state of texas to a pre-clearance regime similar to the ones required by section 5 of the voting rights act. we believe the state of texas should be required to go through a pre-clearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices. the doj's move against texas is the department's first since the supreme court's ruling in june that weakened the vote rights act a decision that holder referred to as flawed. craig melvin is there at this morning's national urban league conference. good morning. i understand you just spoke withholder yourself. >> reporter: i did, mara. basically he said while the justice department is going to start with texas, this will probably not be the last state or the only state that the justice department takes a good hard look at. north carolina being the next state. holder spoke to a crowd of more than a 1,000.

no one in the crowd of the expecting that announcement. holder indicating he would use other parts of the vote rights act to bring lawsuits and take other legal action against states that the justice department feels are disproportionately or disenfranchising disproportionately minority voters. here's a little bit else of what he said. take a listen. >> as these and many other cases demonstrate, as too many voters have seen firsthand and as every member of the supreme court acknowledged in the shelby decision in the words of the chief justice, i quote again voting discrimination still exists. no one doubts that, unquote. now although mandated by the constitution, vote rights are not always guaranteed in practice without robust enforcement. that's why despite the court's decision, i believe we must regard this setback not as a defeat, but as a historic opportunity for congress to

restore and even to strengthen modern 0 voting protections. >> reporter: now, again, attorney general eric holder making no secret during my conversation with him that this was a direct result of the supreme court's decision late last month. he also said in addition to this being an attempt to tackle the effect of the supreme court ruling, also in addition to asking texas to subject their changes to law until federal judge for a ten year period again he said we can expect more of these types of lawsuits, more of these types of announcements over the next few weeks. he said he's very optimistic congress will be able to reconfigure the formula that the supreme court kicked back to it. he's confident congress can do that. he specifically noted actions of wisconsin congressman jim sensenbrenner as well. attorney general eric holder making a major announcement at the national urban league convention. >> msnbc's craig melvin.

joining me now with more on all of this, one of the hosts of msnbc's "the cycle," and nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. thank you both for being here this morning. pete i want to start from you. from a legal perspective is this an effective strategy and how might it be applied to other states. >> it's the only strategy the government has. the supreme court in june left most of the voting rights act intact but took down, struck down the part that defined which states were subject to pre-clearance automatically. the states that have been listed through the history of the voting rights act. texas was one of them. the coverage map and what the supreme court said is that data behind that map hasn't kept pace with changes in voting practices so that part is unconstitutional. but it left intact the pre-clearance requirement. now what the government is saying is we're going to use another part of voting rights law and under that law you have to go to a judge, the old law

was pre-clearance automatically. under the law new, under this new provision they are going use they go to a judge and say judge for these reasons we think that you ought to bail this area in. it's called the bail in provision, declare it has a history of discrimination, and subject it to pre-clearance, any of the voting changes for the next ten years. so they are actually, the government is actually joining an existing lawsuit right now in texas, in a legal battle that's raging down there about the texas republican ledge tur redistricting plan the new boundaries for legislative districts. the next step will be a similar action challenging texas's strict new voter i.d. law. craig mentioned north carolina. the justice department might take action there if north carolina as it now appears likely impoebs as strict voter i.d. law. so now we know what the justice department intends to do about the supreme court's ruling.

so, that's how this would work. >> and, ari, the prevailing thinking since the supreme court ruling that this issue is in the hands of congress is there potential for a backlash here the public gets a sense the justice department is trying to go around congress. >> no. i want goes to the informed part of the public that's following the interplay between rewriting section 4 and 2 and 3 and enforcement actions. when you get down to pieces of law you talk about people who understand there's a role for both branches to play. the backlash comes around vote are i.d. as a symbolic or, you know, controversial measure that sparks different images in different people's minds depending on how they look at this. to he could what craig said in his reporting, this is a significant step, this is not an automatic step, this is not something that's constantly done. this is clearly a move by the department of justice to look at

the map and look at the tools available today and say just like we see in the criminal context if you have prayers, if you've been doing illegal things up get treated differently under the law than coming within a fresh start. what the attorney general is saying very clearly today and for the first time today is that the history of discrimination including recent history in texas is such that he feels under the law, which is a sworn obligation that he has to make that determination, there is a valid case to go after texas more to bail in under the terms that pete williams was describe, and of course as well to look at section 2 enforcement actions which can use private party plaintiffs or justice department. it's a big step. what's interesting to your question is how congress responds to that. i was down at the voting rights hearings in the house just recently and you had several republicans who said they want to find good faith ways to rewrite section 4 and work with doj. with what eric holder said and senator sensenbrenner said

