rachel:n atlanta, a crisis at the border. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more visit consumercellular.tv. announcer: kaiser permanente. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural

differences in our communities, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. rachel: good evening and welcome to "washington week." it's good to be with you on this friday. i'm rachel scott. we have a lot to get to. and we start with that tragic news out of atlanta. on tuesday, a gunman killed eight people including six women of asian descent. it comes as the country sees a rise in attacks against asian americs and what we saw in atlanta has many fearing of even more violence. so today president joe biden and vice president kamala harris traveled to georgia, canceling a political event to meet with community leaders instead. >> for the last year, we've had people in positions of incredible power scapegoating asian americans, people with the biggest pulpits spreading

this kind of hate. president biden: words have consequences. it's the coronavirus full stop. rachel: we don't know from authorities if those killings were racially motivated. the police chief says it's too early to tell. what we do know, racist attacks against asian americans are nothing new. for years, the community has been targeted. and it has only intensified during the pandemic. former president donald trump blamed china for the virus. all of this happening as the biden administration faces a growing problem with immigration and asylum seekers at the u.-mexico border. so joining us tonight are our four top reporters. dan balz, chief corresponnt for "the washington post." laura baron-lopez, white house correspondent for politico. weijia jiang, senior white house correspondent for cbs news, and jacob soboroff, correspondent for nbc news and msnbc and the author of the "new york times'" best seller "separated: inside an american tragedy." laur i want to start with

you. what is the latest after president joe biden's visit today and where are we now? laura: yeah. so what was really key in his speech today, rachel, wars the way he intersected all of those themes. he talked about systemic racism. he talked about the rise in ha crimes. he talked about also the impact of the relief bill that he just passed. and he tied a lot of it to georgia, the state that he was in. and to the fact that georgia in its runoff elected two democratic senators and that those two democratic senators are going to be key not only in the relief bill that just passed and the fact that checks are now going to the american public but also in passing the rest of his agenda. so he called on congress to pass that covid anti-hate crime bill. but again, when it comes to the senate, that's going to be the big question where those two georgia senators are key whether it's that anti-hate crime bill, whether it's immigration reform, whether

it's voting rights. that is where biden's agenda is going to meet the most resistance. rachel: and yesterday we did see congress, they held its first hearing in three decades on anti-asian discrimination and you had a tense moment playing out. republican congressman chip roy and democratic come grace ming at odds over just how to address this issue. >> my concern about this hearing is that it seems to want to venture into the policing of rhetoric in a free society, freespeech. >> your president andour party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want. but you don't have to do it by putting a bull's eye on the back of asian americans across this country on our grandparents, on our kids. this hearing was to address the hurt and pain of our community, to find solutions and we will not let you te our voice away from us. rachel: an emotional moment

there in that hearing. weijia, i want to turn to you on this. you have covered this extensively. these numbers are staggering. 3,800 incidents of hate against asian americans, against immigrants in this community. what are you hearing from people in the community and is there a genuine fear that there is going to be more attacks? weijia: rachel, i have to say many victims at this pot. and they do fear for their lives quite frankly because they have been attacked before. they are survivors. and they understand what could have happened. and they've seen pore people lose --een other people lose their attacks on members of the asian community. while they are extremely grateful that president biden and the administration has taken a very firm stance against the rhetoric surrounding covid-19, that may have led to these attacks, and even though the president has made a commitmen to do something at this point they want to kno what that is,

right? so they're calling for federal money, for example, to -- you know, directed toward advocacy groups, giving to victims to handle this situation aftr they have been attacked. and they are calling on lawmakers to pass new legislation that would take corete steps to make it easi to track these cases and easier to prosecute these cases. and so even though there is some optimism, because obviously this is a very different tone than we saw from before, now they are waiting to see what comes out of it. because even though words matter a lot, action is what they are looking for. rachel: and just to follow up with you, weijia, on that because you pressed president donald trump against his words, against his rhetoric that he used to describe the virus and describe the pandemic. we talk about words mattering. we heard from presidentoe biden today, a very stark contrast, weijia.

