tv The Reid Report MSNBC June 24, 2014 11:00am-12:01pm PDT
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back in the limelight. >> i'm not a hostile witness. >> yes, you are. >> your connection to this topic of today's hearing is at best a stretch. >> i asked a question. >> and i answered it. >> lois lerner refuses to tell us the truth. then all the sudden, oh, my goodness, we lose two years' worth of e-mails. >> i did not say i would provide you e-mails that disappeared. >> listen, i grew up in a bar. this doesn't pass the straight-face test. >> we are going to provide you 24,000 e-mails from the -- >> my time is expired, and i've lost my patience with you. >> daryl issa should probably hit the reset before he crashes like those pesky irs hard drives. then, it's tuesday, which means it's primary day somewhere. we have all the races to watch, including the run-off in mississippi, where it's gotten so nasty, poll watchers have been called in. and as congress comes together to present a congressional gold medal in honor of dr. martin
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luther king jr. and coretta scott king, al sharpton shares his thoughts. but first to capitol hill, where the house held its third hearing in five days into the critically important and urgently pressing national matter of what happened to former irs employee lois lerner's missing e-mails. today's smoking gun witness before the oversight and government reform committee was jennifer o'connor, a current white house deputy council who worked at the irs for decades, years, a year? no, six months. when ms. o'connor was invited to testify, the white house objected saying the discovery of the e-mails, quote, post dates ms. o'connor's tenure theat the agency. that led daryl issa to subpoena her and called her a hostile witness. >> yes or no, please. you're a hostile witness. yes or no. were you hired -- >> i'm not at all a hostile witness. >> yes, you are.
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>> chairman told you you were a hostile witness, and you said you were not. is that right? >> that's correct. >> do you consider yourself a hostile witness? >> i'm definitely not hostile. >> i checked with congressman gowdy, who has a lot more knowledge of law and prosecuting than i do. he said a term i should have used was noncooperative witness rather than hostile. >> yeah, totally different thing. well, it's worth arguing that the most informative part of today's, last night's and friday's exercise was the revelation that the irs still uses windows xp. it's also worth noting that ms. o'connor's loose connection is not what made her an attractive witness to drag to capitol hill today. rather, it was undoubtedly two magic words in her current title, white house. >> i believe lois lerner is hiding something. i believe the justice department, the irs, and the white house are interested in her succeeding and hiding what he's shiedin ihiding, which is g
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of conservative groups and their ideology. >> ah, yes, citizens united. which brings us back to the whole reason why some republicans are in an uproar in the first place. because, as i pointed out in read between the lines yesterday, in our nbc first read team aptly writes today, because they couldn't take advantage of a borderline shady way to raise money for political purposes, which leads us to the question at the end of chairman issa's rabbit hole. are there any real victims here? dana millbank is a political columnist with "the washington post." i guess my problem with this whole exercise is that underlying the so-called scandal is an attempt by about 300 tea party, mostly, groups to get a tax exemption in the irs code and do politics at the same time and not wait a day to have it approved. is there a victim in this supposed scandal? >> well, i mean, i suppose there's a victim in that applications were held up were a
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period of time, but to hear the allegations that, you know, somehow swayed the elections of the united states of america is a bit outlandish. now, look, i think it's kind of crazy that her hard drive crashed and all these e-mails were lost, but you know what the real scandal is, this sort of nonsense goes on throughout our government all the time. it happened with the u.s. attorney scandal. it happened with the torture memos. it happened going back to the clinton administration's fundraising. it's absolutely woeful because the laws don't require enough and there's honestly not enough money there to make it happen. so it would be terrific to see chairman issa concerned about this and actually preserving the records of our government so this sort of nonsense doesn't happen in the future. >> yeah, it's pretty fair to say the government uses really old tech. and they don't allow the president to have a blackberry. i want to play you a little bit of the conversation back and
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forth between congresswoman caroline maloney of new york and daryl issa. he tried a tricky maneuver here he was later called out on. i want to have you take a listen. >> this whole irs mess seems to flow directly from confusion over just how the irs should enforce a law that was passed by this congress that gives tax-exemption status to not for profits but only if they're essentially politically nonpartisan. >> you probably were not here when this was discussed, but 501 c 4s do not get 100% deduction. you're not tax dedoesn'table on your donations. >> not at all? >> not a penny. >> tricky maneuver by daryl issa who quickly pivoted to whether or not a donor can get a tax deduction, which, no, they cannot. but the question at hand is whether the actual 501c4 itself is the one that gets the tax
