ome ingredients and none of those other things. now that's real love. so is that. new so good! see what's really in your dog's bowl at iams.com. welcome to "disrupt." i'm ari melber. >> how do you respond when you see people making this about race? >> is it true? that's the question to be asked. >> stop the bs. stop the diversions. >> stoking a racial division. >> stop young black women from having babies out of wedlock. >> george zimmerman got away with murder but you cannot get away from god. >> this guy is a -- [ bleep ] mall cop. >> the verdict is not going to define who trayvon martin was. >> there's a mountain of evidence that showed george

zimmerman was not a racist. >> we will define his legacy. >> we act as if racial profiling is not an issue in the african-american community. >> i'm the only minority and i felt like i left a lot of people down. >> there is no justice for that dead kid. >> you can't have an honest conversation because the race hustlers will brand you a bigot. >> nobody is hurting worse than me as a parent. >> it has been a busy week in politics. the push on jobs to the arrival of a new name in the mayor's race, carlos danger. i do want to start with a new development in the aftermath of the not guilty verdict in the zimmerman trial. this is mattie. you may know her as b-29. she is a 36-year-old mother of 8

and the first person to reveal her identity. she broke her silence to abc news earlier this week to say in her words, george zimmerman got away with murder. >> some people have said, george zimmerman got away with murder. how do you respond to those people who say that? >> george zimmerman. >> george zimmerman got away with murder but you can't get away from god. at the end of the day, he will have a lot of questions and answers. the law couldn't prove it. we have to believe that if he is asked to parkway he will pay. >> to be clear, she said she only speaks for herself. not the whole jury. she struggled with the moral obligations presented to the jury. >> at love us wanted to find

something bad. something we could connect to the law. all six of us, well, let's not speak for all six of us. for myself, he's guilty. because the evidence shows he's guilty. >> he's guilty of -- >> killing trayvon martin. but we couldn't prove that intentionally he killed him. and that's the way that the law was written. i was the juror, i was going to give them the hung jury. i fought to the end. >> now a reporter also asked maddy a question that is reverberating around the country. and i think it shapes our ability to understand why this story has touched so many peel. asked about race, maddy said she didn't think it played a role. >> a lot of people from the outside thought must have been the discussion in the deliberations about race about, color. but that was not the case? >> it was not the case. i didn't know how much importance it was to this case. i never looked at color.

and i still don't look at color. i'm the only minority and i felt like i let a lot of people down. >> now, let's hold up right there. we don't have any reason to doubt the assertion that these jurors were not talking about race. but that doesn't automatically answer the deeper questions that we've been thinking about this week. does race shape the perception that's peel don't talk about? does it shape the laws the jurors are expected to follow and does it ill fact way police investigate crimes and collect evidence? this trial and the political response are leading many americans to reflect on some of those issues. in the week after the verdict, generally positive views of race relations fell to just 52% of americans. that is down 18 points from a few years ago, according to an nbc "wall street journal" poll. to put it another way, about 42 million americans now have a more negative view of race relations. okay. but is that negative view a

negative thing? if the first step on recovery is paying attention to a problem, maybe it is constructive that more americans are confronting these problematic questions even though they're uncomfortable. and i think that step was ultimately advanced when the president told the nation that strangers used to profile him as dangerous or criminal. after all, remember, over 75% of americans still find obama likable and about 60% find him trustworthy. that is a pretty large number of people who believe what he says even if they differ with him on certain public policies. and when he says, when he tells us, when he instructs us that we have some problems in this country on race relations, maybe we do feel worse while also feeling an obligation to act. now we're going to discuss that potential for action on a number of fronts this weekend. let's begin with the center for american action fund and the "washington post's" clinton yates. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> i want to start with both of you and get your thoughts on the