there's a lot of room to do enforcement actions here even after the supreme court's decision. >> do you have any decision how this might impact the work congress is doing? >> reporter: no. that's a long term thing. the attorney general said he's optimistic. that's his job. he mentioned jim sensenbrenner. that's one. they have 434 other members of the house to get. so i think it would be a very tall order. back to you. >> all right. pete williams and ari, thank you both for your time. you can catch ari on "the cycle" week days at 3:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. turning now to anthony weiner new developments in wean ear essex tinge scandal about what his wife knew and when. source tell msnbc news his wife huma did not know about the latest revelation that came out tuesday until last fall more than a year after he resigned from congress. she wasn't aware of her

husband's texting in june of 2012. a new poll taken before the scandal broke shoes weiner is still in the lead in the new york city mayoral primary. the quinnipiac university poll gives him 26%. a poll taken after the news hit is expected later this afternoon and can give us insight into the political toll. mobbed by reporters weiner stood by his decision to stay in the race but his opponents are piling on. >> when people talk to me on the street they don't want to talk about my past they want to talk about their future. >> the circus that former congress member weiner has brought to the mayor's race in the last two months has been a disservice to new yorkers. >> it was an interesting moment

last night at a mayoral forum in the bronx when the moderator asked each candidate facebook or twitter. here's what happened when it was weiner's turn to answer. >> mr. weiner. >> you're going to say facebook aren't you? >> our campaign is on twitter. >> at least he has a sense of humor about it. >> so, mark, let's start with these latest poll numbers. the polling period ended the day after weiner's confession. are you surprised that he's still leading and do you expect to see a significant drop in the poll that comes out later today? >> i wasn't surprised he was still leading because the bulk of that poll was collected before all the stuff really came out, all the details explained. many people thought the day of and day after this was more old

stuff coming out which weiner wanted us to think based on i had comments. i do expect after today for those numbers to plummet. not to say they will stay at the bottom but right now they are at the bottom because people are frustrated, confused, look we gave you one chance we can't give 2000. >> let's talk about his wife. you have a piece on "vanity fair's" website titled an alternate theory of huma. she herself has subscribed to the popular thinking that her endorsement is the only one matters. to that end the "new york post" addressed her, the cover of the "new york post" says senora danger, what's wrong with you. generally speaking the long-suffering wife is a sympathetic figure. are we seeing a backlash against her? >> think so. up until yesterday she never so explicitly framed the race in terms of a moral issue.

she went up at the press conference the other day and said this is between me and my husband. this is about our marriage and how dare you presume to judge it from the outside which is a fair point but it's not about their marriage it's about impulse control and about whether a person who has had a pattern of repeated public lies should be in a position of making decisions that affect 8 million people. it's not just about a marriage it's about a city. >> staying on you had ma what do you make of these revelations she didn't know about this new round of sexting until this past fall. she had become part of his public rehabilitation. >> i did an interview with nick richy yesterday and we looked at many of the transcripts and what i want seems to me she was somewhat surprised by all of this. she did not know everything that went into his affairs until recently. that said she's still made a decision to stand by him that chl us think is politically

motivated. she cities she wants to be mayor of new york's wife and willing to do that at all costs and her standing bhim is the only chance he has for staying in this race. still not a shoo-in. she's the only shot. >> nick richy the man you just mentioned runs the dirty.com. did he suggests there's more material forth coming. >> he said his website is so clogged with hits he's not exactly sure if other women have come forward. he's confident it's a strong possibility other women will be coming forward. he also said there's more specific details about the nature of their relationship. not to get too graphic he talked about the one sided nature of the phone sex relationships he had with this woman. seemed to me weiner was using and exploiting this woman and more details will come out to detail how exploitive and one sided it was. it's another part of the

equation. the more graphic it gets, the more details we have access to, the more people will dislike anthony weiner and how weirded out they will be as a person. >> i'm not sure how much more graphic it can get. julie, to that end, if more information does come out at some point does it not matter any more? has it cemented the public's view of him and it doesn't matter how many more women come forward? >> well, to that end actually gawker released uncensored pictures of the photos that were posted to thedirty.com. more information is coming. but i will say that an editor of mine made an interesting point the other day which is what's become a more interesting issue in sort of the public consciousness is not anthony weiner's lewd messages and

