good morning. welcome to "politics nation". puerto rico is slowly recovering after hurricane maria while president trump's visit to the island left many with a bad after taste. we'll hear from congressman luis gutierrez and reverend jesse jackson about the on going recovery. and congressman john lewis. now a senior voice of the civil

rights movement and as always, he'll have plenty to say about resisting and how he deals with the trump agenda. we'll talk to him later about his role in the gun debate after the horror in las vegas seven days ago. but first, can america truly confront its love of guns when it is constantly employing every political excuse not to? as the questions mounted this week following the deadliest mass shooting many say in american history, the white house turned to the conservative bogeyman of black on black violence in chicago and other cities to distract from a topic it does not want to discuss. all while overlooking how guns from the heart land have been flooding the inner city for

years. joining me now is jason johnson, politics editor for "the root" and an msnbc contributor. and paul barry of "night life with paul berry iii" and a former congressional candidate of missouri's first district. jason, when we raised this issue again after these horrific killings in las vegas, right away the white house pivots to chicago, detroit, inference os black on black crime iner iffing race. here's what the white house press secretary said monday after the las vegas shooting. >> i think if you look to chicago where you had over 4,000 victims of gun related crimes last year, they have the strictest gun laws in the country that certainly hasn't helped there. so i think we have to when that

time comes for the conversations to take place, i think we need to look at things that may actually have that real impact. >> so we see them pivot right to chicago not bringing up the fact that many of the guns if not most in chicago come from over the border in indiana and if there were federal laws there would not be the problem there. just avoiding that. but also the inference of inner city which is always implicitly race and black on black crime. not dealing with the issue of something that 94% of americans according to some polls want as simple as having background checks. but they don't even deal with the issue, jason. >> well yeah. i'm not surprised. remember, this is an administration that speaks in the soft comfortable and highly recognizable language of white nationalism and white supremacy. of course rather than discussing oh, i don't know a terrible craze shooter in las vegas who

ruined the evenings and lives of 58 people at least at this particular count, let's go talk about what is happening over there. let's throw this at black people. let's throw this at latinos. let's distract in some way from the issue at hand. the core issue is until we have leadership at the congressional and state level that says, look, everybody can buy guns if they want to but we have to have some regulations on what kinds of guns you can buy, none of this is going to change. i don't have a lot of optimism anything is going to change. if children get shot in schools and whether the schools are in the inner city or suburbs didn't compel it country to make serious policy changes, i doubt deaths at a concert, i don't think that is going to motivate congress to do anything either. >> paul, you ran for congress. what makes this congress understand? many of us feel okay, fine. they really don't care about the kids in chicago. some of us feel that or in the

cities. but we saw newtown and others, i mean little kids of all communities now being killed. now openly at a concert. and these are the same advocates that want to see you have voter id to vote but don't want to have a background check to buy a gun? so they want to put you through more of a process to exercise your voting rights than for people to have the right to have a weapon that can kill you. >> let's look at the focus of congress and the media over the last week. we're talking about bumper stocks. now city of st. louis has the highest murder rate per capita in the united states and if i took you down to the jail and you ask every murder suspect with a bumper stock is, they won't know. there is two words we need to address, mental health. 30,000 gun deaths a year, 2/3 of them are from self inflicted suicides. and this is just a continuation

of what happens after every single crisis. the right goes to the right, the left goes to the left. nothing gets done. the issue is mental health. i want to -- to the people that died in the families in the las vegas tragedy, it was horrible. i don't think we need to dismiss the pain and the suffering that's not only happening in las vegas, it's happening in st. louis, chicago, atlanta, and every other city. >> no, i they we should not compare pain. but we should show equal outrage and empathy for all the pain whether it is those in las vegas or those in chicago. and one of the things that i think we ought to really bring into this, jason, is that when you look at the shooter, the murderer in las vegas, he was older, white, and wealthy. so all of this profiling of muslims, of blacks and latinos

