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tv   The Reid Report  MSNBC  June 25, 2014 11:00am-12:01pm PDT

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>> thank you very much. thank you for this wonderful honor. >> all i will be doing is thinking about you and bringing these resources home. thank you. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> also, the speak court justices announce decisions on two cases. pete williams will discuss what they mean. first, let's get to our election day after dateline mississippi. just three weeks ago, the death nail was ringing for senator thad cochran. >> mississippi, where a six-term senator is in serious danger of losing his seat. >> hold the phone on mississippi. the republican senate candidacy is now officially a run-off. >> thad cochran is now fighting for his political life after an unbelievably close republican primary last night. a lot of people are expecting cochran can't pull this off. >> but pull it off he did.
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so just how did the embattled 76-year-old republican senator become mississippi's comeback kid? it's called creative campaigning, my friends. after their primary night drubbing, cochran's people shook it off, put on their man pants, and got to work plotting a three-week resurrection campaign. by yesterday, as politico writes, a collection of groups that might be dubbed the emergency committee for mississippi had spent millions of new television ads, knocked on tens of thousands of doors and reached out to voters, including african-americans and democrats. yes, you heard me right. i said they reached out to african-americans and democrats. in a gop race. and it worked. don't tell that to cochran's tea party backed opponent chris mcdaniel, who walked up to the podium last night and did everything but concede. >> there were literally dozens of irregularities reported all across this state. now it's our job to make sure that the sanctity of the vote is
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upheld. before this race ends, we have to be absolutely certain that the republican primary was won by republican voters. >> meanwhile back here in new york, long-time new york congressman charlie rangel proved himself once again the lion of harlem. boldly declaring victory in a race that as of 11:15 last night the associated press was still declaring too close to call. >> there are too many of you for me to thank you individually. but i want each one of you to go home and know that this was your victory. this is your congressman. and you can rest assure all i will be doing is thinking about you and bringing these resources home. >> with close to 1,000 absentee ballots uncounted as of last night and more arriving through next tuesday, we could be awaiting a long time for the final tally. we start with nbc's ron allen,
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who's been covering the primary. so ron, bring home these resources. that's the refrain from charlie rangel. and in a sense, that's what's on deck when you're talking about an incumbent, somebody who's brought home financial resources to the district. is that what made the difference, even though a small difference? >> i think that and sentiment. i mean, charlie rangel is a beloved, legendary figure in that part of the state, in harlem, and his district. i think that's what may have pushed him over the top if, in fact, he gets there. and we're talking about 1828 votes as the difference, which is amazing when you think that this is a seat in congress. there are 47,000 people who voted. the winner will have less than 20,000 votes or so. so for that few people coming out to support you, you can become a congressman. and now he's done it 23 times, perhaps, which is an amazing record. of course, the last few years have been diminished. but he's still a formidable figure. all politics is local. another cliche people have
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around election time. when i went out there a couple days ago, he said the difference was going to be because this time around he was healthier. back two years ago, he had back issues that kept him sidelined. he was out there pounding the pavement, doing his thing. i went to a campaign stop, and there he was. the big smile, the big wave. it was all that stuff that seems to work and seems to put him over the top again. >> i'm wondering about that point you made of disinterest, the low turnout in these kinds of elections. and the attempts by the main competitor and rangel to sort of gin up a new base and get younger people interested. i have to play a little bit of this rap song. i just have to do it. i must do it. let's play a little bit of it. ♪ i'm guessing when we look at the exit poll, but when you study this race, there probably weren't a lot of younger voters. probably talking about older voters, people who have been
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voting for charlie rangel for a long time. >> the key here is the district is changing, the demographics are changing. it's a much more heavily hispanic district. espallat knows how to go out and win an election. that's why he was seen as a formidable candidate. of course, he's arguing it's time for a change. rangel, you were great, but your time has passed. he didn't win this time, espallat, but i think most people think next time he's got a good shot, if that's how this plays out. again, it's still too close to call. >> indeed. ron allen, we'll continue. thank you very much. all right. now for more on the mississippi senate run-off. i'd like to bring in jamel buoy. you wrote a column advising african-americans to get involved in this run-off. you said, cochran isn't an adee
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log. he's funneled tens of billions of dollars in earmarks and funds to mississippi. propping up the state's economy and creating jobs for thousands of his constituents. as the times note, cochran has secured funds for health centers, historically black colleges, directly and indirectly boosting blacks in the state. it's much the same argument we saw being made by charlie rangel and his re-elect in new york. why do you suppose that worked in a red state like mississippi? >> i think why it worked is because if you are an african-american voter in a state like mississippi, highly republican, highly racially polarized, you're faced with this situation. let's say mcdaniel wins the primary. come november, he stands a very good chance of winning the general election. yes, he stands a worse chance than, say, cochran would against the democratic nominee, but all things equal, a republican is probably going to win that race. so what you're looking at is which republican do i want? do i want a republican who has a
