tv American Swamp MSNBC September 1, 2019 8:00pm-9:00pm PDT
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swamp." >> i never thought at election school one day i'd be talking about the world's greatest democracy, vietnam. low voter turnout, voter suppression tactics and accusations of election fraud. >> is america's election system rigged? >> i'm nbc news meteorologist, bill karins, news from the national hurricane system. dorian has peaked in intensity during the day with 185 miles an hour winds, down a smidge, 180 miles an hour winds still extremely catastrophic with one of the strongest storms you will ever see and still walking in the bahamas towards the freeport
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area. to the path of the hurricane center, taken over the next 24 hours near bahamas. it looks to parallel the coast. looks like the closest is to the kennedy space center and two of our models show landfall and that will be monday to tuesday night. we will be watching areas from south carolina to georgia closely too and looks like that storm will be near you. i never thought in elementary school growing up learning about elections in america that one day i would be talking about the world's greatest democracy, vietnam. >> vietnam has the best voter turnout. they put us to shame. >> vietnam, dominica, uruguay, malta, seychelles, ecuador, turkey, then on page, basically at the end, it's the united states.
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>> keep going. keep turning the page. >> the united states is between -- >> bosnia, herzegovina, and singapore. >> bottom line, is we have some problems. ♪ >> america is the most renowned democracy on the planet. a government that is supposed to be for and by the people. and, yet, so many of us take a pass on exercising our most fundamental right of all, voting. a little more than half of the people in this country who can vote bother to show up at the polls, even when the stakes are highest, in a presidential election. in non-presidential years, turnout is much worse. >> so what's wrong with our
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democracy? as we head into the 2020 elections, that question couldn't be more urgent. voter turnout as well as trust in the election system itself could play a huge role in deciding who becomes our next president. >> drain the swamp. >> with our most basic democratic process in crisis, katy and i are wading back into the swamp to see just how deep it goes. from allegations of a rigged system, to alleged election fraud -- >> if you're confident that you won, don't you want to call for another election? >> sir, why won't you answer any questions? >> to the folks who think the swamp in washington, d.c., runs so deep their vote just doesn't matter anyway. we're starting in new york city, outside the united nations to try to find out what we're doing wrong. excuse me. are you a delegate? what country are you from? uruguay. you're the third highest voter turnout in the world. 97%. >> 97%. >> why?
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>> it's compulsory. >> australia also has compulsory voting. and a voter turnout rate almost twice as high as ours. how does it feel to have better voter turnout than the greatest democracy in the world? >> well, i think a lot of people look at the u.s. and wonder why you have that system. >> where are you from? >> denmark. oh, please, talk to us. >> oh, my. >> such an honor. >> you do a great job. >> are you from sierra leone? you're 18th place in the world. you know what our turnout is? >> no. >> 122nd place in the world. >> whoa. >> why? >> we all learn, even in kindergarten, to try to learn children in making decisions. >> schedule around work. >> there you go. >> yeah, because our elections are on tuesday. >> yes. >> what days are your elections? >> on saturday.
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>> go figure. >> if you were to give us advice, what would it be? >> start from the young ones. >> so start with this guy? >> start, yes. >> are we a democracy? >> i'm not so sure. >> wow. wow. >> andy! >> hi. >> u.n. elections consultant andrew reynolds helped organize elections in countries around the world. according to reynolds, america's voting problems aren't exactly a secret. when you're overseas helping set up democracies, say this is the way they do things in america, using america as examples, are you met with pushback, why should we listen to what happens in america? >> many times. and people are sort of angered that the u.s. would come and tell them what to do. >> are we just giant hypocrites when it comes to democracy that we're able to go around the world and set up democracies, yet ours is sort of in shambles at home? >> the real challenge of all the expertise in the u.s. is to take it to other places and to offer in a humble, engaging way choices and options and don't do some of the things we do but copy some of the good things. >> would it help if more of us turned out to vote?