is again disproving he wouldn't have fit anyone's profile. it is about mental health. and it is about people's equal access to guns, jason. >> i disagree. i don't think this is a mental health issue. this is an access to weapons issue. okay? the problem is not that cars are dangerous. it's also that people go in drunk. tend of the day there is no way that anybody could have predicted this guy was going to go out and try to murder several hundred people. there was no way that anybody could have predicted that dylann roof was going to march into a church and shoot people. there is no way to predict the regular seemingly normal oftentimes white men are going to go into movie theaters and kill people. the only way you can prevent this from happening is limiting access to weapons. you can't profile every potentially crazy person in the country but we can do is keep them from getting to the weapons. this mental health thing i think is a waste of time. half the time with some of the

recent shootings they wouldn't is prevented these people from getting guns. >> we can debate that. i think anybody whether you consider them having mental health issues or not, they would plan to shoot at nem a concert or on a street corner in chicago has a mental health issue. we can agree that easy access to guns is the critical issue. >> right. >> i think that that is something that we cannot -- we can agree on this show even though we may disagree on mental health. i think bigots have mental health issues. i think mental health has to be defined. think all of us should be getting congress to agree on easy access to guns. that's the real issue, paul. >> al sharpton, first of all, how is jason going to say mental health isn't the issue when 2/3 of gun violence happens from one person killing themselves inside their house?

once again -- >> buecause you can't say depression is a mental health issue. >> bottom line is you can't stop from heroin coming across the borders. so if i put two hand guns on every brick or two handguns on every illegal alien or two hand guns on every marijuana, let's talk about solution that's are actually going to do something. this -- now on this certain circumstance, it may have captured this guy. but what about the two-thirds of people that are killing themselves with hand guns? we need to get to mental health. domestic violence, a lot of the urban violence that happens is written off as gang violence. it is a continuation of domestic violence. somebody slap's somebody sister, they want revenge because the criminal justice system in their eyes isn't working so they're going to take that revenge. once you start getting down to that, you'll be surprised how little and how few deaths are actually by this mass terror. >> how do you propose to find out who in this country is

depressed enough that they're going to -- so you just have -- you want to talk about violation of rights. waun you want to line up and say you're too depressed to have a car or gun or job? that doesn't make sense. >> what is imprak tick sal what you were saying. >> you were talking over me. now i'm talking. those of us are talking about solutions and not just talking points. you need to understand what kind of danger people are at. [ all talking at once ] >> i think you're both getting off the issue. and this is why we have a problem with legislation. we're debating mental health rather than equal access. we can disagree to what degree mental help sj thealth is there. >> it's two-thirds of the murder. >> just a second. i think that mental health is an issue, i agree with jason, how do you gauge it? >> ask me, i'll tell you. >> can you definitively gauge how you deal with easy access to

guns. that's the issue. let's not give people on the other side of these arguments a distraction and an easy way out. i'll tell what you, in order to not do that, let me go to one of my seniors because i learned as i get older maybe the elders knew what they were doing. thank you. coming up, i'm going to ask legendary congressman john lewis about the new outcry for gun legislation without any big side distractions. and the right all americans have to protest. this is "politics nation." we'll be right back. i was a good soldier.

i had purpose and i loved it. you are my hammer out there. ♪ i'm only human... don't let these young guys see you fold. thank you for looking after my son. we're brothers, we look after each other. thank you for your service.

rated r. throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh? hey? i paused it. bam, family time. so how is everyone? find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. do your job! gun control legislation to a vote, we need it and we need it now.

>> powerful words from a powerful man. democratic congressman and american hero john lewis on the steps of congress this past wednesday. he along with former congresswoman gabby beggiffords other stepped in front of the microphone demanding change after last week's massacre in las vegas. it's not the first time we heard this cry for change. on june of 2016 congressman lewis led a day long it is in on the house floor. with 170 other lawmakers following the orlando massacre. earlier, i spoke with the dean of the georgia congressional delegation american icon john lewis. i'm honored this morning to be joined by congressman john lewis of georgia. first of all, thank you for joining us, congressman.

we are dealing with the nation of the las vegas massacre, you have long, for a long time been calling for gun reform. you've even led a actual sit in, historic in the congress on the well of the floor of congress. and here he we are again with an unprecedented amount of people killed with automatic weapons and unprecedented amount over 500 wounded. what do you see as the like likelihood of the congress now finally dealing with gun reform, gun control or are they going to still be on this issue that is crying for some response?

