this sunday, the fight over guns. >> there's a shooter, active shooter. get away. >> that mass shooting in boulder, colorado, ten dead. >> i don't know how to go to work and look to the spot where my friends died and be okay. >> once again, the familiar arguments from democrats. >> this is not about getting rid of the second amendment. it's simply about saying we need reasonable >> what i'm not attracted to is something that doesn't work. >> why can't congress pass even popular new gun safety legislation? my guest this morning, republican senator pat toomey of

pennsylvania and democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. >> plus, violence against asian-americans. >> if you seed brothers and scissors in need, will you help us? >> asian-american members of congress meeting today with the families of the victims of the georgia spa shootings. >> we want to make sure that this is investigated as a hate crime and not just as a bad day. >> i'll talk to the leader of the delegation, congresswoman judy chu of california. voting access under assault. georgia republicans pass sweeping laws changing voting access that democrats say targets black voters. >> it's un-american, it's anti-democratic. we have to resist it. >> we're actually expanding the right to vote in georgia. you're not hearing that from the other side. >> could this be the fight that leads to the end of the filibuster? joining me for inside and analysis, republican strategist al cardenas, nbc news

investigative and consumer correspondent vicky nguyen, "new york times" white house correspondent peter baker and heather mcgee of the civil rights advocacy group, color of change. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from innocence news in wash, the longest running show in television hi stris, this is a special edition of "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. the satirical website the opinion i don't know follows a ritual running this headline, no way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens. there's truth in humor, and in this case it's a dark truth. consider march 16th, eight people including six women of asian descent killed in atlanta. march 17th, five shot in a drive-by shooting in stockton, california, march 18th, eight people shot in gresham new orleans, march 20th, two killed,

17 wounded in mass shootings in philadelphia, dallas and houston. monday, 13 killed, another five wounded in boulder, colorado, detroit and leave wounded in alabama and atlanta. friday, six killed, 25 wounded in chicago, memphis, philadelphia and virginia beach. yesterday, one killed, 13 wounded in riv grove, illinois, chicago and yazoo city, mississippi. all that since the spa attacks. those compiled by the non-profit group gun violence archive which defines a mass shooting as four or more people getting shot not including the perpetrator. after a high-profile incident, u.s. politicians follow their own ritual. democrats say enough is enough time to get an assault weapons ban passed. republicans say enough about gun control, this is a mental health problem and we need to protect the second amendment.

and what happens? nothing gets done. for a year we have been obsessed with the pandemic and our medical system has done a brilliant job attacking that problem. but when it comes to our epidemic of gun violence, our political system has no answers. >> mns is gone. >> from newtown. >> as a country, we have been through this too many times. >> to orlando. >> bang, bang, bang. >> to actively do nothing is a decision as well. >> to southerland springs. >> i've personally gotten a little tired of the statements following these tragedies that we need to do something. >> to parkland. >> we want to send a message to these politicians they can't allow this to continue. >> to las vegas. >> we'll be talking about gun laws. >> to el paso. >> i think we can have some really meaningful background checks. >> to atlanta. >> a white male. what is he wearing. >> i don't know. >> women that look like me are

constantly being attacked and harassed, nou killed. >> to boulder. >> there's a shooter, active shooter, get away. get back. >> there have been 2,805 mass voot tinges since the gun violence archive began compiling data in 2014. they have become more frequent. when it comes to considering tighter gun laws, the response by most republicans in washington has been a never ending cycle of wash, rinse, repeat. >> unfortunately in washington, emotion i think often leads to bad policies. >> we need to really focus on the facts before we take hard positions. >> is not the time to jump to some conclusion not knowing the full facts. >> in 2004 the 1994 assault web ponce ban was allowed to expire. even after a mass shooting in sandy hook left 20 first graders dead, president obama was unable to pass the legislation. >> all in all this was a pretty shameful day for washington. >> that's despite growing