idea that if our criminal justice system isn't doing a good job. if there are negative feelings here about a negative situation. maybe that's logical. maybe some of the talk we've heard all week about this decline in race relations as an automatically bad thing is misplaced. let me start with you on that idea. >> well, it is very clear that yes, it makes sense. i was talking to people about this to havic on twitter before i came here. and folks were saying, what are you going to say other than duh. it is not surprising that americans in general, certainly african-americans recognizing that the criminal justice system works against them and not for them. when you have laws that are on the books being tried and treated in different ways for different groups of people, that's a problem. we need to evaluate that. >> let's jump over to clinton. a lot of people don't say duh. a lot of people said including people i respect, they said this is troubling. race relation views are going down. >> a lot of people have no idea

how much race relations problems affect america. i was on the radio in kansas city, missouri. people were genuinely surprised by the state of affairs. it is not a duh in m opinion. people need their eyes open and they need to learn something. >> i think there is kind of two different things happening. there is a cultural conversation about how we view race. the reality is that most people, most americans are not racist people. they hear these conversations when we use the word race. and they glance over them because it doesn't feel like it applies to them themselves may have friends of different he think miss the advertise. they may appreciate that we have diversity and a diverse president. i think the second part of the conversation is about how our laws play out in america. are thereby as in the way that we enact our laws and in the way that we prosecute people and the folks who are affected. so both those conversations are merging together. that's a good thing, i think. >> on that point when we go from one case which only tells you a

certain amount of information to systemic reform, what we also saw in the numbers, separate from simply asking people about race which is difficult to get, i think, a full reflection. we also saw a lot more people across the country who did follow this case. said it decreased some of the confidence in the criminal justice system. in fact, 32% of people polled said it decreased their confidence. only 17%. a much smaller slice said that somehow watching this trial increased their confidence in the justice system. that i think goes to a division that we know a lot about. how black americans tend to look at the justice system or policies like stop and frisk or evidentiary policy that's put the brunt on defendants versus the way much of the rest of the country looks it a. does that make sense? is that part of this? that we're going beyond a single trial? >> absolutely. yeah. and you know, when we look, the other piece of this as well and florida is an example of this. wave shift in demographics. the new majority will be people

who look like trayvon martin and they're going to be a huge latino community. so i think that folks are actually realizing that when we have laws and policies on the books, that have a disparity impact on the new majority, if you will, then that problem is much bigger than just a couple of people. we're talking about affecting who will be the majority of americans. >> also, the other percentages there were 48% of people thought that it did not change anything. if you looked at that juror who was so confused. so many different questions surrounding the law and what she was allowed to say, what she thought, how she voted, how she ruled. that reinforced the notion in a lot of people's brains as to why they don't trust the judicial system. it is not design for people of color. and that only reinforced it. >> you saw she was struggling in that interview and presumably with the other jurors, she was struggling with the feelings you bring into the room and then the obligation that all the jurors

take very seriously in the jury instructions. people include instructions about self-defense justifications based on stand your ground statutes. not liking that law is wrong is very different from refusing to follow it in the jury context. i want to play a little sound that relates to all this. it goes to the profiling question. let's take listen to some of the charged racial language we've heard from some on the right. the notion of race baiting and race hustling has surfaced this week. take a listen. >> there is a hustle going on in the civil rights industry. >> they picked at our highly sensitive race scab. >> black thugs are killing black people. >> who are the real race baiters? >> you want a conversation, you got it. >> you got it. what you see there is a desire to very directly racially profile and discuss the notion of trayvon martin and others, unnamed people responsible for black on black crime. which is a big diversion from

the crime that occurred here. >> the bottom line is people don't want to admit that race is an issue. they sarah you're race hustling. the fact is for most people of color, it is not something you can talk about in one context and not in another. it is how you exist the goal is not about who is calling whom a racist. it is about being better people. >> i want to give you the last word. >> i completely agree with that. this is really a bigger question of who we want to be as a society. what are our values? do we really think it is okay for certain groups. people to be discriminated against, to be treated differently than others? to be treated differently by our public policy systems than others. and the folks who are, you know, the color blinld kind of whitewashing of race conversation nay sayers are people i would like to skrk what kind of world do you want to live in? do you think it is pock certain group of people are being

