good morning. i'm ali velshi. it is saturday, march 27, day 67 of joe biden's presidency. as we begin the hour with a bit of good news, the country continues to be successful on the vaccine front in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic with record number fs of americans vaccinated daily. so much so biden doubled his original vaccination goal, pushing for 200 million doses of covid-19 vaccine to be administered by his 100th day in office. however, biden's efforts and indeed the countries are hampered by a new online stop the vaccine movement which falsely attacks the safety and efficacy of vaccines and which has essentially picked up where stop the steal, which pushed donald trump's big lie about the election, left off. in fact, many of the same racist extremist groups are involved including the proud boys, a group heavily involved in the january 6th insurrection. i'll have more on that in a moment. in an attack on american

democracy continues in georgia where the republican-controlled legislature enacted new laws directly attacking voting, making it more difficult if not impossible for some residents to vote, particularly targeting black voters while giving the historically republican legislature power over the will of the people and the authority to essentially overturn the results of an election they don't like the outcome of. now, that is specifically something their dear leader, the former insurrection president of the united states, so desperately wanted done in several states he lost including arizona and pennsylvania, but especially in georgia where he was taped talking to the secretary of state about changing the actual outcome of the election. this is just part of many republican efforts across the country, including in iowa, in texas, in michigan and arizona, where the gop has tried to make it easier for them to overturn the results of elections that they lose. >> if you think that this is something happening down in

georgia, you are misapprehending the moment we are living in. this is a defining moment for the american democracy. if this is happening in the state capital in georgia, it will not take very long for it to visit a state capital near you. >> these voting restrictions are being pushed in the name of the big lie that the election was stolen from donald trump, that there is mass voter fraud. that has been exposed as a lie time and time again, but republicans cannot reveal the real reasons they want to make it harder to vote. it is a desperate gambit to hold on to power in a country that is changing and where their policies are increasingly unpopular. they can't win when everyone votes. so instead of adjusting their message to win more votes, they are trying to stop people from voting. this, the attack on voting rights, this is the voter fraud that's going on in this country. speaking of fraud, fox news is now being sued by dominion

voting systems for $1.6 billion, the latest in a series of lawsuits against purveyors of election lies and disinformation including the former mayor of new york plus everyone's favorite foam pillow friend and right wing lawyer sidney powell who is using the dumbest excuse of all time arguing in a court filing that no person would conclude her statements were truly statements of fact, end quote. like i said, a fraud and now a self-admitted spreader of disinformation. disinformation was addressed during a joint hearing of two house energy and commerce subcommittees this week, which is meant to get answers from the ceos of facebook, google and at which pointer about the roles their companies play in spreading disinformation and extremism online which quickly devolved into a contest of which witness could be more evasive. >> i want to start by asking all three of you if your platform bears some responsibility for disseminating disinformation related to the election and the

stop-the-steal movement that led to the attack on the capitol. just a yes or no answer. mr. zuckerberg? >> chairman, i think our responsibility is to build systems that can help -- >> mr. zuckerberg, i just want a yes or no answer. mr. pichai, yes or no? >> we also feel a deep sense of responsibility, but i think we worked hard this election effort, was one of our most substantive efforts. >> is that a yes or no? >> congressman, it is a complex question. >> okay. we'll move on. mr. dorsey? >> yes, but you also have to take into consideration a broader ecosystem. >> as for the investigation into the insurrection itself, a new nbc news analysis of federal election commission filings reveal people allege to be among the january 6th insurrections drastically increased donations to the failed former president after his election loss. more of the insurrections are being arrested including a

former new york police officer who is alleged to have played a tambourine in the halls of the capitol. we are learning about a possible insurrection coordination between several domestic extremist groups. the department of justice alleged in court filings one of the members of the oath keepers, kelly megs, claimed to coordinate with the proud boys and another extremist militia to form an alliance on january 6th. the doj says there's substantial evidence that the oath keepers as a group engaged in conspiracy on january 6th and at least ten people with ties to the oath keepers have been arrested and charged with conspiracy so far. more than 300 people have been charged for taking part in the attack on the capitol. joining me former u.s. attorney and professor at the university of alabama school of law joy vance, also an nbc news contributor. good morning to you and thank you for being with us. we have such a pile of stuff to get through, i don't know where to start but i will start with sidney powell and her defense. her lawyers, after they filed suit, dominion filed suit against her in january, she

