velshi starts right now. today on "velshi," they are coming for anyone among them who insists on telling the truth. they're pledging loyalty to the guy who lost them everything and promising not to get anything done. we'll go inside the chaos churning the republican party. and bombshell new reporting from the "washington post," the trump administration secretly obtained journalists phone records. find out why. we talk to the reporter who broke the story. and an alarming new readout on the threat level against u.s. lawmakers in the post-capitol riot world. the numbers will shock you. then the big lie is on tour. a dispatch from the cringe-inducing road trip that brought the qanon caucus to a retirement community in florida. "velshi" starts now. good morning. it is saturday, may 8th. we have a heaping helping of

news for you. here's what you need to know. former minneapolis police officer and convicted murderer, derek chauvin, has now been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he violated george floyd's constitutional civil rights. three other former minneapolis police officers who were involved in floyd's arrest and death have also been indicted in a separate two-count indictment, chauvin has also been charged with violaing the civil rights of a 14-year-old boy back in 2017. we'll have much more on the major milestone this could be in the fight for justice in the united states later in the hour. the "wall street journal" is reporting that there is now bipartisan agreement on several key pieces of the police reform legislation that president biden has called on congress to pass by the anniversary of george floyd's death. a group of republican senators and members of congress have been working with democrats on compromise legislation, but elsewhere the gop is in absolute

chaos. house republicans appear poised to oust one of their own, liz cheney, from her leadership post for insufficiently being loyal to donald trump. respirator stafanik could take her place saying republicans have to work with trump to win back the majority. that's a weird argument to make considering the twice impeached former president is the highly specific reason that the gop lost the majority in the house, the senate, scores of local legislative seats across the country and the white house. senator lindsey graham of south carolina, who by now must be suffering from vertigo due to the 180 degree turns he made, even says that the gop cannot "move forward and grow without

their insurrectionist-in-chief." which is quite the opposite from when graham said trump would destroy the gop. and now capitol police say there's been a 107% increase in threats against members of congress adding in a statement that given the unique threat environment we currently live in, the department is confident the number of cases will continue to increase. nbc learned the fbi is still not done rounding up the worst of the worst of those who partook in the attack on congress. 440 people have been charged. and in nearly 90% of the cases charges have been based at least in part on a person's own social media posts. a bombshell new report from the "washington post" this morning, the justice department has confirmed that at some point in 2020, when william barr was serving as attorney general, the department of justice secretly obtained the phone records of three "washington post"

reporters for calls they made during three months in 2017 while reporting on russia's role in the 2016 presidential election. the subpoenas sought records that would show who the reporters called and how long their conversations lasted. now republicans on the federal elections commission appear to be giving the former president a gift, wielding their power to force the commission to drop the inquiry into whether trump violated campaign finance laws when he directed his then personal attorney, michael cohen, to make a hush money payment to stormy daniels in 2016. the decision came months after an internal report stated that there was reason to believe that trump knowingly and willfully violated campaign finance law. a lot to get to. joining me now, "washington post" reporter, devlin barrett. he is the author of "october

surprise" how the fbi tried to save itself and crashed an election. also with me, former federal prosecutor in the civil rights division of justice, cynthia alksne. thanks for being here. devlin, i want to start with the fact that this has to be chilling for some of your colleagues at the "washington post." you have colleagues who know who they called and how long they spent talking to hem. >> our executive editor said this is deeply troubling and there should be a fuller explanation. >> is there any explanation for what you've seen?

any have any valid reason why they were looking into your colleagues? >> this was basically a violation of classified information. if even remembers early 2017, is what the u.s. intelligence community knew about russian activities around the 2017 election. that's an important topic. the public has a real and important interest in knowing the apartmentses to some of those questions. what the justice department does is basically say we'll try to prosecute whoever told you some of these details about classified information. >> cynthia oxny, this fits into the category of things we want to talk to you about. the sharp contrast between the department of justice under donald trump, which was largely

serving his interest as president, and the department of justice today, which has basically declared to america we're back. we are involved. we were out there. we're taking the civil rights part of the department of justice, which is where you worked seriously. >> right. yes. the justice department is rising from the ashes. it's very exciting for those of us who love the justice department. just to put a fine point on this wiretapping story, between april and july of 2017, the "washington post" was breaking stories about sessions lying, about his conversations with kislyak. there were discussions about jared kushner setting up a moscow separate connection. all kinds of things were happening then, which are not necessarily national security protection but are really donald trump protection. trump was demanding that there

