♪♪ good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome, everyone, to alex witt reports. here's what's happening at 2:00 p.m. eastern. developing this hour, some new reporting on the trump justice department that secretly obtained phone records from "washington post" journalists. it happened amid their reporting on russia's role in the 2016 election, and new reaction today from former impeachment manager, congresswoman madeline dean. >> it is extraordinarily troubling but probably not surprising that the trump white house actually seized the personal phone calls, the professional phone calls, the phone records of "the washington post" reporters for three and a

half months. think of that, what this administration and this department of justice is doing is shining a bright light on what i think is very mischievous behavior of the trump administration's department of justice. >> we're going to have a bit more on that in a moment. but first, happening this hour, cities across the country rallying for voting rights in honor of the late john lewis. it comes as a growing number of states are advancing bills that would make it harder for people to vote, including in florida. last hour, florida congresswoman stephanie murphy telling me this move was shameful. >> if you have good ideas and good values to go to the public with, then you shouldn't be afraid of having all americans who are eligible vote, and what the florida governor is doing is trying to prohibit people from voting. they're trying to win by changing the rules as opposed to allowing american democracy to operate the way it should. also new today, the divide in the republican party growing

deeper. two of the most controversial republicans, marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz, bashing members of their own party, including liz cheney and sending a clear message on where the republican party of today stands. >> tell me who is your president. >> donald trump. >> that's my president too. >> we have never abandoned trump, and he has never abandoned america. he is still fighting for us. he will continue to fight for us. and we're going to have his back when he does. and nbc's kelly o'donnell is at the white house for us. kelly, another welcome to you, my friend. how are lawmakers reacting to reports about the trump d.o.j. obtaining you're phone records? >> reporter: good to be with you, alex. this comes at a time where there is an era of mistrust in the country against institutions, questions about journalism and government, and this plays into a lot of those concerns. now, at the base, of course, people in official positions in

government swear an oath not to reveal classified secrets, and we know that at the time when he was here in office, president trump had a frequent battle over leakers and mistrust of those around him who might tell things about what was happening inside the administration or about investigations relating to him. journalists are protected by the first amendment, doing their jobs, and in this case, under the direction of the then attorney general, william barr, it was approved that records related to them, phone calls of their business and personal phones, for three journalists at the "washington post," those records were obtained. that shows who they called and for the duration of the call, not the content of the call. but to give you a sense of how this has a chilling effect on journalism, which is meant to be a check on government, on holding government accountable, here is congressman jim heinz of connecticut, a democrat, reacting to this with real

concern. >> americans of any political stripe should be frightened by what we're reading today, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, it is illegal and not a good idea to leak classified information, but the protection of the journalists who get those leaks, i mean, you know, this is how the pentagon papers got put out there, one of the best controls we have over government overreach, of course, is journalists doing their job. >> reporter: and of course, the awareness that this took place has now come out during a new administration, and if you look at some of the mechanics of how this happened, it is rare, although it has happened in the past, and because of the sensitive nature of the role journalists play and the fact that journalists are not the target of such an investigation, it's those who might have disclosed improperly and illegally classified information, this is highly unusual, and would have had to go all the way to the desk of the then attorney general for approval, part of what makes it so rare, and part of what makes

this so controversial, that we're discussing it today, alex. >> all right, kelly o. at the white house, thank you. joining me now to further the conversation, joyce vance, msnbc contributor, former u.s. attorney and professor at the university of alabama law school -- school of law, i should say, and msnbc contributor and npr tv critic eric degens. welcome to you both. joyce, going with you first here, what's your reaction to all this? i mean, is looking at phone records a legitimate d.o.j. activity? >> the answer, alex, is that it can be, but under guidelines adopted when eric holder was the attorney general in 2013, cases that involve leaks, there's a strong preference for dealing with them administratively. so as not to chill the sort of coverage that we expect from the media. you can deal with them, for instance, by taking security clearances away from people that you know are leaking information. this sort of activity, this sort

