved in the past few daekz and the result is exactly what the framers predicted, gridlock. so if you want to reform the filibuster, what we're really talking about is do you want a government that is capable of functioning at a very basic level? >> mm-hmm. listen, i think charlie spoke very reasonably. he says he believes the filibuster should be reformed. he doesn't necessarily think it should be gotten rid of. i think it's time to look at the filibuster and see if there is some room for reformation or revising it. there seems to be this misconception that the filibuster was something established by the founding fathers, or at least something they supported when in fact they warned against this sort of thing as you said. your various examples in the federalist papers. there it is right there. james madison, alexander hamilton. explain why they were so against it. is it because the gridlock or does it go beyond that? >> yeah. i mean the reason is that they

had just had personal firsthand experience with what congress looks like when you put a supermajority threshold in place. the articles of confederation, which were the first draft of american government that was in place during the revolutionary war, had a supermajority threshold in its version of congress for most major legislation. and they put it there for the same reasons the defenders of the filibuster defend it today. they thought that including and requiring a supermajority threshold would create compromise and consensus. instead, what they saw firsthand in the 1780s was na gridlock was the result. so when they went to write the constitution, this he were coming directly off this firsthand experience of, so that is why they were so focused on this point and were very clear we should not have a supermajority requirement in our legislature. >> kyrsten sinema, the senator, is defending the filibuster. she believes that the 60-vote

fl threshold forces compromise. you're saying the framers didn't necessarily say that. she had an op-ed that was published today. how is she wrong? >> that's right. this is one of the flaws that the framers pointed out in. in federalist 22, alexander hamilton takes on this argument, the same argument senator sinema is making. hamilton wrote that what at first sight might seem a remedy is in fact a poison. he and other framers were very aware that you might think that a supermajority would promote compromise just as sinema is saying it does. but they explain that's not what happens. if you give the minority the ability to wield a veto over the majority, what's going to happen is the minority is going to find it impossible to resist the temptation to use that veto. and they're going to use it to make the majority look bad, to gridlock everything that happens in washington. you know, they predicted this. senator sinema seems content to

ignore that wisdom and continue to engage in this myth that has been debunked by the framers in 1789 and is debunked by our real-life experience of the senate today where the gridlock that results is exactly what the framers predicted would happen if you impose a supermajority threshold. >> adam, we learn so much when you're on. can we get his book back up if we can, please? adam, i learn so much when you come on. i appreciate it. the book is called "kill switch." there it is right there. if you want to learn more about what's happening in the senate, about the filibuster, no one better in my estimation than adam. thank you, sir. i appreciate it. it is the latest boogeyman from the republican outrage machine but a founding theorist of critical race theory says it's not what they're telling you. >> they are propagandizing to our children. they are turning our children away from faith and family and our founding principles and

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the gop latching onto critical race theory as its latest boogeyman, using it as a political rallying try to gin up

the base. the republicans invoking it as a cudgel don't seem to actually understand what it is about. so it's a framework for looking at systemic racism in america's institutions. well, of course that doesn't stop senator josh hawley from saying things like this. here it is. >> young children set off to school with eyes full of hope and hearts full of pride in their country, only to be taught that white privilege defines the nation, that subjects like mathematics are inherently racist, that the christian faith is oppressive. they're taught that the nuclear family perpetuates racism. >> all right. so joining me now is kimberly crenshaw, a leading scholar and founding theorist of critical race theory. kimberly, thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. >> it's a pleasure to be here, don. thank you. >> so let's discuss this, okay? so what senator hawley is saying about critical race theory, is

that what it is? >> well, of course that's not what it is. you know, critical race theory is basically an academic discipline that was started by law professors in the '70s and '80s that intended to look at the reasons why there is so much of a gap between promises of american equality, the promises of the 13th and the 14th amendment, and our ability to realize those promises in real and material ways. sometimes we like to talk about it in terms that acknowledge that race is itself a fiction, but racism is very real. what role has law played over the course of our history in making race real and encoding racism into our institutions? and that's basically been what we've been doing. but, look, i think it's important that we not fall into the trap of trying to define what crt is because that's what they want us to do. what's important is to focus on