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history of bricking back resources to the state, or do i want a republican who in addition to his racial missteps and nasty rhetoric also is stridently anti-government conservative who may not bring home federal funds for schools and military bases and projects. and from the reporting i've read, this is exactly the calculation black voters made in mississippi. they've decided that at the end of the day, cochran was the man they could work with. cochran was a man they knew. >> well, jamelle, i'm interested in the fact it looks like african-americans did make the difference. in the ten counties where the incumbent senator actually improved the most, those were the ones where blacks make up 69% or more of the population. s so you had a direct impact it appears from the african-american population. heinz county, mississippi, the african-american population there is 70%. a very dense african-american population. and cochran won 7,000 more votes
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than he did in the primary. mcdaniel only got 1,000 more. i'm interested in that happening in a state where it used to be that black voters were fighting to get into the process with the democratic party, but now you're seeing that fight within the republican party. what does that say about the futility of being a democrat that's running for office in mississippi, that black voters felt they had more to gain in the republican primary? >> i mean, i think it shows it's a little futile. on the local level in a state like mississippi, there are plenty of democratic elected officials, most of them black. but on the state level, precisely because voting there is so polarized, this is true for mississippi, louisiana, and alabama, where the vast majority of blacks are democrats and the vast majority of whites are republicans. trying to run as a statewide office as a democrat is just a hard sell. so you have this very strategic voting from black voters. this isn't anything new.
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the deep south has long had a history of this strategic voting on both sides. >> all right. jamelle, writer for slate. you called this one right. thank you very much. >> thank you. we now have a reid alert. two major decisions have come down from the supreme court. one has to do with tv and on the internet. the other deals with cell phone searches by police. nbc's pete williams joining me now live from the supreme court. pete, could you explain these two decisions today? >> sure. on aerial, it was a program that allowed people to, for a fee, watch broadcast tv channels on a cell phone or an ipad or any mobile device or even a desk top computer. what the designers of aereo did, they said, we're going to make this like you could do at home, just remotely. they designed a system so every time you logged in to ask for a specific program, you got your own antenna tied to a separate sector of a video recorder that was all yours.
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and aereo said therefore it was not violating a provision of federal law that required people to pay copyright fees for public performances. what aero said is there's no public performance. this is just a one-to-one thing. the supreme court today said it is a public performance. aereo is making broadcast signals available to others without paying the copyright fee. tv programs, they said, are protected by copyright law. and it's probably fatal to aereo's business model. aereo could charge that copyright fee and stay in business, but the founders suggested they probably wouldn't do that. they were after a larger point here about how television is delivered. the second case is going to apply to just about every american. the supreme court said today that when you are arrested, the police cannot search your cell phone without a search warrant. now, it went out of its way to say how ubiquitous cell phones are, that nearly 90% of
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americans now have a cell phone. 12% of people with phones say they even take them into the shower. the supreme court said that those cell phones hold so much that this makes it unlike the kind of searches the courts have upheld for the past 60 years, where the police can frisk you, look in your pockets, look in your purse or briefcase. they said a cell phone is different because it holds so much. >> pete, this brings us to the final day on the court calendar tomorrow. so there are some big cases left on the agenda. tell us what we're looking at tomorrow. >> well, first of all, it's not the final day tomorrow. we know there are going to be at least two more decision days. we don't know what the second day would be. probably monday, could be friday. but you're right. we still have some big cases left. including probably the most closely watched case of the term. a challenge to the contraceptive mandate of obamacare. the question here is, can businesses -- for-profit businesses claim that they have a religious view that providing
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contraceptive coverage would violate. in other words, can a for-profit company say it has religious views? that's the biggie. then the second is a challenge to a massachusetts law that sets up fixed no-protest zones around entrances to abortion clinics. the question is whether that violates free speech. >> the first one you mentioned is the hobby lobby case. that's the big one everyone is weight for. thanks for me correcting on the number of days left. that is the one people are really waiting on. do you think it's unusual for the court to really push that right to the end, and do you expect that case to be the last or to be at the very end of the calendar? >> i've given up long ago betting when the court is going to make its decisions, but no, it's not unusual for the big cases to come at the end because they're very often the hardest ones and the ones where the consequences are very high and a lot of back and forth between the justices as they sort of respond to each other in writing before they release the opinion. so, no, the big ones usually do come at the end. >> we thought the end was coming sooner than it really is looking into tomorrow and next week. we appreciate you.