treated differently? that's the fundamental question here. >> you go to that question about what you're calling basically differential treatment and that does have a legal baseline. one of the things we'll discuss with senator ben cardin, whether it is time to have a national federal ban under the law on racial profiling. many people may not realize, racial profiling sounds like something people don't like. it is not illegal under the law. thank you both for being with us. next, a little more ignorance on display in america. this time from within the halls of congress, if you can believe that. this is "disrupt" on msnbc. >> they weigh 130 pounds and have cabs the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling marijuana across the desert. >> come on. we all say it behind closed doors. mexicans have calves the size of

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the next 44 years we'll be fine.

we've got a growing number of republican senators who are trying to get things done with the counterparts. passed immigration that they say will reduce the economy by more than a trillion dollars. but so far at least, there is a faction of house republicans who won't let the bill go to the floor for a vote. >> that was president obama back on offense. he went to missouri, florida and illinois to put pressure on the republicans to support jobs and infrastructure spending this week. some republicans have been trying to lay low in advance of their vacation. they earned it.

but others like steve king can't help himself. >> for everyone who is a valedictorian, there is another one out there, they weigh 130 pounds and they have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling drugs. >> i've seen it with my eyes. i've unloaded the illegal drug with my hands and i've dealt with the people enforcing the law. >> the high priest said to jesus, did you really say though things? did you really brief those things? and jesus said to the, responded to the high priest as the jews were watching, he said, ask them. they were there. they can tell you. and jesus said, if i speak wrongly, you must prove the wrong. if i speak rightly, why do you punish me? >> wow. well, stupid has consequences and there are few reasons this freakout can matter. let's turn to raul reyes, and a

former republican official and msnbc contributor. gentlemen, we have worked up a couple reasons why this matters. of course, as you know, it is not just entertainment. the guy has some power. and you were arguing this week that this undermines national republicans and is not actually as out of sync as we might think from the rhetoric. >> right. that's the larger problem for the gop. when we look at these clips, hear this crazy rhetoric, it is easy to see he is an extremist. he is an important voice. he is a leading voice on immigration. it was his bill. i think it was last month to defund president obama's, for action plan that all the republicans. >> the six republicans. >> so everyone is in there with him. the big problem for the party, there is somewhat of a void on immigration reform in the house. and steve king is filling that void. >> robert, i'm sure there are better people who could fill that void. but didn't this week. i want to go to number four on

our top five list. if it is "disrupt," you know we're disrupting the way we do this. to number four. he complicates the immigration negotiations. i've heard two different thoughts. where do you come down in. >> i believe he complicates the discussions between the republicans and democrats. here's why. it is an imknowledge a issue. if he is saying these comments, regardless of whether he agrees with it. i disagree with him on this. it sends the wrong message. it seems like the republicans are dean iso phobic, it seems like they're racist, it seems like they don't get the 2012 elections. it really hampers the perception but also the policy of what republicans are trying to do i think it was a horrible thing to say substantively. >> in condemning the comments and the work we have to do. let's take listen.

>> our committees are doing their work. we're going to go through this in a common sense step by step way. we don't need to make this job difficult. we've got a broken system. broken legal immigration system. we have the problems of those who are here undocumented that ought to be dealt with as well. and it does make it more difficult but i'm going to continue to work with members who want to get to a solution. >> john boehner almost sounds the most reasonable when he has to responsible to congressman king. i'm not sure if that's the way i want to get there. he is talking about reform. he sounds very realistic in that sound bite. and it brings us to number three. basically, we're seeing this split on latinos within the gop. we're seeing boehner versus

king. it goes beyond that. king represents a district in iowa that has only four latino voters. one out of four voters in republican districts is latino and that includes darrell issa's district. the whip, the kevin spacey character. what do you think about that piece of this. that this matters because there is a split. not only obviously in the center where latinos are important but within their districts right now. >> and this is a split. if you think of the gop as the family, this is their family distungs playing out in public. and by the way, i wanted to mention off the clip we saw congressman king. it is really astonishing that he is comparing himself to jesus. to the christlike figure. standing by these comments. i thought that was astonishing. to the bigger problem for the republican party, think about this. for all the people who may be for immigration reform is not a