what's behind this. what's behind this is not an effort to really think or debate about the history of race and racism. it's not an effort to really think about how it's been embedded in our institutions and how to fix some of its toxicity. what this is, is an effort to respond to last year's incredible mobilization around the killing of george floyd. the fact that there is finally a majority in american society that's willing and wanting to talk about institutionalized forms of racism. they didn't have a way to respond to that, and so they rooted around to find something, and they found critical race theory. so what they're talking about, what this hysteria is about, a, it's not happening. b, it's not what critical race theory is. but, c, it is a wedge issue that they hope to pound all the way to the polls. >> well, okay. i'm glad you said that especially about not letting other people define it because when i talk about teaching the

entire history of the country should be taught in schools. people say, well, that's critical race theory. i say i'm not talking about critical race theory. i'm talking about teaching the truth about history and not allowing people to use buzz terms to sort of define the moment. i'm glad you said what you said because here are some examples of what the right have been saying about critical race theory. listen to this. >> let me tell you right now. critical race theory is bigoted. it is a lie, and it is every bit as racist as the klansmen in white sheets. >> critical race theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color. >> unfortunately critical race theory is a lie. it makes americans hate each other. it's a tragedy in that way. >> it's not going to be allowed in florida classrooms. spending tax dollars to teach kids that america is a rotten place is absolutely

unacceptable. >> okay. klansman in a white sheet, whatever. >> yeah. >> so why have republicans wrapped critical race theory into this buzzword that's being used as a grab bag to attack things that they don't like? >> well, don, it's a very old tale. what is that saying? new wine and old skins, or this is old wine and new skins. this is the old argument that anti-racism is racism against white people. that racial justice is a zero-sum game. and it's an old strategy of creating hysteria, particularly around children. i mean, we have to remember that brown versus board of education, the landmark civil rights victory didn't really go into effect for a decade. why? because the south united in denouncing it as subversive. they united in saying this is a threat to our children, a threat

to our nation. remember, martin luther king was called the most dangerous man in america. so the idea that racial progress is, in fact, an assault against white people, against their heritage, against the very core of american democracy is not a new idea. they've just rehashed it in this moment because it serves to help deflect what the truth is. this is the party that brought you january 6th. it is the party that brought you every effort to cover up january 6th. it has put democracy on life support, and now they're pointing a finger at critical race theory so people don't really look at the bankruptcy of what they're about. >> you point out that critical race theory isn't even taught in k through 12 schools. it is a legal theory taught in law schools. are you worried that even if the gop is wrong about what it is,

that they're going to be successful in hijacking the conversation? because, again, what they're talking about -- none of what they're saying is true. it's not even taught to school kids. i mean it makes no sense, but you know. go on. sorry, kimberly. >> of course i'm worried about it because it's worked in the past. i mean, look, one thing that the republicans are very, very good at is creating hysteria around things that they have put into the mix and then mobilize millions of people to think that they have to fight like their lives depend on it. i mean that's what january 6th was. they created a lie about the election. they ginned people up, and they got them to attack the capitol in defense of democracy, right? this is a very old tactic. it's tried and true. and the real challenge honestly, don, is that so many people are confused about what this is about.

they think that it's really a debate about critical race theory. they don't realize that this is deflection. they don't realize that this is old willie horton kind of politics. so while the other side is ginned up, our folks are trying to find a book. what is it about? is this really happening in schools? so what we have to do is focus on the source. consider the source. consider the playbook. consider what is at stake. and consider what we will lose. already teachers are losing their jobs for teaching ta-nehisi coates. teachers are losing their jobs for teaching spoken word poetry. and what's also on the chopping block is a whole range of things. ethnic studies departments, potentially diversity programs. not only in high schools and in higher education, but also in corporations. >> yeah. >> so they're trying to go for the entire racial justice enterprise. >> well, people like you, we'll

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so as the country opens back up, we are returning to a totally different economy. we've got supply chain issues, worker shortages and the way we all do our jobs has changed now. i want to talk about our new post-pandemic reality with justin wolfers. he's a professor of economics and public policy at the university of michigan. hi, justin. thank you for coming on. >> it's a pleasure. >> listen, the u.s. economy has changed post-pandemic. there are large-scale labor shortages, especially in low-paying jobs. in april alone, 3.95 million americans left the workforce. what's happening, and are these jobs coming back? >> yeah. i want to be careful about calling it a worker shortage. in fact, i want to urge you not