responded by saying that no reasonable person could possibly believe that her claims were factual. this is a woman who represented the president of the united states at the time in voter fraud cases. what do you make of that defense? >> it is absolutely jaw dropping, or at least it should be if we were operating in a normal universe. but here is someone who filed pleadings in court. you know, attorneys in court have to operate under professional rules of ethics that require that they be candid and yet she is now saying, everything that i did, it was a lie, it was a part of the big lie. fox perhaps should be running it 24 hours a day for its viewers to hear. >> well, fox is now being sued by dominion, has responded to the lawsuit by saying, "fox stands in the highest tradition of american journalism and pledged to vigorously defend

against a baseless lawsuit in court." that's interesting because fox in the recent past talked about the fact it is sort of entertainment. you are not supposed to take it as absolute fact. now they say they maintain the highest standards of journalism which some good lawyer is going to say, well, if you do that, actually you have to tell the truth. >> i suppose that there's a distinction that they can draw legally between the opinion side of their shop and the news side of their shop, and we've seen them do that in earlier cases. i think that that's a legitimate distinction to draw. but ultimately in a defamation case, one of the fundamental principles is that truth is a defense to the charges, and it sounds in this statement like they're awfully close to taking the position that their reporting was true. that's going to be very interesting to watch play out in light of sidney powell's statements and, frankly, in light of our common sense because we know that much of this reporting was false.

i think that case is going to be a very interesting one to follow. >> i want to ask you about what really is the biggest story right now, and it is the stuff that is coming out of georgia, this actual attempt to change the voting laws that republicans put in place and that worked perfectly well for republicans while they were winning elections. suddenly they stopped winning elections in georgia, and while there's still a republican legislature and a republican governor, they're now changing the goalposts to try to preserve their electoral supremacy there. it may not work in the long term anyway with the way georgia is going. >> it is pretty interesting. we all know that the country is due for a demographic shift, and the rough numbers said that the united states as a whole would flip to being a majority minority country where people of color freedom nated in the electorate at some point around 2050 but it actually has sped up and it is happening more quickly in states particularly like

georgia and arizona. so i think it is interesting that we see voter suppression measures going into effect in those state legislatures early on. but you're right, ali, this is moving the goalposts. this is a political party that knows that it can no longer win based on its policies, and so what they're trying to do is make it easier for them to do what the president wanted them to do, the former president, in the 2020 election, to find just enough votes that they can win even when they loose. >> georgia should look north to virginia and realize that it is not a good long-term strategy but it is anti-democratic and it is problematic. joyce, thanks for joining us. again, joyce vance, former u.s. attorney in ballistic missile bnl and msnbc contributor. joining me congresswoman angie craig of minnesota, co-chair of the lgbtq equality caucus, member of the energy in congress and small business committee. congressman craig participated

in the committee meeting we showed you a little bit of. i think it will be a good place to start. by the way, it is nice to be in your state here in minnesota. let's talk a little about the disinformation hearing. social media has become the place where the big lie spreads. it is the place where the anti-vaccine information spreads. i was a little surprised that the ceos of these tech companies were not prepared to be a little more forthcoming about the fact that their platforms, at least on some levels, have become cesspools for this bad information. >> well, it is very concerning and it is great to be here with you this morning. we saw the ceos of three of the biggest tech companies in america put their head in the sand and really refuse to admit what a critical role that their platforms are playing in disinformation and in hate speech across the country. you know, it only took five hours to have them really just

duck and dive, to unite republicans and democrats for the first time probably in the last three months. >> what do you think needs to be done here? because this used to be a problem of data privacy and some amount of disinformation that was undermining our voting. this has now become substantially more serious, it is spreading the lies that led to an actual insurrection and anti-democratic activities, this perpetuation of this fraud that is affecting us on every level of our economy. >> i think what you will see from the democratic and republican side over the coming months is a real conversation around section 230 reform. i also think you will see a conversation about how do we need to regulate these big tech companies much more fundamentally. you're right, it is disinformation. a lie can spread so fast, just

like the anti-vaccine movement, just like the big lie that said that the president's election was stolen from him. you know, this is a responsibility that the big tech companies are not living up to. the hate speech that they are allowing to disseminate across their platforms, and their algorithms. i think we need to look very strongly at how they have built those algorithms. right now as i speak legislation is being prepared both on the democratic and republican side to much more fundamentally regulate this industry. >> representative craig, we have a confirmed member of the u.s. government now, dr. rachel levine, as the next assistant secretary of health. you are the co-chair of the lgbtq equality caucus. that's a huge, huge deal. >> it is. an congratulations to dr. levine. look, representation really does