defining issue. maybe they're not following this. someone like steve king is drawing a very stark divide. for a lot of people, moderates, independents, it makes it easy to decide which is the side they want to be on. and incidentally, in steve king's own district. voters there in his district, a majority of those favor comprehensive reform with a path to citizenship. >> can i responsible? >> i want to bring you to number two. the notion that here we see republicans and we have a question over whether they're practicing what steve king preaches. that's part of what raul is writing. >> i think that's wholly unfair. it is this is important. i don't think there is a split within the republican party with this. you don't see the republican leadership or the rank and file republicans, even that have a small percentage of latino voters in the districts, speaking this way. i think this is a very, very small minority.

representative king represents himself, obviously. maybe his district. but this is not widespread within the republican party. most republicans realize, first and foremost, that was a very insensitive thing to say and to think. but also, politically speaking, they realized the latino vote is an extremely critical voting bloc moving forward. especially in the southwest. texas, arizona, even southern california and some other states. it doesn't make sense politically and it doesn't make sense from a moral standpoint. i don't think there is a split within the republican party. >> let me get raul's response. the number one reason this thing actually matters, even if it is annoying. i think it confirms the self-perpetuating to nothing congress. beyond that, this makes it much harder for congress to do anything. speak to that and any rebuttal you want to make. >> right. this type of rhetoric. it doesn't reflect the majority of the republican party.

in the void that we have of leadership on this issue, his voice is the loudest. that's dangerous for the gop. and i think the more these type of comments are out there, unfortunately for the republican party, steve king is the latest in these voices that everyone is very aware of. from jan brewer to mitt romney and the deportation going back to pete wilson in california. and it is a very anti-immigrant, anti-latino message. the gop image problem with latinos. >> that's why you have to go beyond that and figure out, who are the new voices? who does boehner want next week up on the dais with him? it is trying to empower more reasonable voices. i appreciate your points. coming up, the accomplish

establishment turns on anthony weiner. >> i don't care what his wife thinks. these are serious times. this city has serious problems. and i do not want anthony weiner as my mayor. i want carlos danger.

the behavior was problematic, to say the least. destructive, to say the most. >> only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show. >> there is a royal baby! >> i have said in other teskes and photos were likely to come out and today they have. >> i made a promise that there was more sleaze out there and i'm a man of my word. >> how can anybody say they want

him to represent new york city? >> difficulty with the truth is not a good characteristic in a mayor. >> i apologize to the people of san diego. >> san diego. which of course in german means, a whale's vagina. >> entering a behavior consulting counseling clinic. >> you are pathetic. >> it is hard for it not to seem like a royal [ bleep ] view to the other 370,000 babies born that day. >> how many women were there? can you remember? >> there are more than -- there are few. i don't have a specific number for you. [ speaking spanish ] >> it's not dozens and dozens. >> carlos danger. six to ten, i suppose. >> carlos danger.

>> i can't tell you absolutely what someone else will consider inappropriate or not. >> i don't believe i had any more than three. >> i do not want anthony weiner as my mayor. i want carlos danger. >> stay thirsty, my friend. >> you knew we were going to bring in the old movies and the old music. coming up, the race to run america's largest city. will voter care more about anthony weiner's private online profiles or privacy issues like nypd's public racial profiling? we're tackling it. [ male announcer ] some question physics. some question gravity. and some... even have the audacity to question improbability. with best-in-class towing and best-in-class torque these are some of the bold, new ram commercial trucks -- built to blow your imagination. guts. glory. ram.

are you flo? yes. is this the thing you gave my husband? well, yeah, yes. the "name your price" tool. you tell us the price you want to pay, and we give you a range of options to choose from. careful, though -- that kind of power can go to your head. that explains a lot. yo, buddy! i got this. gimme one, gimme one, gimme one! the power of the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. i don't care what weiner does with his wiener. i only care that he does a good job with the city of new york. >> that is one new yorker's opinion on the political story of this week. revelations that anthony weiner kept up his sexting habits long after resigning from congress.