>> i believe we're going to do something. we must do something. we lost too many of our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters, too many of our children. it's almost unsafe for our kids to attend school or for people to attend church or synagogue or mosques or temple. it is time for us to act. there is some discussion going on now on the part of the senate leadership in a bipartisan fashion to do something. we're not saying that we should take people's guns away. but before someone gets a gun, we should have background checks. we should do something about people with mental health. the guy that used the gun in las vegas apparently he went and got

what we call the bump stocks. you can get them for $200. and put them on rifles. and in less than a minute and a half you can have 400 to 800 rounds going off. now i grew up in rural alabama. my father and uncles had guns. my father had a shotgun that he kept in the corner for hunting. he had a rifle over the door. he told us as young children, never, ever touch that gun or that rifle. and we never did. we would look at it. but we didn't put our hands on it. >> now when we look at the fact that some on the right, some in the republican party are saying we need to have stricter voter id laws, but don't want to support background checks on

weapons, doesn't it seem contradictory or at least ironic that they want so much background on voters, many of whom have been voting for decades, but they don't want background checks on people that will buy weapons that can kill people? >> it's unreal. it's unbelievable. these guns, they're made to kill. we can make it simple and easier for people to participate in a democratic process. to be able to vote. but if you're going to have a gun, we should know something about you. about your background. domestic violence and husband beating up the wife or the wife beating up the husband should just go out and get a gun.

we should know something about the individuals. >> now, when we look at the fact that you are an iconic figure in civil rights from the '6 o0s on into your service as a congressman, you have been one of the iconic figures. but you have expanded southern, northern and all. how do you see race relations now under this president? they started in the kennedy era and now we are 50 years later in the trump and polls are saying that black americans are mostly saying we lost hope. we see polarization unlike ever. how do you, john lewis, the civil rights icon, see race in america today under donald

trump? >> well, i tell you this. you're right. i have an opportunity to meet with him on two occasions. to meet with president johnson on two occasions. to meet with every single president since president kennedy. there was a great sense of home. a greater sense of optimism. and there is a growing sense of hopelessness today in america. i run into people saying, congressman, i feel so down. i say don't be down. they say i need a hug. i say i need a hug too. we have to give people hope. we have to be going some place. we cannot go backwards. during the 6 o's with the help of dr. king and so many political leaders, we were trying to be a loving community. black people and white people, latinos and asian-american,

native-american were pulling together for the common good. and today i think america is so much more divided. we have to turn it around. and we can do it. people must do it. >> one of the things that we learned that came maybe in a generation behind and then those that are even behind a million others is the use of protest. and in the last five years the protests we did around trayvon martin all the way to now with police brutality, now we're seeing athletes do a knee in starpt started by colin kaepernick and others. the president has cast that as unpatriotic and disrespecting the flag. as a champion and pioneer protester, how do you view it? you have a right to protest for

what is right. you are in a peaceful, orderly, nonviolent fashion. i wish president trump would understand that history, we wouldn't be where we are today as a nation and as a people. i will be so moved by the young athletes, the coaches, the owners to be willing to stand out and instead we're going to stay on the line. we're going to continue to pick up where others left off. >> you clearly have been one that has said that we must stand up and again i repeat you even led a sit in there in the well

of the house. have you had any meetings and able to counsel at all president trump. has he reached out to you? >> i have not had any contact with president trump since his swearing in. >> if you were asked to meet with him, what would you advise he do given his policies, given his statements and statements that i feel, speaking for myself, have been biassed and in many ways playing towards bigotry. what would you say to president trump if you and he were sitting in the white house has you have with every other president before him? >> i don't think i'm going to have an opportunity. i understand that senator tim scott of south carolina has adjusted to some of the people in the white house that they should have a discussion with

me. >> and you have not heard whether or not that is accepted or not to extend the invitation to you to do so? >> i have not. i have not heard anything directly or indirectly. >> all right. well, we're going to keep hope alive and would you encourage but it is certainly trying times. and we certainly include in that hope that we do something about gun control. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you so much. >> still ahead, you don't want to miss what i have to say about another man of god who said "disrespect for our president is what led to the shooting in las vegas."