of surreptitious access to reporters' contacts with people in government needs to be reserved for the most dangerous cases to national security. they should be the rare exception, not the rule. so, we need to learn more about what happened here, what the fbi was actually investigating, whether the journalists were deemed, for instance, to be coconspirators or to have criminal exposure, which is prohibited under the policy. there's a lot left to uncover. >> okay, but let me ask you, is it legitimate, joyce, for the d.o.j. to look at the phone records of journalists? >> it can be in the right case. if you had an extraordinarily dangerous violation of classified information that impacted national security in a major way, that might be a case where an attorney general would sign off on this sort of an order, which as kelly said, permits d.o.j. to see who people are in contact with and the

duration of calls, but not to get access to the content of those calls themselves. but important to say that out of our deep concern for protecting the first amendment, this should be a very rare exception, not something that's used routinely with journalists. >> yeah, which brings me to eric. eric is a media analyst. what goes through your mind on behalf of journalists when you hear this act by the trump department of justice? >> well, what occurs to me is that government officials, especially white houses, have always been worried about leaks. they've always been trying to pursue people who may leak to journalists, and they will often classify attempts to find leaks as exercises in important securing of the national interest. that may not actually be the case. i am really concerned to hear that investigators would look at

journalist records when they have the power to look at the records of the people they might suspect of leaking, the people who actually work in the white house, the people who actually work for the government. this kind of overreach is also concerning because you really don't know to what extent that data is going to be used. they will have records on all the people who contacted those journalists, not necessarily just the people that they're interested in invalidating or vetting or checking, and you know, it concerns journalists because we work on a lot of sensitive stories. we may be talking to a lot of different people who don't want, you know, their identities known for very important and very valid reasons. >> and eric, this could -- >> that would be something done at the last resort and it's not certain that this was necessary in this case. >> but eric, the description that you're painting there of those kinds of stories, this

could have a chilling effect on the pursuit of those stories or getting to the final end of those stories. >> certainly. but reporters who work in this space know -- i mean, the obama administration was aggressive in going after leaks as well. so, you do understand that, you know, government entities are going to do -- are going to push as hard as they can to find out who your sources are. i think we have to push back as journalists and as advocates for media to say, you have to have a really, really good reason. and you know, that's -- well, i mean, that's why this process is happening. judges are looking at it. it's -- the justice department is finally talking about what's happened here, and we will get a look at the information and the justifications that they used to try and go after these reporters' records and we can finally judge whether or not, you know, it fit the standard.

>> yeah. joyce, the doj is supposed to be politically neutral. revelations like this, does it suggest that these acts can be used in a political way, be weaponizing for political gain? >> you know, that's a possibility. we saw a lot of things that, frankly, made people uncomfortable during the trump administration. it was clear that the attorney general, for large parts of the -- the last attorney general, bill barr, was acting as the president's lawyer, not as the people's lawyer. that's why it's so important that president biden has put in place someone who's strongly apolitical, a former judge as the attorney general, and we see that in increasing ability the public has to have confidence in what's going on under this new administration at doj, which, after all, this entire story about "washington post" reporters came to light because doj permitted notification to go

forward that these accounts had been scrutinized. it might have just been an accident of timing. i don't know. i do think it's curious that notification wasn't made earlier to these journalists. >> joyce, in fact, this week, a judge slammed former attorney general william barr for being disingenuous, saying that barr issued a memo that twisted the findings of the mueller report in order to clear then president trump on obstruction of justice charges. what's your reaction to this, and is it unusual for a federal judge to publicly scold the justice department like this? >> this is a highly respected judge, and so i think scolding is a gentle word for what she did here, alex. it's very unusual, and the controversy here is that while william barr was still the head of the justice department, last october, doj filed motions in a case where a group called crew, a public advocacy group in d.c., was trying to get all of the