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nbc's pete williams, thank you. >> you bet. another reid alert now. house speaker john boehner has confirmed he'll file a lawsuit over president obama's use of executive action. speaker boehner used words like arrogance and ignorance to describe the president's use of this power to sometimes sidestep congress. however, there was one word mr. boehner would not use in justifying this lawsuit. >> this is not about impeachment. this is about his faithfully executing of the law of our country. >> in comments after mr. boehner's speech, the white house said that it appears gop opposition has shifted into a, quote, higher gear. coming up, new poll numbers that reflect this country's skepticism over another war. we have a live report from iraq. plus, the browning of america and aggressive efforts to block the vote. we have a panel of guests to discuss the problem and the solutions with the current state of the minority vote. hey there can i help you? shhhhhh (whispering) sorry (whispering) hi, uh we need a new family plan. (whispering) how about 10 gigs f data to share and unlimited talk and text.
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madame president, i do not believe that this president or any president has the ability without congressional approval to initiate military action in iraq or anywhere else except in the case of an emergency posing an imminent threat to the u.s. or its citizens. >> that was virginia senator tim kaine on the senate floor this morning appearing to speak for lots of americans when it comes to iraq and the prospects of u.s. military strikes. the former dnc chair used his speech to challenge his fellow democrats, saying is president obama may not strike against the sunni militants now battling the shia-led government in iraq, at least not without congressional approval. the speech seems to reflect the overall mood of the country as evidenced by a new nbc news "wall street journal" poll, which finds that 71% of americans believe the iraq war wasn't worth it.
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nevertheless, secretary of state john kerry said today he'll head to saudi arabia on friday to discuss the sectarian warfare in iraq after spending two days with leaders there this week. but white house efforts to stabilize the region won't count for much without some prospect of better leadership in iraq. and today, iraq's prime minister nuri al maliki called the idea of forming a new national unity government, something considered a prerequisite for u.s. military strikes, he called it a, quote, coup against the constitution, signaling no changes in the leadership that helped cause the iraq crisis in the first place. nbc's ayman mohyeldin is live in iraq. tell us what this means on the ground, the idea that al maliki has appeared to reject the idea of forming a unity government. >> well, joy, right now the situation stands that this country had elections not too long ago. they're now on a constitutional process that is technically
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supposed to begin july 1st. what i mean by that is on july 1st, this country's parliament is supposed to convene. they're supposed to elect a speaker of parliament, then a president for the country. then the president turns around and apoints a prime minister. in this case, it would be somebody who won the most seats in parliament. that would be prime minister maliki's party. but the problem right now is a lot of the opposition, particularly sunni arabs, say they want to scrap that process. they want prime minister maliki to step down today and form a new government under somebody else's leadership. that is what he's rejecting to. he's rejecting to that interim period from now until july 1st that would effectively derail the constitutional process. what he's holding firm to is his commitment to say we will convene parliament on july 1st in line with the constitution. the only problem with that, and why the u.s. is so concerned, that process could take up to six weeks starting from july 1st. that's time the u.s. and some of its allies say prime minister maliki and this country simply does not have.
