>> from the movie mad max hit number two the next year in 1985. and she also starred in the movie with mel gibson. ♪ female attraction, on a typical man ♪ >> and that hit number two a year later in 1986. it was from the album break every rule. followup to private dancer. an icon, right? thanks for joining us. i'm christine romans. krnk cnn morning oig starts right now. starts right now. good morning, everyone. happy thursday. we have a lot to get to. let's start with five things to know. ron desantis officially a presidential candidate. the big launch on twitter spaces

was, as predicted by some, overshadowed by technical glitches. >> also new overnight, america's credit rating is at risk. a key rating agency now put the u.s. on watch. the one week to go until a possible default. and house speaker kevin mccarthy is set to send house members home for the weekend with no deal. >> meanwhile, u.s. intelligence is indicating that a ukrainian group may have been behind that recent drone attack on the kremlin. officials picking up chatter of ukrainians blaming one another. >> and anti-lgbtq campaign takes on corporate america again. target remove sometimes pride merchandise after some employees were threatened. >> and fans around the world are san. she was the queen of rock 'n' roll, tina turner died at age 83. we're going to remember her life and her legacy on "cnn this morning" which starts right now.

>> she was the queen. >> the queen. simply the best. >> we're going to honor her this morning. you're going hear a lot of tina turner this morning. get ready. we do begin with politics and ron desantis's presidential campaign is officially under way after a rough start after technical difficulties. >> all right. sorry about that. we have got so many people here that i think we are -- we are crashing the servers, which is a good sign. >> i don't know. is it a good sign for lanch for a presidential campaign? a lot of people were interested, logging on. the live stream of the big announcement on at which time we are elon musk crashed multiple times. it is making headlines for the wrong reasons this morning, including in his home state.

today top fundraisers are gathered to strategize, raise cash to take on donald trump and other gop contenders. let's start with jessica dean. jessica, a lot of hype. we're also surprised. unique way to do it. didn't go off as expected. >> yeah, good morning, poppy. this was such an anticipated moment. of course, ron desantis' entrance into the race has been talked about and analyzed for months. for him to finally get in was a big moment. and his people, his campaign and team, they want to do this in an unconventional way. the down side to that, the potential issue is that you can run into technical glitches. technical glitches crashing ron

desantis' presidential announcement. >> we have a massive number of people online so the servers are straining. >> the start of the audio vent only on twitter spaces suffered disruptive audio and repeatedly kicked users out. >> fox news will not crash in this interview. >> desantis afterward going on fox news, spinning the glitchy rollout this way. we had a huge audience. the biggest they ever had. it did break the twitter space. >> former donald trump slamming it on truth social. is the ron desantis launch fatal? yes. it took 20 minutes for elon musk and team to sort out the glitches. >> i am running for president of the united states to lead our great american come back. >> desantis also took a veiled jab at donald trump. >> we must end the culture of losing that infected the republican party in recent years. >> back on fox, desantis announce the his day one plan if elected president. firing the fbi director. >> i would not keep chris rahes.

i think the doj and fbi lost their way. i think that they've been weapon yuzed against american who's think like me and you. >> desantis who signed a six-week abortion ban in florida earlier this year offering this view on the issue. >> i think that there's role for both the federal and the states sfw and while it remains to see if t trump will remain on the race, i think they should deep. i think people want to hear it. >> the campaign saying that they raised $1 million in the first hour after that announcement. and desantis is sitting oen an unprecedented amount of cash. some $100 million, poppy. as you mentioned, he has donors here in miami. they're getting together now to maximize this moment and raise even more money as they launch him into this race. we do expect him to hit the campaign trail quickly and pretty aggressively in those early states. we're keeping our eye on that. and that's what's really going

to matter. we can talk about these glitches. we can talk about what that means and analyze it. but ultimately, it comes down to the voters and getting out in the early states and how they're going to react to him. we'll see how that goes in the coming days. >> that's 100% right. thank you for that reporting. >> desantis' campaign tried to play off the glitchy live stream event. glitching may be putting it nicely. breaking the internet. but he gave his current and potential future rivals an opening to troll him. trump still not choosing to use twitter yesterday, saying it was a disaster. biden's campaign immediately using it to fundraise, writing this link works and linking supporters where they can donate to his campaign. fox news taking a swipe at desantis and headline on the home page last night. amateur hour? and much desantis's presidential announcement a disaster. fox boasted you can see and hear desantis at 8:00 p.m. with the

interview on their network. joining us now is the co-founder and editor of chief. this was entirely predictable. >> by the way, predicted this yesterday. >> it was pretty obvious. it was an audio only vent. if this happened in the regular campaign launch that, staff would be fired if it went this poorly. and every headline talking about your launch was about the fact it was not great. >> i think, you know, ee llon m is a huge figure. i don't think there is anyone to fire beyond the candidates themselves. you know, talking to elon musk, making a decision like this. incredibly strange thipgng to d. it does give you renewed respect. one thing about television, i'm an internet person so it pains me to say this you turn it on and it does work. >> most of the time.