support for some gun restrictions. in a recent poll conducted in 2019 after mass shootings in el paso and dayton, 89% supported expanding background checks to all gun sales and transfers. 76% supported red flag laws to help law enforcement remove guns from those posting as an imminent danger to themselves or others. 75% supported a voluntary gun buyback program. 62% supported banning assault weapons. the house passed two bills this month, extending background checks to most private gun sales and lengthening the time the fbi has to complete a background check to a minimum of ten days. >> the united states senate -- i hope some are listening -- should immediately pass the two house-passed bills that cause loopholes in the system. >> 61% of americans say they want the senate to pass the house bills. republicans are evenly split. >> the legislative solutions have been perplexing. as i said, i share joe manchin's

opposition to the version that passed in thek to bring that bill to the floor. >> this is a different senate. we are going to debate and everyone is going to have to vote. joining me now is senator chris murphy of connecticut who has been designated as the point person for senate democrats on the issue of guns. senator murphy, welcome back to "meet the press." >> morning. >> so you've reportedly said you were working on the boldest legislation possible. you know the word i want to focus in on, the word possible. what do you believe is possible right now? >> i'm not interested in getting 50 votes in the senate. i'm southwested in getting 60 votes. that's what's required to pass a piece of legislation today. i've been instructed by senator schumer to work with several weeks with democrats and willing republicans to try to get a bill that expands background checks that can pass, that can get

votes from both sides. don't count us out. i think the politics have shifted dramatically since 2013, even since 2016, the last time we had a vote on background checks. remember, 2019 after el paso and dayton, we came very close to passing a background checks expansion proposal that president trump actually drafted and put before the congress. it was the ukraine scandal that got in the way. i've gotten a lot of calls from republicans in the senate who don't want to fight this fight anymore, because the nra's authority is fading. i think we have a chance. >> i hear your optimism there, but you understand why there's so much skepticism. you need ten republican votes. there have been two votes on manchin-toomey, combined -- i'm counting pat toomey's vote twice. combined you've gotten eight votes on that. is that still the best vehicle essentially, some form of

manchin-toomey that can get through in your mind, that even is possible to find the ten republicans? >> the manchin-toomey proposal was written in 2013. if you remember, it was negotiated with the nra under the belief that the nra was going to support that proposal. i don't know that we need to bring manchin-toomey back before the senate. let's be honest, you're going to have to make some adjustments, make some reasonable accommodations if you want ten republican votes, and i am already talking to republicans who are not unwilling to sit down at the table. the reason for that, chuck, is that it's harder to win seats today if you are an a-rated members of congress. they lost a lot of those seats in 2018. there's a reason mitch mcconnell didn't put something like this up for a vote since 2016. he just didn't want to have to force his members to choose between the gun lobby and 90% of their constituents.

>> i was intrigued by a quote we included in my open piece from mitch mcconnell when he said i share joe manchin's opposition to the house bill. we know joe manchin and john tester, two senators from rural states, the house version of the background check bill would -- there's some sorts of private sales they seem to be concerned with. is the house version of this bill too broad to get 60 votes in your opinion? >> i think it's unlikely that hr-8, as it's written today can get 60 votes, but i don't think it has to change very much in order to get the su there's a bunch of republicans who may want to see the list of exempted sales expanded, perhaps to include more family members, but i think it is important to listen to exactly what mitch mcconnell said. he said, like joe manchin, he

opposes the version that passed the house, not that he opposes expanded background checks. mitch mcconnell is always very careful about what he said. eight years ago he would have said he absolutely opposed expanding background checks. today he's much more careful about his words, because he knows there may be ten members or more of his caucus that might support the bill -- still a big expansion of the number of sales included in the background check system. >> we've spent our entire time about what some would say is a mod southwest change in the background system. we haven't talked about new regulations about the guns themselves, the fact that the gun that was used in boulder is somehow called a pistol, and those things. is actually regulating the gun itself a political impossibility right now?