documentation regarding advice that was given to then attorney general barr about the release of the mueller report and whether or not there was sufficient evidence to charge president trump. and what happened was the barr doj claimed that a certain document didn't have to be turned over because it was covered by the deliberative privilege, and by the attorney-client privilege, that the information in it was stuff that the attorney general used to make his decision about whether or not to charge the president. turns out, according to the judge, that that's not the case, and that doj mischaracterized that document, and she has serious concerns about what's inside of that document, its contents, so it's scheduled to be released on may 17th unless doj takes an appeal. i suspect that will be a very interesting memo for us all to read. >> yeah. so, consider yourself booked thereafter. we'll talk about it again on the show right after that happens. joyce vance, eric deggans, thank you so much. new today, fallout after two

controversial house republicans kick off a trump-supporting political tour of sorts. marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz kicking off their america first tour in florida last night, pledging to take down democrats and even fellow republicans while laying out a very clear message, trump's gop is here to stay. nbc's leigh ann caldwell is joining us from the villages where the event took place last night, so how was that message received overall, leigh ann? >> reporter: well, alex, here, it was very well received. the villages is mostly conservative, about 69% in this retirement community of more than 100,000 people voted for former president trump in 2020, and they were thrilled. it was a standing room only with hundreds of people waiting outside to get into this event. now, we need to mention that representative gaetz is -- there's allegations of sexual misconduct against him. representative marjorie taylor greene has been kicked off her committees for controversial statements. but that didn't matter to this crowd, and what gaetz and

greene's message was, is that the former president is, well, they think, still the president. he did not lose the election. but also that he is still the leader of the party. he said the party of the -- the republican party of the past is not the party anymore. let's listen to how representative gaetz put it. >> the way forward is not a repackaged, regurgitated version of paul ryan's better way. and it's certainly not the green new deal and the socialist way. our way, america first, will rule the day. >> reporter: so, matt gaetz tied paul ryan to also representative liz cheney. of course, representative liz cheney is on the verge of losing her leadership spot up in washington because she insists on saying that the election was, in fact, not stolen, and so --

and the replacement to the -- the person to replace representative cheney is elise stefanik, someone who has worked very hard to show their loyalty to the former president and to persuade the republican base that she is sufficiently loyal enough, so based on this event last night, and the response from the voters here, it is clear that the republican party is choosing the former president as the leader of the party, even though polls are showing that he is losing popularity by the day, alex. >> okay, leigh ann caldwell from the villages in florida, thank you very much. breaking news from arizona. a new and alarming development in the election audit there. secretary of state katie hobbs is now receiving around the clock security protection after multiple death threats. these threats come amidst a recount of more than 2 billion ballots in maricopa county from the 2020 presidential election,

and joining me now is katie hobbs, secretary of state of arizona. katie, thank you for coming back to the broadcast. i mean, a pretty serious situation you're facing here. first of all, how are you doing? how's your family doing? >> we're okay. thanks for asking. >> yeah. just okay tells me that you probably have a lot more to say and a lot more feelings what's going on, but i'll ask, do you feel safe right now? >> i do. i do. and i appreciate the quick response and getting security in place very quickly. >> good. okay. let's talk about some of the specifics about the threats you've been receiving. is this all online? i mean, what can you tell us that's made you feel that you needed to take this extra step and say we need 24/7 security right now? >> we're certainly getting calls and emails and social media responses, so pretty much every avenue that people can get to us, and so there's -- if you look at social media, you can

see the harassment and just, you know, just awful comments, but that's coming to every office through phone lines in my office, which is more than just elections, and so it's hampering people from being able to do their job and certainly somebody, you know, who's trying to work with somebody on a notary certification doesn't need to get this call and that's a threat to me, and so it's pretty -- it's really every avenue that is available to people to try to reach us. >> do you, katie, do you get a sense of why they're threatening you? what's behind it? what they want to happen? do they want you just to, you know, roll over and say, okay, fine, we're just going to let this thing play out with no analysis or security or protection on the integrity of it? i mean, what is it people are trying to get from you? >> well, i mean, so, there's this so-called audit happening right now of the -- trying to rehash the election in maricopa