be some kind of leak investigation at the time. it doesn't surprise me that then barr, his enforcer, went and did this. what pleases me and what fits into really the theme of the justice department right now with rising from the ashes is that they have followed the rules, they are required under the law to notify the reporters. you'll notice the notification was signed by channing phillips, one of the great career prosecutors at the department of justice and who was a complete rule follower. he is the one who sent the letters out. i'm pleased he did. we clearly need to know more information about this. it fits this theme. justice department has come back since merrick garland was sworn in in march. they have the chauvin indictments. they added more case -- they added another case to the indictment. the prosecutions in minneapolis and louisville.

the giuliani subpoena has been approved. what they're telling the american people with this is these are our values. our values are rooted in the rule of law. it warms my heart that they're getting back to the department of justice business. >> i would be mostly pleased if the department of justice wasn't just the -- the arm -- the legal arm of the president of the united states. i'm glad it's about values. i want to ask about this federal elections commission decision not to pursue anything further against donald trump in the payment to stormy daniels. the irony is michael cohen, the president's -- the former president's former fixer and lawyer, went to jail in part because of this. it does feel a little strange. >> that deal is not over. the department of justice -- i'm sorry, the manhattan d.a. is investigating that. the attorney general of new york

is investigating that from the tax issue because we know that the trump people deducted -- we believe they deducted the -- we know how the deal was set up, excuse me. the deal was set up so that michael cohen was paid back the money he paid to stormy daniels as legal fees, which is not true. generally people deduct their legal fees. that case continues. the fact that the federal elections commission is emasculated per usual, they never get anything done, that doesn't surprise anybody. i have not given up hope on that prosecution. i think it's fundamentally unfair went to jail and the person he went to jail for is walking around mar-a-lago. >> no kidding. devlin, there's a piece of your reporting that's interesting, that's that the department of justice in seeking the phone records of your colleagues sought but did not obtain non-content communication records for the reporter's work email accounts which would have indicated who emailed whom and

when but did not include the content of the emails. this speaks to what you were explaining. they're trying to figure out who was giving these reporters information from the inside. how do you approach that as a journalist? how do you think about the fact that the government says that is classified information. you have been making the argument that is news that is in the public interest. >> right. look, what can i say about that is we take our information security very seriously. there are things we can do that protect sources and protect our data. and we do those to the best of our ability. you know, it's slightly comforting in some ways to realize they couldn't get our email information. that suggests that we are doing something right. >> that is good. >> but -- they have a lot of power and they can do a lot. >> i just wonder -- i just wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg and we'll learn about so

many other reporters being sort of looked into by the former administration. it's creepy to say the least. thanks to the both of you for being here. cynthia alksne and devlin barrett. it's more than creepy, it's downright wrong. joining me now is stacey plaskett from the united states virgin islands, a member of multiple major committees including ways and means, oversight and reform, transportation and infrastructure and she served as an impeachment manager during the second impeachment trial of donald trump. you and i talked a lot. i watched every second of your presentations at the impeachment trial. you -- the role you played there was to walk everyone through exactly what happened and to do away with the nonsense that people were talking about about

what really happened there. yet members of congress, your colleagues, voted against certification that day in some cases and today continue to defend donald trump's actions in leading up to that day. >> they do. it's good to see you on this saturday morning. they do continue to do that. there's an immense amount of tribalism going on in the house right now. you can see it in the battle that they have as to what their caucus is going to be. what the republican party is going to be. and it's all in their minds about retaining their seats and retaining power, not about our democracy or the american people. >> let's talk about the american jobs plan, the american family plan you're working on now. the jobs number yesterday helped to make the argument that the country still needs the federal

government, still needs government involvement in fixing this thing. how do you see the future of these two plans moving forward? listen, we saw in the covid relief, the american rescue plan which injected support into the american people. the republicans, all who voted against it, are actually taking credit for it now, are using it as sounding boards and telling their constituents what's in there. i expect the same for the american jobs plan because it's what the american people want and need right now. that plan has $100 billion in job training alone. it will transform this country in terms of not just traditional infrastructure as we know it but our schools, veterans hospitals, support for broadband to try and bring back areas that have been left behind in the digital