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>> absolutely. but people turn out when they feel invested in the process, they think it makes a difference. and they have access to voting. >> with another election around the corner, the questions about our electoral system are more critical than ever. >> the majority of people in this country abide by the rules of this democracy, they pay taxes, but they don't participate. they don't have a say and they choose not to have a say. >> well, that is the question. do they choose not to have a say? i think most people feel like their votes don't matter but what does that mean? does it mean they don't have faith in the elected leaders that come here to washington, d.c.? so much alike in the republican, democratic party, their lives never change no matter who's representing them? or is it people have legitimate gripes about systemic barriers and getting to the polls. >> voter suppression. >> they don't believe the electoral college, think russia interfered in the election. >> so the biggest question is how does it get better? >> if i knew, we'd have 100% voter participation by now. >> let's figure it out. >> in raleigh, north carolina,
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people have a good reason to think their votes don't matter. that's because even though there was an election for congress last fall, the results are still up in the air. >> it's a rigged system, folks. it's a rigged system. it's a rigged system. it's a rigged election. >> since the 2016 campaign, donald trump has been promising to drain the swamp of what he claims is rampant voter fraud on the part of the democrats. but here in north carolina, it's the republicans who are accused of election fraud. >> mr. elias. >> how are you, sir? how are you feeling? >> on the morning we arrived, poll workers were getting ready to testify at a hearing to see if a new congressional election should be called. >> was this a fraudulent election? >> we'll have to see, won't we? >> what do you think? >> there's new political drama in north carolina tonight. >> back in november of 2018, gop house candidate mark harris beat his democratic rival dan mccready by a razor-thin margin. but right away, allegations of
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ballot tampering emerged. so basically, this whole thing is about whether or not this election was decided fraudulently. like a 900-vote margin in the election. the harris campaign accused of illegally going door to door to collect mail-in ballots and altering them to help the republican ticket. and until it's sorted out, the congressional seat is empty. >> we're sitting here -- >> there's no representative. is there any evidence that harris knew about this? >> well, that's what they're trying to find out. mr. harris -- >> while jacob and i were talking, harris and his team took a break from the hearing. >> let's go that way. >> we wanted to get some answers straight from the source. >> mr. harris, what do you have to say about the illegal ballot harvesting by people associated with your campaign? >> did you know about it, mr. harris? >> did you know about the illegal ballot harvesting? >> if you're confident that you won, don't you want to call for another election? >> sir, why won't you answer any questions? >> harris declined to comment, but we did speak to the executive director of the north
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of ballot tampering to favor republicans, he said mark harris was still in the lead. >> so you still say -- >> so you still say harris is -- >> dallas, if this was happening on the other side -- >> exactly. >> it's interesting that you say that. >> we constantly are hearing republicans say that democrats are engaged in voter fraud. there's almost never any evidence of that and right here, you're holding a board that has at least 22 cases of voter fraud in the state of north carolina. >> in one district. >> executed by republicans in one district. >> in one congressional district. in one election. >> so 22 cases of voter fraud by a republican. where are the democratic cases of voter fraud? >> well, i'm not keeping score of that because i'm interested in mark harris' lead. here's what i would tell you. if people did illegal things, and i think there are people that the testimony shows, they should be prosecuted. >> mark harris maintained he did not know anything about improper collection of ballots. but on the next day of the hearing, harris' son, john, a
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federal prosecutor, took the stand and revealed that his dad not only knew about the plan but that he warned his dad that it was against the law. >> i told him that collecting ballots was a felony. >> it was a stunning admission that by the end of his son's testimony had the congressman-elect in tears. the following day when mark harris took the stand, he agreed the election results should be thrown out. >> through the testimony i listened to over the past three days, i believe a new election should be called. >> shortly after the hearing, a harris campaign worker named leslie mccray dallas jr. was charged with multiple crimes including perjury, obstruction of justice and illegal possession of absentee ballots. he has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. a new election will take place this september, but until then, the seat will remain empty.
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>> this small district might be an extreme example of electoral dysfunction, but it makes you wonder if this is why so many of us don't think our votes matter. hey, how are you guys doing? do you guys vote? >> no. >> you don't? how come? (man) go home. (woman) banjo! sorry, it won't happen again. come on, let's go home. after 10 years, we've covered a lot of miles. good thing i got a subaru. (avo) love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek. (avo) get 0% during the subaru a lot to love event. now, there's skyrizi. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 3 out of 4 people achieved... ...90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections... ...and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection...