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free treatment. it was later corrected by jackie spear when she came back. is that the talking point we're now now going to see? you just make a pivot and talk about the donor. >> you know, i mean, daryl issa makes so many pivots he's spinning in a circle here. you have to understand the whole context of this hearing. they had the irs commissioner there under subpoena because he was trying to beat dave camp at the ways and means committee, who had the commissioner come in there voluntarily. it was like "mad" magazine spy versus spy, and they kept moving up their hearing to see who could have first bite at the commissioner. issa lost that the same way he's lost benghazi. he's had fights with the armed services committee. you know, basically he's trying to say, i'm still relevant, i'm in the limelight. what he's been doing all along is throwing out outlandish accusations saying he knows this goes right into the white house and it has to do with the president's political operation. this and other scandals.
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ultimately, he's unable to demonstrate this in what is a subject worthy investigation becoming a farce. this is exactly what's happening here. >> yeah, certain columnist by the name of dana millbank called that subpoena envy. an interesting formulation for the thing daryl issa is going through. >> serious affliction. >> it is indeed, clearly. thank you. coming up, secretary of state john kerry's second day of diplomacy in iraq, and things appear to be at a stalemate. plus, it's primary day. down in mississippi, gop senator thad cochran has called in the maverick and is hoping for a hail mary. >> we cannot afford not to have this experience handed the tiller in the most dangerous times i have ever seen in my lifetime. >> and just wait until you hear who else the gop senator is calling in as re-enforcements. ♪
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moments ago, the white house said it would meet with u.s. senators about three hours from now following a phone call this morning between president obama and british prime minister david cameron over the disintegrating situation in iraq. the white house meeting comes on the heels of secretary of state john kerry's two-day visit to iraq. today meeting with the head of iraq's northern kurdistan region after leaders in baghdad on monday. the leader made several comments today that appeared to open the door wider for his region's exit from the war-torn iraqi today. today, andrea mitchell asked secretary kerry how he would respond to these comment, and this is what he said. >> that a united iraq is a stronger iraq, and our policy is to respect the territorial integrity of iraq as a whole.
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president mirzani understands that. >> mirzani's comments come as two other groups today fought for control of iraq's biggest oil refinery. as "the wall street journal" and other publications report that syrian forces have struck sunni insurgents in a keyboarder region that was overtaken this weekend. we should caution that reports of strikes have not been confirmed by nbc news. also, that the pentagon earlier today denied what it called rumors that u.s. drones were part of any strikes in that area. the sunni-led insurgency has captured large swaths of northern and western iraq as the of the-criticized government of maliki struggles to use their superior numbers to their advantage. but as the death toll climbs to over 1,000, what, if anything, can president obama and the west do to stem the tide of violence and stave off the complete breakup of iraq? david rode is an investigative reporter with reuters. that is the question, number
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one, whether or not the west can stave off the breakup of iraq. and number two, whether or not it's desirable. the kurdish reason has its own president. is there some reason for the west to proactively try to hold this country together? >> in terms of whether it's going to break apart, frankly, it doesn't look good. seems that the kerry trip hasn't made much of a difference, and maliki, he's done this before. it took, i think, eight months to form a government in 2010, and now they're trying to form a new government. i don't think it's going to happen in weeks. it could take months as well. why should the u.s. try to preserve iraq? i mean, it's a very dangerous precedent. these are very badly drawn british colonial borders that have put the sunnis, shias, and kurds together. you're essentially creating a caliphate together. it's unclear how this plays out. iran would try to grab southern iraq, the oil fields there. turkey is going to feel threatened by a new kurdistan. the saudis are not going to
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stand back. in the end, let's be honest, it all comes back to oil prices. if you have a regional war where shias and sunnis and kurds are all trying to grab territory, what's that going to do to oil prices? but i also understand the skepticism americans feel. >> and if we could just keep that map up for a second. if you take a look at where iraq lies, this is -- herein lies the problem. if you look up and to the right on your screen that, is iran that is right next door, right to the south of iraq, sort of west of it you've got saudi arabia. you have jordan bordering it. you have syria. this is a region that's got a lot of stuff. if you were able to zoom that map out even larger, then to the east of iran is afghanistan, where our troops are still trying to extricate themselves. so the region that iraq is in is right in the middle. so i think it's important to remember why this is important to the u.s. and your point, david, is that if you were to allow it to break apart, the sunni piece of it, which abuts syria, jordan, and