divide. rural areas. even urban areas. children living in the bronx as well as children living in the virgin si islands by this bill. so you will see the republicans will be reticent. they will be dragging their feet. most of them will not vote for it. it will pass and then they'll try to take credit for it. >> it is kind of remarkable watching them take credit for the relief act. you like my former guest, cynthia alksne, are an alum of the department of justice. in this -- what cynthia calls the rising of the ashes, what we saw yesterday was remarkable. the federal charge against the four former minneapolis police officers. i want your take on that and your take on reporting that the justice and policing, the george floyd justice in policing act that we're getting closer to a deal between republicans and democrats. >> as to the george floyd justice in policing act, i'm -- i'm so grateful to have

democratic leadership like karen bass, like speaker pelosi, jim clyburn who is offering support, senator cory booker and others, along with tim scott, senator scott who are working to try to find a way to bring reform to policing in this country. to support good police officers. the to support the communities that they are to protect. and thank god that the justice department is back and all systems are firing. all departments are working. we see this indictment against the four police officers who under color of law violated the constitutional rights of george floyd. i think that's monumental to let people know the justice department is there to uphold justice. so we're grateful for that as well. >> the thing that your republican colleagues or republican colleagues in the senate seem to be most troubled by is the idea of removing qualified immunity from police.

in other words, mitch mcconnell says police break up fights, they get in fights all the time. you can't hold them responsible for what happens during the course of an altercation or a physical engagement with citizens. would you agree to a bill that doesn't do something about qualified immunity for police? >> well, i have spoken out against qualified immunity. even the supreme court has said that we have gone too far. some of the more conservative members of the supreme court. and i said and believe it is being used as a shield by bad police officers. there are standards that police officers and inept professions should have in the same way that other professions should. we don't know what the level of negligence should be, correct? qualified immunity just bars all levels of negligence by police officers because it is so exacting in the way that one has to be able to demonstrate that a

police officer has, in fact, violated an individual or can be sued in civil litigation. so it needs to be pulled back. and i'm very -- feel very strongly about that. but i know that we need reform in our policing. i'm anxious to see what they've been able to come up with. >> democratic representative, stacey plaskett, of the united states virgin islands. good to talk to you. >> ali, if i may -- if i may just to say happy mother's day to my mother, maggie. i love you, mom. happy mother's day. >> that was what we all needed this morning. thank you for that. happy mother's day to your mom as well. we're just getting started on this saturday morning. coming up, i will talk to virginia senator tim kaine about biden's plans to put america's economy back on track and the deepening divisions within the gop. a party that's fast becoming the party of trump.

and barbara comstock will join me to weigh in on that issue. and the big "s" word that the gop uses to weaponizes biden's policies, it's socialism. would you believe me if i told you that was another big lie? oh, sorry... [ laughter ] woops! [ laughter ] good evening! meow! nope. oh... what? i'm an emu! ah ha ha. no, buddy! buddy, it's a filter! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ so what do you love about your always pan?

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100% of our focus is on stopping this new administration. we're confronted with severe challenges from a new administration and a narrow majority of democrats in the house and a 50/50 senate to turn america into a socialist country. that's 100% of my focus. >> well, that's 100% a lie. in fairness, mcconnell has since softened his view about obstruction being 100% of his focus. the gop is a party with no other agenda other than to sabotage

the current administration. socialism is a system in which the government owns the means of production, ownership of factories, hospitals, machinery used to produce goods and services that people consume. biden has not promised or carried out anything that remotely resembles socialism. even if you believe, as i do, that america should have a single payer health care system, something that biden disagrees with, that's still not socialism. if you believe student debt should be canceled or that the minimum wage should be $15 an hour or that carbon emissions should be cut, none of that is socialism. what biden does believe is the era of big government is back. the idea of government involvement in certain areas of policy can be helpful. that's still not socialism. americans are warming up to the idea of more government especially during a once in a generation pandemic when a powerful and effective government could have ensured

america had enough ppe, accelerated testing and boosted vaccine production all things president biden did once he assumed office. a recent nbc news poll found 55% of americans say the government should do more to solve the country's problems. look, i think we can all agree. we don't want or need government in our lives all the time. but there are some things we just can't do on our own. a small government can't fix a warming climate, rising economic inequality, rampant disinformation and growing adversaries in russia or china whose leaders don't sit around wondering if their government should be smaller. we've been hearing how bad government is for decades. in 1981 ronald reagan proclaimed government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. it's not just a republican thing. even presidents clinton and obama shied away from touting the benefits of big government. it will take a lot to overcome the flawed and outdated idea that government is irresponsible and controlling.