matter. i was the first member of the lgbtq community to come from the great state of minnesota. i am the first lesbian mom to ever represent the u.s. congress. we have four sons, my wife and i, and it really does matter that when people look up at their elected officials and the administrative folks that they see themselves. so it really, really is incredibly important. >> representative craig, i want to ask you about this spate of anti-asian crimes we have seen in this country. there was a pretty quick coming together of americans who maybe didn't even know that this was a serious matter to acknowledge that it was and to sort of education ourselves on what is going on with our asian brothers and sisters. what has to happen next in your opinion? is it a matter of public conscience or are there laws to be had or changes to be made? >> i do. i think we have to first of all make sure that that level of consciousness is there. we have seen throughout the asia

pacific caucus, aapi here in the u.s. congress, step forward. great numbers of congress with legislation. folks like my colleague grace ming who really puts into human terms what it feels like for the asian community, what it feels like for asian children. so i do think that there are some hate crime laws we need to consider and make sure we are fully enforcing. more than anything, you know, we need our elected leaders to understand that words matter. that's something that we continue to say to, frankly, our republican colleagues, that words really do matter. when you attack the trans community, when you attack the aapi community, you are attacking your constituents and fellow americans and what makes this country great. >> representative, i just want to ask you, i am here in minneapolis because of the start of an historic trial on monday,

the killing of george floyd at the hands of minneapolis police and derek chauvin. what are you looking for in this trial? this is going to be historic and it is laden, it is polarizing. what are you looking for? >> well, this is going to be an opportunity for us to observe, to have an honest conversation about the police reforms that need to occur in this country. at the end of the day it is about accountability. it is about police accountability. so we will be looking to make sure that there is, you know, fairness for everyone, most importantly for george floyd. i mean when you look at that video, it is going to be really, really hard, but, you know, this is america. this is the due process that is required in our country and it is an opportunity, i think, for us to really hold police

accountable when they do bad. we will see what happens here. it is an honest conversation that i think we need to have with each other in this country about what is happening in racial inequality in our nation in policing and in many other areas. >> democratic congresswoman angie craig of minnesota. she represents the twin cities. thank you for being with us this morning. representative craig is a member of the house energy and commerce committee. joining me tomorrow morning for a special edition of "velshi live" from minneapolis as we are set to preview the trial of derek chauvin. it begins tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. only on msnbc. for over 150 years the suez canal in egypt has been crucial to the world's economy. for the last few days it has been blocked by a container

ship. the economic impact is likely more significant than you think. we will tell you why when "velshi" returns. en you buy "velshi" returns only from verizon. struggling to manage my type 2 diabetes was knocking me out of my zone, but lowering my a1c with once-weekly ozempic® helped me get back in it. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic® ♪ my zone? lowering my a1c and losing some weight. now, back to the show. ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it.

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all right. this is a story i've been geeking out about all week. roughly 12% of the entire world's trade goods are blocked because of a single ship called "ever given" stuck in the suez canal. earlier this week a sand storm pushed the 200,000 ton vessel side ways getting lodged in mud, sand and silt. literally one side of the ship is stuck on asia and the other side africa. it is longer than the eiffel tower is tall, barely shorter than the empire state building if you measured tip to tip. it has now forced ships to return to pre-1800s roof around south africa's cape of good hope which adds 10 to 14 days to a trip. the suez canal shortened the length of time it would take ships to cross around cape horn

in south africa, sometimes by weeks making it important to speed up trade routes. its importance led to a battle for control of the waterway last century when israel, britain and france invaded egypt to try to seize the canal, resulting in one of the first conflicts litigated and resolved by the newly-formd united nations. today an estimated 12% of global trade passes through the 656-foot wide canal, about 120 miles long, while nearly 19,000 ships passed through the canal in 2020 making an average of 51.5 ships per day. since the disruption by the way, an estimated $9 billion worth of goods are being lost each day accounting for $400 million per hour. there are a ton of these vessels waiting to enter. more than -- look at the satellite picture. more than 150 ships are in a holding patter on either side of the waterway. in all here is who is stuck. 13 vehicle carriers, 15 cargo ships, 16 oil tankers, 33

container ships, 33 bulk carriers, ships carrying live cargo. livestock. this type of blockage shows how fragile our worldwide trade ecosystem is and how a single trade route can directly affect each of us. in hindsight it has given us something to laugh about like this austin powers thing. now, that's not groovy, baby. when we come back we will talk about a fierce battle in georgia surrounding one key issue, voting rights. it hit a fever pitch this week when the state passed a sweeping voting restrictions bill. then this happened. the state representative was arrested for knocking on the governor's office door. that's actually what she was arrested for. more on what the senate can do next. introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. [music: "i swear"] jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... potato pay them to. and forgot where she was.