county. these folks running the show have 2.1 million ballots for maricopa county plus all the equipment, and you know, we've talked about this before. it is not an audit by any stretch of the word, in terms of what they're doing to try to relitigate the election and find nonexistent fraud, and right now, i'm the one standing up for the integrity of our election. i'm the one trying to protect arizona's voters from this, and so i'm the target, and that's -- and so, the folks running the audit, the folks running the arizona republican party are making calls every day on their social media to come after me, and so that's really where this is coming from, and you know, it's -- it is not unthinkable that people are going to actually take those calls to attack me literally. >> yeah, yeah. i know that you have called out

some things specifically about this audit that you find that aren't above, you know, where they should be. tell me what some of those things are. >> so, we sent a list of concerns to the person running this audit on behalf of the senate that detailed 13 broad categories of concern, including the lack of security, the lack of regard for the chain of custody of the ballots, the lack of security around computer terminals being left unattended and on that anybody could access. the fact that they're taking images of these ballots and there's nothing been done to certify the equipment that they're taking images on, so there's nothing to verify that those are -- that they're not preloaded with faulty images or that they're taking ballot images, which are all things that in a regular election or

any type of recount related to that election, that is valid, you would have that in place so that you can ensure that the results are valid or reliable. >> yeah. katie, have you ever experienced anything personally like what you're going through now, and do you think it is all because of this audit? >> well, certainly, the same kind of thing happened following the election, so it's been a pretty harrowing six months with pretty relentless harassment that goes up and down, but this is, i think, a little more alarming than immediately following the election, because i seem to be the only target at this point. >> katie hobbs, boy, you have my respect. you are one strong lady for staying where you are and thank you very much for joining us and talking so candidly about it. but carry on. thank you, katie. >> thank you. the other breaking news for you today, which we're going to be hearing plenty about, as it

unfolds. there are some new details on the cyberattack that shut down a critical u.s. pipeline just in this last hour, the operator, colonial pipeline, says it was the victim of ransomware and right now crews are working to restore the pipeline running from texas to new jersey. the exact nature of friday's cyberattack still not clear, including who launched it and why it was launched it. the company notified authorities. this may have an impact on already rising gas prices. we will continue monitoring it for you. also new today, one state in the u.s. is moving a step closer to making it harder to vote and easier to freely carry a gun. let me repeat that. harder to vote, easier to carry a gun. a congressman in that state joins me to explain, as if anyone can. e joins me to explain, as if anyone can super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean free.

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school in western kabul, killing at least 30 people, many of them students between the ages of 11 and 15 years old. the taliban is condemning the attack. the bombing comes amid looming fears about what could happen after the withdrawal of u.s. forces by september 11th. let's go to new reporting out of texas. state senate republicans will scrap the house passed version of a restrictive voting bill meaning it may be even longer before we find out the final bill. a rally is under way right now on the steps of the texas capitol to prevent that controversial bill from being passed so we're going back to ellison barber, monitoring things for us. what's been the reaction from folks there, those that came and gathered at the steps? >> reporter: the people who have been gathered here, and about an hour ago there were some 300 in this area, they have been engaged, passionate about their displeasure for this legislation. critics say that if it is to pass and be signed into law that it would limit voting rights for people all across the state of

texas and disproportionately impact communities of color by restricting the ways that people can get mail-in ballots and also, among other things, enhancing protections for partisan poll workers. democrats like former congressman beto o'rourke came to the steps here to make their voices heard and make it clear they do not agree with this legislation. listen here. >> this bill, if it passes and becomes law, is going to make it a lot harder for a lot more texans to vote in a state that is already the toughest to vote in, bar none, in the united states. we have had hundreds of polling places closed, the toughest voter i.d., racial jerry commander, the closure of dropoff ballot boxes during the pandemic, still 50,000 and now they want to make it harder for shift workers, harder for people of color, harder for disabled texans, harder for the elderly and harder for those who live in big cities to be able to vote. we really need the