joe biden may or may not succeed with that. it depends on whether his bet on big government improves the lives of americans. mitch mcconnell is betting against that as are many republicans. they presented some arguments about it here and there. but lying about what biden is trying to do and calling it socialism, that's just weak tea. well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that's jeremy, right there! we're literally riding together. he gets touchy when you talk about his lack of friends. can you help me out here? no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. well, we're new friends. to be fair. eh, still.

if you are a republican today it does not pay to align yourself with the true. congresswoman liz cheney said out loud that the election was not stolen from donald trump now she's poised to lose her leadership spot. congresswoman stanik knows exactly to whom to pledge allegiance to step in. >> we have to work with president trump to win back the majority and we're going to. that's what the members of

congress want who are republicans and that's what the voters want in this country. >> work with president trump to win back the majority? senator lindsey graham who once called trump a political car wreck says the political party can't grow without him. it's becoming clear that the party of lincoln is dissolving into the party of trump. if you don't agree with that as a republican lawmaker you may have trouble staying afloat. the gop has made it clear it doesn't serve them to go against their ideas. joining me now is former two-term congress rom from the state of virginia, barbara comstock. good to see you. i just delivered a thing about why big government is a good thing. i imagine you as a traditional republican and conservative disagree with me. i imagine that would be a great debate to have with you. but we're not having those

conversations with republicans. that's the problem. republicans are stuck in some other gear that's not about arguing with people like me about the size of government, the size of wages and what health care should look like. >> right. the problem is -- actually donald trump never received a majority of the public vote. at 46.9, he was shrinking his part of the vote. so when you take 46.9% of the population and start a civil war within the party, nobody wins. neither faction of the republican party wins and i think the american people don't win because we should be having these important debates, these policy and substance debates and we're not because everything is about trump. i think liz cheney as well as, you know, if you look at the senate leadership, none of the senate leadership, mitch

mcconnell, thune, none of them voted for the insurrection on january 6th. but in the house you had liz cheney who had not. so we at least had diversity on that point. now we won't. i think that's problematic. if we're going to get to a majority you have to bring together people who have different views on donald trump. he's a toxic personality that divided the country and he divided our party. if you look down ballot we won the state house in georgia. we won in arizona. we have the state house in pennsylvania. but this toxic personality at the top of the ticket lost. so i think it's certainly behooves republicans to realize this is not somebody who can unite our party or the country and we have to stand back and look at great people like tim scott. we have lots of new voices out there like michelle steel that have been addressing the anti-asian hate crimes going on. we have a lot of new women with

children who can talk about how are we going to post-pandemic get women back into the work force? get their kids up to date because -- particularly kids who are disadvantaged lost a year of education. we have great voices if we could get trump off the center stage and show we have a diversity of voices from the state houses into congress and into the senate. >> this argument is compelling. you yourself got bills passed on s.t.e.m., sexual harassment for women. so explain this, you have lindsey graham who couldn't find a good word to say about donald trump back in the day, now saying the party can't move forward without him. elise stefanik, here's what she

said. >> i think he's been insulting to women. i think it's important for republicans, if you look at the 2012 election, we need to ensure that we're increasing our party's ability to reach out to women. and i work on that in congress. i care passionately about that. and donald trump's comments have not helped that effort, they hurt that effort. >> so, she's saying what you just said to me in different words about the outreach that republicans can have to women and now she tells you you can't get the majority back without donald trump. >> i profoundly disagree. i'm on two boards that got a lot of those women -- republican women elected. i did not support donald trump in 2016 or in 2020. i actually was on the ballot with him in 2016 when i was opposing him and got 12% more of the vote. i got more votes in my district than tim kaine and hillary clinton who were on the ballot at that time.