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♪ ♪ georgia's new election law, signed by governor brian kemp, is being called jim crow in 21st century. it ramps up voter id laws that

target people of color, makes it a crime to hand out food and water to those waiting to vote, which is not weird in georgia because people waiting in line most times. it allows georgia state legislature to take control of a county's election results if they don't like the outcome. georgia republicans decided to pass the new restrictions only after the gop lost the white house and both georgia seats to democrats because they realize if fewer people vote they have a better chance of winning. similar tactics are used all over the nation in republican-run states but there's a sliver of hope. democrat's slim majority in congress could pass national voting laws including h.r.1, which is now s.r.1 because it is at the senate. it would create automatic voter registration, giving voting rights to formerly incarcerated, expanding early voting and modernizing u.s. voting system. it has passed the democrat-led house, but its path in senate is harder as it needs 60 votes to

overcome the filibuster. joining me dr. christina beltran, from nyu's college of arts and sciences, author of "cruelty as citizenship, how migrant suffering sustains white democracy." and dr. christina greer, associate professor of political science at fordham university. the two dr. christinas on the show this morning, thank you to both of you for being here. dr. greer, let me start with you about what is happening in georgia. again, you know, i must sound like a broken record because i've been talking about this since it happened endlessly, but it is that serious. it is a basic attack on democracy in a system where republicans used to win and now because of changing demographics they are not winning. so rather than tuning up their ideas to appeal to a new, younger, maybe poorer and maybe darker skinned demographic, they're just changing the rules. >> absolutely.

i mean, ali, in many ways i call this bill the anti-stacey abrams 2022 bill. stacey abrams has not declared but we know she looms large in the consciousness of republicans in georgia. i mean just think about this. just step back and realize it is now illegal to give someone water in georgia in the georgia sun. i mean that is the extent to which republicans will go because they have not expanded their base. we know that georgia is a state of 11 million people, lots of latinos and latin x folks and asian-americans have been migrating to georgia over the past two decades. so it is not a black/white state anymore. there's great racial and ethnic diversity and democrats have been going after the ethnic diversity in the state of georgia and republicans have not. republicans have done nothing to cultivate relationships and policies, and so the only way they can win is to cheat.

we're seeing this on state level policies across the country, but most egregiously in georgia this past week. >> dr. beltran, senator warnock of georgia was on with my friend rachel maddow last night with a warning to the rest of us about the fact that if you're not black and you are not in georgia, this should alarm you as much. listen to what he told rachel. >> if you think that this is something happening down in georgia, you are misapprehend tinge moment we are living in. if you think that this is something happening to black voters, you still don't quite clearly understand. this is a defining moment for the american democracy. if this is happening in the state capital in georgia, it will not take very long for it to visit a state capital near you. >> dr. beltran, it is visiting state capitals in arizona, in

iowa, in michigan already, but i think the reverend's point is bigger than that, that it is a fundamental attack on democracy. we fought wars in this country, we had movements to expand our franchise, to make sure everyone is entitled to vote. so it affects us equally if someone is trying to take that away. >> yeah, reverend warnock is exactly right, senator warnock today. i think one thing we have to remember is that when it comes to voter suppression wise supremacy is sort of the -- and jim crow are sort of the dna of authoritarian politics in the united states because white supremacy taught communities, it taught white citizens how to deny rights to populations while still seeing themselves as decent and, you know, engaging in sort of just politics. but right now these people -- you know, republicans want to take away votes from a whole set of populations including, you know, white voters on the main line in pennsylvania and in cities like seattle and portland. so this really is -- i think it is really important to think about how jim crow is sort of

the dna that taught people how to deny rights to citizens, how to take rights away from populations, but it is a lesson they've now learned and are willing to apply across to a variety of democratic populations. this is not just georgia's problem. this is the republican party's fear of a multi-racial democracy. >> i want to ask the two of you to stick around, dr. christina beltran and dr. christina greer. you know, you are ph.d.s, i like calling you by your titles, but in the normal world i call you by your first name. it is just because you're both christinas i have to do it this way. stick around for us. we're going to continue this conversation after the break. conversation after the break unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. start with all the non-sports dads. narrow it to the ones whose kids who can catch almost everything. especially a cold. meaning, you. you're the one we made mywalgreens for.