>> i think right now our best chance to get something passed is universal background checks, and i think that the theory of the case is that, once we convince republicans that the sky doesn't fall for you politically when you support a reasonable expansion of something like background checks, you can move on to other interventions. but, yeah, we should be having a broader conversation right now. in connecticut, it's not just universal background checks that protects our citizens. we require you to get a permit before you buy a pistol, something that, had it been in effect in these states, might have prevented one of the shooters from getting a gun. we include all assaults, not just felony assaults on the prohibited list of purchasers of firearms. that would have likely stopped the shooter in colorado from being able to get a winter park upon. there's a whole host of other interventions that lead to states like connecticut having much lower rates of gun crime that other states.

>> one of the bigger impediments you may have are the courts. i hear this from various members of the senate, i'd like to introduce x, but the courts will strike this down. there has been a sort of -- some might call it a radical sort of altering interpretation of the second amendment over the last 30 years. how much does that make it that much harder to even pass any gun legislation if the second amendment is considered a civil right? >> i think it's a worry. part of the reason that many of us were strongly in opposition to nominees like brett kavanaugh and amy coney barrett is they likely hold this radical interpretation of the second amendment. i do think that restrictions on assault weapons are in jeopardy with this supreme court. i don't think that expanded background checks are a problem. as i read some of the more radical decisions that have been made by people like amy coney

barrett at the lower court level, i still believe that scalia's opinion in which he says the second amendment certainly allows you to stop criminals or people with serious mental illness from getting guns. i don't think that's in jeopardy of being -- >> is this the issue that could break the filibuster? >> i think republicans have to argue as a means of defending the current rules that the senate can still work under the 60-vote requirement. i think republicans may be looking for issues to prove that democrats don't need to obliterate the filibuster. here is their opportunity, an issue that has 90% support, which doesn't require them to shift their position -- their current position to a herculean level. they can help us pass an expansion of background checks and prove to democrats and the country that the senate can work at a 60-vote threshold.

>> senator chris murphy, the point man for senate democrats on the gun issue, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thanks. so we're going to talk to senators pat toomey and joe man chi, they co-sponsored a bill to defeat background checks, defeated both in 2013 and 2015. it is an indication of how difficult it is to pass gun safety bills that the public supports. senator toomey joins me now. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> morning, chuck. >> my title is moderator, but i'd like to be mediator here. i heard senator murphy indicate movement on this, and optimism that ten republicans would be found. you have expressed optimism you think there are nine other republican colleagues of yours. i'm curious, senator murphy's last comment which i'm sure you heard, this could be a way to sort of stop this fihey, you kn

what, it isn't the embedment that people think it is. is that helpful in your efforts to find nine republicans? >> well, chuck, i've got a lot of respect for senator murphy, but i have to say, i take a different look at this. some of our democratic colleagues are simply making a shameful attempt to really ruined what remains of the functioning of the senate and do long-term damage to the country. two years ago, the democrats pretty much universally supported keeping the filibuster. barack obama was in favor of the filibuster. now when the different party is in control, suddenly it's become a racist tool. how ridiculous. the fact is, the bill that passed the house, that doesn't even have 50 votes in the senate. joe manchin is on record opposing that. so there are not even 50 votes. you could get rid of the filibuster tomorrow and you still couldn't pass that bill. so what we need to do is try to

find a place where we can land, a place where there's some kmond ground. i have long believed, as i've told you many times, the place where we ought to be able to get that done is requiring background checks on commercial sales. that's where i know senator manchin is. and there are republican senators who are interested, not because it's some bank shot to prevent the democrats from abusing their power with respect to the filibuster, but because there's some substantive support. >> your issue with the house bill, and i know senators man chen and tester, do you share their same concerns on this issue of private sales? or do you think there is a way to include some form of a background check in that, too? >> there are different mechanisms, there's new technology that makes these various mechanisms possible that weren't possible before. you're not going to get to 60 votes with legislation that requires a -- when a father wants to sell his gun to his