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>> really quick, ayman, if that process does go forward, is there a possibility that the party that maliki leads could select someone else? >> absolutely. there's already been some rumblings within his own party among some senior politicians saying that perhaps one parliament is convened and a president taps his party to choose a new prime minister and a new government, they may choose somebody other than prime minister maliki. that's a lot of the power brokering and dealing that is now happening behind the scenes, if you will. it's certainly something the u.s. would like to see. certainly something saudi arabia and some of the other regional power houses would like to see. but at the same time, prime minister maliki is backed by iran. they would like to see him stay in power. but that's right now a very real possibility in the coming weeks. >> all right. not good news, but thank you for the information. now a reid alert out of utah and indiana, where federal judges have struck down those
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states' bans on same-sex marriage. in utah, it's the first time an appeals court has made such a ruling. however, the three-judge panel has put its 2-1 decision on hold pending appeals. the indiana attorney generals office said it will appeal. thank you daddy for defending our country. thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪
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chris mcdaniels may be all mad and in his feelings about the crossover vote that brought him down, but that strategy is nothing new and we'll discuss. first, it's time for we the tweeple. today you're talking about major milestones in entertainment. you're remembering veteran actor eli wallach. he passed away yesterday at age 98. watch his classic performance in "the magnificent seven." >> you hear that? you hear what he said? ride on. to me. >> the character actor was
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awarded an honorary oscar in 2010 for his many memorable roles. you're also musing on michael jackson, who died five years ago, and sending tweets that captured the magic of the king of pop. plus, you haven't forgotten the 30th anniversary of "purple rain." house representative keith ellis i don't know tweeted out a vine of his performance of the album's signature song. ♪ never meant to cause you any problems ♪ go ahead, keith. just like the congressman, you're on social media celebrating prince's sixth studio album. but maybe you're remembering the lyrics a little better. now to a little world cup controversy. fifa has charged uruguay's luis suarez for taking a bite out of a player from italy. suarez claims he did not bite him during the match yesterday. but soccer's governing body has opened a disciplinary case against him. if the chomp is confirmed, this will be the third time he's bitten a player during a game.
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supporters of the italian team, which was booted from the cup, have been having some fun at suarez's expense. you're comparing him to dracula, or in this case, hanniba hannibal lecter. this user posted, fun fact, world cup gamblers who bet on suarez biting someone made out big time with odds that were 175 to 1. but now something slightly awkward. yesterday members of congress gathered to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of the the civil rights bill of '64. too bad their rendition of "we shall overcome" didn't exactly inspire. and you can't stop buzzing about how this moment fell flat. but you did give c-span some kudos. c-span is killing it today with the quick clips, the most uncomfortable rendition of "we shall overcome" ever, one of you tweeted. while you contemplate if they
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may ever overcome their rancor and awkwardness, you can join the conversation with fellow reiders on twitter, facebook, instagram and msnbc.com. now this news. residents in the midwest are locked in a battle with mother nature. here's more on the damage caused by the powerful summer storms.
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the unexpected result in mississippi in which a long-time incumbent held off a strong tea party challenger with the help of black democratic voters illustrated an often overlooked point, the huge untapped pool of black voters in the very region where black votes are typically the least decisive in the outcome of elections.
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the south. if you want to understand why voter i.d. laws and other restrictions continue to proliferate, particularly in the south, consider this. the center for american progress released a study this month which found that of the 1.5 million people who have moved just to georgia in the last decade, most counted themselves as minorities in the 2010 census. and of that total, 800,000 eligible voters remain unregistered. that's just in georgia. the average margin of victory in presidential elections in the last three cycles was 260,000. the study found the same trend across the south, which is home to an estimated 3.7 million unregistered african-americans and 4 million unregistered latino and asian-american voters. now that white southerners have all but abandoned the party and become republicans and republicans absolutely control the south, what does that mean for those who seek to limit
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minority voter influence in today's elections? the president and director council of the naacp legal defense and egts found joins us as well as zach roth. i'm going to start at the table with you, zach. you wrote, because today is actually the one-year anniversary of the shelby v. holder decision that essentially gutted the voting rights act by declaring section four unconstitutional and therefore basically making, as you call it, a zombie out of section five. you say shelby's most direct impact was felt in the southern states that were suddenly freed from oversight in their voting changes. almost immediate moves took place to pass voter restrictions in the states you isolate are texas, north carolina, alabama, mississippi, georgia. all across the south. they didn't wait very long. >> no, in fact, the very day, in fact a few hours after the supreme court made its ruling, greg abbott, the republican attorney general of texas, said we are going to move ahead with our voter i.d. law, which had
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already been found to be discriminatory against blacks and hispanics in court. they said, we don't care, we're going to move ahead with it. north carolina, essentially the same thing. they'd been waiting to pass a voter i.d. law. it's more than a voter i.d. it's a very restricting law that cuts voter registration and same-day voting. they'd been waiting to pass that. they went ahead and did that. similar story in alabama. all across the south, you've seen them explicitly say, we are taking advantage of this ruling to go ahead with these laws. >> and sheryl, i think what's counterintuitive when they look at what's happening in the south is that the south is solidly republican territory. people ask themselves, why would anybody want to bother to restrict african-american voters? well, the mississippi case that we just saw, because it is an open primary state, kind of illustrates maybe one reason why. can you sort of talk to that counterintuitive notion that people maybe don't understand why a southern state would care to restrict black voters and
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brown voters at all. >> well, we should remember, joy, to think about two levels of political power. you're absolutely right. there's the power at the state level in which there are real concerns about african-american voter turnout. as that voter turnout increases, you find that these voter suppression efforts increase at the statewide level. restrictions on early voting, astringent voter i.d. laws, even redistricting to try and minimize minority voting strength. we should also remember that political power, particularly in the south, is exercised over the lives of african-americans at the local level. it's the town council, the school board, the water district, the county commission, the judicial district. and that's the level that rarely gets attention in the media be where we've seen most of the mischief happen. we compiled for the senate judiciary committee today, and i testified and submitted written testimony as well, all of the changes that we could find since the shelby decision.
