good morning. welcome to politics nation. the white house continues its damage control over the claims that the president made an insensitive call to the family of a u.s. army soldier slain in niger earlier this month. we'll have journalist unpack the political week that was. and one-on-one with colin

kaepernick's lawyer mark geragos. we'll talk to him about the grievance he filed this week against the nfl which is still struggling with the national anthem protest. his client started. but first, with the 2018 midterm elections looming, we saw reports this week that the democratic national committee is being rocked by internal struggles while playing catchup to the republicans and fundraisers. and they need all the help they can get in states like north carolina where conservative lawmakers have been actively trying to suppress black voters using everything from voter identification laws to jer gerrymandering of legislative districts this despite a u.s. supreme court that found repeatedly these tactics to be

discriminatory. in response, they've weaponized the states courts by making judicial elections partisan and redrawing judicial districts to force black judges out while bringing more conservatives in. joining me now is christian clark, president of the lawyers committee for civil rights and north carolina state representative marcia maury, a former chief district court judge. let me go to you first, judge maury. it is unthinkable that we would see such what appears to me to be blatant partisan leanings in how we're going to run the judicial judicialry judiciary of any state but the steps taken in

north carolina after some rulings by judges has gone unmistakably that way. where we're seeing partisan manipulation. what is happening in terms of the shrinking of the state court of appeals and in term of how these judicial districts are being set up because i think what's happening in north carolina can be if we're not careful a model for what can be used around the country that would in many ways compromise the judicial fights around voting rights and civil rights. >> good morning, reverend al. you're right. this is a systematic attack on the independence north carolina januarys judiciary. the legislature for the first time in almost 100 years in this country is moving nonpartisan voter elections to making judges now partisan.

kaven american males are 65% running against each other in elections to come up. so new maps have come in. now there is a proposal to eliminate all judicial primaries which can lead to jungle races next year. >> so they want to eliminate all the primaries. they want to identify judicial candidates by party which is unprecedented. and they're really like having these collusions of having a lot of blacks run against each other in the judicial races which really ends up with conservatives winning if there are too many bungled up in a race. >> absolutely right. i think they're going to put a constitutional amendment in front of the voters next may to eliminate elections of judges. that they want legislative

appointments of judges similar to virginia and south carolina denying the voters the right to select the jew rish i did. >> now, this is happening with uncomfortably for me and you a lot of silence from the national civil rights community. because if they get away with this in north carolina, they'll duplicate this all over the country like they did with voter id. so now not only you are hitting people at the voting box, you're hitting them in the courts where you can't even get relief because the courts will be stacked against us and even if things change in terms of parties and leanings in the midterm election and the 2020 presidential election, the courts will be under certain kind of thinking all over this country state by state. >> what's happening in north carolina is extremely dangerous and troubling. we can't forget that fourth

circuit court of appeals found that the very lawmakers behind this scheme acted with almost surgical precision to take action to impair the voting rights of african-americans. we know that these lawmakers are ones who have undertaken action that is racially motivated to see what is happening now with respect to the courts is deeply troubling. they are nip ago w they are nipping away at the right to vote and politicizing the courts. two features of democracy that must be preserved. i'm deeply concerned about the gerrymandering of judicial district lines and the fact that they have have now moved to place two-thirds of african-american judges in districts where they will square off against incumbents. we risk turning the clock back on judicial diversity when reality is we still have so much work to do. not just in north carolina but

across the nation to promote judicial diversity. we want courts that the public can have confidence in. we want courts that produce outcomes that are fair. we want judge who's are independent and who can apply the law to the facts. but what north carolina lawmakers have done here is make clear that they want to politicize the courts at any cost and that is a dangerous threat to american democracy. >> let me ask you, miss maury. the fact that the court had ruled the district court that there was blatant racial discrimination found in some of the cases they heard and now we see the judiciary change, i mean, it is almost frightening that you would have the court cite zdiscrimination and then yu