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motive of the las vegas shooting suspect stephen paddock really remains unknown. so to clear up the mystery where the nation's best forensic investigators have been thus far unable, pat robertson pinned the tragedy in las vegas on a very few distinct factors. >> i want to set this straight, ladies and gentlemen. why is it happening? you know, what i'm going to give you is the fact that we have disrespect for authority, there is profound disrespect of our president all across this nation. they say terrible things about him. it's in the news. it's in other places. >> president trump might have been disappointed to hear that mr. robertson tied america's decline to more than just

disrespect of him. there is more. >> there is disrespect now for our national anthem. disrespect for our veterans. disrespect for the institutions of our government. disrespect of the court system. all the way up and down the line. disrespect. when you lose that kind of respect, you lose authority. >> i know that for mr. robertson divine causes to disaster is natural and man made is his stock and trade. after all, he blamed the devastating 2010 earthquake in haiti on god's judge ment and that's the tip of the iceberg of intolerance that as of yet hasn't managed to tarnish him too much. that's regardless of whether the

candidate is known for living a particularly bias private life before seeking the nomination. yet for mr. robertson, it doesn't matter that both candidate and president trump have been accused time and time again of describing mexicans, muslims, and the physically handicapped and, of course, women in ways deemed far less than respectful. it also doesn't matter that the original national anthem contained a verse many interpreted as having been pro slavery or that our veterans fought for the rights of dozens of adult black men to question what the anthem means to them. communities devastated by the american court systems justice with punishment. but mr. robertson, if blatant

uncritical disrespect of the president was the thing that triggered violence in the street, i don't think any of us would have survived the previous seven years and while we're both ministers, no god i worship would allow hundreds of innocent people to be punished because of one man's hurt feelings. ponder that this fine sunday morning, mr. robertson. and if you need help breaking that message down, start with one of my favorite books, it's called "the gospel of i got you." rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief uses unique mistpro technology and helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. rethink your allergy relief.

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welcome back. i'm in jacksonville, florida. two weeks ago hurricane maria devastated puerto rico. most gas stations and grocery

stores are open. the vast majority of homes still li lack water or electricity. the white house petitioned congress to approve nearly $30 billion in and for those american states and territories hardest hit by the summer storms. this after self sabotaging optics of president trump's visit to puerto rico the day before. where he made comments perceived as playing up to the island's debt while playing down its human losses. joining me now from chicago is illinois congressman luis gutierrez. he is a son of puerto rican immigrants and has been visiting puerto rico. congressman, thank you for being with me. >> thank you for having me, reverend. >> congressman, your reaction to the president, the tweets before calling in essence puerto rican

citizens ingrades and getting in a battle with the mayor of san juan and then the comments when he actually visited puerto rico. >> yes. well, you know, i think back to throwing paper towels at human beings. now maybe you throw peanuts at squirrels in the park. your ball to your dog to retrieve it. but certainly not human beings. it's part of the proset of cess dehumanization that goes on with the president. i can think a clown in a circus might want to do something like. that but not the president of the united states. he should have come and shown pa empathy, something he has such great difficulty. although i have to say, i saw some of that. i believe it was real in, las vegas. he couldn't do it in puerto rico. it always goes back, i think, to the start of his campaign, right?

mexicans are murderers, rapists. they're bad people. we need to get rid of them. and remember that in common modern political vernacular, right, mexican means puerto rican, means colombian, means latino. and they're interchangeable. i don't think he can quite because, you know, he knows the island of puerto rico. he had a hotel. he had a golf course there. trump international. of course it's $33 million in debt because it went bankrupt. only after he charged millions of dollars in fees to put his name there. so look, mr. president, it was good enough place for you to come and play golf. certainly it's a good enough place for you to help the people survive this tragedy. now here's what i think. he said, i don't know if this was a real catastrophe, we're 18 days into this. and there are still people who have to look for food and water every day. >> and they are american citizens. let's emphasize that.

