good evening and welcome to "politics nation." tonight's lead, no more symbols. this evening the country is on high alert ahead of the most anticipated police misconduct verdict in 30 years. tomorrow prosecutors will begin their closing arguments in the trial of derek chauvin for the killing of george floyd. and on thursday, in my charge as president of national action network, i will deliver yet another eulogy as i have for countless people of color who died needlessly in police

encounters. this one for daunte wright, who along with adam toledo has joined george floyd as victims of those encounters in just the last week, but i'm sadly certain that they won't be the last. but as those deaths were becoming viral last week, president biden was meeting with members of the congressional black caucus, the first such meeting in four years, and an ambitious one reflecting the cbc's emergence as a legislative force in a convulsive team. in american history is any guide the cbc will see both the successes and failures of the biden administration affect their black constituents first and so its members are watching the administration carefully, appreciating his break from the recent past, but not allowing it him to renig on his promises to

the voters who made this possible. representative joyce beaty, democrat of ohio. congresswoman beaty as chair of the congressional black caw can you see, you led the cbc delegation that met with president biden and vice president harris at the white house this past week and congresswoman beaty, the first time in more than four years such a meeting has taken place. you came away mostly optimistic in the press but you did mention there would be challenges despite the goodwill and apparently rehabilitated, the rehabilitated relationship, i'll put it that way with the oval office. can you elaborate on the challenges? and i want to say police reform in this administration for later because that's its own conversation. >> well, first of all, al, let me just say thank you for having me on. while we are very supportive of

the president and we were very pleased with the meeting, we wanted to make sure that we sent a very clear message that we have expectations within our 100 days as well. we wanted to make sure that we didn't make this the first and only meeting. we want to come back and have ongoing meetings and dialogue with him, and we have a big agenda for black america. so we wanted to make sure that we talked about getting our fair share of vaccinations in our community. the number one issue across america, we know that while we have a lofty goal of getting the number of vaccinations within 100 days, we want to make sure that they are within our communities for black americans, so we announce to him that we expect and want his support for our get out not the vote but get out the vaccination, modeled very much out of early vote,

souls to the polls that we will be kicking off may 1st, going through mother's day. we also had to talk about hr 1 and hr 4, or what we will call the john r. lewis voting rights act. we want to make sure his administration is all in. racial justice is the big one, and it crosses over to police reform. it crosses over so looking at gun violence, so we know that there are republicans on the other side who aren't with us, so this is going to take all of us, the house, the senate, and the white house, because we must have gun reform. we must be able to get all of our legislative issues out and we're going to need a lot of help. >> congresswoman, your ohio congressional district entails the city of columbus, where andre hill was shot and killed in a police encounter in december, and talking about

eulogies i've had to do, i did that one. you preached a little bit yourself at that funeral, and the officer in the incident has pled not guilty. he's been charged and in court next week. in your state 25 12-year-old tamir rice was killed and officers in that incident were never charged. last week, tamir rice's other samaria rice requested the attorney general merritt garland reopen the case and convene a grand jury. how confident are you in the biden administration's dedication to police reform and what is the cbc strategy to secure a senate vote for the george floyd justice in policing act? >> thank you for that. we certainly agree with tamir rice's mother, because enough is

enough. we talked about tamir rice for years and here we are now another 13-year-old, you mentioned it, with adam toledo, here we are with daunte wright and andre field and casey goodson. so we've put together a plan for us to speak out loud and clearly and push our gun violence legislation. jim clyburn has been out and on the stump with it. we were able to pass closing the loophole. we have to look at the assault weapons. we have to look at the ammunition that all of these young folks have had, histories of mental health that their parents and everyone in the community has known, so we have a straightforward agenda. the legislation is in committees. we passed it out. it's on the house floor, and yes, you talked about it, it's the senate. what we're very fortunate that

we not only have now senator cory booker, but we also have senator rafael warner, both who joined us at the white house. so we know it's a give and take, but i am very comfortable and confident from our leadership and the work that we're doing on the george floyd that we will be able to get it through the senate. will it be easy? no. will it happen in the next few days? no. but this is where you and all of our civic leaders and i say thank you. you've been in our offices, you've stood with us, but we have to put more pressure on america. we cannot do this by ourselves. it's going to take all of us to be engaged. >> now, lastly, we had your colleague congresswoman sheila jackson lee with us last night a few days after she and other democrats on the house judiciary committee advance legislation that would create the first commission to study reparations for black americans. she has said that democrats are