the new ones are even more revealing. even though some say this story gets worse with repetition, weiner is not going anywhere. >> i want to bring my vision to the people of the city of new york. i hope they're willing to give may second chance. and i hope they realize that in many ways, what happened today was something that frankly had happened before but it doesn't represent all that much that is new. >> it is not dozens and dozen. it is six to ten, i suppose. i can't tell you absolutely what someone else is going to consider inappropriate or not. >> now, voters will have the final word in the cement primary. new poll show his favorable rating has dropped 22 points in the last month. back when he was leading the pack. in new york, the political and media establishment are saying that weiner's infractions are so grave. so unacceptable and so shocking to the very moral fiber of this city that he shouldn't even run in the primary.

that includes not only top democrats but his rival tabloids, the conservative new york post and the more centrist daily news as well as "the new york times" which editorialized against weiner and elliot spitzer who is trying to bounce back from a scandal. so this case is getting a lot of attention because of the sex or the sex-related material. is the establishment right to have a fidelity test to candidates? should this issue be prioritized above all others to decide whether someone is fit to run for office. joining me, he's seen his share of scandals and new york magazine's maureen o'connor who broke the story of congressman chris lee's online. i want to start with you. what is it here that actually justifies this new york media elite political elite establishment freakout that basically says, on this issue

alone, anthony weiner shouldn't even be in the race. >> i don't think it is a fidelity clause as you characterize it. i don't think people are saying because he was programs, did something rude to his wife, he needs to be dropping out. it is that he said specifically he thought this was a moral transgression. he said i am putting all my self-discipline toward not making this mistake again. not sexing 22-year-olds and he could not do that. i think that's troubling for a lot of people. we're talking about a woman who is the boss of hundreds of thousands of municipal employees. he is in charge of a $70 billion budget. to have him not have the discipline to hold back in a moment like that is sort of preposterous. >> let me get your thoughts on that. i think maureen is accurately describing what has been said a lot in this city. while accurate it reflects the terrible mental error being made. that personal choice will reflect your public leadership. george w. bush was known to be very ascetic and disciplined at home. refrained from alcohol after

overcoming his personal battles. many people respected that but was very reckless in his government leadership. we've seen the voter make a similar judgment. when scandals are only related to personal or sexual matters, we've seen the re-election rates stay fairly high. 81% in the case of those who sought re-election have been reelected. and we've seen corruption which relates to misdeeds on the job has been held against politicians more often than personal foibles. doesn't that make more sense? >> it does make more sense. there is an argument to be made that this represents a broader character flaw in anthony weiner. but i think to a certain degree, people in this country are coming to term with the reality that people who run for these offices, senate or president or the mayor of new york are ego maniacs and they can't help themselves to a certain degree. and people are comfortable with this. bill clinton was caught. people look at jfk and understand that he had affairs

and they don't seem, to it doesn't hurt his legacy at all. even people like, there was the congressman in kentucky who allegedly tried to force his girlfriend to have an abortion. he got reelected. in a state, an area that is very anti-abortion. i think americans are sort of starting to look at these things and say this is how politicians are. >> you mentioned jfk. the big difference there being that we had a different type of relationship with the press and obviously, no internet. so jfk and fdr were people who had these affairs but they weren't exposed in real-time. who knows if we might have been denied of their leadership in this time. you look at george washington, thomas jefferson, dwight eisenhower. there were a the love men who were adulterers or worse and still managed to be good leaders. >> i think that's true. we have this strange simultaneously permissive and prudish culture. to see a picture like weiner's