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houston is the biggest city in texas, but here in the suburb of bel air, only about 1 in 4 people is likely to vote. this has some of the lowest voter participation in all the city like around 27% of people showed up here in the midterm election when they had a record turnout. hey, guys. can i ask you a quick question? can i ask you a question? hi. are you a voter? do you vote? >> no, i've never been. >> never in your life? do you guys vote? >> no. >> you don't? how come? >> politics is a deep thing, i don't want to get into it. >> in this area, not many people vote and i'm trying to understand why. >> it's going to be only one vote, your vote. i don't know. >> you don't feel like it makes a difference. >> exactly. >> just didn't get a chance because i got a restaurant business and i -- stuck in there all the time. >> you have a restaurant business and you're stuck in the restaurant all the time. do you feel like the politics that goes on day to day, the things that we vote for, affect your life? >> yes. eventually, it will, but, like, things take a lot of time.
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>> trying to convince people that voting is worth the time and effort is a challenge. and that's at least in part because so many potential voters feel disconnected from the process, especially when it comes to the unique way we choose our president. >> we are the popular vote! >> because of our electoral college system, we don't vote directly for the candidate. instead, each state is assigned a number of electoral votes based on its population. the candidate that gets 270 electoral votes wins. but is this really the best way to elect a president? >> hello. hello. are you open for business? >> for you, we're never closed. >> oh. i'm hoping that election night guru, steve kornacki, might have some answers. what's the point of electoral college? >> that goes all the way back to the founding of the country, right? this idea that the interest of each state would be represented
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in an electoral college. >> we saw for the second time in recent history in 2016, the person who won the electoral college was not the person who won the popular vote. why? >> well, i mean, take a look at this map right here. right, for 2016. what you got, you got areas with large populations, rural populations, tend to be blue collar white voters. this is a group you saw donald trump, he inspired huge turnout. so it allowed clinton to win the popular vote nationally but for trump to pick off a pennsylvania, a michigan, a wisconsin. >> and you need those states along with florida. >> you can lose the national popular vote in trump's case by upward of 3 million votes but because you had such a concentration of your type of voter in those places, that's electoral vote rich. that's 46. that's -- that's what made him president. >> an nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll shows 53% of americans want to elect our president with a popular vote. before he won the presidency, donald trump was one of those people.
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he called the electoral college a disaster, but after his victory? >> the electoral college is genius. it's genius. i'm telling you, it's genius. >> not surprisingly, several of the 2020 democratic presidential candidates would like to see the electoral college abolished. >> if we got rid of the electoral college, we'd get a little bit closer to one person, one vote. >> if democrats think getting rid of the electoral college will give them an advantage in 2020 and beyond, steve warns they should think again. >> it feels like it's this permanent thing that only helps republicans. in 2012, the talk was it might help democrats. i'm not at all convinced there's a permanent long-term republican advantage there. >> i wonder if our system works, though. we were talking with some folks at the u.n. from various countries and when we asked them about our politics, a lot of them expressed total shock that we could have a candidate who wins the popular vote but doesn't win the election. >> yeah. oh. welcome to u.s. politics.
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>> democracy shouldn't be this complicated, right? and if we want more people to participate, shouldn't we make it easier to vote? we're heading to washington, d.c., to ask a seemingly simple question and it turns out even that is complicated, too. full disclosure. before i was a journalist, i was an election reform advocate. the question i always liked to ask first was, why do we vote on tuesday? quick question for you, congressman. >> do you know why elections are held on tuesdays? >> i really don't. >> as a former political scientist, i should know the answer. >> i don't have a clue. >> you can call my office. >> about why we vote on tuesday? congressman nunes. >> i'm not sure. >> why are you looking at me? >> katy -- >> well, jacob knows. jacob is the expert on this. >> jacob, tell us. >> because in 1845, we were an agrarian society. it took a day or longer to get to the county seat to vote, a day to get back and you can't travel on sabbath, so tuesday
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was the only day. still today we vote on the tuesday after the first monday in november. but it's not in the constitution. >> do you have any more obscure knowledge? >> that's not obscure. >> if i was elected on tuesday, keep it on tuesday. >> that's the problem. members in congress don't want to change the way they were elected. >> maybe congressman king is kidding but every joke contains some truth. the truth seems to be those in power aren't too invested making it any easier for americans to vote. in some places, that can take an ugly turn. to get that story, we're headed to one of the biggest political battlegrounds past and present. >> they were pulling people over, they were stopping folks. it appeared to be a tactic to discourage folks and to particularly focus on the african-american community. great riches will find you when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need.