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you see these intense changes at the local level. the closing of polling places, the intimidation of black voters in florida in june of 2013. we're seeing a return to the kind of activity that section five was really meant to deal with. and we shouldn't take our eye off the fact that local power is also at stake here. >> and zach, you know, we were talking in the break. i'm going to give you a chance to talk back to the "so what" answer you get from people who support voter i.d. look at what just happened in mississippi. look how many african-americans came out. they were decisive in that primary. doesn't look like any black people are being held back from voting at all. even saying to you, when are you going to admit you are wrong? voter i.d. doesn't have any negative impact. what do you say to that? >> in the mississippi case, one of the reasons we had a relatively smooth election, it sounds like, is because mississippi itself and the u.s. justice department came out and said, you are not allowed to do this kind of poll watching you're talking about doing. and we're going to be watching closely to make sure.
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so that -- you know, tough those safeguards in place, that makes a big difference. broadly, on the voter i.d. question, how many examples do we need to find of individual voters, black, white, whatever, who are denied from voting? we just had one last week that we publicized in alabama a couple weeks ago. studies show there are hundreds of thousands of people in each of these states who don't have i.d.s. i don't know where you go from that. >> and i want to shift the conversation because there is a latino component to this too. and there's a new report by the national commission on voter rights, and this comes out, of course, on the shelby one-year anniversary as well. and it finds that there are barriers to voting for latino voters in california who face barriers to the ballot because they have limited english proficiency, redistricting processes that limit the number of minority seats, racially polarized voting, and systemic barriers to voters with disability and also voters with felony convictions. this is actually broader than a black/white issue. >> it's so important, joy.
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i'm so glad you raised that. i was just speaking with one of the great voting rights attorneys who maybe your viewers probably haven't heard of who works for the native american rights fund in alaska. she was in federal court yesterday litigating a case on behalf of native alaskan voters who are entitled to receive language assistance materials in their native language and who the state is denying that important language assistance material at the polling place. we should remember that the voting rights act, although created in the crucible of the civil rights movement which was largely about blacks and whites, also protects african-americans, also protects latinos, also protects asian-americans. people shouldn't forget there was a very recent suit brought in new york about the failure to provide voting materials in chinese language in chinatown, new york. so this is really about the population in america that has the most difficulty engaging in
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the political process because of barriers like language, because of poverty, because of the history of discrimination, because of active discrimination, because of where they live as rural voters, because they're poor, and in that regard, the voting rights act really is something that benefits all americans. today when i was in the senate ju dish eye committee, that's the message i was trying to convey. the new proposed voting rights bill covers the entire nation. >> and we're going to talk about that bill coming up. so stay with us. when we come back, we're going to add two members of congress. congresswoman marsha fudge and congresswoman linda sanchez will join us to discuss what congress is going to do about restoring the voting rights act. that's next. but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations have an impact locally. we're using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. the trucks are reliable, that's good for business. but they also reduce emissions, and that's good for everyone. it makes me feel very good about the future of our company.
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back with us are zach roth and sherrilnie eiffel.