then donald trump came in and you saw that huge suburban loss across the country, not just in my district. when people talk about donald trump, they are abandoning the suburbs, professional women. that's where we've hemorrhaged votes. while their -- this is why within the republican party we have to have discussions. there were improvements among minority voters, particularly those who have come from socialist countries and don't like to see the direction things are going, as you said, that's a discussion for another day, but i think there are some great leaders that we have within our party. chris sununu who may run for senate up in new hampshire, he surpassed donald trump by double digits. he is a great governor who brings the wings of the party together. that's the kind of leader we need going forward because you can't -- nobody wins at this. i know a lot of the trump people

say we're good, we're beating liz cheney. we'll beat this or that person. you only have 46.9. you start kicking people out you're down in the 30s. this is a no-win for anybody. most importantly the american people need to have substantive debates, but i think there's a lot of great republicans who want to participate in them if we get him off the stage and these grievance policies don't work. >> joe biden made that point. >> that's why joe biden -- >> we'll continue this discussion and that conversation about socialism. barbara comstock of virginia, thank you for joining me this morning. covid cases dropping more and more as americans are getting vaccinated, but demand for the vaccine is slowing down which means the biden administration faces a key obstacle in its bid for herd

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the centers for disease control is finally offering updated public guidance on how the coronavirus spreads from person to person. in bold letters on its website the health agency says the airborne virus can be contracted through inhalation even if an infected individual is further than six feet away. the previous guidance said most cases occurred mainly through close contact and not through airborne transmission. luckily daily cases are on the down swing and the number of people getting the vaccine is on the rise. pfizer/biontech is expecting the green light for emergency authorization from the fda to offer the vaccine to kids 12 to 15 by next week and it's asking full approval for the vaccine for americans aged 16 and older.

that would allow the company to market the drug directly to the consumers and change the prices of the doses. demand for it is slowing down though forcing the biden administration to face vaccine hesitancy head on. the new goal is to give at least one vaccine dose to 70% of americans by july 4th, which falls short of the 75% to 95% that scientists say is needed to reach herd immunity. >> it's going to be hard. so we'll keep at it. i think at the end of the day most people will be convinced by the fact that their failure to get the vaccine may cause other people to get sick and maybe die. >> meanwhile on the other side of the world, covid continues to explode in india. coronavirus is tearing through the world's second most populous nation at a record pace. the positivity rate in some

parts of the country surpassed 50%. this morning officials in india are reporting another 4,187 deaths in the past 24 hours. new infections surpassed 400,000 for the third consecutive day becoming just the second country along with the united states to eclipse 20 million overall infections. as a way to help india and other struggling nations, the biden administration says it supports temporarily waiving intellectual property protections for american covid vaccines. that would allow drugmakers across the world to emulate the three vaccines authorized in the united states. this is a highly controversial move but doing so could stand to help millions. joining me is dr. irwin redlener from columbia university. he's director of the pandemic resource and response initiative. he's an msnbc public health analyst. he's been with us from the beginning talking about this. irwin, there's so much to discuss with you. children is an area of your

specialty. i do want to discuss that. the seeking of emergency use authorization for children age 12 to 15 for the pfizer/biontech vaccine. how big a deal is that? >> well, it's a big deal, ali. the reality is that we're not going to get anything close to herd immunity if we don't start vaccinating children, not just the adolescents 12 to 15 but hopefully by the fall we'll be able to vaccinate children as young as a couple months of age. i think that's going to help. it's going to help protect the kids but also going to allow us to get more percentage of americans vaccinated, which is what we'll need to do to control the spread of this outbreak. >> this issue of intellectual property, patent protection for drugs, this is an issue that would take hours for us to discuss fully. that's your take on it right now? american pharmaceutical companies say our ability to keep our patents private allows

us to make money off of drugs and research other drugs that fail. it makes up for all the drugs that don't succeed. what do you think about this decision to possibly waive patent protection for these vaccines? >> right. you know, the problem is that we have an apocalyptic crisis globally. what's happening in india and nepal and south america is extraordinarily dangerous not only for the people who live in those countries, so we have a humanitarian need to help out our neighbors around the world, but the second thing is that until we get control of places like india and nepal and so on it remains a threat to the united states and other countries because we have large numbers of festering virus all over the world that will eventually come back here. the reduction temporarily of intellectual property rights and