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legalized discrimination at the polls. latasha brown, co-founder of black voters matter, says it's a fight that continues today. >> you know, while i wasn't quite born during the civil rights movement, a lot of my work was really around continuation of that work. and what's really awkward and crazy to me is many of the stories that i heard that happened in the '60s, i'm dealing with that now. so our work with black voters matter is to engage black voters who we feel have, particularly in the south, but throughout this country, you know, have been marginalized and there's all of these layers of voter suppression that we see ongoing. >> hello. >> hello, how are you? >> commissioner. >> how y'all doing? come on in. >> latasha is introducing me to a colleague who says he personally experienced a harrowing episode of voter
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intimidation in southern georgia. in 2018, he borrowed a limousine from a funeral home to drive people to vote. let me just stop you there. that's pretty creativity, innovative. you went to the funeral home, you borrowed their limousines from the funeral home to take people in style to the polls. does it work? do people show up and get in those limousines? >> it worked. it worked. we was very successful. >> while he was driving people to the polls, roy said he had a run-in with state troopers. >> is it unusual to see state troopers in city center of cordell? >> most definitely. most definitely. >> right as the election is coming in. so they're present. they were pulling people over. they were stopping folks, asking for their driver's license. and so it appeared to be a tactic to really discourage folks and particularly to focus on the african-american community. >> royce was part on the wrong side of the road when a state trooper approached him. >> the state trooper, he pulled up behind the car. i looked at him and said, you know what, i'm sorry for being parked on the side of the road, if you give me a moment, i'll move the car.
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and he yelled at me. he said, no, you're not going to move anything, you're going to stand right there. he hit the radio and called backup and probably seven, eight, close to nine troopers showed up. >> a woman shot this cell phone video from down the street. >> two police and the rest of them state patrol. that's a crying shame, on one little person. >> if there was, like, a bank robbery in progress -- >> exactly. >> and then what? >> the commander instructed the guy that if he was going to give me a ticket to give me a ticket. if he wasn't, let's go. >> and? >> they gave me a ticket and they left. >> did you ever say, hey, look, i'm just trying to drive people to the polls today. >> they was aware of what i was doing. i pulled up aside people and said, let's go and vote today. no, i don't want to have to deal with the police. >> that's crazy, i'm sorry to interrupt you, but that's crazy to me, that maybe it shouldn't be, that in the united states of america the first reaction to some folks before they go and vote is i hope i don't have to deal with the police. the georgia state patrol office said the trooper who gave the
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citation followed proper procedure, and that he requested backup because there was so many bystanders on the street. >> we have to protect our democracy. this isn't a partisan issue, this is a people issue. it's a citizenship issue. >> stacey abrams ran for governor of georgia that same year and lost by less than 55,000 votes. she believes that voter suppression and other tactics were at least partially to blame. >> do you think the vote was stolen from you, the election was stolen from you? >> i think the vote was stolen from the people of georgia. i don't know empirically i would have wouldn't, but if you add together the thousands of people that faced extraordinarily long lines, who faced hurdles that should not happen in a democracy, the votes that we know were not counted, the secretary of state who was also my opponent in the race purged more than 1.4 million voters over basically an eight-year period. >> the opponent abrams is referring to is gop governor brian kemp. purging voters from the rolls is not illegal. in fact, the law that allowed kemp to do it was passed years
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ago by democrats as a way to remove people who had moved out of the state or died. but abrams says kemp's office purged voters in a way that disproportionately impacted african-americans. isn't there a law that defines how you get purged? >> but the aggressive witness which it was applied, and the fault in the database. people were purged who had not matched any of the criteria for being removed from the rolls. >> the voting rights act of 1965 is supposed to guard against racial discrimination at the polls, but in 2013 the supreme court decision in shelby county versus holder erased a key provision in the act and weakened those protections. shelby versus holder, do you think 2018 would have been different? >> 2016 would have been different and 2018 would have been different. >> why? >> the evisceration of the voting rights act in shelby v. holder. georgia passed many laws. we saw poll closures and purging
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that were no longer governed and regulated because there was no oversight. >> abrams accused the georgia election board of racially motivated voter suppression tactics and took the fight to court. >> in the coming days we will be filing a major federal lawsuit against the state of georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections from unconstitutional action. >> is there going to be a point in our history where we can say, we've moved past those times? if it's 50 years later, are we not there yet? >> african-americans were denied humanity for the better part of 200 years and were denied agency for the long history of america except for the last 50 years. we cannot undo centuries of oppression and centuries of bad action with good intention and good will without actually putting in place laws to force our better angels. >> abrams' lawsuit is still ongoing. while the georgia board of elections is fighting the allegations.