weijia: right. so, you know, i think when we look back at the way president trump spoke about the virus, it really comes down to redirecting blame. the worst -- worse that the situation became in the u.s. he the more we saw him turn up the rhetoric. because he wanted to -- you know, take attention away fro his own administration's famed response. so we know this of the former president that he wants to control his own message and he wants to change the headline by creating distractions which is why he did not shy away from using some controversial language. but at the end of it, when you look at why, it really is because, you know, he wanted to blame someone, blame another country, china in particular, for what was happening in the u.s. even though it was under his watch. and even know it was the result of his missteps. and so i think that's why those words resonated so much with

asian americans who believe that's why they're being targeted. because other americans are also looking for a scapegoat just like the president did. rachel: dan, i want to turn to you on the solutions. we heard from weijia and people want action and not just words. we saw in congress the house did pass a measure that would address gun violence. but does this shooting change the conversation on gun violence and gun reform? dan: i think everybody would like to think that it would. but the history of this issue tells us that it probably won't. we have had horrific examples of gun violence that ultimately d not change anything in the law. the sandy hook shooting where all the little kids were killed , president obama and then vice president biden worked very hard to try to push congress to pass legislation. it enjoyed overwhelming public support and nothing happened. after the parkland shooting,

nothing happened. we can go flew repeated episodes of this and nothing does seem to get done. perhaps this would be one that does cnge the nature of it. but i think that if you look at the history of it, you have to be skeptical that the outrage over the gun violence is going to change certain people in congress to vote in a different way than they have in the past. rachel: jacob, i want to turn to you and we're going to get to the border crisis in a moment. but i wt you to give us the perspective from los angeles. we saw hundreds of people taking to the streets to protest the racial discrimination against asian americans. do asian americans in that community feel like they've been left out of this conversation on racial justice? yeah. it feels like we're having a hard time hearing jacob there.

but i do want to turn to something else that president joe biden talked about today, voting rights. georgia is the epicenter of a country struggling with systemic racism. the site of tuesday's attacks but also a political battleground over voting rights. georgia's newly elected nator reverend raphael warnock took to the senate floor for his first speech and he highlighted the issue. >> we're witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we've ever seen since the jim crow era. politicians in my home state and all across america in their craven lust for power have lawn atched full-fledged assault on voting rights. they are focused on winning at any cost, even the cost of the democracy itself. rachel: so dan, let's unpack this. why has georgia become such an epicenter as this country addresses both issues of race and democracy?

dan: well, a couple of reasons, rachel. one, obviously is the role that georgia played in this election giving the sate's electoral votes to joe biden for the first time a democrat winning in many, many years. secondly, having two runoff elections for the senate on the same day, something we've never seen before. and both of those seats going to the democrats which handed democrats control of the senate. but the third issue was the focus on the state by former president trump in his effort to undo the election and his effort to overturn the election. and as a result of that, it became a flashpoint for the country as a whole on the issue of voting rights. and what we're now seeing is that republicans are moving in georgia and in any other states to sbuche and try to pass -- introduce and try to pass legislation to restrict voting and we're seeing in washington democrats moving in the opposite direction with a very large sweeping bill, h.r. 1 and s. 1hich would

dramatically change the rules for voting in federal elections. and so you have now an enormous clash brewing between republicans in the states and democrats in washington. rachel: jacob, i believe we have you back now. and i just want to go back to my question to you. we saw people marching in the streets there in los angeles. give us the perspective from where you are. jacob: what i say is the asian-american populatn here in los angeles county, to remind everybody, it is the largest county by population in the entire nation. 11 million people live here. there are more people of asian descent living in los angeles county than any other county in the united states of america. of course, they feel left out over conversations about civil rights, civil justice, and accountability when it comes to this extraordinary rise in acts of hate and hate crimes against members of the aapi community. and to me, what this is about having covered the issues around the border over the course of the last administration is that when you have racist rhetoric coming

from political leadership, there are consequences to that. as more than just words matter, it's about how we cover those issues as well and too often when we talk about the fact that los angeles is a majority-minority county in a majority-minority state. we're not covering the stories of the aapi community. and frankly, as a profession, as journalists, i think we must do better. rachel: laura, we talked about how this is all playing out there in georgia, president biden saying that voting rights is an issue that is also dividing americans. we just passed the 56th anniversary of selma, the brennan center says 250 bills introduced in 43 states that would restrict access of voting. so what are some of the challenges and roadblocks that democrats are going to face with trying to address this issue? laura: yeah. one of the biggest roadblocks is the fact that thatan was talking about h.r. is now s. 1 the massive voting rights bill