patents is critical. we have to do it. we have to find other ways to help support the development of the vaccines and also some new drugs that are in the pipeline to treat covid-19. that means that we need for the countries around the world to be able to manufacture based on the patents and the innovations that have been discovered in the u.s., how will we deal with the manufacturers who need that incentive? we have provide subssubsidies, that's one way to pay the manufacturers to develop the products that we need and not have them be totally dependent on the profits from sales. i think that's one approach that the biden administration will be considering. >> irwin, always good to see you. dr. irwin redlener, director of the pandemic resource and response initiative. it's the dawn of a new day for the department of justice as the department pursues a number of civil rights cases against

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you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ the department of justice is rising from the ashes, so says msnbc legal analyst cynthia alksne after the dodge cracked down on alleged civil rights abuses in the case of george floyd. derek chauvin who is awaiting sentencing for floyd's death in minnesota now faces brand-new federal charges. count one of the indictment says while acting as an officer of the law chauvin willfully deprived george floyd from the right to be free from an unreasonable seizure. count two says two of the other officers, thao and king

willfully failed to intervene to stop chauvin's use of force. and count three, all four defendants saw mr. floyd lying on the ground and didn't provide aid to him. and chauvin had brand-new charges against him. he was indicted on two more counts of civil rights violation for his actions against a 14-year-old during an arrest in 2017. meanwhile the department of justice is already investigating the larger minneapolis police department over possible patterns of excessive force. and the fbi opened a civil rights investigation into the killing of andrew brown jr. in elizabeth city, north carolina. with every passing day, one can sense it's a new dawn at the department of justice. after four years of degenerate leadership it appears the justice department and the entire biden administration is making civil rights a top priority, particularly when it comes to taking on rogue cops who fail to uphold the oath

they're sworn to. what message are these federal charges sending to other police considering future bad acts and what do they say about the direction of biden's dodge? tomorrow morning i'll put these questions to the former u.s. attorney, joyce vance. it's an important conversation, you won't want to miss it. coming up, the texas house of representatives passed a controversial voting bill. if it wasn't already clear the bill was designed to disenfranchise black voters, wait until you hear the language tossed around by the gop. that's next when "velshi" returns. ♪ with endless summer nights ♪ he's walking! ♪ comes alive ♪ ♪ i don't need the rain ♪ ♪ when the sky is blue ♪ celebrate all the moms in your life with sparkling gifts from pandora jewelry.

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♪ ♪ texas is now one step closer to becoming one of the most difficult states in the nation in which to cast a ballot. a controversial voting rights bill is on its way back to the texas state senate after passing in the house along party lines yesterday. in its current state the bill would greatly empower partisan poll watchers, prohibit election officials from mailing out absentee ballot applications and impose strict punishments for nose who provide assistance outside the lines of that permissible. democrats debated with republicans on friday trying to add amendments. it is a tall order when the whole point of the bill is to make sloeting harder for those populations. as one state representative

pointed out, the bill's statement of purpose declaring its intent to, quote, preserve the purity of the ballot box, end quote, is itself a relic of racist voter suppression. >> that provision was drafted specifically to disenfranchise black people, black voters, in fact, following the civil war. did you know that? >> no, that's -- i'm sorry to hear that. >> did you know that this purity at the ballot box justification was also used during the jim crow era to prevent black people from voting? >> no, those are troubling things. >> those are, in fact, troubling things. i actually spoke with state representative raphael enchia last night. he was the one you saw asking questions in the video. he told me the democrats made some changes that hopefully will lessen the damage of the bill but it is still a bad, harmful piece of legislation. hundreds are expected at a rally

on the steps of the texas state capital this afternoon. joining me is democratic state representative ann johnson of texas, who was one of the democrats fighting against the bill until 3:30 in the morning yesterday. representative johnson, thank you for being with us. there are a lot of questions. a none of number of your colleagues had questions for representative cane, the sponsor of the bill, the person who wrote the bill. many of these things he claims he didn't know about the racist origins of these things. the fact that there isn't a problem with voter fraud in texas, despite the fact that your deputy governor, your secretary of state there is looking for fraud. your attorney general, i'm sorry. they didn't seem to have a purpose for this bill. >> you're absolutely right, ali. thank you so much for bringing attention to it. they do have a purpose for this bill, and the purpose for this bill is the only way that they can keep power, is to keep voters from the ballot box.