start changing the judiciary almost as a direct response to neutralize the finding and it's almost been not discussed in terms of national media. that's why i want to open the show with this this morning. because i think we get caught in a lot of distractions while at the very heart of voting rights and civil rights is being dealt with in a very negative way in north carolina in live time in, real time as one would say. >> absolutely. and, you know, the courts are the last bastian of fairness. if we get special interest and big money into the courts and the partisan races, it's a disservice to the people who their only hope for fairness and having their voices heard is in our courts. i think it's retaliation for decisions that the legislature doesn't like and so they're going to change the game and put in new referees of their own

choosing. >> christian, what can be done by the national civil rights legal community which you're one of the prominent leaders in? or by the civil rights community or by citizens, period, watching? what can be done to really stop this because if it gets done in north carolina, it will certainly be a template all over this country. and we're talking about undermining the judiciary. many of us are outlooking at movies of what thurgood marshall did and we need marshalism right now and we're not even paying attention it appears. >> that's right. fair courts is a principle worth fighting for and it's something that we have to make front and center. we're seeing the threats and the rollbacks not just at the state level but at the federal level as well. there are 150 court vacancies right now. and president trump is appointing radical fringe

nominees for many of these vacancies, judge who's fall far outside the mainstream and now we have states like north carolina that are seeking to extend the damage by politicizing the courts, gerrymandering judicial district lines and taking steps to undermine judicial diversity. we have to make this issue front and center. the public can play a role by engaging in the legislative process in their state. calling their state lawmakers and letting them know that they oppose the efforts to damage the integrity of our courts. speaking up about the importance of having judges who will fairly interpret the constitution and will fairly interpret and apply civil rights laws from the days of brown versus board of education to the present day, the courts have been important venues for upholding and defending the constitution and we can't afford to turn the

clock back now. >> thank you very much for joining and really, really explaining this. thank you both very much. it's very important issue. i'm going to stay on it. coming up, colin kaepernick's lawyer mark geragos -- i always mess it up, i've known him for years. mark geragos will be talking about his client filed this week against the nfl. what is he hoping to accomplish? stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker.

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boxing was quickly becoming one of the nation's most popular diversions. and no fighter dominated the ring more than jack johnson, the world's first black heavyweight champion whose unprecedented run at the top so frightened america that it canvassed for a great white hope. a hope that was dashed when on july 4th, 1910, johnson soundly beat his hand picked white opponent into submission. what was then called the fight of the century. the response from white america was tragically predictable. and anti-black riots ensued across the country and the u.s. congress behind the sale of fight films they banded a band that would last nearly 30 years. the message was clear. the threat of black physical

proudness and even worse dominance was simply too alarming for white america. at least it was alarming until it was useful which it became nearly 30 years later when another black heavyweight joe lewis became the nation's avatar in the cultural war with nazi germany leading up to world war ii. so much so that he was preparing for rematch with the german champion max smelling, he was personally told by president franklin d. roosevelt that, "we need muscles like yours to beat germany." the muscles would give america the victory they craved in june of 1938, knocking smelling down three times in just two minutes. and this wouldn't be the only instance in which an american that was largely opposed to civil rights at home would use

black physical alt to strike a blow against fascism, the fascism represented by adolf hitler who was watching from the stands as an african-american track star jesse owens dominated the 1936 olympic games winning four gold medals and the applause of german spectators with each respective victory black americans disenchfranchis in certain society could see and hear themselves winning on a national and global stage, using the physical heritage of slavery and share cropping to do so. but why does history lesson you ask? because for the last month since president trump enflamed conservatives by insisting the nfl athletes protested during the national anthem should be

fired, conservatives have pushed a narrative that sports are and have always been a kind of political demilitarized zone, free of wider implications outside of the ring or off the field. but just as i outlined that has never been the case for athletes of color whose outsized presence continues to be a trigger for racists. because when muhammed ali shook up the world by converting to islam and then refusing to fight in the vietnam war, that was a political statement. and when tommy smyth and john carlos raised their fist at the 1968 olympic games in solidarity with the black power movement, the 49th anniversary of which was this week, that was a very political statement. and that's because as i mentioned before the field of sport has always been a bully pulpit for black athletes

otherwise rendered voiceless to suggest otherwise is to display a willful ignorance of history. a cardinal sin. for those like president trum hop insi trump who resist controversial statutes but resist respecting controversial statements. when we come back, colin kaepernick is suing the nfl. i'll explain next.