don't jinx us. >> you have rue purt ert myrrh and all he wants to do is have ron desantis president. and desantis just begins the campaign by sticking his finger in fox news' eyes and they're really trying to help hichlt they come out making fun of him. that was the strangest part of the whole thing. >> what do you think it says more broadly, though, about elon musk continuing to say tucker carlson, watching your show on twitter. come here, we'll replace social media. >> i think they're making a real run at fox news. i think the space and the culture is broadly shrinking. conservative media is a big play. fox has huge problems. twitter, other places like the daily wire are starting to -- >> you have to get it to work.

media is a weird, hard business. they're trying to turn night a broadcast thing that really didn't work. >> yeah. >> also, the point of launching your presidential campaign is straight down the middle, here's my pitch, here's my running. there wasn't a ton of that in the twitter spaces once it did get started. of course, later he seemed like a more typical candidate. there's a moment we pulled a highlight of what he was talking about last night. >> biden allowed woke ideology to drive his agenda. we'll never surrender to the woke mob and we'll leave woke ideology in the dust. and they're not going to be road kill in some type of woke olympics. we did provide protection against this debanking with the woke banking. the woke mind virus is a form of cultural marxism. we have no choice but to wage a war on woke.

>> if this is the core that desantis is making that talking about woke debanking, those are ideas and words that will penetrate deeply enough into the elderly iowa primary elect rat. that will hold people out for him. i think, you know, donald trump ran with the same level of anger and energy that issue he chose is immigration which is not hard to explain. i do think the bigger bet here is that these things that p poem -- people basically talk, to most republicans don't know what the words mean. if you ask americans, are you concerned about woke debanking are going to look at you like you're crazy. the big bet is that these cultural battles that live on twitter, started on twitter, are hard to understand if you leave twitter. they're going to move a lot of people in places like iowa, ham next winter. >> yep. we'll see what looks like, obviously. the glitches were overshadowing the launch. we'll see the actual substance now that he's a candidate.

>> there's a long way to go. >> thank you. >> thank you. the credit rating action has placed united states on ratings watch negative. that's a bad thing. it reflects the uncertainty surrounding the current debt ceiling debate and possibility of the country's first ever default. the white house responded. the treasury department responded overnight. here's what the white house said. this is one more piece of evidence that this is not an option. this underscores the need for twist bipartisan action by congress to raise or us is spent the debt limit. janet yellen has been worng the u.s. could run out of money to bay the bills by the first of june. that is a week from today. in a couple hours, lawmakers are set to reset. senior republican officials tell cnn the prospect for passing a deal by next week are grim. house speaker kevin mccarthy says negotiators did make progress at the meeting. he told reporters he thinks they could reach a deal soon.

>> there is a number of issues that are out there. we're working on. and we've been able to find ways on a couple of these. there is still a number of them out there. we work as hard as we can. >> lauren fox joins us on capitol hill this morning. he will be called back if negotiations do reach, you know, a deal. is that right? >> there's good news and bad news in the message that you're getting from republican leadership right now. on the positive side, they do feel like they made some gains yesterday in more than four hours of negotiations between the republican side and the white house yesterday at the white house. one of the things that became clear is there is some agreement over resending some of the unspent funds for the covid pandemic. some of the money that went out to states and locations that just hasn't been spent yet. given the fact that it's now three years from the start of

that pandemic, there's agreement from republicans and democrats that they should claw some of that money back. meanwhile, they are still trying to find a way forward on the huge question of how much money the government should be spending over the next several years. the reality is even if they can clinch a deal in the next 72 hours, which could happen, there is a possibility that that is not enough time to get you to the june 1st deadline. that is because over and over again, republican leaders insifrte ins insisted they're going to give them 72 hours to read and dweel whatever bill they come up with. that is a heavy lift. we should note that there are democrats who are getting very nervous about the direction of these discussions. you have to remember, nancy pe los pe -- nancy pelosi is no longer