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saudi arabia would be a sunni caliphate run by extremists. >> i don't think it's an immediate let it, but this could eventually turn and attack israel. what do we do at that point? there's hundreds of europeans that have joined the sunni forces now fighting in syria and iraq. they could return home. at this point, it's only dozens of americans. again, it's thinking ahead. how do you stop this process if you decide to create states that are based essentially on, you know, religious identity or ethnic identity. >> right. i want to bring in a journal itself whoist who's been covering the middle east for the past 15 years you have an article right now that i recommend everybody read in "politico" magazine in which you talk about the history of isis or isil. it's history rooted in neighboring syria. isil isn't marching across iraq alone. disenfranchised sunnis from across the political spectrum, including former saddam loyalists, are also involved, drawn together by the
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increasingly autocratic and sectarian rule of the iraqi government. this new iraqi/sunni coalition, however, is unlikely to last. isil couldn't work with others in syria, so how long before it turns on or aggravates on its new iraqi allies? talk about that mix, the syria element of what's going on in iraq. >> well, you know, the isis or isil is the latest incarnation of the islamic state of iraq, which was an al qaeda affiliate based in iraq. in the summer of 2011, this group sent some men across into syria, which at the time was in the midst of a largely peaceful uprising. those men formed the core of the official branch of al qaeda in syria. there was a dispute between the jihadi elements. the iraqi group tried to merge with the syrian group under this new name isis or isil.
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that created a split within jihadi ranks. isis now had a presence in both syria and in iraq. so, you know, that's just a little bit of background in terms of how this group came to move rather freely across the syrian/iraqi border. >> so essentially, is the group that is based in syria fighting the dictatorship in syria at the same time it's joining the insurgency in iraq? >> yes, exactly. i mean, middle east politics makes for strange bedfellows. the coalition, the sunni insurgent coalition, if you like, that we're seeing in iraq is comprised of members of isis or isil, which are this transnational ultraconservative jihadi group as well as remnants of the former bathist regime, relatively secular groupings.
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they've been brought together, as i mentioned in the article, by the increased sense of, you know, alienation and also persecution by the central government in iraq, the shiite-led central government in iraq. that's what's brought them together in iraq. now, in syria, isis is often accused by other rebel groups of ostensibly fighting beside them, but more often antagonizing them and trying to impose its views is on other groups. isis views itself as an islamic state, a sovereign state, not a faction among many that is fighting. that's a key thing that i think we have to understand. it indicates not only their objectives but also their methods and why they think that they're entitled to impose their views on others. >> right, indeed. david, coming back to you for an exit question, given all of this, it's a mess, obviously. and the u.s. would love to see al maliki go, but is it tenable to replace, let's say, al maliki
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with another shia leader, who would be seen as illegitimate? >> i think the shia are the majority in iraq. for decades they were ruled by saddam hussein and the sunni minority. it has to be a new shia prime minister. but maliki is not budging, it sounds like. and no new figure is emerging to directly replace him. the danger with isis, they want to spark a sectarian war. what they do is slaughter shia wherever they find them. they want to go to war with iran. they want to create this chaos. and they're really diluted and very dangerous. i agree and understand why americans want no part of this, but again, oil prices. you know, that's why it's an issue for the united states. >> the three-letter word that keeps dragging us back into middle east conflicts. thank you very much. we appreciate you being here. the sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for marrying a christian man is now in a detention center. less than 24 hours after being
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released from prison. she was pregnant when she was put on death row in may. the court said her marriage to a christian man amounted to apostsi. she was also sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery, which the court deemed her marriage to be. a judge overturned her conviction, but her lawyer says his client was arrested at the airport without reason as she was trying to flee the country. you told us your number one olive garden dishes.