to. >> okay. >> a different way of looking at the labor market is how many people would be employed right now if we had our pre-pandemic trends. it would be about 10 million people more. 10 million missing jobs is about as bad as the darkest days of the 2008-2009 recession. so this is an economy that's still hurting. i think the real question is how optimistic or pessimistic should we be going forward? >> okay. so you said not a worker shortage, right? >> yeah. so, look, here's one way to think about it. imagine that the pandemic had caused half of all couples to get divorced. >> mm-hmm. >> in some sense, it did the employment equivalent of that. if six months later there's a bunch of singles still looking to find their life partners, i don't think that would surprise you. well, the labor market works a bit like that. this is the biggest game of 52 card pickup we've ever played and it's going to take a while for workers and firms to find each other again. >> okay. got it. there's a lot of talk about unemployment benefits, justin,

being a disincentive for low-wage workers to return to work. is that really a problem because those extra benefits would amount to about $15,000 even if they lasted a year, which they don't. >> so those benefits are really helping -- remember, there are millions of people without work, and it's helping them put food on the tables for their families. so it's important to remember the upside of them at the same time. don, let me broaden the conversation, which is what people are worried about is what economists call labor supply, people willing to work. and one of the possibilities is that unemployment insurance affects that, and maybe there's a small effect there. but there are other issues as well like child care. for instance in my town of ann arbor, the local school district has said they're no longer going to offer afterskol care, which is a tremendous problem for parents. there are people in retail who are still quite afraid to work given the wars over masks and the like. and the other thing is this is a unique recession. we have never had a recession

before where millions of people are out of work, yet they all -- or many of them feel confident that the economy is going to come back. normally when we're in a hole, we're worried it's going to get deeper. so maybe people are just feeling a little bit confident, and as a result of that, they feel they can look around a little more to try and find the right job for them in the post-pandemic economy. look, that's a feature of this recovery, not a bug. >> let's take a look at this. this is inflation. it is up 5% since may. the largest increase in inflation since 2008, and it's impacting everything from milk to airline tickets, up 7.2% for milk, 1.6% for alcohol, 3.2% for fresh fruits and vegetables. look, it's terrible for consumers, but it is also threatening the recovery, no? is it? >> one way of thinking about this is the pandemic destroyed both the supply side of the economy and the demand side. no one wanted to work and

produce, and equally no one wanted to spend. so what we have in this reopening is demand and supply both coming back. and what's going to happen through some periods of that is that demand will move ahead a little faster than supply. that's been happening the last couple of months, and that's why you've seen things like lumber prices rise. but later on it's possible that it will reverse and that maybe supply will come back a little stronger as well. a lot of what we're seeing with inflation -- remember, inflation measures where prices are today compared with a year ago. well, a year ago prices were art officially low because we were in the depths of the pandemic. so that's part of it. and part of it's just transitory price adjustments as we're trying to work all the kinks out of reopening this machine we call the u.s. economy. >> justin wolfers, i appreciate that. thank you. >> a pleasure. let's talk about gun sales, okay? listen to this. gun sales way up during the coronavirus pandemic. but the group that is buying

them the most might just surprise you.

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gun sales have been spiking since the pandemic began. the people fueling the rise? women and black americans. here's cnn's ryan young. >> range is hot. eyes and ears. >> it's a little intimidating. >> yes! >> reporter: these black women at this gun range are practicing how to fire a gun, some of them for the very first time. >> i needed to learn how-tos and

do's and don'ts. >> what's it like to be out here with all these black women? >> it's beautiful. for me, it's a feeling of self-empowerment. >> reporter: and a desire for training to protect themselves and their families. >> i feel like in this country, in this climate, if you don't know how to take care of yourself, you're at a disadvantage. >> reporter: gun sales spiked during the covid-19 pandemic, with women and people of color driving a majority of that increase according to the national shooting sports foundation. the number of black buyers increased 58% last year compared to 2019. more than any other group. >> i think for the most part, we're getting guns for self-defense. >> reporter: phillip smith is the president of the national african-american gun association. he says his group has seen a dramatic increase in membership over the last year. >> i'm talking to black doctors, nurses, lawyers, biochemists, from every walk of life in the african-american community, and they're saying, hey, phil, we

we've had conversations about getting a gun tonight. >> reporter: he said they've seen more interest from women specifically. >> black women have stepped up and they're joining in droves. >> reporter: some of the people who have never shot before, you can see them getting that one-on-one training before aiming their gun at the target and firing. they say this is something that's very empowering to them and something they're glad they've been able to do. while the latest spike in gun sales among black buyers may be driven in part by the pandemic and an uptick in crime in major cities nationwide, it's not necessarily new. >> i mean guns have always been in our history. it's just not told. >> reporter: but could carrying a gun for protection become a factor that could lead to a deadly confrontation with police? that's also on the minds of black gun owners. >> when you have a gun and you're a black gun owner, you have a different set of rules. >> reporter: philando castile, who was licensed to carry, was shot and killed in 2016 by a police officer during a traffic stop. the officer said he opened fire