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i'll go to you, congresswoman fudge, first. let's talk about the voting rights reboot act introduced by your colleagues, congressman john conyers as well as senator patrick leahy and jim sensenbrenner of wisconsin. what chance does that bill have of even getting to the floor of the house? >> i think it has a really good chance. as you look at the bill today, there are more than 120 democrats on the bill. there are also republicans on the bill. mr. sensenbrenner says he's committed to making it happen. but i think the thing that's really going to make it happen is when the american people understand that democracy means doing the will of the people. they need to let their voices be heard as well as i think that just as you're doing this program today, the media needs to not give them a pass. they need to press them on bringing it to the floor. >> and congresswoman sanchez, i think one of the big compromises made in the bill was to take voter i.d. out of it and put it to the side. that was done, obviously, to get
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republicans on board. if more republicans are not coming on board and you don't feel that the bill is advancing as quickly as it needs to, does it make sense to continue to leave voter i.d. to the side? >> well, we've made a conscious decision to try to fight that battle another day because every day that goes by with without them taking up the vraa is another day we have no protection for our communities. since the supreme court struck down section five and the preclearance section, 7 million latinos were -- who reside in those states were covered by preclearance. now there's nothing in place. unless we pass the -- if we were to pass a vraa, then 4.5 million of those latinos would now have some form of protection of their right to go and vote. so is it the bill i would have written and passed if democrats were in the majority? certainly not. but it's better than nothing.
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and we really need to apply the pressure to bring this to a vote because the status quo is just not acceptable. >> zach, you wrote about this report that's recently come out. it was done by the leadership conference on civil and human rights that found 148 separate instances of voting discrimination just since 2000 and a partial measure of the shelby impact, a recent brennan center report noted that voters in 15 states will face restrictions at the polls in the upcome election they didn't have to deal with in 2012. if this bill passes as currently constructsed, how much would it change that? >> it would change that in a lot of parts of the country because it would bring certain states back under the preclearance regime. so they would have to get any election changes approved by the federal government. i think what it would do more broadly, though t and this is an important point, i was in ohio over the weekend, which was not a part of the country that was covered under section five. so it wasn't directly affected by the shelby county decision. but talking to voting rights
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advocates there, they very definitely felt that this affected them too. this created an atmosphere where voting restrictions were encouraged all across the country, wherever they were happening. so restoring the voting rights act to its original strength would boost voting rights around the country. >> i want to go to congresswoman fudge on this because you represent a district in ohio. as we all have now learned, cuyahoga county has become ground zero for the attempts to restrict the days people can restrict early voting, et cetera. do you think in a perverse way the supreme court blowing up the voting rights act will allow congress, if you are successful, to expand it to places like ohio that weren't covered by preclearance? >> absolutely no question about it. we are pleased at the fact that now ohio can be covered. prior to the court decision, we had real issues about making sure our people were going to be properly given the right to vote. let me just say this. justice roberts, if he really believes that you can just say, let's stop discriminating race
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just by stopping to discriminating it, we would not today still be dealing with voting rights some 50 years after the civil rights act. we would not still be dealing with voting rights after bloody sunday. we would not still be dealing with it after freedom summer. so the justice may have done us a favor in some respects, but i believe they incorrectly determined that there was no voting discrimination in shelby county. >> and as somebody who's at ground zero of that case, do you believe that maybe now as we're relooking at the voting rights act it is a good thing that we are looking at california, we are looking at ohio, we are looking beyond the south? >> well, it's -- first of all, i should say the preclearance formula that existed before the shelby decision was not limited to the south. three burroughs of new york city were covered. but that's the past. and the current vraa bill is a nationwide bill. it allows us to deal with places
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like ohio and wisconsin. it provides a nationwide notice provision that requires jurisdictions to provide on the internet and by other means notice of any voting changes happening in elections. so the people can find out that there are polling place changes or that the districts have changed or that there's a plan to annex a jurisdiction. so all of that's going to benefit the entire nation. ohio as well as alabama. >> indeed. final word to you, congresswoman sanchez. i'm struck by the extent to which now the restrictions seem to be directed at the latino community. is that the reason we're seeing this real coalition building between black and brown on this issue of voting rights? >> yeah, i mean, we're natural partners. it impacts our communities the most. with the growing demographics in terms of latino population increasing in the united states, there have been this frightening explosion of of restrictions for voters that is meant to keep minority communities away from the ballot box.