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i it this first step to even being able to have a conversation is make sure that colin kaepernick gets the opportunity to play in the nfl. i think that's before we negotiate anything about whether we sit or stand should be a negotiation about opening up the doors for colin kaepernick and giving him an opportunity again. through everything that's been lost, i think all of us are having an opportunity to be able to speak to the -- our employers but then to think about the guy who started everything, not to

be able to have a voice at this moment doesn't seem right to me. >> that was michael bennett wednesday reaffirming his support for free agent quarterback colin kaepernick who remains unemployed a year after he started the pregame protest of the national anthem. on monday, kaepernick's attorney mark geragos filed a grievance against the nfl alleging that team owners have colluded this season to keep his client off the rosters because of his protest against racism last season. i spoke to attorney geragos earlier about the case. >> thank you for joining us this morning, attorney geragos. first of all, the knee in that

colin kaepernick did on manufacture the issues that many of us have been concerned about certainly i have been involved with, you have filed a grievance on his behalf saying there was actual exclusion between nfl owners and to keep him from being able to continue his career and to really work this season. tell us the basis of the grievance and who decides on the outcome of the grievance once you make your full presentation? >> well, thank you for having me. and the -- we filed under the collective bargaining agreement. one of the reasons we did that is because collin specifically wants to get back on the field and play. i think you've seen during this past week we filed exactly a week ago almost to the hour and since then some of the owners have met in new york and the

owner of his former team jed york came out and said specifically that he didn't think the nfl owners should be intimidated by the president's tweets. and neither do we. we think that is one of the reasons why he hasn't been signed. we think anybody who has any kind of football experience or management in the nfl will tell you that he's clearly one of the top ten quarterbacks if not top 20 quarterbacks walking around on the face of the earth today. so the only reason he's not working is because the owners have decided to -- to quote the one owner, intimidated by the president's tweets. >> so you feel that president's tweets, the frez's interference in this donald trump's interference, is part of the problem intimidating the owners to allow a fully qualified quarterback to pursue his career because of his political and free speech views?

>> that's exactly right. the nfl has have invoked what they call confidentiality under the collective bargaining agreement. so i'm somewhat limited as to what i can say and it's ironic that in a free speech case that they might want to abridge his representationives' free speech but understandable i guess. i would too if i were accused of collusion in this case. but i will tell you that if you look at the tapes, the president was bragging about the fact that owners had not signed him back in one of his campaign style post inauguration rallies. he felt he was responsible for making sure that angry treats by him would not result in colin kaepernick getting hired. to me that is the essence of collusion. >> manufacture us involved in

the civil rights community have noticed that colin kaepernick has not been public and not -- and had not gone toive in the rallies and said anything or even done interviews. is that without breeching confidentiality, is that part of a strategy to make sure that nothing is done or said by him that would in any way work against his being able to return to the field? or is that just his choice? >> no. i would say that right now his number one goal is to get back on the field. he doesn't want anybody to use anything that he says as a pretext. i will tell you, however, that he was perfectly willing this past week to have gone to new york and to have met when the owners did that for lack of a better term dog and pony show with some of the players which got resulted in nothing getting done, he would have attended if invited and in fact on monday we specifically, our office specifically asked is he

invited? because he would go because this is, after all, a movement that he started. and as you say, reverend, he's passionate about these issues. and he's passionate about -- he has flown below the radar. he's put his money literally where his mouth is contributing close to a million dollars probably by now the time this airs, over a million dollars, to various causes. he started the know your rights camps and things of that nature. this is a very passionate, thoughtful and talented young man. >> he's the real deal kind of guy. and someone that works with a lot of the families that have become an issue. it has really meant a lot to them for someone of his profile to really put it on the line to keep public attention on something that as you know is not always there which is why we rally in march. but what he does, you couldn't even quantify it by raising the issue.