leading that charge. they're leading the charge to get the votes together to pass it on to the house. poppy? >> lauren fox. one week to go. let's hope. thank you very much. >> kaitlan? >> also this morning. new u.s. intelligence indicates the ukrainian group may have been responsible for that kremlin drone attack that happened earlier this month. sources now say that u.s. officials have picked up some chatter from members of ukraine's military speculating that ukraine special forces conducted that operation. the u.s. hasn't reached a definitive conclusion and officials do say it's unlikely that president, president zelenskyy is the one that ordered that attack. natasha bertrand joins us from the pentagon. what is ukraine saying about this intelligence? is there a sense its will become definitive? >> yeah. ukraini ukrainian president zelenskyy denied this. they discussed the possibility and kind of speculating that

ukrainian special operations forces were thinned attack. now that's not definitive. u.s. intelligence officials only assess with low confidence at this point that any ukrainian group was actually behind this attack. however, they do believe it is highly unlikely that president zelenskyy himself or any other senior ukrainian government officials were either involved in this or even had knowledge of brit it actually happened. now in, importantly, the russians continue to blame the ukrainians. there is still no proof of whether this was perhaps a pro ukrainian group based inside russia that did this or even perhaps a group of russians inside russia who did this. the intelligence community is looking at a number of possibilities here. it is, you know, not the first time we should note that the u.s. has suspected that the ukrainians have been behind an attack on russian soil. there was a car bombing in moscow. they killed the daughter of a very prominent russian political figure that was attributed by u.s. intelligence officials to

ukrainians. there the are other instances of attacks on russian soil they believe were likely ukrainian groups. there is still no proof here that anyone in the government has something to do with this. the u.s. is using this chatter. you know, information about who would be moetdtivated to do thi. >> if they do assess eventually that it is someone within the ukrainian government that was behind this, and the u.s. has been so out there talking about not wanting ukraine to strike inside russia, is this something that republicans could say would hinder aid to ukraine? what is your sense of that? >> well, it certainly has hindered aid to ukraine in the sense that the administration has not wanted to give the ukrainians long-range weapons that could potentially allow them to launch attacks inside russia. for example, the long-range misthalm missiles that ukraine is begging for, that is a red line for us at this point. we don't want to give you the option to strike deep inside

russia. when it comes to broader aid, the u.s. said we don't want ukraine to be attacking russia in this way. we don't want them to use u.s. weapons to do that. also, it's up to ukraine how they wage this war ultimately. >> yeah. natasha bertrand, keep us updated if they move that to a definitive conclusion. donald trump's legal team is pushing merrick garland to shut down federal investigations of the former president. we'll tell you the argument they're making about why. that's next. and saying good-bye to a legend. a superstar. we'll have the latest tributes pouring in for the queen of rock 'n' roll, tina turner. ♪ so i choose neuriva plus. unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger. at adp, we understand business today looks nothing like it did yesterday. while it's more unpredictable, its possibilities are dless.

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ we don't need another hero we don't need to know the way home ♪ ♪ all we want is what ♪ >> the voice and the woman. this morning the world is mourning the death of the queen of rock 'n' roll, tina turn you are. fans laying flowers about her hollywood walk of fame and outside her home in switzerland. she was 83 years old and tributes to her are pouring in from friends and fellow superstars. mcjagger calling her a friend enormously tall ended. mariah carey describing her as legendary, iconic and diva

superstar and her friend oprah calling her fittingly, simply the best. throughout her decade's long career, tina turner won 12 grammys, sold over 100 million records and inducted into the rock 'n' roll hall of fame twice, once with her ex-husband and then again solo just two years ago. she released hits after hit. but in 1997, she told larry king which one was her favorite. >> i think "simply the best". >> why? >> at the time when i got it, no one believed in it but me. >> she skyrocketed to fame after partnering with the singer ike turner who she later married. but after years of suffering physical and emotional abuse, she left him and she started over with almost nothing. she made her solo come back a decade later. of she was in her 40s and released a multiplatinum album including her hit song, "what's love got to do with it."