administration to step up and support those of us in georgia and texas and arizona and kansas across the country fighting these voter suppression bills and offer us some protection and ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot. we need federal action right now and we need the for the people act to pass the senate. >> reporter: and alex, you touched on at the beginning how it could be a while until we're exactly clear on what is in this legislation, and that's because we started out here with two different bills, one in the senate and then one in the house. basically, the legislation that passed the house here, hb6, they took kind of the text of hb 7, which passed the senate, pasted it over to replace the old version they had, then there was a big process where a lot of amendments were add, democrats adding amendments as well so now there's this new version of hb 6 that passed here thursdays, late, late after a whole kind of night of them doing this. that's the version that passed here. so, that version, we don't have

all of that text fully released just yet, but what happens now is that that legislation that passed the house has to go back to the senate. the senate can decide to either just vote on that as is, which is unlikely, or have a conference committee where they will then pick people, the lieutenant governor as well as the speaker, to try and reconcile these two bills. then the house and senate would have to vote on it again. then the governor would sign it. he said that he will sign it once he gets something of this, but they are up against a hard deadline here. the legislative session ends on may 31st, so one tactic some activists have told us they're hoping to possibly employ here is to run out the clock and maybe just delay this enough that it doesn't actually get passed, but if it does, and the governor signs it as we would expect to happen, they say they'll then take this to court, alex. >> wow, this is a complicated process. i'm so glad you're on this because it's important. thank you for outlining all of it but you can't leave, you got to stay covering this. i appreciate you.

thanks. joining me now is texas congressman mark. welcome back to the broadcast. good to see you, sir. >> hey, alex. >> democrats in the state, they have fought to water down the voting bill as much as they could. some of their amendments included lowering initially proposed enhanced criminal penalties, allowing poll watchers to be removed if they breach the peace. despite these efforts, is this bill in its current state a problem for you? >> yeah, and first of all, alex, let me just say this. let me thank our democratic state legislators, state representative rafael anchia, nicole callier and others who worked hard to try and stop this from happening. this is a terrible bill that is specifically aimed at black and hispanic voters to make it harder for us to be able to vote. and what's so terrible about this is that it starts with the big lie. the big lie that we have heard

about on january 6th and the one that's now been being told for the last 15 years, that black people and hispanic people are voter cheats and that they need to have these laws put in place because there's cheating that takes place in our neighborhood. so, it starts with this terrible racial stereotype about us, and it's completely fake and false and it's unacceptable, and we can't -- we absolutely cannot let this bill become law, because it will make it harder for black and hispanic people to vote, period. >> so, then, here's the question. i mean, these bills, more and more, are emerging in states so how do democrats in washington push back on them? >> well, you know, we need to follow what the republicans have been doing. you think about mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell got on national tv and he told us and lectured us, ted cruz got on tv, wagging his finger, lecturing us about

the virtues of not replacing, you know, not replacing a supreme court jurist during an election year. and merrick garland was not seated. and then they broke their own rules, just a couple of years later, and put amy coney barrett in after they sat there and lectured us about what's right and wrong, and they shoved that supreme court choice down our throats, and we need to make sure that we are using the power that we have to pass hr-1 and pass hr-4 to make it a law. look at what they did in texas. a lot of people don't realize this. there used to be a two-thirds rule in texas that didn't allow bills like this to get through the state senate unless you could get two-thirds. it was basically a filibuster rule that they had in the state senate in texas. well, the current lieutenant governor, dan patrick, he said

we're going to get rid of our state's filibuster rule so we can pass these racist laws. that is exactly what dan patrick said, and guess what they did? they raised it and they raised it and made it higher than two-thirds so enough democrats wouldn't be able to stop these things, and so why are we sitting on our hands and doing nothing while they discriminate against our voters and start off with this lie that we're all cheats and that we're all committing voter fraud and do absolutely nothing about it? we have to pass hr-1 and hr-4. otherwise, we're playing right into mitch mcconnell's hands. >> okay. duly noted on all that. let me also take a look at this with you, because this bill is making its way through the state legislature there in texas, the texas senate voting to advance a bill that will allow people who can already legally own a gun to carry a handgun in public without a license, without a safety and training course, without background checks, that the current laws require.