and, michael bennett even said, and i agree, that you can't resolve this without resolving the career continuation of colin kaepernick. we're not trying to make a martyr out of him. he in many ways is trying to make the american flag live for all people by equal protection under the law. we gain nothing in the movement by him not working. i think the country loses by him not working. >> that's exactly right. i think michael bennett echoed the sentiments of many of the players when he said how can you have this conversation? how can you engage in this window dressing that they want to engage in without letting colin kaepernick get back out on to the field? i mean that is the problem. and unfortunately, i think that the owners have cowered to a certain degree by the fact that people are afraid that somebody in the executive branch is going

to tweet out. and that's a problem. >> when we can have the executive branch, though, veto the right of working because someone wants to highlight policies that have not been addressed, i mean, isn't that a real frightening thought in this country? i mean, the nfl should have nothing to do with the white house feelings of any president and here's a person went all the way to the super bowl. i mean we're not talking about a person that doesn't have the background. and you're going to say that politics can ban him from working because he is standing up for victims and for something that is historically been proven with racism? >> well, i tweeted out a couple days ago a quote from john f. kennedy almost 6 o years ago he gave it at the shrine convention

senter in los angeles when he was a senator and he said, and i'm paraphrasing, that he's for -- that president should have a moral authority and educate the populous to stand up for their rights even when that sometimes means sitting down. >> well, i think that is right. i think that as those of us that have done knee ins for years not on a field, he certainly showed some real moral strength. i do not think, i want to be clear, that when he brought you on who has reputation as a fighter in the courtroom, it shows that he takes what he's doing seriously and no matter how the movement goes, he should not be -- his career should not be collateral damage and comfort for those that don't want to see these issues dealt with fairly and squarely. >> amen. >> all right. thank you for being with us this morning.

>> thank you. when we come back, the president and his highly decorated chief of staff are trying to smear a congresswoman by doing what they do best, lie. i'll be right back. what started as a passion... ...has grown into an enterprise. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. now, i'm earning unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase i make. everything. what's in your wallet?

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this week the white house was at it again. following congresswoman fred reeka wilson's unflattering account of president trump's phone conversation with the goal star widow, faced with the truth of that account not lining up with that of the president, the white house did what it seems to be doing best. it lied. here to explain our panel. >> let me go to you first.

we have the death of sergeant johnson and the other three. i raised johnson's name because the president calls his widow who is pregnant and a mother of two and she's in the car with the aunt and husband who raised him, like his parents because his mother died young. so it probably made sense she wanted to turn the speaker on so they could all hear the president give his condolences. and he says, reported by congresswoman fredericka wilson who knew johnson since he was a youngster in her 5,000 role model program, a program i know well. i spoke for it every year since it was 500 role models. and that's why she was in the car, life long friend. and they were stunned when they heard the president say he knows what he signed up for. now minutes ago president trump

just minutes ago from now, he tweeted this. "whacky congresswoman wilson is the gift that keeps on giving for the republican party, a disaster for dems. you watch her in action & vote r!" meaning republican. so this today, yesterday, the day of the funeral, he's tweeting with whacky congresswoman wilson not one word of honor and respect about the sergeant who was being funeralized and buried yesterday. what does this say about this white house? who are they playing to? i understand the insensitivity and the apparent channeling of bias by the president, but where is the political calculus? >> i you this say that i talked with congresswoman wilson several times this week. i also messaged with johnson who is a family member to sergeant

johnson. and they -- both of them, but especially congresswoman wilson told me that widow of la david johnson was actually in the fetal position, essentially crying, her body frozen with emotion when on the phone with the president. so what you have is this highly charged situation where they're sitting at miami international airport waiting to greet the body of sergeant johnson. so that is the scene within which the president calls and says, you know, he knew what he signed up for. he says you're a guy and the widow hangs up the phone and turns to congresswoman wilson and says he didn't even know his name. so this has been cast as something that's between general kelly and congresswoman wilson and the president. but really there is also the family who is backing the congresswoman saying this is a problem that this was -- we felt disrespected by the president. >> so let me get this right.