so just as you said, our secretary of state called this a safe, secure and successful election in 2020. what we saw was an increase in voter turnout, which speaks towards turning the tide away from the republican party and having a vision of new ideas for texans around autonomy, around our health care. so they know what's coming. if people continue to vote around ideas and not around partisanship, they're going to lose their power. so just as you mentioned, our attorney general did an investigation of 22,000 employees' staff hours, costing texas taxpayers $250,000, and they found 16 errant ballots. not even fraudulent ballots but errant ballots out of 17 million. so there is no voter fraud in texas, and what we're seeing here is just a form of voter suppression. unfortunately, our long history

of intimidation against communities of color. >> and your secretary of state, by the way, in texas is a republican who said that this was a free and safe election. briscoe cane, the author of the legislation, when confronted with the idea that you just stated that there's no meaningful voter fraud in texas at all said, well, we didn't want to wait for bad things to happen which is why they're enacting this legislation now. again, it seemed like a weak argument. >> it is incredibly weak and it is off of what they've been doing. let's talk about what we've experienced this week. it was not just the voter suppression, but in this week alone we saw texas republicans criminalize safe and free abortions, criminalize our right to protest, criminalize homelessness, and then ended it off with an extreme form of voter suppression by criminalizing the ability to participate in a free election.

they've drafted a law that is so broad and so general that my wife could be prosecuted for a third degree felony if she happens to stand out at the polls and say, "please vote for my wife." so, of course, when you say, hey, representative cane, is that what you're intending? he said, of course not, nobody would do that, but that's not the point. the point is that they want us to feel that pain and feel that suppression so that i don't ask my wife to go out and campaign for me or any other individual. so it is the intimidation. you don't have to prosecute when the threat of prosecution is there. >> right. >> and we've seen the criminalization and the idea that they're going to use partisan politics and turn our criminal code into a political persecution machine. >> yeah, and this intimidation thing is common around the country. we are seeing this, and it is a lot of the way in which jim crow laws kept black people from the

polls. state representative ann johnson of texas, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you, ali. we have more "velshi" coming up. republican lawmakers in arizona are hell bent on continuing the big lie. i will speak to arizona secretary of state katie hobbs who had to get an order of protection after resaving death threats related to the state audits, all, tim kaine joins me. stick around. another hour of "velshi" starts now. r hour of "velshi" starts now. good morning. it is saturday, may 8 little. i'm ali velshi. president biden trying to turn lemons into lemonade by reacting to the jobs number by saying that is why congress needs to pass his infrastructure, jobs and families plans. >> we knew it wouldn't be a sprint, it would be a marathon. quite frankly, we are moving

more rapidly than i thought we would. the american rescue plan is just that, a rescue plan. it is to get us back to where we were, but that's not nearly enough. we have to build back better. that's why we need the american jobs plan i proposed. >> the job numbers were, indeed, not great, just 266,000 jobs were added in april, far from the more than 1 million that analysts expected. millions upon millions more are needed to get back to pre-pandemic levels. nonetheless, the uptick comes following months of losses and it appears the country is turning another corner in the fight against covid-19 pandemic. following weeks of increases covid-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations are all on the decline here in the nights. 33.4% of the american population is fully vaccinated. more than 45% have received at least one dose, and more good news on the horizon. pfizer has formally requested

full approval from the fda for the covid-19 vaccine for everyone 16 years of age and up, which requires six months of data as opposed to the two months needed for emergency use authorization. it also means pfizer can market the vaccine. pfizer is waiting on the fda decision on whether to grant emergency use authorization for the vaccine to children between 12 and 15 years old, which would mark another major milestone. it comes as the cdc is marking a milestone of its own, one that is long overdue and perhaps a sign of the continued effects of the leadership failures of the previous administration. the cdc now explicitly states in its public guidance that covid-19 can be inhaled even when you are more than six feet away from an infected individual, meaning covid-19 spreads via airborne transmission. this is a change, it is something a lot of people knew but a change from the cdc's prior stance that most infections only occurred through close contact and not through airborne transmission. that fact and so many others relating to