when he thought castile put his hand on his firearm. he was later found not guilty on all counts. >> but we don't want to turn around the next day and say, you know what? we need to all put our guns away because that's the worst thing you can do because we're getting shot anyway. we need to protect ourselves and let everyone know that you have a right to the second amendment. our ancestors died for that. my ancestors died for that. >> reporter: on the range, they want to shift what gun ownership in america looks like. >> perfect. very good shooting. >> reporter: are you hoping to change the perception of black folks and guns? >> i do actually because i don't see why we can't exercise our second amendment rights. if everyone else can, why can't we? >> reporter: don, it's really all about changing the perception when it comes to black people and guns. this effort here is to make sure people realize it's their second amendment right to be able to fire and bear arms. that's something that's been repeated over and over again throughout this course, and something that people here seem to enjoy. >> ryan young, thank you very

much. i appreciate that. so the football world is reacting to nfl player carl nassib coming out as gay. in the days since his announcement, he's got one of the top-selling jerseys. sts? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena®

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you know the pressure of being an nfl player. how much courage did it take for n nassib to speak out publicly and share this like he's done? >> it's taken him 15 years, he said. and i mean just thinking about the agony of having the burden of the necessity for him to come out, and he said it himself. he's a pretty private person. but i think one of the more telling things with what happened with what carl said in his instagram post is that he's not necessarily doing this for him. he's more so doing this for the lgbtq youth who he explicitly stated in his post that, you know, just by one accepting, one caring adult in the life of an lgbtq youth kid, that decreases the suicide among this community

by 40%. just one person. i think that's a statistic that i didn't know. that's devastating to even have to think about. but the fact that he took that on himself and he put the burden on his shoulders to come out and say, hey, this is my truth, and i'm going to live it, and i hope that it helps others do the same. and it obviously will. you're talking about the nfl, right? it's the most manly, macho sport on the planet. but for him to do that and not only for him to come out and do this but for his teammates to rally around him, for his head coach, for the team owner, for other guys, other superstars in the nfl, that means a lot. allyship means a lot, and i think that, you know, you'll see hopefully this open up more doors for other professional athletes, including more nfl players. >> i want to talk about this because you have been open about the fact that up say you used to be homophobic.

you didn't have any gay friends at the time. but then you took a hard look at yourself. something opened your eyes. tell me how this has changed for you. >> yeah. it was a really interesting scenario for me, just some introspection that i, as a person, never thought, you know, as a young guy, i never thought that i was homophobic because i wasn't looking at gays like i wanted to do them harm. i didn't look at them like, you know, they're a different kind of person. but i did have that mentality. i did have that attitude, and just because i wasn't verbalizing it in any manner or just because i wasn't vocalizing it doesn't mean that those feelings weren't there. and it all came to fruition really after i was sitting down in a restaurant that i frequented in miami as an nfl player called nobu. i knew everyone there because i was there every day. and i was inviting some of them out because i had a table that

night later at this nightclub called mint. and i asked them if they would all like to come, you know, and hang out and have some drinks, hang out after a long day of work. >> yeah. >> so one of my friends there, her name is dee. she told me that one of the guys wasn't going to come through, and i was like, why? is he busy? he should come. we're all going to be there hanging out. she was like, well, he's gay and it's a macho thing. i really took offense, like, am i giving off these vibes like i don't want to be around him. she was like, no, it's the whole nfl kind of macho thing. so long story short, he ended up coming through later on, and he and i talked for like 30, 45 minutes as two human beings. >> that began your journey. i'm out of time. sorry, donte. i've got to get to the next show. thank you, i appreciate your perspective. as you know, we have you on often. we'll have you back. thanks so much. you be well. >> thanks. you too. >> thanks for watching, everyone. our coverage continues .

welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and around the world. i'm rosemary church. just ahead here, republicans have blocked the democrats' attempt to pass a sweeping voting rights bill but the administration says the fight is not over. we'll hear from the president later today as the country confronts a sharp rise in homicides as pandemic restrictions are lifted. and the u.s. is falling a bet short of its goal to vaccinate 70% of alldu