graphic self-portrait, it's the pathology of his behavior. it's very strange and the fact that there were really graphic photos released the other day of a mayoral candidate and it wasn't even necessarily a big deal. no one even really talked about them. it was the lying that i think people really responded to and very shocked way. i think that we are becoming decencytized to anthony weiner's series of scandals. >> vintsing perspective. thank you both for your time. and now it's time for all of you to weigh in. here's today's big question. can anthony weiner win the new yorkcy mayoral race? >> this isn't something made up out of thin air. this is something i get from people enforcing the law down fwornder. i've seen winter my own eyes. >> congressman steve king doubles down on his controversial comments on

immigration. why he isn't budging even from friendly fire. the agenda panel will tackle that. new video shows the exact moment that a high-speed train in spain jumped the tracks and split into pieces. at this hour nearly 80 people have been confirmed it was going way too fast.

it's being called one of europe's worst train disasters, at least 78 passengers are daddy after train derailments in spain. newspaper video shows the horrifying impact after the train false off the tracks going into side and breaking in to

pieces. the driver sunday investigation. joining me now on the phone nbc is kyra simmons who is at the scene in spain. what's the latest in this investigation? >> reporter: we're just hearing now from a local government official who says that the number of dead has now reached 80 people. i'm looking at that piece of track, which you saw in that video from the camera, the curved track as they take one car after another off of the track, lift it up by train and take it away and each car looks the same. windows smashed. metal torn apart. inside the very seats thrown around by the impact of that derailment, what the officials are doing now here is investigating whether the driver was going too fast. it looks as if the train was going very fast in that video and from the damage we've seen

it does look as if this was a terrifying impact that's what passengers are saying, describing being thrown around. one impact of all of this, just heartbreakingly is that of all the passengers inside more than 200, almost all have been either killed or injured. >> nbc's keir simmons. thank you so much for that update from spain. said failure of florida's stand your ground law? a woman so afraid of her husband she got a restraining order and then was convicted after firing a warning shot in his direction. i'll talk to her lawyer about their appeal. that's coming up. [ phil ] when you have joint pain and stiffness...

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chemo treatment as he fights leukemia. the older bush lost his own daughter to the disease when she was 4 years old 60 years ago. bill clinton led his support 41 over twitter saying you look great love what you're doing. the last living member of the kennedy first family has a new appointment. caroline kennedy has been appointed as the new ambassador to japan. then there's this note from roll call heard on the hill blog. apparently south carolina congressman mark sanford was late for a house vote yesterday so fresh in from a run he had to hurry on to the house floor still wearing shorts. that's a big no-no especially for house speaker john bone is apparently a stickler for proper attire. president obama looking to re-energize his message to the middle class. congressman steve king doubles down on his controversial comments about immigration.

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. not backing down, republican congressman steve king makes no apologies for calling some undocumented immigrant drug mules. reconnecting president obama is in florida today for another economic speech promising action for the middle class but does he need a new approach? those are today's topics for our agenda panel. thank you for being here today. democrats and republicans are not happy with his remarks on immigration reform and how a pathway to citizenship would be like legitimatizing drug smugglers. let's hear what he said and then what he said in response to that

criticism. >> they aren't all valedictorians, they weren't all brought in by their parents. for every one that's a valedictorian, there's another one that weighs 130 pounds but has the size of calves because they have 30 pounds of cocaine on them. >> the comments are bigoted, his comments were by gotted. steve king proposed an act to stop the deferred deportation of the dreamers, of the people who were brought here as young people and are contributing to our society since they were children and that passed the house of representatives. so, in fact, he's doubling down because he has the support of his caucus. he has the support of the republican base that's within the republican party. while there's people within the house republican caucus that want to see some immigration reform that includes the dreamers, there's still a substantial portion represented by steve king that don't want

any part of it and want to sort of defame these children who are actually very popular. >> now we just played the first part of what he said. we didn't have that second part ready yet. let's quickly lutzen to his response to southeast criticism. >> this isn't something that just was made up out of thin air, this is something i get from the people enforcing the law downtown border. identify seen with it my eyes. identify unloaded the illegal drugs with my hand and watched the data and videos to support what i say. the longer the dialogue goes the more the american people will under what i say is factually correct and probably understated. >> that of course is him doubling down. how does this affect the gop's attempt to connect with latino voters. >> it will be disastrous. there's a huge segment of republican leadership, conservative republican leadership in the house of representatives that essentially wants to kill immigration period. they want to see no immigration reform because they are playing to their barks pandering to