is going to pretty much stall in the u.s. senate. and that's because of the fact that if the 50-50 split senate, it would require to meet a 60-vote threshold in order for it to even come to the floor. and so thats the biggest hurdle for democrats right now. and in that same speech that you played a clip from, rachel, by reverend warnock, senator warnock, he said -- he specifical targeted the filibuster which is what requires that 60-vote threshold. and he said that they are -- that institution -- the institution itself, that republicans are protecting the minority, that minority party, rather than minority voters. and ensuring that minority voters, black, brown, asian voters would be able to have unimpeded access to the voting booth. and so one of the biggest arguments right now, especially from house democrats including house majority whip jim clyburn is that he is tying that

filibuster which is what demoats feel is going to absolutely block passage of voting right reforms, they are connecting that directl to racism. and so they're trying to apply a lot of pressure to their senate democratic colleagues to try to reform the filibuster in some way in order to make sure that those voting rights protections are passed. rachel: and just to follow up to that, laura, because we heard from president joe den, he did comment on this. he said maybe open to reform on the filibuster. do you think that would amp up the pressure onhe white house to reconsider addressing this? laura: potentially. when biden said that he was open to reform, he was talking about a talking filibuster which in effect just makes it more painful for the minority to block legislation. it wouldn't actually take away that 60-vote threshold. but it was significa that he even took the step toward saying that he was open to reform. and so as -- as more house democrats, as civil rights

leaders, really put the pressure on the white house as well as senate majority leader chuck schumer, you could see democrats slowly but surely in the senate start to move toward taking that action. chuck schumer is planning to potentially bring the voting rights bill to the floor. it will probably fail if it's brought to the floor in regular order. and then that could apply even more pressure to the holdouts in the caucus who right now aren't for reforming the filibuster. but you see day by day just yesterday, senator martin mean rich -- heinrich decided to call for the abolishing of the filibuster and a few mor senate democrats starting to get onboard with that. so as this prgresses, you could -- and as more and more of biden's agenda items meet resistance, you could see the white house and senate democrats slowlyove toward more aggressive reform on that legislative filibuster. rachel: i do want to turn to

immigration, the biden administration is facing a surge at the u.s.-mexico border. the number of migrants is on track to rea a 20-year high. many of those crossing the border are unaccompanied children. and they are being held in facilities longer than legally allowed. house republicans visited the border earlier this week and blamed president biden's policies for the increase. >> who knows what dangers and who doesn't make it? all because the policies of our president has changed and told them something different. rachel: and in an exclusive interview with my colleague, george stephanopoulos, a warning for migrants. president biden: we're in the process of getting set up and not going to take a long time is apply for asylum in place. so don't leave your town or city or community. rachel: the president also said this week he's not planning on traveling to the border anytime

soon. so jacob, you have covered immigration extensively for years. what exactly is happening at the border right now? jacob: you know, rachel, you have a humanitarian crisis. you have a humanitarian cisis not of national security importance. this is not a security crisis. this is one of humanity. of hundreds, thousands of children who are languishing in border jails, border patrol processing stations where they shouldn't be and the sect tear of homeland security secretary makeros says any facility no place for a child. and the reason that they're stuck there is simple. it's capacity. they do not have capacity at the office of refugee resettlement where child welfare professionals can take care and custody of the children who are coming. and the reason they're coming is not because of some open border policy on the contrary, most people can't get into the country right now and have seen that with my own eyes. having reported down at the border over the course of the

last couple of weeks. the issue here is that the fact that the biden administration has reversed some of the trump things policies including this title 42 of public health regulation that has kept everyone out of the country. now they're starting to let in unaccompanied migrant children in the name of safe and orderly immigration process but that has created logistical challenges on the ground and part of the problem is we as journalists are not able to explain what's going on i think to the larger american public because the biden administration at this point is not letting us inside which i think is critical for them to do. the trump administration did it at the heightf the separations. to show us the cruelty of those policies. the biden administration should let us in so we can show what it is about the system that they want to change instead of keeping it closed behind those doors of the processing center. rachel: yeah. the access is certainly important here, jacob. and we're hearing from lawmakers who have been able to go inside. senator chris murphy today tweeted he was fighting back tears when he was speaking to a 13-year-old who was explaining through a translator what it