picture, it is hard not to freak out about that. and at the same time we're so set with the redemption narrative will it is sort of backwards. sometimes i think the initial scandal gave them name recognition and put a lot of people ended up supporting him without necessarily knowing a ton about his politics but they like this redemption narrative. i think that's something we're obsessed with. we're seeing with san diego mayor filner right now. i'm going to go to this magic box of rehab. >> we asked what do you care about. we mentioned racial profiling which is a huge issue here. 90% of people stopped. are found to be innocent. the vast majority are minorities. it is a complete and systemic degradation of the population and you see 41% of the entire electorate is saying that program should stop. those numbering higher when you look at substantive democratic

electorate. when you ask what is this race about? the number one issue, this may shock people. it is not anthony weiner. it is jobs followed by education, followed by economic develop many, followed by housing which continue in houses which marginalized people who can be afford to live here. and they don't feel that the mayor has prioritized these concerns. what do you think about how those issues are being crowded out by these selfies. >> i think that's a fair point. >> in many ways, people are saying weener is perpetually saying i deserve to be forgiven. and people say yes, you deserve to be forgiven. and they confuse that with yes, i want you to be mayor. that's a major sort of fault between the way kristine quinn has acted and the way weiner goats act in what they're trying to prove about themselves. >> that's an interesting point. you look at anthony weiner's history.

i imagine you know a little about it. he was a very ineffective congressman by any objective measure. he was a show boater. he passed very few pieces of legislation and even more than, that he was roundly condemned. even by liberal democrats who did not show up to meetings with a grams of policy. then he wants to run for mayor after quitting the last job. whatever the reasons, he did quit. now he is not trying to go for a lesser job the way spitzer is, he wants a promotion. so i'm not going to vote for him as a zenlt of new york for those reasons. is that big a contrast from people like bill clinton who shored up a base of support? >> to a certain degree, absolutely. the thing with him is that anthony weiner has always had very fierce supporters and very fierce detractors. he hasn't ever done much other than politics and throw bombs. the one thing he has going is that he is the only real personality in the race. and new yorkers generally seem to want to elect a personality

and not an administrator. that doesn't necessarily fit the, at least the recent history of the city's voting for mayor. >> there are plenty of races where, this is a 70 loved rudy and hated rudy but ultimately thought they wanted someone granted and big and bloomberg sees himself as a national leader. spending time out of the city. spending money out of the city. a lot of people like that. it is a different kind of politics. i wish we had more time or do i? thank you for discussing the endless weinergate story. now i want to turn to something else. i want to tell but a place where racial minorities make up the majority. where social conservatives are finding democrats on moral issues, it may not be where you think it is. ent, a real gate keeper. here's kevin, the new boyfriend. lamb to the slaughter. that's right brent.

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egyptian police open fire on the quarters of former president morsi. secretary of state john kerry has just released a statement this hour calling the situation, quote, a pivotal moment for just a minute. nbc's reporter is live with us in cairo. we're seeing the muslim brotherhood is not necessarily backing down. we're seeing a rise in these deaths. is there any hope for some sort of resolution in the coming days? >> reporter: we know several officials and initiatives have tried to get these two sides effectively, the military, the interim government to sit down and talk with the slil brotherhood. that has not happened. there were early negotiations that took place after the removal of morsi between military and some senior officials of the muslim brotherhood. we know those talks have broken down other. influential figures including

scholars and religious figures and lawyers have tried to put forth their own individual efforts to try to break up these peaceful sit-ins. they have not been successful. that is giving concern to many people here. especially after today when the minister of interior that that these protests will be broken up at some point. they are waiting for legal decisions to know made by the judiciary here. once they get green light from the legal process, you can expect police and the military to try to break up that crowd andle people here are afraid that is going to lead to more bloodshed. >> i imagine it is a tense situation. i know you'll keep an eye on it for us. next, what is one southern distinction that jimmy carter and hubert humphrey have in common? they were the last democratic candidates to win the state of texas and now there are sign that texas is burning blue again. so... [ gasps ]