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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about xarelto® today. for more information including savings options, download the xarelto® patient center app, call 1-888-xarelto, or visit teamxarelto.com. it's time for we the tweeple. you can't stop buzzing about the world's most beautiful felon. jeremy meeks and his handsome mug shot went violate last week after a weapons arrest. some of you featured his fab face in fashion ads that went viral too. now meeks reportedly has real modeling agencies lined up to sign him. of course, first he has to get out of jail. his bail was raised to $1
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million after all your social media attention. and while some of you are trying to get on the jury, and you know who you are, others are debating, should you donate to the online campaign for his legal defense? meeks' mom has raised more than $4,000 on the website go fund me already. now, beyonce said pretty hurts, but in this case, it actually kind of helps. now some hurting words from actor william shatner. shatner is blowing up for an epic twitter rant about who deserves to be verified by the social media site. getting the i'm really important blue check mark. after a tech news site employee got the check, shatner tweeted, quote, maybe i need to request to be unverified. who wants to be part of a broken system that folks can pay for or reward cronies while others wait? and he went on from there. well, that's not how it works, captain kirk. and one of you tweeted in response, quote, heads up, shatner, the force is no longer with you. this is the internet, where geeks rule. yeah, of course for those of you who kwaugt it, that was a starr
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wars reference, not star trek. now to lebron james. remember when he said this? >> this fall, man, this is very tough, this fall i'm going to take my talents to south beach and join the miami heat. >> south beach is not miami. it's two totally different places. well, james just announced he's opting out of his miami heat contract to become a free agent on july 1st. some of you are hating on him for switching up on fans yet again. even i'm giving him a little bit of side eye. but you're also sending tweeting like this one. quote, lebron james, the most hated player in the nba that everyone desperately wants on their teams. sorry, south beach. lebron may be taking his talents elsewhere. you can join the conversation on where king james may land next with fellow readers on twitter, facebook, instagram, and msnbc.com. now this news, the verdict has been announced in the u.k. phone hacking trial. here's what the future holds for the former "news of the world" editors.