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not later, like right now. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "velshi". back with me is my team of dr. christinas. dr. christina beltran, associate professor and director of graduate studies at nyu's college of arts and sigh ens. dr. christina greer. last night i was doing my normal show, "the last word" on friday nights. we had a great conversation about the state of virginia, which used to look a lot, dr. greer, like georgia did, right? it was reliably conservative place where there were some black people and some others in sort of urban areas, but ultimately it was still reliably conservative. then it started to change. immigration, population change, political change, and virginia is now reliably blue.

even georgia's efforts, they might extend the republican run there in the state through these anti-democratic things, but ultimately i suspect demographics and politics might outdo the things going on in georgia and in arizona and in michigan. >> right, well, we have to remember, ali, so much of the work in georgia took time, and that's what a lot of voters need to understand. this was years, well over a decade in the making. as dr. christina beltran mention, you know, we have to remember that this is built on coalitions and these are people who have worked tirelessly to educate the public about the roots of white supremacy. we have to remember that the roots of this nation are predicated on white supremacy and also anti-black racism and capitalism and patriarchie. but all of the vestiges of that white supremacy we still see flourishing today. that's the beauty and curse of american democracy in that our

constitution can grow and breathe and we can become more inclusive but it is a tireless effort because democrats right now are consistently working against republicans who want to hold on to those old vestiges. we see it in debates about the filibuster, about the electoral college and now obviously about voting rights. i think a lot of americans want a more inclusive democracy. the devil is in the details when it comes to policy, but i have a feeling the republicans might overplay their hand when it comes to voting rights because in that net that they're trying to capture democrats in, they're also capturing some of their own voters as well when you look at georgia and some of the restrictions. it will affect quite a few republicans as well in adverse ways. >> so, dr. beltran, tell me how you see this playing out, because on one hand americans should be rightly enraged that there is an actual attack on the democracy for which we have shed blood in this country and that people have been beaten and jailed to fight for. on the other hand, the arc of

justice, the arc of history bends toward justice. i think that republicans try to make these changes, these voting changes are on the wrong side of the arc of history. >> you're exactly right. i mean you can't put the jeannie back in the bottle. at this point we actually have a multi-racial democracy and there's no way to go back to whatever kind of, you know, nostalgia of a kind of make america great again fantasy from the 1950s. i think it is important to recognize we are seeing a mixture of demographic change in a variety of states where we are seeing growing numbers of latin x, african-americans, native americans but we are seeing a transformation in white voters. things we don't talk enough about with polarization is that the white electorate is divided with those on the side of maga politics and those appalled who have come out and protested

against children in cases and the rice of trumpism and the rise of white nativism. we see a multi-racial coalition that has to be organized and created to be sustained. this is not just demographics. it will be demographics plus deep organizing, the kind of organizing we have seen in georgia which i think gives us hope. it is a real story of growing a multi-racial electorate and that takes time and energy but i think it frightens republicans because the future is not on their side. >> of course. we have a lot of white viewers on this show who do not participate in or take any refuge in the kind of things happening in the legislatures in arizona or georgia or michigan. >> exactly. >> their view of justice is the same as the views that you have both expressed this morning and we appreciate it. dr. christina beltran, associate professor and director of graduate studies at nyu college of arts and sciences, author of "cruelty as citizenship." dr. christina greer is social

distance professor it plif cat science at fordham university and author of "black ethnics." thank you so much for a robust conversation on this really important matter. msnbc's coverage of the fight against voter suppression continues with tiffany cross at top of the hour. here she is in studio getting ready for her jam-packed line-up. tiffany, this story has come to you. you have been talking about this kind of issue for a long time. it is remarkable to see it in such stark relief, watching representative cannon get arrested for knocking on the door of the legislature of which she is an elected part. these are scenes out of the civil rights movement. it is scenes out of south africa during apartheid. >> yes. >> this is civil disobedience at its best. >> yes, ali. we will pick up the conversation where you left off. i am from georgia. >> i do know. >> i have been following this story for a long time, wrote a whole book about it. it is not brian kemp's first time for seeing someone arrested

for fighting for voting rights. we will get into the history of that. remember what is happening in georgia casts a dark shadow across many parts of our democracy from texas to pennsylvania, et cetera. so we will get into all of that. but we're also going to talk about what is happening at the southern border and we have a few pop cultural subjects we will get into. i'm not sure if you have followed this relationship guru, derek jackson, who was caught cheating on his wife. so we're even going to touch on some ratchet topics in our brief two hours we have on this saturday morning, so we have a jam-packed showed, ali. i can't wait for folks to tune in. >> thank you. we are happy to have you. >> thank you. >> tiffany cross on tv very soon. you can catch "the cross connection" at the top of the hour. more "velshi" on msnbc right after this.