was like being separated from her grandmother, without her parents, just absolutely terrified in that moment. do you think that president joe biden needs to reverse course here and say tha he needs to get down to the bordeand soon? jacob: sure. i mean, i think it could not hurt to have the president of the united states down there hielf. the secretary as you mentioned was down there today with this bipartisan group of senators. ness a big priority for them. not just reuniting all of the families that the trump administration deliberately in the name of scaring people away from coming to the country separated from one another in what physicians for human rights call culture, the american academy of pediatric called government sanctioned child abuse the biden administration is trying a hard pivot away from those types of policies and toward a more humane system. but their problem here is that they're not doing an effective job in messaging how they are going to get there. it's complicated. and to have the commander in chief down there himself perhaps the vice president, i think would go a long way

toward explaining that this is about taking care of the people coming to this country. treating them as human beings with humanity and not as criminals. not using an enforcement mechanism to stop people from coming to the country. rachel: i want to pick up, weijia, on where jacob left off on that messaging. why is the biden administration refusing to call this a crisis? are they struggling with the messaging? weijia: i think they are, rachel. because they are saying other things that indicate this is a humanitarian crisis. for example, you mentioned that the homeland security secretary mayorkas said in a lengthy statement that they are expecting a surge that they haven't seen in0 years. well, just seven years ago, under the obama administration, there was a similar surge of young migrants and at that time, then president obama said it was a humanitarian crisis. so if the numbers now are greater than they were back then, then certainly, you know,

the -- you know, you talk abou words matter again, this is a crisis rather than a challenge that we keep hearing from the white house. but of course president biden hasn't been there for that long. and no incoming president wants to acknowledge that they have a crisis on their hands. but they are also at the same time not diminishing how grave this situation is. they are being very up front about the fact that they are unable to process these kids like jacob mentioned. but they are not showing us what they are seeing. and as we have been talking about tonight, that is critical here. because for so long, they talked about and promised transparency. and we are not seeing that. in fact, it was a glaring line in a press release today announcing that the secretary was back at the border but the last line said it is closed press and that he would not be addressing the media afterward or taking any questions.

so i think, you know, people care about what's happening to these kids. they want to see for themselves. and, you know, judging from the stories that we're hearing from the lawyers who represent the kids, it is a various -- a very somber and serious situation for them. rachel: dan, we saw the house pass two immigration bills this week, senate republicans say that they need to address border security first. but zoom out for us and give us some big picture here about why immigration reform is such a heavy lift for congress. dan: rachel, i think that the main reason is that there is a core of the republican party base which is firmly against many of these proposals on immigration, particularly anything that would provide legal status or a path to citizenship for people who are here illegally and who have been her for many, many years illegally. estimated 11 million or thereabouts. and that has created a

roadblock in congress. republican president george w. bush tried to do this during his administration and was blocked by his own party. president obama during his administration, there was a bipartisan group in the senate, the gang of eight, who produced a bill that came out of the senate that made ploost changes. it died in the republican house. now you have the democrats in the house passing a legislation that would provide legal status for the dreamers and some others. that now goes to the senate. but there's no indication that there are many more votes among republicans in the senate that would get over the 60-vote threshold that we are talking abou and so it's part of t general paralysis of our politics that essentially a minority can block some significant legislation that has broad support. i mean, most of the main issues or cnges in the democrats' bill are popular among both

republicans and democrats. i mean, the idea of providing a path to citizenship for thos who have been here for a long time enjoys something like 80% support. and yet we can't s the congress come together to try to pass that legislation. so it's -- it's indicative of the kinds of politics we have today. rachel: laura, we just have 10 seconds left. a quick question for you. does president joe biden make this his next priority? laura: that's the big question right now, rachel, which is whether or not they're going to focus on immigration or they're going to focus on the recovery act which would likely include infrastructure and some kind of jobs, big jobs package to help shore up the economy after -- after this first relief package. so right now, it's really unclear. rachel: laura, i'm going to have to cut you off there. we are out of time. and we're going to have to leave it there tonight. many thanks to dan, laura, weijia and jacob for their insights. and thank you for joining us.

we'll continue the conversation on our "washington week" extra. catch it live at 8:30 on our website, on facebook and on youtube. i'm rachel scott. good night from washington. announcer: corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- consumer cellular, kaiser permanente. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: you're ls quickly

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