what is behind this effort? >> yeah, it's just absolutely dumb. i'm a gun owner. i go to the range. i go hunting. this is absolutely unnecessary, kind of like the voter i.d. bill. and it doesn't make any sense. even a large number of republicans think this is stupid. and they're playing games. and you always hear governor abbott talk about how texas is open for business. well, he's going to shut texas down. no one's going to want to come here anymore, and our state is going to suffer economically if he continues to take us down this road to where we're a state that discriminates against people because they're black and just allows anybody to just wear a gun on their hip without any sort of trainingr any sort of safety mechanisms put in place. it's absolutely ridiculous and it's unnecessary. >> i mean, when the rest of the country takes a look at texas this week and sees them making it easier for everyone to carry guns but harder for everyone to vote, i mean, is that the kind of message that texas wants to

send? and if so, who in texas is potentially happy about sending that message? >> if you're jerry jones and you want that cowboy stadium full with ncaa tournaments and other sporting events, if you're in charge of a visitors and convention bureau anywhere in this state, you have to be thinking to yourself, how much longer are the good times going to last in texas with this sort of backwards thinking nonsense that's going on? it is eventually going to cost us money because no one's going to want to come here because it's dangerous and people are going to see us as a discriminatory state that's led by a bunch of racists and it's not going to get any better unless we can start actually getting back to business and working on things that real texans actually care about. >> okay. texas congressman marc veasy, always good to talk with you. appreciate you. thank you. >> good to see you, alex. banned for now but not

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donald trump is slamming facebook after an oversight committee determined the site was justified when it banned his account. the board agreed trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible by maintaining the election was stolen but told facebook to revisit that decision to make the ban indefinite. nbc's scott cohn is outside facebook headquarters in menlo park, california. welcome to you, my friend. who all is on this board and why do they take issue with the indefinite ban? >> reporter: yeah, alex, it's a very international board. people from all around the world. a lot of academics as well as people like a former prime minister of denmark and a vice president at the libertarian cato institute here in the u.s., all with an emphasis on freedom

of expression, and their concern with the indefinite ban is basically that that was not a facebook policy beforehand. facebook was kind of making things up as they went along. so, what they've gone back to facebook and said is that they really have basically three choices. they either have to put a time limit on that suspension or permanently delete the trump account or let him back on. one researcher that i spoke to who has done a lot of study about this board says that as dissatisfying as all of that may be to people across the political spectrum, the board really was functioning exactly as intended, and she says that if facebook now decides they are going to delete the trump or continue the indefinite suspension, that the company will once again have the board to contend with. >> if they decide to take down trump's account permanently, i think that -- and they being

facebook -- i think they're going to have a hard time keeping that decision upheld because i think the oversight board applying international human rights principles, which is exactly what its directive and mandate is to do, the idea of a permanent ban on someone's speech is fundamentally disproportionate, and so i think that there would be -- they would have a hard time making that case. >> reporter: kate klonik says she does think that facebook will make their decision well within the six months, likely much sooner, and it's safe to say, alex, that whatever decision they make here at facebook headquarters or wherever they make the decision in this day of remote work, that somebody is not going to be happy about it. >> for sure. maybe they'll just keep kicking the can down the road. i know it's six months this time. maybe they put in another extension. we will see. scott cohn, with your help, thank you very much. new reaction in the past few hours to federal charges for derek chauvin and three other former minneapolis police