>> so he's attack congresswoman wilson who is a respectful mile mannered person. she's a fighter but not twlaonet is a flamethrower. but they're calling a family a liar. the family confirmed basically the account that congresswoman wilson has stated. >> yes. correct. so the mess saj i have with tag family and "the washington post," the family backed up the congresswoman and said they felt dissprekted. with all that being said, what we have is president trump going into culture wars again, going into this idea that he's being attacked and that democrats are essentially not being as patriotic as they should be. and this i think really echos his protest and his anger at nfl players who are kneeling for the american flag. so what we have really here is president trump knowing that this really does work. i think it actually does work for him. i think when he's in the middle of being able to argue about whether or not people are real patriots, about whether or not

they're really respecting the office of the presidency, he's at his best. we see that in his base with the attacking miss johnson. i was on her facebook page earlier and people were attacking this young widow that never spoke out. they were saying she is attacking the president which means she should be a target. so there is this idea that he unleashed partst culture that turned this into a war that essentially he's winning from the base point of view. >> but van, isn't this very revealing now that those of us that have taken issue with this president, those of us that have raised issues about racism or home pho homophobia or gender inequality that they would turn on a member of the military who lost his life because how dare his widow and family confirm what a congresswoman says about the president? how do you wave the flag and as you put the flag on the coffin of a dead serviceman try and

desecrate his family? i mean how do they do this, van? >> right. well, what we would be talking about today if this weren't all happening, if trump and general kelly were not out there attacking congresswoman and a family and also president obama would be that we have a major military operation that is escalating and we don't know the full extent of our involvement there or exactly what happened. and now like she said, now we have a president who is able to wade again in the cultural wars, able to go out and say people who basically oppose him, people who disagree with his account of the events are not patriots. i represent america, not the flag. >> he believes he can win that lilt goim by going out and riling up the base. you look at his recent comments where he said that he's called virtually all of the families of

gold star familiar lives people who were killed in combat. and you actually look at a report on the atlantic that was released yesterday by my colleague that says he was rush shipping some of those condolences out as late as this week after those comments. yeah. >> and the e-mails between the pentagon and the white house, they found out who they were. matt, the other thing that i think that we must raise more attention to is a statement that congresswoman wilson made that i think is very, very -- well, let me say, i think it has very serious elements of truth. and that is that this may be president trump's benghazi. the whole engagement in niger, what happened that got these four servicemen, military officers killed? two of them were green berets. what are they doing in the jail? why weren't they covered better?

what what was the evacuation about? how does johnson get left behind when they take him out? where was the backup unit and he was there to two days. they're not discussing all of this at all. when you look what the they did around benghazi and you look at this operation, it is alarming the fumble and the kind of questions raised here whether or not we're dealing with at least competence and securing the lives of our military men and whatever the operation was and what was the operation and for what purpose? >> there is one key similarity to benghazi and one key difference. the similarity as you point out, what the hell are we doing there? we have special forces in something like 70% of the world's countries. i think most of all of africa we don't have corresponding authorizations for the use of military force in all these countries. we're in some kind of active military engagement with seven different countries under an authorization that we passed in

september 14th, 2001. it's crazy. we should be talking about that on a daily basis. a big difference with the benghazi thing is there is nothing about a youtube video. there isn't a free speech implement that i found to be troubling specifically with the benghazi engagement. but we absolutely should be having these discussions and looking backwards and saying when did this start and what are we doing going forward? we're essentially putting the tip of the american spear in the forces in the forum of special forces everywhere all over the world right now. that needs to be addressed at the root. generally speaking it is not. >> no. you're ducking it by picking on an outstanding congresswoman and not dealing with your record that in this case we have four members of the military that stood up nor flag that have been killed. and we need to know why and what. up next, my panel stays to discuss two former presidents speaking out against trump

