yamiche: the battle for democracy. in statehouses across america, republicans are introducing bills restricting voting. >> there should be constency between the counties. >> so really this is a witch hunt. it's a witch hunt that's aimed at people of color. yamiche: while in washington -- >> democracy itself is in peril. yamiche: democrats are pushing the senate to pass a law to expand voting. >> i simply think the commission is not necessary. yamiche: and trying to find common ground on a january 6 investigation. next. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided b.

kaiser permanente. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation committing 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. once again from washington moderator yamiche alcindor. yamiche: good evening and welcome to "washington week." inauguration day was 135 days ago. but republicans are still contesting the 2020 election. at least 14 states have passed g.o.p.-backed laws restricting voter access including in georgia, arizona and florida. and in texas this week, republicans were on the verge of passing their own set of laws. that is until democrats in the

statehouse walked out. here's what they said. >> we will connue to fight and speak out against those measures that attempt to silence our voices. they don't want youo know the truth on that bill. yamiche: last month, i interviewed texas state senator brian hughes. he's a co-author of the texas bill. here's part of what he told me. what do you say to the criticism that regardless of the intent of this law thait will make it harder for some people including people of color, black people, disabled people, toote? >> well, i hear that generalization but no one has shown me any evidence of it. yamiche: what do the state-level battles mean for the future of american democracy? joining us tonight are four reporters covering it all. leigh ann caldwell, capitol hill correspondent for nbc news. astead herndon, national political reporter for "the new yorktimes," and joining me here in studio, anita kumar, white house correspondent and associate editor for politico and annie linskey, white house

reporter for "the washington st." thk you all so much for being here. astead, how does this bill in texas fit into the national push to restrict voting? astead: yeah. i think what we see in texas is a microcosm of what we've seen across the country from republicans. that's in the wake of a 2020 election that at the top line didn't go how they wanted but had some good republicans down ballot and they have decided to do a full frontal assault on lower d democracy, right? we are talking about a party that has tied itself so closely to the former president's lies, about election security, that the base is demanding that their elected officials act on this front. they are demanding that -- in the words of trump, that they stop the so-called rigged election so you really have republicans here that are looking for solutions in search of a problem. but i think that what you have also as i talked to republican voters across the country is really a base that is motivated by this idea that they are beine of cultural and political loss that's happening.

and so wokeness, cancel culture, even these type of voting restrictions all play within this larger feeling that has -- happening among core republicans. they think the country is changing in ways and new populations are emerging with new politicians and they are trying to stop that even if it comes up against what we typically see as the core principles of the country one person, oneote. yamiche: annie, and astd talking about the republican base here. the white house, though, continues to stress that this is a top priority for president biden stopping these voting bills. you were there memorial day when president biden said democracy is in peril. what's the biden administration strategy when it comes to these voting laws and how do you think that will impact how things play out in congress? annie: yeah. yamiche, as you know, quite well, biden has been involved with this issue for a good chunk of his career. i mean, going back to when he was the chair of the judiciary committee and pushing through

similar voting rights legislation that at that point. so he has a long history with this and he really internalis it. i have spoken with historians who he likes to meet with. this is something that presidents tend to love to do. and they have said that biden has talked about what his one sentence might be. what is the one thing he could be remembered for. and in those conversations, voting rigs is one of the things that comes up. but you also saw this week that -- this portfolio was handed to vice president harris who has taken -- has been really interested in doing it. there have been a number of conversations before that happened. and she has sort of -- a three-pronged strategy, her advisors tell me. you know, where she will -- sort of use the -- the bully pulpit of the vice-presidency and in that instance you're talking about -- there has been so much focus in the last few days really on texas. but it gets the broader point

that there are so many other states that are doing similar bills. and i think harris' people feel at she could help bring attention to that. and also a power where she can bring together business leaders who -- you know, were quite effective as we saw in georgia in having a strong voice opposing some of this kind of legislation. and of course the third point is the legislation. the for the people act that harris has been very supportive of and biden has been supportive of and re-authorizing the voting rights act. yamiche: leigh ann, annie brought up the for the people act and do democrats have 50 votes for this bill and senator manchin who a lot of democrats point to -- point to as the person holding this up, is he the fall guy here or other democrats who also have cautions and issues with this bill? astead: that's an excellent point and an --