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it's more of everything you want. for less. plus, get the droid maxx by motorola for 0 down. get more with our best plans on the best network. for best results, use verizon. this is the state flag of mississippi. you can see that it contains a red and a white and blue horizontal bar across it. in the upper left-hand corner, the confederate battle cross. back in 2001, voters in mississippi were asked whether they wanted to change their flag, to remove the symbol which many americans associate with slavery, secession, and racial violence. proponents said reminding people of mississippi's ugly racial history was bad for economic development. the vote wasn't even close. mississippi voted 65% to 35% to keep the confederate symbol. "the new york times" reported at the time that many voters, in fact, said they supported the
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current flag precisely because it was opposed by outside interests, fearing that surrendering to such demands would inevitably lead to the e registration of what they consider the region's heritage. that include the murders of three civil rights workers, including two from new york, who were in mississippi. a massive effort by civil rights organizations had hundreds of black and white volunteers to register black voters in a state considered the hardest state in which to get black voters to be able to exercise their civil and voting rights. it also includes the murder of medgar evers. the year before that and decades of blatant voter intimidation. so when voters in mississippi go to the polls today, poll watchers will be especially ironic. they're being dispatched by ken cuccinelli, who now heads the senate conservatives fund, and says his group is putting eyes on the mississippi primary because of a straight out of left field strategy by the
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incumbent senator, conservative republican thad cochran, to court black votes in his run-off with the tea party challenger chris mcdaniel. joining me to discuss that intriguing strategy and the strange twists and turns, angela rye, former south carolina republican party chair kate dawson, and bob herbert, a distinguished senior fellow at demos. i'm going right to you, kayton to talk about this strategy. i think we have a newspaper ad we can show you that's showing the strategy that he's trying to use, which is to try and court black voters. he's got the help of a guy named james warren, a black democratic strategi strategist, and gotv expert, who's trying to help him go into black newspapers, black churches, to get black folk to come out because apparently there aren't enough white republicans to get him re-elected. what is that strategy about? >> well, first of all, joy, i've
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never seen it work. it's been tried time and time again to get democrats to come into a republican primary and vice versa. the cross pollination just sort of never happens. right now i've watched the race fairly closely. you've got two different demographics going. i think certainly the super pac on the side of thad cochran, run by henry barber, which is a really, really good operative in our business came off the air and went in to get out the vote. i think there are plenty of republicans in mississippi to vote. the problem we have in primaries is people just don't show back up. so it's a tight race, but i think the theory there is a little overblown. i don't think it'll work. if that's what they're counting on, then the new senator is going to be chris mcdaniel. >> let's listen to one of the ads that chris mcdaniel is using to push back on this strategy, angela. this is the ad that's being run on the mcdaniel side, one of them, pushing back on the strategy to get black democrats to come into the primary and vote for thad cochran. >> thad cochran is basically
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saying look what all i've done for the black community here. i've given you food stamps, be happy and vote for me, because i've given you something to vote for me for. >> angela, you have a state that is number one in the states that use the most federal assistance in order to get by. their budget in mississippi is 45.8% made up of federal dollars. thad cochran is essentially running on that. he's running on the fact he's brought home those dollars you see right there to mississippi. now you have chris mcdaniel really using that against him and using a black person to do it. what do you make of that? >> well, it's definitely not a new strategy. there's nothing new under the sun, so to speak, joy. i think the larger problem is this. mississippi has the largest black electorate if you look at the exit polls from 2012. the fact that any candidate waited to engage the black demographic of mississippi or anywhere else in this country until it was time for a run-off is highly problematic. the other challenge with that particular strategy, joy, is
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this. the folks who are most likely to be engaged in any type of electoral politics if they're black and democrat, they already voted in the original primary for the democrats. so they're not eligible to vote in the gop run-off today. so that's the real issue here. i think more over, is it true thad cochran has done more than some of the other conservative senators from other states? absolutely. he's absolutely worked with hbcus in the state of mississippi. i know my former boss congressman thompson would say he's also very helpful in ensuring katrina funding. the bigger issue here is the fact that the gop overall has not learned its lesson from its autopsy report last year, and they're still doing the same old things, expecting vastly different results. >> and, you know, bob, there's an interesting piece up in slate right now arguing that african-americans actually should go ahead and vote. as angela made the point, you had to have not voted in the democratic primary. there are available black
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voters. what he essentially says is thad dock ron is an idaologue. he also makes the point that health centers, historically black colleges directly and indirectly boosted black communities. for that reason, to stave off a chris mcdaniel. what do you think of that? >> that's not what i would do. when some folks -- you take the history of mississippi, when some folks are so egregious that you have someone who's not quite as egregious then you say, you know what, you need to throw that vote so we don't just go back into the fire again is not my idea of the way to go forward politically. if you want to rally black voters to vote, and i'm certaincertain ly in favor of that, find candidates to get behind. defeat cochran. that's what i'd encourage people to do. >> the other thing i think is
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trouble i troubling, this idea that, you know, first of all it's going to be real easy to spot the democrats crossing over in that poll because they're going to be the black people, right. mississippi literally is mirror images, 96% of african-americans voted for barack obama both in '08 and '12. among white voters, 88% and 90% voting for republicans. mirror images of each other. not going to be hard to figure out who the poll watchers should target. what do you as a republican make of this idea of utilizing poll watchers, essentially intimidation that is by default going to target black people at the polls in a southern state like mississippi that's still flying the confederate battle flag? >> again, joy, i don't think it's going to happen. i think there's a lot of rhetoric behind it. cuccinelli lost in virginia, and at the end of the day, you got a base vote coming out of probably less than 12% of the total population going to come vote in this primary.