their base. the problem sue have steve king. he's a shoot from the hip kind of guy. he's made these inflammatory statements before but there's a political cal can you laws. he's playing to the base, pandering conservative element that doesn't want to see immigration reform. they are not big on out reaching to hispanic voters. they heard everything we lost the hispanic vote how do we get it back. they heard that. they are not interested in that. steve king speaks for hem. the hispanic voters are not on their radar scope. it should be but they are not. >> you say steve king speak for them. king has faced a lot of criticism from fellow republicans. the party doesn't have a clear orko he had civilian message on gramgs. comments looking can carry more weight than they should. do they need a stronger platform on this snish >> clearly they do. the republican party does not have a clear message on immigration policy. there's a series of intradition party divisions.

john mccain supports comprehensive reform. most house republicans oppose it. there's a vacuum. this vacuum is such that steve king is able to fill it effectively being the de facto voice for republicans. that's a disaster. right now the rnc is engaged in this outreach effort to the latino community and then a comment like steve king which is offensive to most reasonable people and the result is a political controversy. >> earl, let's turn to the president's speech yesterday. he made quite a passionate statement about what he'll be doing throughout the rest of his term so let's listen to that. >> i've got 1267 days left in my presidency. and i'm going to spend every minute, every second as long as i have the privilege of being in this office making sure that i'm doing every single thing that i can.

so that middle class families, working families, people who are out there struggling every single day, that they know that that work can lead them to a better place. >> earl, we've heard the president speak about the middle class many times before. we heard about the speech about the economy. why so touching on this issue again right now. what's the political impetus for this? >> two reasons. number one there's been a lot of criticism of the president in the past. mr. president the criticism goes like this. you spent a lot of time dealing with wall street. the financial collapse, the economic problems there, shoring up banks, savings and loans and the financial industry. what about main street? the president has heard that from liberal democrats. he heard that from progressives. there's huge criticism. i think that's one thing the president is speaking to the base. the second thing is income in equality in america. he referenced that.

that's a major problem. every statistic i've seen that's been done over the last two years shows that income in equality, the wealth gap if you will is greater than ever at least in recent memory so the president, has two things on table. one speaking to his base and clear need for that by the way and the second thing very mindful of income in equality, the wealth gap and tremendous impact that it's really having on the middle class and working class and poor people in this country. >> now, steve, "new york times" reports some liberals wants to push the party away from the left. there's growing frustration from progressives the party must move towards a populace position as the left sees as the great unfinished business of the obama years. >> we have a congress right now domtd by republicans who want to go further to the right, and as

the president reaches out to them and tries to find common ground now we're seeing a progressive voice in the left in congress trying to pull the president maybe slightly more to the left. i think in general there's a broad agreement among democrats when it comes to things like investments in health care and infrastructure and energy but at the same time we'll see interparty strike a little bit among democrats as we start to see maybe elizabeth warren pulling the president to left on banking and tom harkin bringing him to the left on education and hearth. it's going to st. very interesting budget debate in the fall. >> it seems like the president is trying to rally public support around some issues right now from health care time integration to the economy. does the white house need a clearer message in some ways it seems the president is muddled a little bit. >> i would say the president is telling a pretty clear story and that's republican obstructionism and blocking his agenda. he brought thunder several times yesterday in his speech.

several republicans are willing to work with him but some republicans don't want to see anything passed. that's pretty much the truth so he with put forward his ideas, tell his story to the american people, key be bold, he can conservative. either way they want to block him. >> when it comes to something like health care you have polls that show a lot of the public does not support what's going to be implemented in october. do you think his getting his message across saying what he's dealing with is republican obstructionism. >> it's up to the american people. regrettable thing, did he talk about the affordable care act, the regrettable thing is a lot of americans don't see a single thing called obama care and these things will be ruled out gradually. individual provisions are popular. obama care broadly is in. we'll see how people feel in their lives those changes how they will change their mind about it if at all. >> we'll wait and see. thank you all for your time this morning. >> you can find more from our

panel on our website, tvmsnbc.com. still ahead, it's florida's other stan your ground case a woman who says she was abused and imprisoned after defending herself. marisa alexander's mother joins me here in the studio. that's coming up next. today's producer pick could be a tv ad for a self-defense class, a thief messes with the wrong woman. a thief in russia thought he picked an easy target when he tried to grab a woman's cell phone. wait until you see how she fought back. she fought back leaving him flopping on the floor and then she walked away with her phone and all of her stuff. you can check out more by heading to thomas roberts facebook page. crime does not pay.