son, to have to get a background check. i still think the best way to do this is focus on commercial sales. between the sales that already occur at licensed firearm dealers, all of which require a background check and what we consider commercial sales, advertised sales, gun shows and on the internet, that covers a vast, vast majority of all transactions. it would be progress if we had background checks for those categories. >> do you believe we have too many guns circulating in america? if you do, what is a solution to that problem? >> i don't think the answer is too many guns, chuck. if i have four or five guns and i buy two more, did america become a more dangerous place? i don't think so. i'm not a dangerous person. my focus has always been make it more difficult for people that we all agree shouldn't have firearms, make it more difficult for them to get firearms. that is violent criminals, the

dangerously mentally ill. that's what we should focus on and trying to understand what drives the madness that we've seen again recently and all so often that leads to these horrific mass killings. whether a law abiding citizen owns three guns or four, that has absolutely no impact on anybody's safety. >> it really is in your mind the background check. is this something you think can be done quickly, or should the fbi be given eight to ten days if necessary? we know sometimes the need for speed has actually become a problem in these gun sales. >> that's extremely rare, but it does happen. look, i think we need to have a mechanism that allows this to happen very quickly. it is possible, there are some circumstances where a person may decide they need a fire arm and need it in a hurry. that might have a completely legitimate need for that. i would like to see us improve

the mechanism so we don't have these delays. >> i guess i go back to too many guns. i understand what you're saying on an individual. when you look at our numbers compared to the rest of the world, why do you think we lead by a factor of ten and then some when it comes to just the number of weapons circulating in this country? >> there's a whole variety of reasons, chuck, but i don't think that's what causes the violence. there are communities that have horrific levels of violence every day. there's criminality and using weapons as part of that. we ought to be asking oush selves why do we have high levels of crime generally. >> one last question i want to ask you about the voting rights issue, but i want to play a statement from your colleague on the democratic side of the aisle, raphael warnock. here is what he had to say about voting rights. >> we wouldn't have to have this

debate about filibuster at least on this issue if the folks on the other side would do the right thing and stand for voting rights. >> i want to separate hr-1 from the voting rights act. do you believe there are ten republicans to do an updated version of the voting rights act, something that used to be fairly easy to get done in a bipartisan way? i know the issues with hr-1. i'm trying to separate the two. where are you on this? >> i haven't drilled down on this distinction that you're making. the democrats have been driving this message on hr-1. we ought to be asking our democratic colleagues why are they so insistent that we don't need to verify that a person seeking to vote is who they say they are. ballot harvesting, maybe go to a nursing home and get a couple

hundred ballots that happento w. there is a completely false narrative about so-called voter suppression. you look at the georgia law. there's no voter suppression. sunday voting is stim allowed. there's an expansion of in-person voting, no requirement that you have a reason for a mail-in ballot. all you need is some verification of id and so does every department of transportation in america in order to drive. so does every airline if you're going to get on a plane. this has been a false narrative entirely, chuck. i'm afraid it's all about trying to get rid of the filibuster. we're not going to be cowed by being called racist. it has nothing to do with race. >> i'm curious, do you think it's a good look for a party, after the presidential loss, after the former candidate basically aets a false narrative and lies about why it happened, that these laws are getting changed under a false pretense? that's not a good look for the

republican party, is it? >> well, chuck, look, i was very critical of president trump along the way after the election, as i think you know. we should be honest about this. we made very dramatic sweeping changes to accommodate the circumstances of a global pandemic that had huge implications. and some of those sweeping changes include provisions that are really actually tough to verify the accuracy of the vote. we have an awful lot of americans who are worried about the integrity of sur system. requiring an id makes a lot of sense. >> senator pat toomey, republican from pennsylvania, appreciate you coming ond and sharing your perspective with us. thank you, sir. >> thanks for having me, chuck. when we come back, remembering the victims of the spa attacks in georgia. it's talk to congresswoman judy chu about anti-asian violence as our discussion over the battle our discussion over the battle of guns continues. when you buy this plant at walmart,