♪ >> joining us with more on her iconic life and career is rolling stone's senior writer brittany spanos. thank you so much. i think this reverberated everywhere when people heard the news yesterday. >> i felt crushed when i read it. it was so devastating. she is such an icon. she is someone all of us heard her music for so many years and grew up loving her. and she's fantastic. it's really devastating. >> you are senior writer of "rolling stone." she was the first black and female artist to be on the cover of "rolling stone." she was inducted into the hall of fame not once but twice. talk about the impact she leaves on music. >> yeah. she is also the second cover of "rolling stone" too. that is a pretty big impact. she is the foundation of so much of rock 'n' roll and performance and all of that. you know, every great rock star,

every great pop star is either directly or indirectly affected by tina turner's performance style. that is something that everyone tried to imitate. everyone is trying to be the greatest rock singer of all time. >> i'm impressed by people that have struggles in their personal life and how they come back and how they maintain professional success. we were talking about her song, "what's love got to do with it," that was also the name of the movie. she was talking about the abuse she suffered and what was like to come back from that in an interview with larry king. >> did the picture do it justice? >> yes, i think in a way. i would have liked to have them to have had more truth. but, disney, it's impossible. people would not have believed the truth. >> do you realize that you're a feminist hero in america? heroine? >> no.

>> do you realize that? >> i'm beginning to. you see, it wasn't something that i planned. i kind of see it as a gift because of the life i lived. it had a meaning. and i think that the meaning was all of what is happening now. i think that if i had not had given the story to the world, maybe my life would not be as it is. >> impact of those comments, february 1997. >> yeah. domestic abuse and domestic violence is not something talked about openly and publicly when she came forward. she came forward before she had the world at her finger tips. and, so, that incredible bravery is something that is a big part of the legacy. but also, you know, the trauma doesn't define her. by that point in her life, this is someone who is selling out stadiums around the world. she had usurped everything she had done with ike. it was bawlall about what tina .

>> she suffered this abuse for 16 years and she decided to leave him and he abused her again in the car from the airport to the hotel. she left about 36 cents in her pocket and a mobile credit card. she said i felt proud. i felt strong. i felt like martin luther king. >> and yeah, it was like a rebirth for her in a sense on her own with that strength. >> she was so young when she started working with ike and eventually married him. she had two young children and raising his previous two children as her own. she knew she needed to get out and she knew she had to leave. to suffer that type of abuse and having that on top of someone that is also employing you, that was her livelihood. and to do that and to start over, she literally started from scratch. it's incredible what she is able to achieve. >> thank you for helping us honor hor. >> thank you for having me. also this morning, tracking this story from the south out of mississippi where an 11-year-old

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he called 911 needing help. but then he was shot in the chest by an officer. this 11-year-old boy from mississippi is now thankfully at home and recovering this morning. but his family is demanding to know why things went so wrong. we're tracking this story. that is everyone's immediate reaction here. how does a child who calls the police for help end up being shot by the responding officer? what do you know? >> his mother tells me, kaitlan, after darren murray was shot in the chest by police, he asked his mother what did i do wrong? why did i get shot? according to his mother this unfolded at 4:00 a.m. when the father of another one of her children showed up at her home at 4:00 in the morning irate. she was scared for her safety. she snuck a cell phone to him to call 911. he did.

when the officer showed up at her home, he had his gun drawn already. he asked everyone to get out of the home. and that's when he came from around the corner of a hallway into the living room and she says that police officer opened fire once shooting him in the chest. he was put on a ventilator at the icu at the university medical center in jackson, mississippi, about 100 miles away. this unfolded in a predominantly black area of the mississippi delta, very impoverished community. he suffered a lacerated liver, fractured lungs and -- sorry, developed a collapsed lung and fractured ribs and lacerated river. this was all reportedly caught on police body camera. that has not been released. >> what is the sense yf that body camera footage is not released yet? >> you know, i want to make this clear. we repeatedly called the local police department to get answers. they never got back to us after multiple messages. mississippi bureau of investigation, they did get back to us to say that they are not

releasing this because of an on going investigation. this officer has been identified as greg capers, the local board of alderman voted to place him on paid administrative leave. the family and family attorney, they're making this very clear. they want this officer charged. they want him fired. they're planning a it sift sit protest later. >> thank you. ahead, former president trump making a direct appeal to the attorney general, merrick garland. why his legal team is arguing he shouldn't be indicted. ♪ you got a minute?