>> not only that, i wish the president of the united states who on four occasions says i have bone spurs so i can't serve in the armed services of the united states would spend one moment at the vietnam memorial before he ever thinks of puerto ricans again and see the hundreds of names that were lost and given up in the war in vietnam of puerto ricans. th so they were american citizens then and they were ready to serve this nation then and korea and world war ii and world war i. so you're right, reverend, what are we going to say about a president who had some bone spurs but found the ability to walk every golf course in the country where there are hundreds there in the vietnam memorial that he should be recognizing? >> well, thank you congressman gutierrez. keep on the fight. >> thank you. >> i want to bring in reverend jesse jackson, the president and founder of the rainbow push coalition. reverend jackson, you have spent a lot of this week helping to

gather supplies and goods that you are sending and ultimately bringing to puerto rico. tell us about it. >> well, first of all, thank you very much. this week we'll be taking a plane load to puerto rico. as well as the cruise liners. let's cut the chase. debt forgiveness is humane. they have two tanks of free gas to travel. those who are living in the mountainous areas and the mountainous areas in puerto rico, in fact, should be airlift medicines and foods and xwen rateors to the areas. but the children and seniors in distress should be mass evacuations to america. within eight days of katrina, 80% of the people were evacuated to houston and around the country. mass evacuation of those who are ill. american hospitals would accept them. as well as children. and they're coming there and

there are children back from puerto rico which is a sign of his own leadership. >> now we are going to be watching and certainly supporting manufactu supporting many of the efforts in puerto rico. let me go to another area with you. i talked earlier with john lewis about gun control, something you've been involved in there in chicago. but he's also known about for his voting. today is your 76th birthday. happy birthday, reverend jackson. >> thank you. >> i'm glad to have you on on your birthday. >> and on october 3rd was your 70th. >> no, no, not 70. you always try to up my age. but i was 63. we'll get to. that but let me say this, reverend jackson. in terms of you at 76, how do you see as one that has been out here active since you were a staff member, actually worked for dr. king unlike the congressman and others. how do you see us now with

voting rights in question as well as guns being at such large degree being accessible to so many americans that you worked for the prince of nonviolence, how do you see where we are now on this your birthday? >> dr. king's theme was to redeem the soul of america. it is a struggle for the soul of america. and we have great challenges, al. we have more to fight. 50 years ago we didn't have the right to vote to fight back with. we didn't win race nism in virga and illinois this year. we had the automatic voter registration. we must not surrender. they turn the clock back. they can turn the clock back but time cannot be turned back. the resistance to being turned back is tremendous. mr. sessions was an anti-voter rights advocate. he called voting rights to

protect the right to vote intrusion. he called removing protection rights and shelby celebration time. and so we know that we're fighting a difficult opposition. in 2016 election won by voter suppression, not by voter fraud. by voter suppression in north carolina and in pennsylvania and wisconsin and mainly in michigan as well. >> before i let you go, reverend jackson, i want you to take a look at this photo. that is me as a teenager in the circle. i was 13 years owed. circled in red. standing right behind you. this is in 1969. now i did turn 63 this week. and in my honor at colombia university school of journalism in new york, they're holding an all day symposium, examining my work in civil rights and america this wednesday. why now? because i began my work of activism 50 years ago.

and began it under you and reverend william jones. the event will take place wednesday, october 11th from 9:00 to 5:00. among the panelists are you, reverend jesse jackson, former governor david patterson, former mayor of new york david dinkens. the event is free. go register online. thank you, reverend jackson for coming, wednesday, and thank you for being on with us. thank you. >> continue your work. >> thank you for your great work and happy birthday again. you're on the case 76 years old but still strong. >> thank you very much. >> still on the case. when we come back, one man's crusade to help americans in politics. this woman is laughing because she's listening

to a hilarious audiobook on audible. and this woman is laughing because she's pretending her boss's terrible story is funny. still actually laughing. no longer making a human noise. experience the comedy, not your commute. dial star-star-audible on your smartphone to start listening today.

give a man a fish and he can eat for a day.

teach him how to fish and he can feed himself for lifetime. that age-old message endures to this day in life and in politics. now one man is evading that lesson to help americans in politics. it's detailed in his new book "the memo." five rules for your economic liberation. joining me is john hope bryant, the chairman, founder and ceo of operation hope. thank you, reverend, for being with us this morning. >> no, you're the reverend. and happy birthday to you and to reverend jackson. >> thank you. >> we're all of us standing on tall shoulders. and we have a lot to thank for you and reverend jackson and amgs young, reverend john lewis and others. >> thank you. now you -- you and i have talked and you know i started at 13 in operation breadbasket which was an economic program.