hoping to stage a vote on or around juneteenth. already there are reports of pushback not just from republicans, which is to be expected, but from democratic leaders, house leaders who are cagey about the timing of putting an already controversial bill up for vote while covid is the dominant legislative priority. your thoughts on that, congresswoman? >> well, i obviously supported hr 4, congresswoman jackson lee has worked on this for the last three conferences. she pecked up the mantle from congressman john conyers. i can tell you, we have made history already getting it in markup, getting it passed out of the judiciary committee. i certainly support bringing it forward, but let me just say, we first have to get through our john r. lewis voting rights act. that is at the top of our list as we are also working on the

george floyd justice in policing. so i'm going to take them one at a time in that order, but we certainly will have to work through this. we certainly have many people who support it, and you are right. we have some people that didn't think we went far enough with it, but it is a study, and what's on our side president biden just came out with putting a 36-member bipart an group together to also work on studying it. and i think we're on the same page of moving it. i'm not going to lock myself into an exact date of june right now, because we know we will be having the hearings. you've participated in many of our work as we've talked about hr 1 and hr 4, and getting the voting rights act out. so that's where we are but it's good news that it passed, it's good news that it will get its day before the congress. >> all right, thank you for being with us, madam chairwoman beatty, and we will certainly be

hearing a lot more from you i'm sure as the time goes forward. joining me is congresswoman val demings, former chief of the orlando police department. congresswoman demings, i hope you were able to hear part of my conversation with congresswoman beatty because while you were not at the cbc meeting at the white house, you are a member and one of the unique things you bring is your law enforcement credentials, and i've said repeatedly and will continue to say and i'm not anti police but i am anti police misconduct. certainly where it applies to black people and others, and so i wonder, what is the middle ground on the defund the police movement for you? where can urban police departments draw down and still maintain public safety? >> reverend sharpton great to be

back with you. i was listening to my amazing chairwoman, chairwoman beatty. look, you know, i look at this issue reverend sharpton through the eyes of a social worker, and also through the eyes of a law enforcement officer. i've served as both. my experience as a law enforcement officer tells me that no great society, no great neighborhood or community can exist without public safety, without law enforcement, but regardless of what community we're talking about, every citizen deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and so we have to look at who we hire, we have to hire the best. i used to say it to my officers and i'll say it today, we have to hire people who have the heart for the job. we wear the badge over our hearts, as a constant reminder that we have to have the heart for the job. we have to look at training. training will save lives on the police side and the community, and also we have to look at our

policies. i spoke with numerous law enforcement executives and asked them to take the initiative to fix their own brokenness. but on these social worker sides we also have to deal with those quality of life issues that cause decay in communities in the first place. while we hold america to its promise in policing, and reverend sharpton we are committed to doing that and i know every good police officer out there is, too, we also have to hold america to its promise in addressing those social ills like mental health, illness, drug addiction, poverty, local wages, unemployment, the social ills that cause decay in communities in the first place, mental health and drug addiction, we've heard a lot of talk about when as opposed to sending the police, we kind of put every burden on the police to solve as opposed to sending the police in mental health, let's send some mental health

counselors but understand this. that until that situation is calm and safe, the police will still need to respond, so this is not about taking resources away from the police. i will never support that. this is about making sure that america gets serious about addressing mental health, drug addiction and other social ills in a serious way. we need to hold america to its promise in all things. >> now, congresswoman, i don't want to assume that you followed the chauvin trial closely, but if you have, then you have seen what we've all seen and what i've seen, which is a rare display of distance from derek chauvin's fellow officers from his actions, on the stand and on the record as a former police chief, you understand the culture of protection that often exists in policing better than anyone in congress. but you also know the dangers of

the job. so i ask you, this is a break in, it is a real break in the blue wall of silence, or was george floyd's death so egregious that essentially no one could defend it? which is it, in your opinion? >> you know, reverend sharpton, i did watch, i wanted to make sure i was available to especially watch the chief's testimony, the lieutenant's. i've certainly served in that position over patrol officers, managing their day-to-day actions and certainly the training officer. i wanted to hear their testimony, and look, i think that a lot of times, you know, we have good cops who sometimes make bad decisions and i think a lot of times officers realize that it's an extremely dangerous job. they put a vest on, a ballistic vest on every day to go to work, and many of the decisions that

they have to make are split second. and so because of that, and you know, their own predisposition with that bullet proof vest and the splis-second decisions they have to make, i think many times that they will give the law enforcement officer as we've seen the benefit of the doubt. it was absolutely impossible in this case. when i heard the chief talk about it was excessive force and we are taught to only, law enforcement is taught to only use the level of force necessary to affect the arrest. the chief said clearly this was excessive force. there was no sign of resistance from george floyd when he was down on that ground for over nine minutes. the chief also talked about that's not our policy. i'm sure we can all go to the policies of that department and take a look. it's not there. and then the chief said and neither is it our values.