leigh ann: that's an excellent point and an excellent qstion. biden, something he has been focused on and interested in for so long. another person who has pretty much made their career on this issue, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. he has come through the senate, became very popular in the senate because of his opposition to campaign finance reform and greater access to voting. so there's a lot of parallels there. and part of the reason why mcconnell and republicans are so vastly against this. but as for democrats, there are 49 co-sponsors among senate democrats on the for the people act in the senate. senator joe manchen is the lone vocal holdout and repeated this week that -- that legislation is not good for west virginia. it's not something that he is able to support. but i'm told by my sources, yamiche, that it's bigger than joe manchin.

that there is probably ten democrats who do not -- are not ready to vote for this legislation if it were to come to the floor and be on the verge of passage. now, senate majority leader schumer has said that he's going to bring it up on the floor for a vote at some point over the -- in the month of june. now, i expect most democrats to vote for it or all democrats except for perhaps joe manchin because at this point it's a messaging bill. it's not going to pass. it does not have the support of 10 republicans. and so it's not going to matter if this becomes law. so for the time being, most senators, most democrats anyway, are able to satisfy the progressive base, not go out on a limb and oppose this legislation even though they have problems with it. and they'll maintain on the right side of their voters for the moment, yamiche. yamiche: a qui follow-up. how much power does congress really have when it comes to changing or impacting the laws

that states are passing, they're attaing in som ways, secretaries of states, the power that governors have and the power of the non-partisan election bodies have, what's your take on the powerf congress on this? leigh ann: well, that's one of the big debates in congress between republicans and democrats. if you just come down to the core issue of the federal role in elections, if you take aside the former president and all of the politics wrapped into that and why this is actually happening, but this is one of republicans' main thing, traditionally anyway, is that there should not be federal -- there should not be a federal mandate and federal requirements of elections that those are a state-run tim and should be lefe left t the states. the for the people act does a lot of things that counters a lot of things that is happening in the states like with the states trying to restrict early voting access and restrict voter registration, kicking people off

the roles. what ts would do, this would in fact expand early voting. it would do automatic voter registration. but as for the state legislations, the legislations in the states that is trying to criminalize and have a major impact on election workers and election officials, this legislation mostly falls short. yamiche: anita, i want to come to you. there are also these ongoing audits. there's at least one in arizona. but there are talks of others possibly being in pennsylvania. how does that connect to what we've been talking about and what president -- former president trump has been pushing? anita: yeah. i think a lot of this is about the rhetoric, right? because we haven't seen the evidence. we're not seeing it in arizona. we don't have a lot of evidence that there was fraud. but republicans start with donald trump at the top. list continue to talk about it. when you look at the polls you see a majority of republicans still believe joe biden did not win this election legitimately. they still believe donald trump

won. and so i think so much of this is the rhetoric that republican leaders are talking about. both donald trump and we're about to see him speak a bit more. but also the leaders in congress and governors and so so much of it has to do with what people are talking about. are they moving on to the next thing? or are they still talking about 2020? so far they're still talking about 2020. yamiche: astead, i want to come to you. what does your reporting tell you? when we hear anita talking about what's going on about the way that civil rights leaders a black leaders see this voting rights push and are they worried at all that their power might be eroded by some of these laws? astead: yeah. it's an interesting dynamic of this legislation. you have on the activists and civil rights side, a group that really feels that there's a real sense of urgency around those two bills in congress that really democracy is at stake if those bills don't pass. i think about former attorney general eric holder who is

obviously -- who served under president biden he told me about two or three weeks ago that he believes that i those bills don't pass that elections as we know them will not -- will not be the same. and so you have one group that really believes in those type of stakes. but you have a group of elected officials particularly in the congressional black caucus that are uncomfortable with h.r.1 and that specifically around these provisions around independent -- redistricting committees and trying to target gerrymandering and spread out districts and draw them more equitiably in those states. you might wonder why it makes them uncomfortable but in the southern states gerrymandering has packed black voters in certain districts and given rise to black representation in some of these places a made these folks very comfortable with the way that their districts are drawn and the way that they will not be primary or pushed on the electoral front. that's made some people uncomfortable, so much so that we know that eric holder had to come to the congressional black caucus to try to convince them and make sure they stayed