you brought this idea for all americans not just people of color to deal with finances and to deal with financial literacy. en that new book kind of brings that another step. tell us about that. >> the memo is really about love. it is blunt force love. all the stuff that i told you about how power, money, and wealth really work. and you know this history, reverend sharpton. most people don't. after the civil war in 1865, lincoln not only gave us the emancipation proclamation, very important, but he also gave us the freeman's bank mission. it is to teach free slaves about money. teach them the free enterprise. this is after 40 acres of the mule. i mean that's the thing. there is a question in

baltimore. and he put 10,000 of his own money into that bank to try to save it. that is $20 million today. it was said that bank did more to set free slaves and america back than ten more years of slavery. said so i think we're t dumb and stupid, we're brilliant. you level the playing field and we excel. we just don't know what we don't know that's killing us, but we think we know. and the memo delivers the rules that no one ever taught you and gets us updated to today. >> now, we need to deal with economic stability and economic growth, and i think that there's been a lot of emphasis and needed emphasis, i might add, on political empowerment -- >> yes. >> -- but we've not been in my opinion as focused on economic empowerment which is why i said when i started under bill jones and reverend jackson and those older than me, it was around economic issues of operation

bread basket dr. king started. you're bringing us back there. >> well, i actually think that it all began there. i think everything -- if it's not about -- if your life is not about god or love, your life is about money. and one thing i know, there's never been a riot in a 700 credit score neighborhood in america's history. there are riots in our neighborhoods. there are 500 credit scores. there are riots in white neighborhoods, white rural neighborhoods and a 500 credit score. they riot at the ballot box, we riot emotionally, sometimes in the street. in both these cases you see a check casher next to a payday lender next to a liquor store and we think it's normal. it's not normal. we need to go back, understand that everything is economics. slavery was economic, jim crow was economic, folks running you off your land with the rough riders, the klan was economic, all the way to this present day

is economic. >> all right. i want to thank you, john o'bri o'brien. the book is called "the memo, five rules for your economic liberation." >> thank you for having me. >> check it out. up next, my final thoughts on what it's like to turn 63 years old. my way? mywatch me. ♪ i've tried lots of things for my joint pain. now? watch me. ♪ think i'd give up showing these guys how it's done? please. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are changing the way they fight it... they're moving forward with cosentyx®. it's a different kind of targeted biologic. it's proven to help people find less joint pain and clearer skin. don't use if you are allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection

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as i said earlier this week, i turned 63 years old and i was surprised with nbc, msnbc, they gave me a birthday cake, other celebrations, and they'll be studying my work, young and older activists this week. but as i reflected my contemporaries, russell simmons and hip-hop starting around the time i did, and i reflected on my generation and those that

were the mentors to me that were in the generation ahead of me, reverend jackson and reverend walker, bill jones, shirley chisholm and others that invested in me, i thought about what is it that i really want to say. and that is that the key to life is two dates. the day you were born and the day you find out why you were born. there's an old quote, but it's true. purpose must drive your life. and from when i was a boy preacher to when at 13 i became an official in operation bread basket, i found my purpose, fighting for justice in my ministry being around to fight for justice. find your purpose. your life's meaning is not by what you own, your life's meaning is about what you are about. i see a lot of young activists coming up under me. the good ones are not the ones that want to be seen. the good ones are the ones that

are obsessed with changing what they see. i'll be right back.

that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next sunday. now to my colleague, alex witt. >> hey there, rev, good to see you. thank you so much. for all of you, a very good morning. i'm alex witt at the tom brokaw news center in los angeles where it is 9:00 a.m. in the east, 6:00 a.m. right here on the west coast but here's what's happening. nate downgraded but still a threat in the southeast where the full effect of the latest storm has yet to be realized. the latest on flooding, power outages, and where it is headed next. >> do you want to expound on your calm before the storm comment? >> nothing to clarify. >> the president with no clear answer on what he meant by those words and a new tweet on north korea that is also unclear. plus in an interview