lieutenant comes in and says the same thing, who was in charge of the day-to-day operations of patrol that day, and then the training officer came in and said nope, we don't teach that technique. and so i do believe, reverend sharpton, that this case was not only so egregious but it was so painfully clear that were it not for derek chauvin's actions that george floyd would not have died and you couple that with the medical testimony even from the defense. i think it's crystal clear that were it not for his actions, george floyd would still be alive. >> all right, thank you for being with us as always. congresswoman val demings. >> thank you. >> joining me is remember toer prosecutor christian gibbons fedden, a civil rights attorney. attorney fedden, i've not asked most of my guests even legal

experts to predict the verdict in the chauvin trial. we're going into the trial's final week. prosecutors closing arguments expected to begin tomorrow. based on what you've seen this past month, how do you think this will end? >> reverend, i want to start by saying thank you so much for having me on your show. and look, you've been in touch with the family and i hope that they echo my sentiments when i say that the prosecution put on a solid case. what i expect to hear tomorrow in the closing arguments is for jerry blackwell to repeat the narrative he put forth in the opening statement and put throughout this trial and that's that these jurors can believe their eyes. they can believe their eyes first when they look at chauvin and see that he used an unreasonable excessive unnecessary use of force that was inconsistent with men yap police police policy as well as inconsistent with the national standard. they're also going to show they

can believe their eyes when they look at the medical testimony and specifically that it was mr. floyd's death was caused by that officer, officer chauvin's knee smashing into mr. floyd's neck. now, nelson obviously is going to in his opening remarks he has no burden of proof but in his opening remarks he's going to harken back to his opening remarks as well and just say you know that nelson -- excuse me, that chauvin with 19 years' worth of experience was following police protocol and procedure, that's what he said in his opening but he had to pivot based on his expert who testified not that, but that his force was reasonable, and he's also going to try to repeat his narrative that it wasn't chauvin's knee on mr. floyd's neck but rather drugs, carbon monoxide poisoning as well as an enlarged heart that led to mr. floyd's death but again, i know you're not asking me to predict

the verdict but the prosecuor put on such a solid case, i am confident that any red herrings the defense tries to throw will be smashed up against that beautiful wall the prosecution built and i'm confident they'll return a guilty verdict. >> you gave me something i didn't ask for but we will see and we will save the tape. let me ask you this quickly, we're out of time but the three other misconduct cases we saw this week daunte wright's killing in minnesota, the lieutenant nazario's arrest in civil suit in virginia and adam toledo's killing in chicago. what if any impact might those things have, those incidents that happened during this trial? what impact if any do you think they'll have on the chauvin trial? >> i think it's going to have a significant impact. you know, jurors are not asked to leave their common sense or their conscience at the door. yeah, they're prohibited from

looking at the news and social media so they may not know those things exactly but keep in mind, one of the jurors is from brooklyn park so from thursday evening all the way to monday morning, he or she saw businesses boarded up, likely prote protests and other things going on to harken back to all of the things that had been going on throughout the year, and remind her that, yes, there needs to be accountability and i think you know, the fact that you, reverend, have led marches and you know that when you use your voice and you see an outpouring in the street that societal change can be made, i think the jurors are going to look at their common sense and consciousness and utilize all that stuff and know that that verdict is very important and i think that's going to help them to be very conscientious in any decision that they render. >> all right, thank you for being with us, attorney christian gibbons feden.

in a time where the pursuit of justice feels never ending i'm here to tell you to rise up and keep fighting the good fight. first richard lui. >> good sunday to you. some of the story this is hour, the u.s. has over 31.7 million confirmed cases of covid-19 and now more than 570,000 americans have died. with over a quarter of the country fully vaccinated, april shaping up to be one of the busiest months for airports since the start of the pandemic earlier this month, tsa saw over 1.5 million rather 1.5 million travelers in a single day, the most since last march. new details on the mass shooting in indianapolis thursday, the suspect bought the two semiautomatic weapons after police seized a shotgun from him last year. four victims were south asian members of the sikh community.