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welcome back to our special edition of "meet the press" focusing on gun violence. later this morning, members of the congressional asian-american caucus will visit the three spas in georgia. the march 16th attack was the most violent and deadly of the thousands of anti-asian attacks that have occurred during the pandemic. congresswoman judy chu is the chair of the caucus and joins me now from atlanta before she spends the day there. congresswoman, thank you for coming on. >> thank you for having me. >> let me start with the issue of dealing with both the access to guns and this issue of rising xenophobia in america. i want to focus specifically on the issue of hate crimes. georgia has a hate crimes law. but whose job is it to decide

what is a hate crime? i think that seems to be an issue that we're dealing with in georgia. what say you on this we have ou congressional delegation coming down to georgia. we're going to be tracing the steps of this shooter. we are first going to cherokee county where the shooting targeted this spa called young's asian spa. in fact, we're only steps away he purchased his 9 millimeter handgun with no waiting period. then we're going to drive the 27 miles to the other asian spas which are side by side where he was able to shoot even more people. and it becomes clear to us all three spas were asian spas where there was a certainty that if she shot into them he was going to kill asian women.

so to us, it is clear evidence that this is a hate crime. but what we're concerned about is whether local law enforcement will indeed prosecute this as a hate crime. that's why we are calling upon the department of justice to ensure that there are the resources necessary to provide the evidence to declare it a hate crime. that includes interviewing witnesses in their own languages, looking at the media to see whether they are, for instance, reading the evidence in the korean media which apparently has some statements of that sort, and whether they're look at the smoother's social media and history. >> should you have to bring the justice department here? again, i go back to georgia passing this hate crimes law, should this be what they're able to do? should it not have to fall on the department of justice?

>> it should not have to fall on the department of justice, but let me tell you that our whole hate crimes system in the united states is quite flawed. out of the 15,000 local law enforcement agencies in the united states, only 15% even report hate crimes to the fbi. so there's wide variation in terms of whether local law enforcement even pays attention to hate crimes or whether they think it's worth the trouble to declare something a hate crime because they think it may be more difficult to prosecute. in fact, we are very concerned about cherokee county sheriff's statements early on in which they said this was a bad day or that this person had a sex addiction and, therefore, casting doubt as to whether this was a hate crime. saying these statements mid investigation, thus casting even further doubt as to whether this was a hate crime.

>> you sit there, you're poisoning the jury pool potentially when you're saying these things. i'm curious if the issue of this lack of reporting also conforms to these polling numbers i want to share with you. this comes on the issue of asian-american hate. 10% over the last year experienced hate crimes or incidents so far. 31% of asian-americans worry about being hate crime victims. 30% would be very comfortable reporting the hate crime. it's the last one i want to talk to you about. of that, of the other groups mez yurksd asian-americans were the least comfortable reporting hate crimes, that that was the biggest takeaway, that there was a lot of nervousness in the community for reporting a hate crime. how do you change that? >> we need to send the message out to all our asian-american community that it's important for them to report these hate

crimes, that it is safe, that it is confidential and that, in fact, they can get resources from the entities like the stop aapi hate website which has taken it under its wing. in fact, there are 3,800 hate crimes and incidents that have been reported since the coronavirus first started. so that is just the tip of the iceberg. we know there is underreporting going on because of the fear that our asian-american community has. nonetheless, i want to send the message out there to everybody that they need to report it and they will feel certainly less isolated if they do so. >> one last thing i want to ask you about, and we've talked about this before, and that is the issue of, as we have an adversary in this country with china and our political leaders speak, we know all of the damage former president trump did with his language. but how politicians talk about