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>> while voting rights activists fight back against suppression tactics, it turns out there are all sorts of legal ways for lawmakers to pick and choose the voters they want to show up at the polls. to get that story, we need to go back to north carolina. >> we are walking up on the line, the gerrymandered district. >> in a second, we'll be in another district. >> actually, you're already in another district. >> oh. ♪ each careful step ♪ along the byway ♪ much more ♪ much more than this ♪ i did it my way (announcer) verizon is america's most awarded network and the only one with the galaxy note10 5g. right now, when you buy one, you get a galaxy note10 free. that's verizon. you wouldn't accept from any one else. your worst symptoms why accept ite relievs including nasal congestion, which most pills don't.
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i'm dara brown with the top stories. hurricane dorian tears across the bahamas with sustained winds at 185 miles an hour. the category 5 storm flipped cars, sparked local lines and flooded roads but there are no reports of deaths or injuries. dorian is expected to keep hitting the islands before moving through florida's coast late monday or tuesday night. still no motive behind the texas mass shooting that left seven dead and 20 injured at a traffic stop. police say the incident did not appear to be an act of terror. and the shopper used an ar rifle when he shot at troopers and others@near a movie theater. it follows three other mass shootings that all happened when the house went on break in late july.
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now, back to "american swamp" drain the swamp! drain the swamp! you might think a state with an equal number of registered voters for each party would have an equal number of officials representing them in congress, but that is often not the case at all. take north carolina. even though voters in the state are split almost 50/50 in terms of their party affiliation, republicans hold 9 out of the 13 seats in congress. >> to understand why, jacob and i met with student leaders at north carolina a&t state university. they say their political power has been undercut by what's called gerrymandering. >> so we are walking up on the line, the gerrymandered district. >> so in a second we will be in another district. >> actually, you're already in another district. >> so if i'm over here, i'm in district 13. >> wait a minute. hold on a second. >> hold on.
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>> so katy's in the 6th district. >> and me and you are chilling in the 13th. >> 13th. >> gerrymandering is tactic used by state politicians to draw up congressional districts to help one party win, and it's legal all across america. >> north carolina is one of the most gerrymandered states in the union. >> where is the actual dividing line? >> basically it's, like, where the sidewalk cracks. >> i would say that. >> so there has to be a good reason that the school has been split in half. >> they believe that the republican party is better for north carolina than the democratic party. >> who is "they"? >> the folks who -- >> the state folks. >> the folks who did the drawing. the north carolina general assembly. >> before republicans redrew the map in 2016, the 10,000 students here were all in one voting district represented by a democrat. that meant students here at the nation's largest historically black college or university also known as an hbcu could have had
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the power to swing an election. >> so you think the legislature is purposefully dividing the largest hbcu in half in order to dilute the power of the student body? >> yes. >> what was the outcome of splitting the university in half? you got a republican and democrat now, two democrats? >> two republicans. >> two republicans. >> yeah. we're represented by mark walkers and ted bud. >> jacob and i have been having this debate. what stops people from voting? is it things like voter suppression, is it too hard to vote, or is it voter apathy? or are they one and the same in some respects? >> i would say both. >> what would this country look like in everyone, the vast majority of people, or even the majority, went out and voted? >> i think it would look like a democracy and i think it would look like what it's supposed to look like in theory. which in theory a democracy is a participatory process where everyone is encouraged to participate. and, like, participating is
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accessible. right now, that's not the case. >> we asked to speak with republican representative david lewis who led the redrawing process for the current district map. in an email statement, lewis said dividing the campus, "was not done intentionally and no one on the committee, either democrat or republican, realized that the campus was now split. " >> it's not a coincidence that you see the greatest amount of extreme positions, inconsistent with what the people want, when you see the greatest amount of gerrymandering. >> former u.s. attorney gerald holder sees gerrymandering as a national emergency and a moral threat to our democracy. do you think gerrymandering is at the root of the problem for voting issues in this country? if gerrymandering was fixed, that we'd have fairer elections? >> if gerrymandering were fixed, we'd have fairer elections. you'd also have policies put in place that were consistent with the desires of the people. you would have more sane gun
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laws, more say in efforts with regard to climate concerns. you'd have better approaches to dealing with reproductive rights. it's not a coincidence that you see the greatest amount of extreme positions inconsistent with what the people want where you see the greatest amount of gerrymandering. i'm here to end the practice of gerrymandering. >> shortly after the 2016 election, holder launched the national democratic redistricting committee which is working to ensure districts are drawn fairly. this isn't just about democrats getting more power. you think this is going to be fairer for everybody. that's a hard argument to convince people of that are not democrats, that are happy republicans. >> so, yes, you have to have democratic participation. in the same way, i'd look at democratic-controlled states. what happened in maryland with the creation of the gerrymandered district that made republicans superfluous. that, i think was equally wrong. >> now holder's job is even tougher. in june, the supreme court ruled that partisan gerrymandering is legal and redistricting decisions should remain in the hands of state legislatures.