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for this week's "rise up" i want to talk about persistence. fighting for justice in america can make you feel like you're living out the greek myth of sissifuss, condemned to push a boulder up hill for eternity just to watch it roll down and

begin again. i've been fighting for black lives for decades and sometimes it feels like i've been marching the same routes and talking about the same struggle my whole life, from my time as a boy preaching to my work now national action network. we have always known about the disproportionate violence black folks face at the hands of police, but we are now in a moment when every american carries a camera in their pocket, ready and able to record these injustices in real time. on the one hand these videos and photos prove what we've been saying for so long but the cost is that we are constantly bombarded with images of black death at the hands of police. i won't add to that onslaught, instead show you the images of thousands of us who gathered last summer at the commitment

march on washington, protested peacefully in the middle of a pandemic to demand justice, but effective organizing doesn't have to come in the form of a huge national march. thousands of people in brooklyn center and minneapolis were moved to action by the video of daunte wright's killing earl whier this week and the release of a video showing 13-year-old adam toledo with his hands in the air gunned down by an officer. it can sometimes feel like we're stuck in an endless cycle but the fact of the matter is, these marches are changing things. a recent study showed areas that held black lives matter marches experienced a notable decrease in police killings. there are people alive today because we marched in peaceful protest, and as you march, remember this. police departments aren't run by far off bureaucracies.

they are funded and managed locally by mayors and city councilmembers who live among you. if they aren't doing enough to ensure justice in policing, reach out to them and let them know how you can work to elect representatives who will. the country will live in now the country that we're part of now is still a long way from upholding his promise of liberty and justice for all, but every march gets that boulder a little closer to the top of the hill, and the greek myth had to roll that boulder all alone, but we are not alone in the fight for justice in america. we are fighting together by the hundreds of thousands, rising up to reach that mountaintop, and we can win together.

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welcome back to "politics nation." it was a busy weekend in politics. we have a lot to get to with my panel. joining me is msnbc political analyst and democratic strategist juanita tolliver and writer at large at bullwork, political strategist tim miller. juanita, with police killings in the headline this is week, the biden administration has made some moves in response. for example reversing a trump era policy that limited use of consent decree that allowed the justice department to take a more hands-on approach to police reforms across the country. however, the george floyd justice and policing act still faces an uphill battle in the senate. do you think serious law enforcement reform is possible in this political climate? >> i think it is possible in this moment especially when we

have the chauvin trial as a backdrop. what happens in the trial and what we've seen as the public is an indicator for the amount of pressure that we've seen on the biden white house to take action especially when we have black and brown communities facing disproportionate rates of deadly force and losing their lives at the hands of police. what i see from biden they're starting to leverage different tools within the administration and they should continue to do that especially looking for community-based solutions that would allow for even more action to happen on the ground that removes this ted lideadly threa black and brown people face with police. >> georgia representative marjorie taylor greene was thinking about creating a so-called america first caucus, that according to some planning documents would promote a "anglo-saxon political tradition." congresswoman greene put out a bizarre statement backing away

from the idea but do you think we can expect more of this explicitly racist rhetoric to come from the far right of the gop? >> look, for sure. i think that marjorie taylor greene is trying to figure out where the bumpers are, how far she could go to push this racist, bigoted national agenda. kevin mccarthy was worried what it would mean for the rest of the caucus, hurt them politically. i think he got her to back down but look, she is going to continue to push the envelope and she is not alone. paul gosar who was going to work on this caucus with her spoke in an explicit by white nationalist conference just about a month or two ago. he was the one that was pushing for the january 6th event so this caucus has an increasing number of people that want to play footsie with white

supremacy, go all the way up to what is politically palatable in the arena of white supremacy and i think you can see them continue to push the envelope. >> juanita, the biden administration is backtracking this weekend promising to increase the number of refugees the country accepts as they face harsh criticism over reports they intend to keep the cap at the historically low level set by former president trump. the reversal comes as the white house continues to grapple with a surge in crossings at the southern border. what is guiding the philosophy at the white house on immigration right now? >> according to jen psaki, what you just mentioned, rev al they have a crisis at the border and trying to merge the two issues and their response to immigration writ large. what we're hearing from democrats on congress and throughout the party and advocates, these are not the same issue.