officers for violating george floyd's civil rights. attorney ben crump, u.s. representatives, and floyd's family held a news conference earlier today. george floyd's brother, rodney, described hearing about the new charges. >> we received a phone call from the attorney general saying, and you could hear the sincerity in his voice. he spoke with us for about 15 minutes and just explained to us, hey, we got indictment charges going against these four officers, former officers, and it put a smile on our faces, just hearing how touched and moved he was that he's going to give this his all, 100%. he's going to hold these guys to the accountability. >>let bring in naacp president derrick johnson. good to see you. let's get into this here because the indictment states chauvin deprived george floyd from his

right to be free from reasonable seizure. give me your reaction to hearing about these civil rights charges. also, do you think this is going to set a precedent for future cases? >> well, it's important to have a functioning department of justice, and that is what we're witnessing now. as the department begins to staff up with the type of leadership that's necessary, i hope to see more of these type of indictments taking place across the country. any time you allow officers like derek chauvin to operate with no accountability, you have more people in the community who are put at risk, who are caused harm and unfortunately like george floyd, who are killed. >> do you think this is going to be a precedent set here now? >> it should be. the naacp, we were created around anti-lynching legislation to get the federal government the authority to go into local jurisdictions to investigate, to prosecute, and convict individuals involved with lynching. what we seen last year on may

25th was a lynching by law enforcement officers, so i hope this is a precedent with this administration to aggressively put back in check police officers who are causing harm in african-american communities. >> you know, derrick, this indictment shows really an expansive reading of civil rights violations in the george floyd killing. how pivotal is this moment? what kind of message do you think it sends from the department of justice? >> well, the horrific scenes that we witnessed last year, an individual being killed in broad daylight with onlookers watching, pleading for his life, with him pleading for his life, there is no reading that's broad enough to say this did not be tolerated. we cannot have a democracy where mob violence, law enforcement violence can be done in a way in which there is no due process. derek chauvin had more due process than he gave george floyd. we must end this terrorism in our community immediately.

>> yeah. let's turn now, derrick, to the voting rights. republican states, florida, arkansas, georgia, kansas, montana, wyoming, iowa, they all have new legislation to restrict voting access. will you gauge which law is the most egregious in your mind? i mean, what is their -- what's the theme in all of these laws? >> well, the theme is you have policymakers in a political party trying to limit access to voting. you have individuals who want to select their voters as opposed to voters selecting the policy maker, and the real theme for organizations like the naacp is like playing whack-a-mole. we must empower the justice department to create a standard. the city must pass hr-1 and we have to complete with the constitution that all individuals in this country who are eligible should be allowed to cast a ballot. these states are trying to prevent access to the ballots as if we are living in 1940. this is 2021 and the first

nation that should allow all of our citizens to fully engage in this democracy. >> let's take a listen to and then talk about mitch mcconnell's controversial recent comments about the 1619 effort. here's what he had to say. >> this is about american history, and the most important dates in american history, and my view, and i think most americans think dates like 1776, the declaration of independence, 1787, the constitution, 1861 to 1865, the civil war. i simply disagree with the notion that the "new york times" laid out there that the year 1619 was one of those years. >> that year being the slavery starting point in this country.

derrick, what's your response to his comments? how surprised are you by them and how damaging might they be? >> i'm not surprised because he has a myopic view of how america came into being. 1619 is significant not only for african-americans but for this nation, and it was crispus attics, an african-american who died for this democracy. it was through the labor of slaves that built the united states capitol. it was through those africans who were forced into free labor that created the wealth we know as america. so we have to recognize all of our history, not the narrow view that he would like to fit us inside. unfortunately for him, the reality is the future, and that future is diverse, is inclusive, and it's an acknowledgment of who we are as a nation and the history that brought us here.

>> naacp president and ceo derrick johnson, my friend, thank you so much for joining me. we'll see you again soon. a texas town gets a chance to vote yes on teaching anti-racism in schools, but what did the voters decide? we'll share the results next. did the voters decide? we'll share the results next limu emu... and doug. so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. oh um, doug can we talk about something other than work, it's the weekend. yeah, yeah. [ squawk ] hot dog or... chicken? [ squawk ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless. pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? “buickenvision2021.” oh, you should pick something stronger.