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>> we will be counted! >> and there's another battle threatening to impact every election in america from town council to the president of the united states. and this one has a twist straight out of the swamp. >> boom, suddenly we have kind of a smoking gun. alice loves the smell of gain so much, she wished it came in a fabric softener too. [throat clears] say hello to your fairy godmother, alice. oh and look they got gain scent beads and dryer sheets too! could you email me the part great about geicon, tim. making it easy to switch and save hundreds? oh yeah, sure. um.
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subaru and our retailers have given over one hundred and sixty-five million dollars to charity. we call it our love promise. and it's why you don't even have to own a subaru to love a subaru retailer. subaru. more than a car company. drain the swamp! drain the swamp! >> the way we vote for our representatives starts with a pretty simple question. how many people live in the united states? >> the census, which is taken every ten years, doesn't just count heads, it determines political power. if a state loses population, it loses seats in congress. and influence in the electoral college. a shift that could decide the next presidential election. there's a lot at stake as we gear up for 2020. and so far under the trump administration, the simple act of counting people hasn't been
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so simple. in fact, it is a swampy mess. >> i've come to the rio grande valley in south texas to find out why. >> this is -- >> okay. >> martha and maria are members of lupe, a non-profit community organization which conducts outreach to encourage latinos to respond to the census. and so who else lives here? >> translator: well, many families. many families, yes. >> quantos familia? >> translator: in total, it's about 79. >> the constitution says the census must count everyone so that means noncitizens, too. that's a challenge in parts of the country like this. where there's a fear of the government, a fear that only increased since president trump took office. >> what are the people so worried about? >> translator: because the families here are mixed. some of them may not have their documents. some were born here.
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so you're giving your addresses, you're giving your personal information, where you live. so i think that could be intimidating to the community. >> while it's always been hard to get an accurate census count here in south texas, activists like martha and maria say 2020 could have been devastating. that's because the trump administration wanted to add a question we have not asked since 1950. is this person a citizen of the united states? it's a question that career census officials have said could lead to a huge undercount in communities already living in fear of even the most routine contacts with the government, not to mention possible deportation. >> i know families every day, they give blessing to the family members because they really don't know if somebody's going to come back, they're going to be stopped by the constable, by the border patrol, by the police department. all these departments can stop a family for a blinking light, for
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a wrong turn and the family can end up being deported. >> and that's the reality of life here and the idea that the census bureau becomes another one of those agencies. u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross who oversees the census bureau says the question was requested by the justice department to help enforce the voting rights act of 1965. voting rights activists weren't buying that explanation. more than a dozen states filed lawsuits to block the question, saying it was a blatant attempt to give republicans an advantage by undercounting traditionally democratic communities. the case eventually made it all the way to the docket of the supreme court. around the same time, congressional democrats called a hearing to demand answers from ross. >> thank you very much. >> ross stuck to his story. >> doj sought census block level
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citizenship data for use in voting rights act enforcement. >> and supporters like republican representative james comer of kentucky argue the citizenship question is necessary. >> every working taxpaying citizen should want to know how many people are living in the united states. your tax dollars go to things to build infrastructure, to do things like pay for education, pay for law enforcement. we need to know how many people are living here. >> people who work, career professionals, within the census bureau, have already said that during the last census in 2010, 1.5 million african-american and latino people were undercounted by the census and this will only increase that number. so why do you support it? >> i believe that every american is supposed to fill out the census. i believe that we should know if people that fill out the census are citizens are not. people ask me all the time, when you're talking about the wall, which is a huge subject. >> why are we -- i'm talking about the census, sir. >> listen. listen. when we're talking about the wall, people say, how many illegals are here? i don't know. nobody knows.