the chinese communist party. your colleague, stephanie murphy, a democratic from florida said this, we have tocot the chinese people and certainly not the asian-americans who live here and have contributed so much to this country. she goes on to argue you're going to alienate vietnamese and other important asian allies if this goes on. what do you say to your colleagues? >> well, there are far too many stereotypes in the united states where asian-americans have been painted for a very long time as foreigners in their own country. so just making broad attacks against china, unfortunately, sweeps in many people. in fact, it actually sweeps in the people of china. many of whom may want to have greater freedoms in china. so, yes, if you're talking about chinese, you talk about the

policies of the chinese communist party and distinguish it from those of the people of china. and certainly you must distinguish it from the people of america, asian-americans who are u.s. citizens, who are legal permanent residents and who are very, very loyal to america and many of whom have this as the only country that they know. >> judy chu, democratic from california, appreciate you coming on. again, coming from atlanta where you'll spend the day retracing the steps of this killer. congresswoman, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> thank you. when we come back, the new restrictive voting laws republicans passed in georgia that are pending in other states. democrats are calling them the new jim crow. strong pushback from pat toomey. the annual is next. if you wake up thinking about the market

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welcome back. the panel is with us. republican strategist al cardenas, co-founder of the institute of politics at south florida state university, nbc news investigative and consumer correspondent vicky nguyen. "new york times'" peter baker and heather mcgee author of the new book "the sum of us: what racism costs everyone and how we can prosper together." welcome all. vicky, i want to start with you. we're dedicating this show to the gun issue. we spend a lot of time on what happened in atlanta with asian-american hate. that's what happens sometimes as these gun incidents happen, we

vacillate between debating the issue of guns or debating the motive, and the fact is we've got to deal with both at the same time which i think what happened in atlanta underscores. >> you heard representative judy chu talk about how the shooter obtained his gun without any sort of waiting period. that is certainly one layer that could lead to a delay. would it have stopped the shooting? perhaps not. when is it going to stop? when will you be able to change the way americans view gun ownership? that might never happen because we are a country that loves our guns. americans make up 4.4% of the world's population but own 44% of the world's guns. that's according to a "new york times" survey. unless or until there's any sort of amendment to the constitution

that changes gun ownership, these little legislation changes that take, first of all, forever to pass, feel like pennies being dropped in the ocean, just delaying and delaying and delaying. how many years has it been since sandy hook? how many shootings have we had since atlanta that most of us have no idea about. the most gun violence that affects americans are actually suicides. a lot of veterans taking their own lives. access to guns is inseparable from these shootings, but what is our tolerance level as americans? >> heather, you write this in your book about this issue, you call it america's unhealthy obsession with guns has always been intertwined with our history of racial violence. in recent years right wing media and increasingly radical national rifle association have aggressively marketed to white terrorists, criminal immigrants and inner city thugs. it's led to the expansion of these stand your ground laws,

arguably. i think that was another reference you were making there. as vicky was talking, it immediately brought to mind what you wrote here. this is intertwined. how do you disaggregate? >> well, it's intertwined because, first of all, the department of homeland security said the most persistent and lethal threat to homeland is far right white supremacist domestic terrorism. it's not those extreme cases. as you show so well, chuck, the majority of american people want stricter gun laws including many republican voters, and yet because of the often sort of dog whistle, racist campaign tactics of the now bankrupt and on the run nra and the right wing politicians that they pay for and fund, you've got this sort of winding up and weaponizing of white fear which keeps the majority of white voters voting for a republican party that does the bidding of the gun lobby,

and we still aren't as safe as we could be. effective gun safety measures keep us safe. it's been 25 years since the federal government passed federal gun safety laws. >> there is some evidence that the politics, al, of this is changing. i'm going to run a quick mash here. democrats won swing districts in 2018 and some in 2020 on the issue of guns. take a look. >> i never expected to be in congress, but then my son was murdered. my tragedy turned to purpose. >> gabby trusts ann to stand up to the nra and fight for stronger gun laws. >> these are the weapons i was needing when i was fighting in afghanistan. >> suburbs of denver, tucson, atlanta, and i know that among the few republicans that are supportive of these gun regulations are in south florida. >> yeah, listen.