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it's not good for any community, but the vraa would provide protections across the board for all minority communities in this country. that's why we need to work together to apply that pressure to make sure that we get this bill passed and signed into law. >> all right. thank you very much, congresswoman linda sanchez, congresswoman marsha fudge. thank you all for being here today. >> thank you, joy. >> thank you. next, we reid between the lines on the ironic history of crossover voting. [ male announcer ] people all over the world know us,
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but there is something a bit strange. there is something a bit unusual about a republican primary that's decided by liberal democrats. >> supporters of tea party candidate chris mcdaniel are hopping mad at republicans who helped thad cochran hold on to his senate seat. they're also mad at black
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mississippians who crossed party lines to vote for the incumbent. twitter is full of comments like this today. black women paid to get out illegal vote for cochran. but for those tea partiers crying foul, consider this. in the recent upset in which david brat defeated eric cantor, there were plenty of encouraging democrats to cross over. remember this guy? >> breaker one, breaker one. might be crazy but i ain't dumb. anybody home on the hazard net? >> the actor who played cooter on "the dukes of hazard," ben jones, published an open letter before the brat v. cantor primary saying, quote, by voting for david brat in the primary, we, democrats and independents and libertarians, can make a big difference in american politics. it is your right to cast that vote. it is an open primary, and it doesn't preclude anyone from voting any way they wish in november. it may be the only way to empower those who want to make a
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statement about the dysfunctional congress and politics as usual. and that's not all. remember operation chaos? >> i want our party to win. i want the democrats to lose. they're in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. it is fascinating to watch. and it's all going to stop if hillary loses. so, yeah, i'm asking people to cross over if they can stomach it. i know it's a difficult thing to do to vote for a clinton, but it will sustain this soap opera. >> yes, good old rush limbaugh, who back in 2008 urged people to cross party lines and vote for hillary clinton in open primary states in order to prolong the democratic primary, divide the dems, and get barack obama nominated president. why? i now believe he would be the weakest of the democratic nominees, he said. barack obama has shown he cannot get the votes democrats need to win. he can get effete snobs, he can
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get the wealthy academics, but democrats do not win with that. oops. crossover voting is not a rampant phenomenon. people don't generally vote outside their chosen party. and it's not even clear that operation chaos had any effect, unlike cochran's crossover gambit. but whether it's republicans who crossed over in georgia in 2002 to defeat congresswoman cynthia mckibny and elect an unknown denise magette, or democrats who crossed over to help defeat clinton impeachment driver bob barr, or democrats siding against the guy with the poll watchers and the donor who repped the notorious klansman. this is hardball tactical politics. in the south, with so many minority voters out there unregistered, it's very instructive. and that wraps things up for "the reid report." i'm see you here tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. eastern. be sure to visit us online. "the cycle" is up next. what do you think of my rush limbaugh impression? >> that was awesome, actually. >> we were impressed.
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>> what do you guys have? >> i basically thought rush limbaugh had taken over "the reid report." >> we were a little confused. >> we got a lot on tap. we're going to do some world cup stuff for fun. we have some interesting foreign coverage on iran and belle reduce. then a big look at the supreme court rulings today. not only aereo, but also a unanimous defense from the supreme court of your rights to your privacy on your cell phone. we're going to have a big dive on that as well. >> yeah, anything unanimous coming out of that court has got to be looked into. i'm sure you're all over that. "the cycle" comes up next, and no biting. it doesn't operate out of basements or back alleys.
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indications of stronger spring and summer seasons. you guys got to help me out. people are not liking my gaffes. and a big evening news, diane sawyer leaves her post. she will remain with the network for special projects. it's wednesday afternoon, and you're in "the cycle." we begin with two major opinions today from the high court. both impacting the technology you carry in your pocket. i'm ari melbourne. if you own a cell phone like 91% of americans, you should listen to this. one decision today from the court delivers a blow to aereo, the internet service that allowed customers to watch broadcast tv programs on mobile devices for a monthly fee. the court found them in violation of federal copyright law. our parent company nbc universal was among the challengers. a second big ruling today protects your cell phone from police searches. all nine justices unanimously
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agreed police cannot search the digital information on your cell phone during an arrest without a warrant. nbc news's justice correspondent pete williams is outside the supreme court. good day. >> good day to you. it's one of those days i'm sure you would have want to have been here yourself. >> that's exactly right. reading justice roberts today, extraordina extraordinary, unanimous opinion. he says in 1926, it's a totally different thing to search a man's pockets and use against him what they contain from ransacking his house from everything which may incriminate him. that's no longer true. a cell phone search exposes far more today. it also contains private information never found in a home. pete, walk us through what he and the court are saying there. >> well, that's an interesting passage you cite because when this case was argued, there was some head skrachg by the justices, which raised concerns that maybe they were not fully hip to what