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without the rest of us knowing it. the marriage penalty is lesser known that it's been hurting people of color. black women are more likely to earn as much or more money as their husbands while white women are likely to earn much less but the joint tax return system offers the greatest benefit to households where one spouse contributes much less than the other to household income. end quote. this quote comes from a book by dorothy a brown, an award winning tax law professor at emory university. it's from her book "the whiteness of wealth." professor brown, good to see you. the racial wealth gap is something we've understood through share cropping, the inability of black people to get economically ahead. it continued through red lining and in wages. it's not clear to a whole lot of people that it's also part of

the tax code. you'll talk about this marriage penalty. how does that affect people of color differently than people of color. >> it affects people of color, specifically black americans, are more likely to be in equal wage earner households. my mother was a nurse and my father was a plumber. they made equal amounts of income. for years, for decades that couple paid higher taxes because they were married. white americans are likely to be in single wage earner households where one spouse works in the paid labor market, the other spouse works at home. that couple is more likely to be white and get a tax cut. >> is that accidental or deliberate? >> when it became law in 1948, the overwhelming majority of white americans were in single

wage earner households. whether it was intentional or false, it was easily predictable in 1948 that this would benefit white americans while not benefitting black americans. >> is there something black couples do? >> so i tell anyone who asks, if you want to get married, don't get married on new year's eve. wait another year. delay the fact when you get married get delayed. it sounds romantic, don't do it. >> what does the government do.

>> the government doesn't currently do it. it needs to start. the second thing is we need to return to our true progressive income tax system. without the deductions that disproportionately benefit white americans while disadvantaging black americans. lastly, i argue for a wealth tax credit. that would apply regardless of race to any american that has a below median wealth income in the household. >> the question of privilege has been discussed. the idea that perhaps people who aren't at advantage in society need to accept that. they may not be to blame but they need to take responsibility and perhaps give up some of it in favor of those don't have it. this is the ultimate discussion of privilege. white americans through no creation of their own have an advantage in the taxation system that black americans don't have

and they have to be prepared to give some of that up. >> and i would say it's not through no intervention of their own. all of these tax policies, the joint return we have because a rich white couple wanted to pay less in taxes. throughout my book are full of stories of white litigants who change tax laws so white people could benefit. >> what do you -- what happens here? you've written this book. you're getting a lot of publicity for it. your thoughts on the tax code leaving black people behind. tax changes are notoriously hard to believe. you're dealing with a topic i'm pretty sure most americans have not given a whole lot of thought to. what happens next with this? >> well, i hope that the biden administration that signed an executive order saying racial equity is paramount and it should be applied through all agencies will, in fact, be applied at treasury. i'm not optimistic, right?

there's this executive order but there's no one i can see in treasury that has a history of centering race when talking about tax. so i think that the biden administration's rhetoric needs to catch up with their actions. >> well, these things take time but they start with the depth of the research over a quarter century that you have conducted in this book you have published which is an important read people didn't think they would need to read about. thank you for being with us. she is it an award winning tax law professor at emory university and author of an important new book, truly a book you didn't think you needed to read about, "the whiteness of wealth." that does it for me but cash a special edition of velshi tomb. velshi 8:46 with opening statements set to begin on monday. i'm here in minneapolis talking with members of the community as i have enjoyed doing for the last year about the racial

injustice highlighted by george floyd's death and what if anything has changed. i'll be joined with the floyd family attorney tomorrow morning starting at 8 a.m. eastern. for now stick around. "the cross connection" with tiffany cross starts now. do not touch me. why are you touching me? i am not doing anything? i am literally not doing anything.

>> good morning. no, you have not traveled back in time. 56 years after the voting rights act of 1965 passed. today's version is an elected lawmaker, georgia state representative park han nonarrested in her attempt to confront georgia's republican governor brian kemp over his lifelong toefrts suppress black voters. on thursday the dirty south autocrat thirsty for donald trump's approval signed into law a bill that imposes new voter i.d. requirements, empowers state officials to take over election boards. it limits the use of ballot drop boxes, closes voting at 5 p.m. and makes it a crime to give voters waiting in line food and water. the millions of americans who helped president biden take the white house and deliver the power of the senate to democrats are looking to activists and lawmakers alike to def