they are very separate and the reality is that any point when biden is aligning with trump on something is a bad point to take. so what we're going to see next i think is for biden and democrats to have those conversations because let's keep in mind, two months ago biden proposed raising that same cap to 62,000 and then to come out on friday and saying it was going to stay at 15k was something the party wasn't going to stand for. expect negotiations. i don't think it gets to the 62,000 mark but definitely not at 15k at the end of these talks. >> tim, dr. anthony fauci was on "meet the press" this morning and talked about the future use of the johnson & johnson coronavirus vaccine, which was paused last week over safety concerns. take a listen. >> my estimate is that we will continue to use it in some form. i doubt seriously if they just cancel it. i don't think that's going to happen. i do think that there will likely be some sort of warning

or restriction or risk assessment. i don't think it's just going to go back and say okay, everything's fine, go right back. i think it will likely say okay we're going to use it but be careful under these certain circumstances. >> the biden administration has exceeded expectations with his vaccine rollouts so far but to continue to succeed, they must get the shots into the arms of the hesitant. has their handing of johnson & johnson vaccine helped or hurt them in that effort? >> look, i think it's tbd, rev. i like the fact they've been transparent about it and being up front. that's the good. the bad is that sometimes they're just being a little bit negative when talking about vaccines, about what people can do after they get the shot, about j&j itself. i'd like to see more optimism and encouragement coming out of the white house for the vaccine hesitance, but i understand the transparent move that they had

to make on j&j. >> thank you both for being with us this evening. up next, the cast of "married to medicine" is doing their part in the fight against covid and social injustice. i even got my own close-up with the cast. stay with us. ♪♪ ♪ when the road feels endless ♪ ♪ don't know where your strength is ♪ ♪ it's been so long ♪ ♪ you get a call from a friend to remind you ♪ ♪ that you're not alone ♪ ♪ then you know deep down inside ♪ ♪ it's gonna be all right ♪ ♪ all right ♪♪ ♪ (ac/dc: back in black) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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sofi made it so there's no tradeoff between my dreams and paying student loans. student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. thank you for allowing me to get my money right. if i'd have nope at some point i'd be sitting at a table with you talking about something as admirable as what we're about to do for our people, i wouldn't have believed that. >> it's beyond admirable because the whole divide of who gets served and not served in the country is in itself an issue and for you guys to come testing people, that's a huge statement. and it's a good role model, kids, when i was growing uhm, we didn't have doctors look like this. that was a sneak peek of tonight's episode of "married to

medicine" where i join the cast to talk about inequity during the coronavirus pandemic, and the importance of testing during the racial justice protests of last summer. joining me now is dr. heavenly kimes and dr. damon kimes, producers of "married to medicine." let me go right to this point. the episode airing tonight is something of a time capsule. as it captions our time together last summer when you helped us prepare to gather thousands of people safely in washington for the commitment march. can you take us back to that meeting and give our viewers another hint as to what they might see on tonight's episode. >> well, i think for tonight's episode, we're going to see a new face in reality tv. we're going to see where we make a difference and show it's not all about games and sort of making jokes and stuff like that. it's about doing something for your community and making a

difference. and reverend sharpton, you've done that throughout your life and this is just sort of a caption of a small part of what we've done. >> yep. >> i'm proud, i think it's going to change the face of reality tv. >> now, you were at the march. you all tested people throughout the march because we made sure we did temperature checks and all, but you tested them for covid, right, at the march. we had over 200,000 people there, which really showed y'all coming in and it's a new thing for reality tv to do something not only just as a drive-by mention and issue but actually getting involved in a social march, social justice march. >> yes, sir. >> absolutely, i think that's one of the things that set us apart with "married to medicine." we always do things that we can give back to the community and this was the biggest thing we've ever done, al sharpton, we were honored to be out there and test thousands of people for the coronavirus. >> now, a lot has changed since

we had that meeting. now we face inequality in vaccine access, black folks make up 13% of the american population, only 7% of black americans are fully vaccinated. are you seeing inequality of access in your community? is it something your colleagues and patients are talking about? >> yes, sir, they are. my patients asked me about the vaccine. what i think about the vaccine, should they get, have i gotten the vaccine. of course the answer is yes, but as we did back in, during that little time capsule scene we just showed, you have to be a part of making a difference. so our partner with the pharmacy in the west end, the rougher part of atlanta and we're out there, going to make it happen for people to get the vaccine right in their neighborhoods so it's very easy. >> now, we talked a lot -- go ahead. >> it has been more difficult for blacks to get the vaccine because people are not doing what damon does.