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i would contend against my other guests that the winner of this primary is probably going to be the next u.s. senator for mississippi. this is a get out the vote exercise. you have a tremendous amount of money that's been spent in mississippi on both sides of the aisle here. you've got the senate conservative fund on one. you've got the club for growth on the other. you've got the u.s. chamber of commerce. so you've got money that's poured in by the millions to affect this seat. end of the day, it's going to be a base republican vote, about 12% of the people are going to vote. it's going to be a small number of people, probably 150,000 folks. that's going to name the next senator of mississippi. >> all right. well, hold on a second. i want to keep the whole panel here. when we come back, hip-hop, you don't stop. charlie rangel's bid for a 23rd time in congress. that's coming up. a body at rest tends to stay at rest...
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the other big primary drama that's taking place today is here in new york where congressman charlie rangel is facing his toughest primary yet, probably since he defeated adam clayton powell to narrowly win the seat in 1970. i have to go to my resident new yorker here. so you have charlie rangel, who is 84 years old this month. he's been in office since 1970 when he defeated adam clayton powell. now for the first time it's close. he's up 47-34 over his closest challenger. there are three other challengers in the race. but his challenger has this thing going for him that he's hispanic. charlie rangel is half hispanic, which is a whole other story. is it even possible that charlie rangel is actually in jeopardy? then let's talk a little bit about what that means in the bigger picture with african-american politicians who really don't typically get much of a challenge. >> he is in jeopardy. he may win the race, the latest
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polls show him up by 13 points. but he's definitely in jeopardy. he could lose. you know, this is another case of where a district was redrawn. charlie has historically represented a majority african-american district. now it's majority latino. so it's one of the main reasons he's in jeopardy. another reason he's in jeopardy is just simply the fact he's been around so long. barack obama was 9 years old when charlie rangel went to congress. it was groups like the carpenters at the top of the charts when he went to washington. i think that in both thad cochran race in mississippi and the rangel race here, as different as they may seem, it's a case of voters not happy with the way things are going in this country, and it's a lot of voters saying, you know, let's just throw the ras kls out. they don't understand the issues maybe that well, but they think it's time for a change. >> and you know, angela, having worked with the cbc for quite a
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long time, talk a little bit about this interesting change in some of these districts where the growth is among latino voters in the case of charlie rangel's district you also have more white voters because harlem is gentry if iing. how does that impact the way the cbc operates? you have a lot of legislators who have been office a long time but who are now facing demographic change we typically associate with republicans. >> sure. well, i think, first of all, we need to address this concept of seniority, which is the way in which cbc members have been able to attain chairmanships and ranking memberships throughout the history of congress since they were first elected. congressman rangel is one of the founders of the congressional black caucus, therefore chaired the ways and means committee. i think that people, particularly those who may not be as astute about beltway insider politics, really misunderstand the fact that sometimes change is good, but sometimes it can be tremendously detrimental. that's also true for this senate
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race in mississippi. when you throw out your most senior member of congress, you put yourself in peril. the district is in peril. the state's politics are in peril. that said, to your point about how do members of congress interface with changing demographics if their district with redrawing of district lines, i think congresswoman maxine waters, among others, is a great example of how she has built a coalition of latino and black voters. mr. rangel is a great example of that as well. although, this race has been billed as a black versus latino race, that is not what it is a the all. mr. rangel has tremendous support from latino constitue s constituents. so i hope people start looking at challenging your senior member of congress. >> to build on that, it's kind of a high-class problem to have. democrats are looking at chan changing demographics within some of these districts where they're having to appeal to white voters, appeal to hispanic