onboard. benny thompson from mississippi ended up being the only democrat to vote against h.r.1 specifically on this issue. that is the kind of dynamics that are happening here. the urgency that comes from one side and some. uncomfort that comes from the elected officials' level partly because it's changing the game in the way they have known it to be played. some folks say that is necessary for rublicans who are staging an attack on the state level. but that does still make some democrats uncomfortable. yamiche: anita, i want to also ask you about what annie brought up and something i wanted to talk about which is the fact that vice president harris will be taking on this role on voting rights. she requested it. what could say that -- does that say about the role she wants to play but also how much of an impact can she really have on this issue? anita: yeah. as annie said it's something that's been something that she has really tried to champion in her career. so it's not surprising that she went and talked to the president about that. some of the assignments that she's dpotten have been just --

gotten have been just that, assignments. tough assignments, dealing with immigration right now and migration of people coming from central america. this is something that was near and dear to her heart and wanted to do that. but it can be very tough for her be effective on this. i think in some ways she can. she can talk about it. she can use her -- the attention on the vice president to bring attention to this issue. she can talk to business leaders and that is a place where she could be effective. but her speaking to lawmakers is going to be very tough. in the states, it's going to be as if the vice present sort of bigfooting them. these are republican legislators that are not going to be receptive to her. but on capitol hill she came from capitol him and the senate and wasn't there very long and the people she needs to convince are moderate democrats like joe manchin as we just mentioned. is joe manchin going to want to hear from a progressive vice president about this issue? that's really going to be tough.

and we've seen this enormous threshold in the senate that they would have to get 60 votes. it's going to be very, very tough for her. yamiche: amid all of this, former president trump is plotting his return to the public stage. this summer, he is planning campaign-style rallies. i'm talking about rallies again. according to reports, trump is also telling allies that he expects to be back in the white house by august. that of course is not happening. still, a recent poll found that 53% of republicans actually believe that trump is the "true president" compared to 3% of democrats and 25% of all americans. meanwhile, today, facebook also announced that trump who was kicked off the platform after the insurrection is suspended for two years. anita, i want to come back to you. on saturday, president trump is going to speak at north carolina's annual state republican convention. what this moment means for the g.o.p.?

i'm wondering what more do we know about what former president is -- former president trump is telling allies? anita: this is a pivotal moment for the republican party. many consider him still the leader of the party. you will is it vens all -- republicans all across the country in localities and states and in congress trying to see what that message is. this is our first time really seeing him in person giving a speech since he left. and so there are going -- they're going to be wondering what is that message? two ways to go. there's the message that his allies and his supporters, people around him, his advisors want him to get which is contrast the policies between president biden and president trump. so contrast on the border, immigration, taxes. yamiche: i can't help but smile. anita: and there is the other thing that we think that president trump might be doing. the thing that you and i are so familiar with from four years of covering president trump. which is he can't help himself but to talk about the grievances. the russian investigation. the impeachment. the 2020 election. and so this is really a moment

where we're going to see is the republican party going to be able to move forward on policy, sharp policy issues? they're going to relitigate 2020 and continue on that path. and this is really pivotal. because so many replicans are going to follow his lead. we're going to see that in small, local elections, state elections and on capitol hill. based on what he says tomorrow and what he says in these rallies that you just mentioned this summer. yamiche: that's -- just familiar fight there, right? between -- you talk about policy or grievances? we saw time and time again that the former president trump always wanted to go on the side of grievances. leigh ann, waibt to -- i want to co to you. talk about how this connects to the january 6 commission and cod discussion there is. and what are things looking like there? leigh ann: as far as the commission is concerned, it looks highly unlikely unless senate democrats can find three more senate republicans, there was six who voted for it,