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donald trump's lawyers want to meet directly with attorney general merrick garland to ask him to shut down the justice department's criminal investigations into the former president. in a statement yesterday, a spokesperson said doing so would, quote, allow the presidential campaign to move forward without interference.

special counsel jack smith is investigating the former president's handling of classified documents and his potential efforts to overturn the 2020 election. cnn reported that smith appears to be in the final stages of that investigation on the documents. wil he could soon decide whether to indict president trump. this is a development from what we talked to you about yesterday. does the trump team have any leverage here to actually make this appeal successful? >> well, poppy, they can try to make this appeal successful. they can try to get this meeting with garland. but we don't know if they're actually going to get a meeting with the attorney general at this point. what they're doing here, it's not entirely clear exactly what this is, is this a legal effort or is this primarily a political effort? but we do know from a team of reporters who have been working on this, we have an understanding now that there are basically three asks that the trump team wants to make of attorney general garland.

so, going over that head of the special counsel jack smith to go to garland, they want to ask garland to close the probes that he enlisted jack smith to do. we also know that they want to protect donald trump's 2024 campaign. there is this concern that he is in the middle of the campaign season and perhaps they believe these investigations need to end so donald trump can continue campaigning unaffected. also, they want to argue to garland why he should not be indicted. that is something that often defense attorneys want to do at the end of a case. but in this circumstance, some of our sources were telling us that jack smith has not even informed the trump team at this point that donald trump should be expecting to have a decision on whether or not he will be indicted or be informed of it any time soon. so, what this is, we just need to see exactly how the justice department responds. at this point in time, its no

the clear whether they received this letter. it was posted on social media. it with was delivered via currier. we have not got any comment from the justice department yet. and, so, we're going to have to see exactly if merrick garland is going to buy into what they want to talk to him about. >> we were trying to track this down yesterday. trump posted this letter on truth social on his website. that seemed to be the first that some people had even seen it. the justice department has not confirmed they received this letter yet. >> right. we have no comment from the justice department at this time. it really is unclear whether they have. there is also some ccs there, other people that were supposed to have received this letter and one of the ccs is just representatives of congress and unspecific set of names. there are no names there. usually they say exactly which house or senate chair people you're sending it. to we haven't heard anyone on the hill yet that said they received it. >> they did in the hall of congress. >> thank you. we appreciate the reporting as

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this morning, target is now the latest company to be facing intense backlash over its support for the lgbtq community. target has been celebrating pride month for years. yesterday announced it is making some last-minute changes to its 2023 collection namely removing some merchandise from the shelves citing an anti-lgbtq

campaign threatening workers safety. it's no the clear which products have been pulled. there are some right-wing critics slamming target for several items they had including a swimsuit that was described as tuck friendly. able to conceal male genitalia. the information was spreading across social media and marketed to children but not. we should be clear. products that were made by uk designer who often uses satanic symbols in his designs were also criticized like this sweatshirt that read cure trans phobia not trans people. obviously, nathaniel, we've seen the backlash happening here. do we know exactly -- i guess this is how much target is pulling. what is in the products that they're taking off the shelves? >> every year target celebrates pride month. it has a collection of, you know, t-shirts, mugs, hats, that sort of thing. this year, there are about 2,350 products in the collection.

but target has been the subject of an anti-lgbt campaign particularly on social media. driven by far right activists, commentators and right-wing media and created a hostile work environment for employees. there are videos on social media of people stomping some of the lgbt signs, pulling some of the merchandise. and so target says they're going to remove a few items because out of fear of employee safety and sense of well-being. >> so, they're saying essentially that their concern is employees have nothing to do with what target stocks on its shelves. they're worried about their safety. what is the response that you're seeing from the critics? >> target's response isn't pleasing anybody. supporters of gay rights feel that target caved to far right extremists. california governor gavin newsome called out the ceo of target brian cornell for selling out to the lgbtq community.

target's move may alienate younger shoppers increasingly supportive of gay and transgender rights. 21% of gen-z identify as lgbt. so this could alienate them. >> certainly co. and as governor newsome is saying, not just a few stores, this is happening in a systemic fashion. it's not just target though. what other stores are being targeted for this as well? >> so, this comes amid a wave of anti-lgbt legislation. the human rights campaign says there have been 70 anti-lgbt bills enacted this year which is a record. the other brands have been caught in the culture wars over gender identity, sexual orientation. you think of disney and the so-called don't say gay law in florida. disney has been -- >> which is what critics call it. >> critics call it the don't say gay law. it is the subject of a lot of controversy with governor ron desantis. bud light, a single instagram post with a transgender

influencer, bud light sales plunged. nike is also working with dylan. they've been the target of criticism. so these brands are really struggling to navigate this incredibly politicized environment driven by social media. >> yeah. we saw governor desantis yesterday defending that feud with disney as he was launching his presidential campaign. thank you for breaking it down for us this morning. there is a lot there. poppy? >> this is going to be so interesting to follow where this goes from here. thank you guys. in sports this morning, the florida panthers made history. >> the florida panthers are headed to the stanley cup finals! >> the eighth seeded panthers beat the carolina hurricanes 4-3, becoming the first ever nh team to enter lower seed and sweep a best of seven series and earn a berth in the stanley cup final. the engine behind all of it, matthew tkachuk. the breakout star of the