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voters because the demographics are becoming more fluid. in your party n the republican party, what you're facing is increasingly white districts, districts that have very few hispanics and really no opportunity or no requirement, really, for those republican politicians to start appealing to latinos. is that the flip side and a problem for your party? >> well, surely it's a problem for our party. we have to get bigger and grow. but let me go back to charlie rangel. i was able to run into him a couple weeks ago. this guy at retail politics is the best i've ever seen locally. not only did i introduce myself, he asked if there was ever anything i needed in his district to call him and picked up on the accent. so charlie rangel's got retail politics to him. he knows his district. he's got mayor denkins with him. he's got the governor of new york. he shook that endorsement loose on sunday. so charlie rangel's going to win and go back to congress for his
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last term. that district, you're having a little bit of the same thing there you're having in republican primaries. we're having conversations about who both parties are right now. i contend rangel goes back most likely an upset in mississippi. >> he also has a rap song. we didn't get to play it. he may be 84, but he's got a hip-hop song. all right. thank you very much. appreciate you guys being here. and up next, the fight for voting rights. the reverend al sharpton helps us read between the lines on the movement, then and now. this is interesting. it says here that a woman's sex drive increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. it seems that 80 is the new 18. grannies, bless your heart, you are bringing sexy back! eat up. keep heart-healthy. live long. for a healthy heart,
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in a few minutes, the house of representatives will mark the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act of 1964 and present the congressional gold medal in honor of dr. martin luther king jr. and coretta scott king for their work and leadership in the heroic cause. i recently talked with reverend al sharpton, who grew up in the civil rights movement and who
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went on to lead what could be called its northern branch, starting in the 1980s and continuing today. rev talked about the connection between past and present activism and why we still need a movement. >> the significance are several. one is we must commemorate landmarks. we must say that this is a particular place in history that more americans were able to enjoy being americans because before the '64 act, there was limited citizenship for black people. so it is as important to those of us that were marginalized in terms of public accommodations, the '64 act, as it was for someone else who may have been made a full citizen going through a process of immigration or going through the process of when the country was founded. we were not treated as full americans until the '64 act.
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'65 act, couldn't vote. it's as personal as my mother, who was born and raised in alabama. couldn't vote in her home state until she was almost 40 years old. i'm talking about my mother. so it's significant there. it's also significant because it gives you a place to measure. measure from 50 years ago to now. challenges then, challenges now. where are we, and where are we not? so, yes, we have a lot more freedom, but are we closer we quality? we're still doubly unemployed. we still have voting irregularities or voter suppression. so it gives you something to measure when you get to an anniversary. >> so we came out to your weekly saturday morning meeting here at the house of justice in harlem. you spent some time in talking to those gathered here today, talking about another anniversary, which was the disappearance of goodman cheney. talk a little bit about how that resonates for you now. because you spent a lot of time
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discussing that with the people here today. >> the murder of goodman cheney resonates for me because here were three northerners, one black, two jewish. they went south and died. literally lost their lives trying to give us the right to vote. at a time that we're seeing voter suppression laws, at a time we're seeing all kinds of schemes, it's important we remember people died to give us this. this is not a civics class. this is not we're talking about just do what is right. people died, which showed people didn't want us to have this. there were elements in this country that would kill because they didn't want us to vote. if we understand that, we have an obligation to preserve that, and we have a value because people wouldn't pay that kind of price if it didn't mean nothing. i think it would be unbelievable for someone like me, who not only could vote but could run
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for president, not to remember the people that lost their lives. i wouldn't be able to do that. >> yeah, a year after the civil rights act of '64, there was still a need to pass a voting rights act. that's how far we hadn't come a year on. what do you make of, number one, the fact that the supreme court used the same month, july, to overturn and to strip away a lot of the voting rights act? and tell us what you make of this effort in the house to try to restore some of it. >> i was in the courtroom, the supreme court hearings on the voting rights act. when they came out in july, the anniversary month of the voting rights act, that they were gutting it for all purposes, it was like a slap in our face. it was to really say that as you commemorate the anniversary, we're going to take the core of the cake out and just leave you the frosting.