initially only the physicians and medical providers could get it, then the older people. a lot of people did get left behind. >> we talked a lot about the importance of regular testing and the lead up to the commitment march with the vaccine rolling out now. what is the importance of continued testing and other mitigation strategies? >> it is just as important now as it was before. this disease is still killing people and still killing black people in disproportionate numbers than others. it's just as important to wear your mask, just as important to get tested. the vaccine will keep you from getting severe illness or death in most cases, but it doesn't mean you cannot contract the disease nor pass this disease on, so we still need to know whether you have it so you still have to be tested. >> and as you ask people and encourage them to test, what are they saying? do they, knowing that you are doctors, do they ask you

questions and argue the hesitancy points that many of us hear every day? or do they accept your counsel because you built that kind of confidence in the community? >> i'm extremely thankful that my patients have a lot of trust in me but i really ask everyone the same question. we had 560,000 people die from covid-19. how many people have we had die from the vaccine? certainly not nearly as many. including just bad outcomes and you're going to have people that have side effects and things that happen. that's something to be expected when you're rolling something out to millions of people but we're not seeing those numbers so i asked the people, is it safer to get the vaccine or safer to get covid? which do you think? invariably most people say it's safer to get the vaccine. i'd rather not get covid. >> i'm out of time but i have to ask both of you, when you told the cast you wanted them to go to a march and test thousands of people, what was the reaction?

>> they were afraid. covid was very new back then, reverend sharpton and nobody knew the outcome. we were willing to give back and help. everybody was. >> you did that and we appreciate it and we did not have a spread that came out of that march and like i said, we had over 200,000 people and you covered thousands that day. "married to medicine" airs on bravo sunday nights at 9:00 a.m., episode where i meet the cast airs tonight. don't miss it. thanks to doctors heavenly and damon kines. stay with us.

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versus the other guys. ♪♪ clearly, velveeta melts creamier. for decades, i have been involved with fighting for police reform. all over this country. and many even before me had fought that fight.

and we were accused of all kinds of things other than just wanting to see policing do what policing is supposed to do. and that is secure the public. not being anti-police, anti-bad police, because when police break the law, they have also broken their oath. i remember former president trump was one of those that attacked me just a couple years ago, tweeting sharpton hates police. no, i dislike misbehavior, just like i do those that do gun violence even in my own community. i dislike and stand against that. but to my surprise, one that was on the other side of this argument came out and in a strong way raised some of the same questions about these cases that i'm raising. none other than tell evangelist

right wing leader pat robinson. don't believe me. watch what he said. >> i am pro police, folks. i think we need to police. we need their service, and they do a good job. but if they don't stop this onslaught, they cannot do this. it's just terrible what's happening. and the police, why don't they open their eyes to what the public relations are? they have got to stop this stuff. >> pat robertson, arch conservative. televanjalist, one of the leading conservative ministers saying they have to stop this, and he talked about the knee on the neck and all. when pat robertson can see the same thing an al sharpton or ben crump or others can see, it's time for us to stop dealing with the personalities and demonizing those of us that stand up and start looking at the fact we need things like the floyd

justice act passed through the senate. we need to reform policing so good police don't have to bear the burden of bad police. 11 months ago, i went to minneapolis to do the eulogy for george floyd. he was killed on may 25th. i went and did the eulogy in minneapolis about a week after that. and then later, houston. even i can't believe i'm going back to minneapolis to do another eulogy in the same county, in less than a year. how many people have to go through this before those elected has at least the nerve of a pat robertson to say this has got to stop? pat robertson and i probably don't agree that today is sunday, but we agree this has to stop. and it won't stop until we pass legislation that people

understand you will not get away with being held accountable for your deeds. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next weekend at 5:00 p.m. eastern. up next, especially report with ari melber as we near closing arguments in the trial of derek chauvin. that's right after the break.

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hello, every. i'm alicia menendez. ahead at 7:00 p.m. on "american voices." we speak with reverend william barber about the ongoing fight to protect voting rights across america. but first, a special report with ari melber as we near closing arguments in the murder trial of derek chauvin. the trial, the killing of george floyd, airs at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. thank you for joining us tonight for this special live coverage of the pivotal closing of the derek chauvin murder trial. the minneapolis police officer who killed george floyd. i'm ari melber, and i'll be with you live tonight for the next hour. this is the eve of closing arguments as the nation and really much of the world