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based on the evidence of intentional racial discrimination that was presented just last year in the case of texas v. holder as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities, that the supreme court itself has recognized, we believe that the state of texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices. >> that was eric holder on thursday. announcing a new frontier in the battle over voting rights. the obama administration will use parts of the vra still intact in order to ask for more supervision over the voting rules. a federal court will have to approve that. texas republicans were quick to fire back including the top law enforcement officer in the state. >> this is using the voting rights act for partisan political purposes. >> that was state attorney general greg abbott, and he is

the leading candidate for governor. in a contrast from some voting rights cases, the redistricting battle is not just about suppressing. it turns on the increasing power of the latino population. for the first time in decades, democrats may have a shot at turning texas blue. they say it is destiny. in politics, millions of voters don't go very far without a handful of solid candidates. texas arguably has not given democrats a national star since maybe anne richards but that could be changing, at a. you might recognize the faces on the new issue of texas monthly. there you see the castro wins the, who willian castro and joaquin castro and of course, youtube sensation wendy davis who battled rick perry the old-fashioned way. with a talking filibuster. our next guest penned that. and he said texas could slide boo sboo the d column but maybe not any time soon. robert draper writes for rolling

stone, gq and the account of the bush presidency. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> you start with the extensive history. point out the last northerner to win was hubert humphrey, jimmy carter won it in a special period. why has it been so long and what's changing now? >> a variety of things. i think that the national democratic party has always been more liberal than the texas democratic party. but the states' dems were in a lot of ways, were branded effectively by, during the reagan period. as being liberals. being out of touch. when ann richards became governor of texas, she certainly moved the needle to the left and she was not interested in building party infrastructure. the dems had a lot of difficulty fielding attractive statewide candidates. you couple all that with basically the overall erosion throughout the south and including texas of any kind of democratic power.

and texas became a one-party state. that party being republicans. >> you make such an interesting point. culturally these issues come down to who is more texas, who is more local. you don't want to necessarily carry all freight of the national party. george w. bush lost his first house race in texas. and his democratic opponent famously said it was all about making that race. about texas tech versus yale and texas tech always beats yale which make sense. you write about how obama, obviously a national democratic figure has people down there trying to do battle in texas. >> jeremy bird, his great field organizer in 2008 and 2012 has organized a group, coming out of his organizing for america. obama organization called battleground texas with the objective of turning texas blue over time. now what they're mainly doing is trying to register more voters. trying to recruit more volunteers. trying the raise more money and

hopefully, along the way, make a landscape more attractive for strong candidates to run. in the democratic party. they won't say when precisely they'll be able to turn the state blue. i would not count them out begin their experience before. but at the same time, over in texas, they're a bit challenged. they raised in the first four months, really only $900,000. and it is far less than a lot of us figured they would raise. and as for candidates, we'll see. no one has really declared. >> before i let you go, i want to get out wendy davis. when will we see her on the national stage? >> i think she will make an announcement within the month. i would strongly bet that she will run for governor. i don't have the information for that but it seems that's the case. and i think she stands a chance. she'll be running against a guy who doesn't have that strong a name identification. you mentioned before.

greg abbott. it remains to be seen. abbott has never been against a strong opponent. it could be very interesting. >> robert draper is the man who knew about wendy davis before we did and before youtube. if you want to continue discussing all these stories from today, do come see us on facebook or twitter. i will read your tweets and respond to some of them. if you hit me up @ari melber. it is the internet so please, no typos. karen is off today but of course, you can also always find her @finney k. what i'm saying is you have a lot of options. now do stay with us. the ed show is covering detroit and the new battle over voting rights. that's up next.

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good evening, americans. live from new york. it's 5:00. let get to new york. >> the left is trying the paint detroit as a republican failure. >> there is no way that you can lose 300,000 manufacturing jobs and have a sustainable tax base for the city of detroit. >> raise hustlers and the grievance industry have intimidated the so call conversation. make no mistake. detroit is going bankrupt is exactly what the republicans want. >> the easiest explanation for detroit's decline is it is all the unions' fault. >> enough is enough. >> we are people that sacrifice our lives. we may not come home one day. to look at us as a spreadhe