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and it at one level outraged me, but at another level, it obligated me. as i thought about it, i said, it wasn't like they gave us the voting rights act in the first place. we had to fight for it. we had to march and go and do what was necessary in a strong nonviolent movement, and we're just going to have to fight to maintain it and turn it around. the effort in the house is good as long as we put feet in the streets. because adam clayton powell and others didn't get the voting rights act through without martin luther king on the streets and others doing what they needed to do. i think a movement plus the house bill will be successful. if there's no movement, i do not think there will be success. >> and you're planning to do some things out in the country with national action network exactly to that end. what are those things? >> we're going to eight states where we're going to, one, support those efforts to change these laws with mass mobilization. bishop curry in florida and reverend cabinets in ohio and
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all around these eight states. at the same time, we're going to prepare people for if we can't turn around by election day, helping seniors get voting i.d., helping people that need to get past impediments. we're going to help provide the resources so there will be no reason not to vote. >> the reverend al sharpton reading between the lines today. and don't miss the rev weeknights on "politics nation." that wraps things up for "the reid report" today. be sure to visit us online at thereidreport.msnbc.com. "the cycle" is up next. hey, cyclists. how you doing? >> hey, joy. how's it going? >> pretty well. what's happening? >> we got a lot going. first of all, it's primary day, so we have john harwood on the ground in mississippi and also howard fineman to give us a preview of what's likely to happen. we're also, of course, going to be looking at the latest in iraq asking, is a divided iraq an inevitability? and i have a commentary on how to make the internet safer for
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women. >> very good point. because i think that's an increasing discussion i'm seeing online as we. >> and joy, the gang is back. >> wait a minute. what? who's back? >> the gang. >> well, i don't really recognize one of the four of you. three of you seem really familiar. the other guy, i'm not really sure who that is. the hardest working man in show business. welcome back, ari. we're looking forward to what's coming up next, "the cycle." ritd two pills. afternoon arrives and feeling good, but her knee pain returns... that's two more pills. the evening's event brings laughter, joy, and more pain... when jamie says... what's that like six pills today? yeah... i can take 2 aleve for all day relief. really, and... and that's it. this is kathleen... for my arthritis pain, i now choose aleve. get all day arthritis pain relief with an easy-open cap.
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make every day, her day with a full menu of appetizers and entrées crafted with care and designed to delight. fancy feast. love served daily. if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain. this is humira helping me lay the groundwork. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems,
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serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. take the next step. talk to your doctor. this is humira at work. cycling right now, a world cup match where the hungrier team is obvious. here a player from you're day apparently bit a player from the italian team this afternoon, and the refs didn't notice. he's accused of doing it two priest times in his career. >> what? miami heat star lebron james will become a free agent next month. does that mean he's leaving the team? time will tell.
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most are betting he's just trying to put some heat on the heat to spend more money on improving their roster. and speaking of money, bob dylan pulled in some big bucks just across the street from us. his original hand-written manuscript of "like a rolling stone" just pulled in more than $2 million, a new world record. now, hit our favorite song. i'm krystal ball. it is another super tuesday right here on "the cycle," including a few run-offs thrown in to keep it interesting. we're watching contests in eight states, with a major focus on two races that politically speaking are really polar opposites. we've got new york's 13th congressional district and mississippi's gop senate primary run-off. senator thad cochran and congressman charles rangel each are the third-longest serving lawmakers in their respective chambers. and these guys have been winning primaries since carter was president.
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