breaking news unfolding in new jersey. a small united express flight just made an emergency landing at newark international airport in new jersey due to smoke somewhere in the plane. there's currently a groundstop at the airport. it's not clear at this point how many people are on board. we'll bring you updates as we get them. turning to florida now the not guilty verdict in the george zimmerman trial is putting a new spotlight on the case of a woman sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into the air. for more than one year marisa alexander has been sitting in prison after a jury found her guilty of aggravated assault. she used the stand your ground for her defense. joining me is faith gay, one of the attorneys for marisa alexander and previously incorrectly said her mother would be here but you're her

attorney not her mother. now what's the latest in marisa's case right now? >> currently it's up on appeal in the first district court of appeal. oral argument hasn't been set yet but there's been full briefing and we're awaiting to hear if there's oral argument before the court of appeals. >> what are the option then that the court of appeals has before them. >> the court has a wide range of options as it always does. it can send the case back for rehearing on the stand your ground defense. it can reverse the jury verdict out right. it can affirm. it can issue a ruling about the sentence. i want has a wide variety of options whether points raised by the appellant or the court itself has its own view of certain issues. >> what do you make of the attention this case is receiving in the wake of the george zimmerman murder trial? downing the comparisons are appropriate? >> well, as her appellate counsel we wouldn't comment on the political or publicity swirl

that's going on with regard to the zimmerman casing right now. we believe we have meritorious issues and we look forward a chance to put those issues before the district court of appeals. >> of course, marisa's defense is she was firing a warning shot to a man she was afraid of she had previously taken out a restraining order out against but what prosecutor in this case said she was acting in anger. what's your position on the specifics of this case and the evidence to support that? >> again, at this point in time we would rely on our briefs and wouldn't want to go beyond that since the case hasn't been argued and we're eager to get the case in front of the district of appeal. we have three challenges one to the pretrial stand your ground hearing. secondly to miss alexander's ability to consult with her counsel during the trial and prohibitions placed on that and third to the jury instructions which put too much pressure and made too much of evidentiary requirement on miss alexander in

the trial. >> now at one point marisa alexander had the option of taking a plea bar begin. she decided instead to go through trial and the jury convicted her in less than 15 minutes. why didn't she take the plea agreement? >> wouldn't comment on that on miss alexander's decision there. we're strictly in the case now to press forward on four or five issues on appeal which we think are highly meritorious, including the misapplication of stand your ground prior to the trial. >> all right. faith gay, thank you so much for the updates on that case. let's bring in joann reed. she's been following boston these cases very closely. so, what do you make of the comparisons of these two case. they are similar in some ways and different also. are the comparisons fair and does it reflect racial disparities. >> one comparison it's the same prosecutor. you did have this very vigorous aggressive prosecution of marisa

alexander by the prosecutor and the lot of people see a less full throated effort in the zimmerman case. cory and her team are from out of town. they were trying the zimmerman case in another county. she was the special prosecutor. the biggest irony in this case is marisa stand certificate attempting to use the stand your ground defense. she's not one of those saying stand your ground is a problem. no i want to use stand your ground as a defense. what they are saying at least marisa alexander side this isn't a case where i want to throw away stand your ground they want to use it because they are saying the court erred. >> now what prosecutors are alleging is that she left her house, she went to a car, she got a gun, brought it back into the house and fired a shot not only in the direction of her husband but he was standing there with their two young children, two of the three of their young children.

do you think this is the right case for people who are against stand your ground, for people who believe that george zimmerman was improperly acquitted, do you think this is the right case for those groups to rally around. >> because marisa was charged with using it on her children. it's a case that shows you stan your ground is flawed in the sense that something in common sense would tell you a person who says they were being abused, she had to go back out of the house to go through the front door and this man threatened to abuse her. i want sounds like a classic stand your ground case but she was not able to avail herself that defense. in the zimmerman case he pursued trayvon martin and still able to get off not using the fair mative defense but what jury instructions gave the jurors no

way out of acquitting him. stand your ground doesn't work in a common sense way. the other thing that the lawyers are saying her case shows mandatory minimums are a huge problem. the judge had no discretion in this case where no one was injured no, one was hurt or killed she gets 20 years mandatory in prison and a lot of people are saying this is also a case where mandatory minimums should be looked at. >> you spoke to her first husband and her 3-year-old just turned 3 her youngest child. i can't imagine your child celebrating a birthday and you're in prison for that. what has her ex-husband told you >> lincoln alexander, who is the father of her two older children, they were previously married and he's still a big support he of her said her spirits are relatively high because the public support and because of the close family support. she's still able to see her two older children not the two children who were in the home.