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we can take a census every decade and hopefully we can determine how many illegals are here. and the census isn't going to say go out and hunt out people that are here illegally or not. that's misinformation. the democrats are trying to use scare tactics and play the race card. and let me say this. it's not just minorities. there are people in my district, they don't like filling out the census. they don't like the government knowing their business, but it's important to know how many people are living in the united states. >> as the debate in congress continued, a bombshell dropped shattering the trump administration's entire explanation for adding the citizenship question. >> after you. >> thank you. >> dahlia lithwick, senior editor and legal correspondent for "slate" has been following the census story from the start. when i sat in that house oversight committee hearing and listened to wilbur ross saying the reason they wanted to put the citizenship question on the census was because of the voting rights act, at the time it seemed very suspicious and it turned out that there was good reason for that. >> yeah.
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i mean, it was beyond suspicious. it was audacious because this is a trump administration that has not done anything in any other context to enforce the voting rights act. they treated it as though it's an inconvenience. the notion that suddenly there's this burning need to protect minority voting in america from this administration. it's not only short of paradoxical in light of how they treated minority voting, it's also just a flat-out lie. >> that lie was exposed when tom halford, gop, died, and his daughter discovered documents among his private possessions. >> his daughter finds these zip drive with information that shows he had engineered this as a plan explicitly to suppress minority votes. >> in the files, he calculated a citizenship question would help republicans in the redistricting process by discouraging hispanic communities from responding to
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the census. talking points to support his arguments, some of the same points were later used by the justice department in an official letter asserting why the citizenship question was needed. >> it's right there and quite literally they are scooping up language that he had used. so, boom, suddenly we have kind of a smoking gun. >> with a looming july 1st deadline to print the census questionnaires, voter rights advocates presented the documents in a last-minute filing before the supreme court. they're getting ready to print this thing and then the supreme court weighs in. what happened? >> so there are four solid votes to say this is absolutely fine. wilbur ross did nothing wrong. john roberts who writes the majority opinion, he says, i don't believe him, he's lying. he doesn't use the word, "he's lying," but he essentially says i think their reasons given are pretextual. i have no problem in principle with what he was trying to do.
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but the way it went down makes me meal kind of queasy, so he sides with the liberals. >> soon after, trump announced he was dropping the citizenship question from the 2020 census. >> it's deeply regrettable, but it will not stop us from collecting the needed information, and i think even in greater detail and more accurately. >> while activists were successful in getting the question blocked from the 2020 census, lithwick warns it might not be a total victory. >> the sad part of the story is that if the point of this was to terrorize hispanic voters into not voting, the damage is done. whether or not that question appears on the census, what matters is you are in our sights and you should be afraid to participate in this democracy. >> we don't know yet how the fallout from the census fight will affect the 2020 election, but what if the government made it easier to vote? two civil rights leaders have a novel idea to get more people to the polls.
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>> we call it the trump card. i handed it to him. >> you actually took his picture and you put it on there. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (door bell rings) it's ohey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure.
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simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. if we learn nothing else from former special counsel robert mueller's testimony to congress, it is that our election system is vulnerable. >> in your investigation, did you think that this was a single attempt by the russians to get involved in our election or did you find evidence that suggests they'll try to do this again? >> oh, it wasn't a single attempt. they're doing it as we sit here. >> even after mueller's warning, congress hasn't done much to make our electoral process more secure. and that is in large part because senate majority leader mitch mcconnell won't bring the most recent election security bills to a vote. >> oh, i'm not going to let democrats and their water carriers in the media use russia's attack on our democracy as a trojan horse for partisan wish-list items that would not actually make our elections any safer.