politics is the art of possible. we listen to senators murphy and toomey earlier in your show. i think the art of possible is heading us towards universal registration and i also i think if you want to own an ar-15 which is the weapon used in most of our recent mass murders, i think you ought to do it like a driver's license. if you want a license to drive an 18-wheeler, you've got to go through a process. if you want a license to own an assault weapon, you've got to own a process. i think there are very few republicans that can argue that. let's let that law pass first, show some bipartisanship and move on to the next restriction. i don't think we can do a full wholesale gun reform. i think those are two reasonable steps. >> peter, i heard what i think al heard, too, between murphy and toomey, there's a way to do this, it sounds like.

the question is, is there a will to take an incremental step because it is to many advocates for more gun safety, incremental. >> i think you're right, chuck. we're arguing about background checks. the truth is, that's a fairly modest proposal compared to a lot of things that gun see. the idea of an assault weapons ban in congress is pretty much off the table. even president biden essentially acknowledged that this past week during his press conference. you're right. you would think there's a way the two parties come together, the nra's power isn't declined. they're busy working on bankruptcy. we've seen this before as you shows in your opening. the slaughter of 20 children at a school in connecticut, if the shauter of high school students in florida didn't prompt significant change, it's hard to see whether that happens now. hpau you quickly. joe biden, they seem to be focused on rolling out the infrastructure plan.

does it need the president's shoulder to get even a modified version of this background check bill be voted on? does he need to make it more frontxdm/dçñx÷ center? >> i think he does, obviously. what he said this week when he was asked about it was -- as al said, the art of the possible. timing was important. he meant it wasn't time to vote a lot of resources to that right now. he went immediately to talking about infrastructure because that is front and center on his agenda. >> i'm going to pause the concern. we've got a lot of different issues to get to. hoping to get some issues on the next round with you, invieweding voting rights and immigration. coming up, the kind of optimism about the future we swrnt seen for some time, believe it or not. stick with us for that. needles. essential for pine trees, but maybe not for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an “unjection™”. xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind

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data download time. after a difficult year, we're seeing something we haven't seen in a while, a little bit of optimism. last week gallop released data showing the percentage of americans satisfied with the direction of the country was at its highest point since last may, 32%. that's not great, but up from 11 in january, the lowest ever on record. bottoming out in the aftermath of the attack on the capitol. there was signs of positivity on the economy as well. this week marked the first time the number of initial employment claims dipped below 700,000, after a high of almost 7 million at the end of march 2020. the successful vaccination program plus covid relief checks arriving in bank accounts are certainly at least partly responsible for this uptick. lots of challenges ahead for president biden. the good will generated in the early months of his administration should offer him political capital that he's political capital that he's going to need for those fights

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welcome back. now to the issue of voting rights. heather mcgee, you saw at the end of my interview with senator toomey, he made an impassioned defense of some of the ideas out there, voter ids in particular here. i'm curious. can you separate the ideas that maybe he's putting up with what appears to be the motive behind all of these changes at the state level? is it even possible to separate the two? >> well, this is what happens when people who can't win a fair election try to rig the rules to make it harder for eligible citizens to vote. this is what you see happening. it is a racist logic.