she hasn't had any contact at all with her daughter who just turned 3 years old on tuesday. because her former his has full custody of the child and there have been issues even with the family being able to see the child. so she's really yearning for that bond with her daughter that she hasn't been able to form at all. you have to remember the child was less than a year old, few months old when this incident took place. she's basically been incarcerated the whole time. >> as a mother that is to be difficult. going back to the stand your ground, tampa bay times found evidence to support claims there's racial imbalance in how those are applied. with a black victim 73% of defendants faced no penalty. but with a white victim 59% faced no penalty. when the paper focused on the race of the killer in fatal cases black defendants went free 66% of the time compared to whites 61% of the time. a lot of study on this. what do you think the numbers tell us?

>> that second set of statistics about the race of the shooter has to do with the fact that the vast majority of shootings of murders happen within the same race. so when a white person is killed it's most often by someone who is white. when a black person is killed it's most often the victim is the black. the race of the deceased being african-american means you'll get off speaks to a racial disparity. the other big issue with stand your ground if you shoot someone and they live you are less likely to be availed the defense. if you shoot someone and they die you have a very good chance of getting off regardless of the circumstances of the shooting, regardless of whether you started the altercation. there have been cases in florida where someone has chased down the decedent, shot them while the person was on the ground and still got off on stand your ground. stand your ground is a shoot to kill law some say it encourages

a fatal shot and less -- it encourages you to be less measured if you have a gun. streets less safe than more safe. coming up, we'll share some of your responses to today's big question -- can anthony weiner win the new york city mayoral race. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] away... [ children laughing ]

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we asked, and you answered. question -- can anthony weiner win new york's mayoral race? chris weighed in -- he should. there's been worse. from annie -- no. he needs to strongly consider dropping out of the race. it's already gone way past embarrassing. and christopher said -- i believe he can. new yorkers seem to be forgiving people. ie eliot spitzer. keep the comments coming on twitter or facebook. house leaders are reacting

to controversy involving two congressman. first house speaker john boehner in the past hour commenting on congressman steve king calling some young undocumented immigrants drug runners. king refused to walk back those comments while speaking to telemundo last now. >> any reaction to your comments? speaker boehner said they were not very helpful. >> i haven't found anybody that can make a logical argument that disagrees with me. >> here's what speaker john boehner said just moments ago. >> i want to be clear. there's no place in this debate for hateful or ignorant comments from elected officials. earlier this week representative steve king made comments that were, i think, deeply offensive and wrong. what he said does not reflect the values of the american

people or the republican party. we all need to do our work in a constructive, open and respectful way. as i've said many times, we can disagree without being disagreeable. >> also within the last hour, house minority leader nancy pelosi spoke out with the latest revelations involving former congressman anthony weiner. let's take a listen to that. >> let me be very clear. the conduct of some of these people that we're talking about here is reprehensible. it is so disrespectful of women and what's really stunning about it is that they don't even realize it, they don't have a clue. if they're clueless, get a clue. if they need therapy, do it in private. >> wiener has vowed to stay in new york's mayoral race. pelosi was also speaking with san diego mayor bob filler in,

accused of harassment by two female ex-employees. that wraps things up for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. "now" with alex wagner is coming up next. "first day of my life" by bright eyes

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i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. awarded five-stars from smartmoney magazine. voting rights are back on the table and this time, eric holder is dealing the hand. it's thursday, july 25th, and this is "now." just a few hours ago, a new chapter was written in the historic battle over voting rights. in a speech this morning to the urban league, attorney general eric holder announced that the justice department will be fighting back against last month's landmark supreme court ruling. one that struck down section 4 of the voting rights and the and threw into jeopardy the right to vote for millions of americans. >> although mandated by the

constitution, voting rights are not always guaranteed in practice without robust enforcement. that's why despite the court's decision i believe we must regard this setback not as a defeat but as an historic opportunity for congress to restore and even to strengthen modern voting protections. >> specifically, holder announced that the department of justice will push the courts to require texas to obtain approval or preclearance before making any changes to voting laws. >> today i am announcing that the justice department will ask a federal court in texas to subject the state of texas to a pre-kreer pre-clearance regime similar to the one required by section 5 of the voting rights act. >> the move marks the administration's first major move to protect voting rights since the high court's 5-4 ruling on june 26th. why texas? because only two hours after the su