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>> even if we make our elections more secure, the fact still remains only about half of us will likely go to the polls. but as discouraging as that sounds, we were able to find some signs of hope. >> texas historically has some of the worst voter participation in the country, but it turns out that's only part of the story. ♪ i'm meeting with rice university political science professor mark jones who researchers what drives voter turnout. we're in a neighborhood in houston where most people do vote. >> this is a very high turnout area, one of the highest turnout areas in the entire houston metro area. >> in this neighborhood three-quarters of people voted. >> right. >> in other neighborhoods -- >> one-quarter. >> one of the biggest cities in the country, one of the most diverse populations in america. where was everybody? >> i think there's a large portion of the population that
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doesn't feel that elections affect them and feel somewhat alienated from the political system and, therefore, they don't turn out to vote. you have another group of people that simply are too busy with life. >> you're talking about survival. >> yeah. they care about survival. they care about the children being able to go to school in a safe way. they care about jobs. they care about effectively having enough to eat. they don't care about donald trump. they don't care about russia. if anything that drives them away from politics because it's so much noise and so much negativity that it just leads many people to turn off. >> professor jones says it is possible to boost turnout among the historically disenfranchised. it just takes some work. and that is exactly the work voting rights advocates michelle and brianna brown from the texas organizing project are doing. what is the texas organizing project? >> so we found 3 million people of color who currently sit out elections who could be voting. >> in 2018, we turned out over
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270,000 unlikely voters. >> that's a big number. >> we run a highly intensive program. we do a minimum of three knocks on the door. usually, at least three phone calls. >> and on election day -- >> and on election -- >> no, during early vote and election day. >> so, yes, if you made a commitment to vote, we will continue to call you and knock on your door. >> basically you ask people -- >> um -- >> inspire people. >> we inspire people. >> to the polls. all joking aside, when it comes to getting out the vote, inspiration and voter engagement are critical. but equally important, we need to remove the barriers that keep so many voters away from the polls. >> back in new york city, we met with civil rights activists bill and martin luther king iii. their fathers fought together to expand voting rights. >> dad used to say that a voteless people is a powerless people and one of the most
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important steps we can take is that's your step to the ballot box. >> now the sons are continuing their legacy and are looking for a solution to one of the obstacles many voters face. on martin luther king day 2017, 4 days before donald trump's inauguration, the president-elect invited king and wachtel to trump tower. they saw the meeting as a chance to pitch trump on what they believe is a novel idea. >> we said, mr. president, what we have here is an idea that's going to make it easier for all americans to vote. presidents carter, president clinton, president bush, have all said it's a great idea and you have the opportunity to prove that you can be bipartisan and do something for all americans. we call it the trump card. i handed it to him. >> this looks like a picture of a social security card with donald trump's picture on the front and the back. >> 35 states require voters to show some form of i.d. at the polls, and their pitch is that every citizen had easy access to a free photo i.d. then more people would be able to vote. you actually took his picture
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and put it on there. >> he said -- >> great idea. >> said, let me make it easy, you own hotels. as president, you're going to own voting booths. you got to fill it with voters. you're a businessman. you understand the practical common sense solution to getting people into voting booths and that is a photo i.d. >> so far, president trump hasn't turned king and wachtel's idea into action. >> but, look, the reality is that no one is really interested in trying to make it more convenient for people to vote. >> to get more people to the polls, we'll need to do more to restore faith in a system that has left so many disenfranchised and disillusioned. but sometimes, before you can build a better future, you need to look back at our past. have you ever seen this picture of your grandparents? >> a few minutes ago, my dad was explaining it to me. >> so you guys tell us about this picture. >> sure. this is the group that went to the nobel peace prize in december of 1964 and it's
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basically the starting line of the civil rights movement. >> do you feel like looking back on this photo and all that your parents were trying to do that they would be happy with where we are today? or disappointed? frustrated? >> i think there are areas where you look and you see great things happening and i think my mom and dad will be happy about it. i think everyone who takes a moment and looks at where we are and what is happening in our world should be very concerned at this particular moment and i believe dad and mom would be. but they'd be out there challenging us. >> for most of our history, america has struggled to live up to the ideal of a government for and by the people. but we, the people, have to do our part, too. we need to stay informed. hold our elected officials accountable. and, yes, vote. that will at least give us a chance to strengthen our democracy and get out of the swamp.
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next time on "american swamp" -- roads getting better or worse? >> i'd say getting worse. >> the crumbling states of america. >> fix the damn roads. >> politics and potholes. >> why washington loves a roadblock. so the gridlock is a welcome thing for most lawmakers. >> for most people here, absolutely. good evening. i have an update on powerful hurricane dorian. right now the storm's eye is working its way over the grand island of the bahamas. this storm is moving slowly
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