playoffs. no question about that. the game tied at three in the final seconds. tkachuk rips in the game winning goal with five second to go. the panthers are headed to the stanley cup final for the second time in their history. they'll take on the vegas golden knights or the dallas stars. the knights currently three 3-0. >> can the celtics keep the season alive tonight? tipoff against miami heat will lead the series 3-1 is at 8:30 p.m. eastern time tonight on tnt. >> can't wait to watch and see what happens. i know you'll be watching closely. >> totally. all right. also this morning, a veteran at the irs has gone public as the whistle-blower in the hunter biden criminal probe. the information he claims to have. we'll tell you about it next and also whether or not it's true. also, our next guest with the warning for all of us houhow do we save democracy? david pepper on his new book is here next.

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just this week alone, we saw the power that state governments have. south carolina passed a six-week abortion ban to the governor's desk. in nebraska, the governor signed a 12 week abortion ban. a florida school removed a poem that was read at president biden's inauguration. from the elementary section of the school library and into the middle school section after one

complaint from a parent. that was under the state's, quote, stop woke act." all three of the states have government trifectas, the republican party holds the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. republicans have 22 of those overall. democrats have 17. the former chairman of the ohio democratic party, david pepper, has a new book out called "saving democracy: user's manual for every american." he argues that remembers are stronger running for lower level offices and he use this is analogy to illustrate his point with an is sift from h-- apn assist from his son. >> he learned a lesson. >> offense wins the game. >> go ahead. >> the team that is always on offense wins the game. >> and david joins us now. one, why didn't you bring

charlie? and, two, in all seriousness, reading your book, you essentially say i don't like this idea of an off year, an off election year. >> first of all, charlie is at home much whatting that. he is going to be so excited. >> yea. bring him next time. >> that's amazing. this is the problem. the democracy of our country is shaped in states and state houses. that's where the election rules are written. that's where the districts are drawn. you can either have a rules and districts that lead to a competitive and represent democracy or one, like in many of the states we're talking about, it's locked and the results are guaranteed. one side has been on offense in that place for decades. and the other side, unless something happens to a swing state for federal reele-electios not in the states. the team that is always on offense does win the game. and right now even the democrats have done well in certain federal elections. even when they win the elections for the most part, republicans have locked down state houses.

the reason why all the stories you mentioned are happening is state houses have become unaccountable places. half of the tennessee republicans who kicked out the two justices didn't even face opponents in last year's election. so, of course, they're going to act like they're acting. every incentive in the world is to be more extreme. and until the other side gets into the places and starts competing, its going to keep going on just like it is. >> your book prior to this one is called laboratories of autocracy. the way you open this one i think is so interesting. you say the arc is long. we think it's going to be the famous mlk quote. but it dendzbends in the directf whoever is pushing it harder for longer is pushing. >> it's true. i worry about that quote. i think martin luther king was saying this the idea that it just naturally bending in one direction automatically is actually ahistoric. there is always been a fight for democracy in our country.

>> you think it eventually bends towards justice. >> he does. but it doesn't bend that way by itself. the only reason it bent towards justice is because millions of people, and i'm calling on americans in this book to be among those people, have been pushing and struggling and fighting to bend it against other people who, frankly, were pushing it the other way. it came through years of struggle. and right now my worry has been that we kind of are in this world where we assume democracy is automatically intact. that justices automatically are there. that's not our history. you have to keep pushing for it. when it's under attack, it is, in all these states and we're seeing the consequences as you went through. it looks one way in florida. another way in north carolina. in ohio, they're trying to change the constitution in crazy and illegal ways. those are all happening because at the heart of our democracy or state houses, they're largely unaccountable and can attack democracy over and over again.

and never be held accountable for doing. so we have to bring that accountability back. >> you also send base ically a warning shot to corporations saying what is happening to disney is your future. >> yeah. and i really respect that disney is fighting back to be clear. so many corporations are giving to politicians and the way they used to. and right now in all the states, they are giving in a way this is lifting autocracy, propping up the extremist systems. disney gave to the legislators who then passed the don't say gay bill. and all of a sudden the disney employee said why did you give the people attacking us? that is the future for all companies that keep giving to the politicians in the laboratories. my advice to companies is avoid that fate. you're a broad consumer facing com company, you're always going to run into. this use your footprint to lift

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