it is an old tradition in this country of targeting policies that we notice proportionately impact black and brown voters. we know black and brown voters, for example, are less likely to have a government-issued photo identification. yet, this is the way systemic racism so often works today. it's also true that, when you look at white americans who are young, white americans who are low income, one out of five of them don't have a photo id issued by the government. yet, are they any less eligible citizens with the right to vote? the idea of voter fraud is something that happens .03% of our elections. yet it is a big lie. instead we have the for the people act that actually could address this creeping corruption in our democracy, whether it's the big flood of secret money, the partisan gerrymandering or this desire to rig the rules so

eligible citizens can't vote. the only way republicans can justify what is a bipartisan, actually majority of the american people support, the provisions of the for the people act, the only way the republicans can justify opposing it and these 250 unpopular law at the state level is with this big lie. >> vicky, one of your day jobs for us is as a consumer reporter, and i look at these voting laws that we've seen. we had been sort of moving in the direction of making this more pro consumer, a little more convenience for the consumer, in this case voter. this is now anti-consumer or anti-voter. make it harder. it's soft of antithetical to what every other process we deal with in america is about. online or mail voting, i should say, silv. the turnout, the access for people. of course, it raised a lot of

questions about fraud. look, voting is confusing. this is why nbc news launched planyourvote.com. i lived in so many states over the past 20 years as a journalist. there's no centralized way of registering for your ballot. sometimes at the dmv, sometimes you mail it in. it's confusing at best for someone tuned in and paying attention. we know the data shows people of color are dispro norgs natalie affected by restricted or changes to voter access. the barriers are already very high. you look at if brennan center. they found black voters wait on average 45 minutes longer to vote, latinos 46 minutes longer than white voters. on the surface, what's wrong with showing an id? listen to heather's point, the amount of voter fraud used to justify the need for an id which is hard to get, which can cost

money, which sometimes requires people to produce a birth certificate, there are all these hoops people have to jump through. as heather pointed out, so many people support access, making it easier for the voter, easier for the consumer. also, you said, chuck, the optics are not good. georgia passing 89 pages of passing voter reform after losing those two positions. what does that tell you about what's at the crux of this? >> al cardenas, our home state of florida, the governor bragged about the voting system. yet they're changing it. why? >> these 20-some voter reform laws being proposed in all of these states are all about providing cotton candy to the far right base that believe the donald trump big lie about the elections being fraudulent. that's all that is. in reality, and i agree with heather and i agree with vicky, most of the voter suppression takes place under the radar. for example, in georgia,

minority voters had to wait eight more times than white voters in their particular voting precincts because there are less voting machines, less employee, less people to help out in the process. most of the voter suppression that takes place is run under the radar of laws and so forth. yes, i agree that we need to have a revamp of the voting rights act. if it was timely in the '60, it's more timely now. you need to look more at voter suppression at the local level. >> an important point there. peter baker, just in our remaining moment here, you've been in that white house -- you've been in a white house press conference gazillions of times. a lot of commentary about the lack of covid questions. today we're on an uptick of covid questions, 40 there. was that a larger reminder that covid is being managed well by joe biden right now and the public is fairly satisfied?

>> look, there probably could have been, should have been covid questions, still a huge issue even those things are looking better. i think you're right, it's a sign of how we're beginning to change. covid has come to consume that white house, this white house and the previous white house for a year now. it's been the dominant issue with only a few exceptions for more than 12 months. you're right. the fact that now there are other issues being put to the present, a sign we're beginning to look at things put to the side for so long, but challenges for the country whether it be north korea, immigration, russia and china. so many issues out there that didn't get looked at over the last year because we had such an extraordinary crisis going on. now the crisis feels like it's on a path toward at least a better place. you're right, we probably should be asking about it because it's not over yet. >> this is one way of our return to normalcy, we have a lot of problems to face up to. we did our best today to focus on one or two of them. that's all we have for today.

for those celebrating, hatch pi passover. we'll be back next week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

deadly flooding over the weekend in the south where over 130 people had to be rescued, and at least four have died. we've got the latest but let us be clear that it is not just chauvin on trial the united states' ability to deal with police accountability is on trial. >> reverend al sharpton speaking out on the eve in the trial of derek chauvin in the death of george floyd the backlog of ships waiting to pas