senator pat toomey missed the vote but said he would have voted for it if he were here. so let's say three more senate republicans. are needed. until mcconnell gives any sort of signal that he would support a commission, there is very little chance that it is going -- they're going to find the 10 republicans needed for it to pass. and, you know, there's a lot of land mines in that commission. people are under questioning what was the big deal about creating a commission to look into what happened? but for republicans, there was a lot of problems with it. for one, the final report could implicate a lot of members of their own party. so they obviously don't want that. republican leader kevin mccarthy is potentially a witness since he talked to the former president on that day. and even for mcconnell, he would have the role in any sort of commission to appoint some of

the republican commissioners. and that is filled with land mines, too. what sort of republican does he appoint? does he appoint a never trumper? or does he appoint a pro-trump republican? something that would be scrutinized lt, right and center all day long for -- until election day in 2022. and so it's going to be a very uphill battle for a commission to be formed. and i just don't see it happening at all, yamiche. yamiche: that's -- it's all fascinating what's going on on the hill. and we want to go to another former hill lawmaker, this week, former vice president mike pence who had to be ushered to safety during the insurrection spoke about how he sees january 6. >> president trump and i have spoken many times since we left office. and i don't know if we'll ever see eye to eye on that day. but i will always be proud of what we accomplished for the american people over the last

four years. yamiche: annie, waibt to -- i want to come to you. what does it say that former vice president pence is kind of showing daylight between himself and the former president and is this an early test possibly for him running for president? annie: well, it's been so interesting to see how the different republicans who are in this potential field are contending with trump who is the center of gravity. and you see some republicans kind of -- trying to get closer to him who hadn't been in the past. but, you know, pence, i think this was sort of a jaw-dropping moment for pence. because for him to make that statement and to -- as you put it, put a little bit of daylight between him and the president, he clearly sees something in his future to where he can be a republican who obviously has the trump record. but is going to -- would potentially govern in a little bit of a different way which i think what he was signaling there. yamiche: there has been a pattern, astead, in the 1:30

that we have here, about 30 seconds, that president -- former president trump he attacked the former president obama for the birther conspiracy theory claiming he wasn't born in the u.s. and did this familiar thing with kamala harris and now he's questioning whether or not president biden is legitimate. what does this say about this tactic being used over and over again and it working sometimes? astead: yeah. i think it is a party and they -- a base that's come to embrace conspiracy as a means of demonizing the enemies that she -- they share. from president trump all the way down to the base, it has been one that they've embraced and forcing the elected official itself in -- officials in congress to do something they are not comfortable with. we have seen that in the aftermath of the sixth the reason why that doe't last from then to now is because the base is -- they're with the former president. yamiche: anita, in the 10 seconds left, we have a little bit of time, what do you make of the fact that this is a tactic -- former president trump has used over and over again? anita: this is his pattern.

right? he has been successful. he has gotten millions, tens of millions of votes based on this. so he sees that. we can criticize him but we see what these supporters want. what his base wants and he kind of -- he knows that. and he's playing to that. yamiche: and it is a pattern that he's just used over and over again. one that we've just see one that was successful for him. that's how he got his political career started. and now he's doing it again and as we showed through polls, a lot of people are following him down that conspiracy theory road. that's all we have for tonight. thank you so much to leigh ann, astead, anita, annie, for sharing your report and thank you for joining us. join us for the "washington week" extra where we will talk about democracy around the world. catch it live at 8:30 eastern on youtube, facebook, and our website. i'm yamiche alcindor. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the. national captioning institute,. which is responsible for its. caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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it's hard when you feel like you're an illegal person because the state is telling you that you're not, you're not worthy. you're not enough. just because we got marriage equality doesn't mean our fight's over. our fight's just starting. (dramatic piano music) - we live in a world where we're taught to fear. we're taught to fear our neighbors. we're taught to fear other countries. we're taught to fear each other. so somewhere in that equation, and i believe it starts in the home, if we continue to hurt each other because of fear, hurt people will hurt people. at some point, that has to stop. - this is a terrifying place to be gay. there's no hate crime protection for gay people. if you beat somebody to death, yelling, "(beep)(beep)(beep)(beep)(beep)"