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i'm back with my panel matt welch and ulicia elcinda. former president obama and former president george w. bush on the same day came out with very serious speeches denouncing divisive behavior and racism and in very stark terms and clearly we're referring to the sitting president although they did not call him by name. this is unprecedented and this is how serious this whole question has become? >> and i would also add john mccain's speech earlier in the week saying the same things, using the phrases like nationalism to describe the current moment. there are two key things to the bush speech in particular that struck me. one is that he said we too often in our discourse assume the

worst of our adversaries and assume that our noble intentions are enough to whitewash anything that we might have made mistakes on. i think that's completely true. the other thing he said and emphasized is that in the absence of leadership on top, it's the mediating institutions in our life in civil society, it's churches, community organizations that have to restore some dignity to the proceedings. you think all that is true. the thing that i miss from all three speeches and i would like to see more of going forward is any sense from those leaders, the people who were in the elites for the last 15, 16 years of their own failings that contributed to the delegation of our discourse and also of our policies. >> van, it also raises the question of puerto rico. you were recently there. and the image of this president going down there throwing paper towels and you contrast that with the other presidents. and i certainly marched into exception with george bush with

katrina. but he never got as personal and ugly as this president has with like the mayor of san juan. so is this also, do you think, part of what was covered by the two presidents and senator mccain's speech? >> definitely. you look at just the federal response in puerto rico, the optics of it, the actual reality of the response, have not met the needs of the people there, and people there point to trump's visit as maybe the genesis of some of those problems. and you look back at, like you said, george w. bush, his handling of katrina, the handling of disasters since then, environmental justice issues, the federal government has never been in front of those issues, they have always been behind the eight ball. but now ryou look at a presiden who seems to be antagonistic against brown people who live in a territory, not considered a sf state, we have a colonial relationship with them, and that seems to be the order of the day. the order of the day right now. >> he seems to like glory in it.

he wants to fight. he keeps it going. he won't let it go. once it dies down, he tweets again about the mayor of san juan. he tweets again about congresswoman wilson or whoever else gets on the wrong side of him, he seems to want this fight. are you getting that sense from your contacts in washington and the white house if you have any? >> i think i'm definitely getting that sense. i think it is very clear that president trump sees this as a winning strategy, and sees the fact that when he was going after his critics and giving people nicknames like crooked hillary and lying ted, that worked for him and essentially ushered him into the white house. he has a path that brought him to political victory when no one else thought he could do it. he did it by being this an tiggist tig ist antagonistic. he could be charting out 2020. i think that's something that is way far off, but the idea of

president trump looking already at 2020 and saying how am i going to make my case, it sounds like he's going to make his case by saying i challenge outsiders. i should say quickly, when i looked at president trump and president bush and president obama, i thought these are two men wrestling with their own legacies. president bush still has real issues with how he came across katrina, i think they're in a political calculus there too. >> definitely a calculus there. thank you. up next, my final thoughts, when i saw five presidents standing on a stage together. when you have something you love,

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when i watched last night five former presidents on stage raising money for recovery and for those that were victimized in texas and in florida, and in puerto rico, it reminded me of

the standards of the presidency. yes, they were the statements by former president bush and obama this week about racism, and about polarization and there probably was political calculus. i certainly had my differences with george w. bush, but for that matter, bill clinton, around the crime bill and welfare reform. but the one thing that i see as a thread between them all is that they never lowered the presidency. they may have been politically calculating in some cases, i disagreed in other cases, but they kept the standard of the presidency high. i recently traveled as i mentioned on the show to europe and africa. and people are looking at us, wondering what has happened to the level of decency in the oval

office. this president is not only wrong on the issues, he's made the office come down a little lower in the standards that it represents, in his shameless way that he's made it all about him. that is not going to be easy to erase.

by listening to an thiaudiobook on audible.ame and this guy is just trying to get through the day. this guy feels like he can take on anything.

this guy isn't sure he can take it anymore. unwavering self-confidence. stuck in a 4-door sedan of sadness. upgrade your commute. ride with audible. dial star star audible on your smartphone to start listening today. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next sunday. now to my colleague, alex witt. >> you can't get away too quickly. we know about your broadcasting gig, your speaking gigs, your pulpit gigs. how was your first stint as father of the bride? >> it was wonderful. my daughter, beautiful wedding. i didn't drop off a daughter, i picked up a son. now i'm a father of a son and a daughter. >> that's a wonderful way to look at it. congratulations to everyone. thanks, rev. to all of you, good morning, i'm alex witt in nw