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students chanting the n-word first had the community united but then some parents saw it as an effort to discriminate against white students. >> there will be no home for this toxic ideology here in southlake. >> reporter: many believing the school can address racist incidents with its existing code of conduct. >> so now the work begins. >> reporter: southlake's candidates opposing the plan declined interviews, but hannah smith, winner of a school board seat, said in a statement to nbc news, the voters have come together. they don't want racially divisive critical race theory taught to their children or forced on their teachers. parents like robin cornish worry about what comes next. >> do i stand and fight? because honestly, that's what black people do. is this worth saying? is this worth subjecting my kids to this? >> reporter: at a school board meeting monday night, parents were as divided as ever. >> the false narrative of rampant racism within cisd is over. indock trings of children is

over. >> this is a public school district and the board's legal mandate is to protect and educate all students, not just white, christian, conservative students. >> you want to make it national? sure, let's go national, tell the story. >> reporter: fights over anti-racism education have become a new flash point across the country, happening in states from utah, virginia, arizona, and even california. >> this isn't something that started in 2018. >> reporter: high school senior nikki, who i first spoke to in february, has been a vocal advocate of the diversity plan. was that all for nothing? >> it wasn't for nothing, but it just hurt me that a lot of these students who had to go through all of this horrible, horrible treatment aren't getting to see the better that comes out of it. >> reporter: she graduates at the end of may. her family isn't sure they'll stay in town. >> you can't tell people of color to just pretend that racism isn't there. you can't tell them that because you do not believe that there is

systemic racism in southlake, it does not exist. because we know it not to be true. >> reporter: antonia hylton, nbc news, southlake, texas. >> a big test for trumpism in the state of virginia is under way. what we might learn from today's vote next. way. what we might learn from today's vote next. rd. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette breyers is always so delicious... i can tell that they used your milk, matilda. great job! [moo] you're welcome. breyers natural vanilla is made with 100% grade a milk and cream and only sustainably farmed vanilla. better starts with breyers. losing a tooth didn't stop you but your partial can act like a bacteria magnet, milk and cream and only sustainably farmed vanilla. putting natural teeth at risk. new polident propartial helps purify your partial and strengthens and protects natural teeth. so, are you gonna lose another tooth? not on my watch!

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let's go now to virginia where there are seven candidates vying for the republican nomination in the state's gubernatorial race, a republican drive-by convention is under way right now to choose which candidates will represent them in the election. this very unusual contest includes a count that could last for days. according to "the new york times," the gop candidates for governor are being described as trumpy, trumpier, and trumpiest. let's go to nbc's deepa shivram joining us from madison, virginia. what are you hearing from these delegates that makes them have that description? >> reporter: yeah, alex, that's right. i think that's a pretty apt way

of describing the way that the virginia republican party is kind of going through a little bit of an identity crisis in this post-trump era, right, how much do they fall into donald trump's camp and his rhetoric and his mission versus some of the more traditional conservative beliefs in virginia? and for the most part, alex, a lot of these candidates really are following in these footsteps. a lot of them kind of targeting election fraud and election security, coming outs with plans of their own regarding that stuff and at the same time, it leaves delegates and voters in this position where they're trying to figure out what direction they want the party to move in, and with seven candidates running for governor, you know, three or four who are more top tier, it is a wide array of choices here. i spoke to one voter, though, who was talking about why he thinks virginia republicans have kind of been losing traditionally a lot more lately. as we know, this is a state that was largely red, turned purple and is really turning a lot more blue, alex, in recent years, and this voter had some thoughts as to why. take a listen.

>> we've been infighting for a long time, and to me, that's the main problem, why we haven't won in virginia, because of all the infighting. and to me, like i say, i'm voting for kurt cox. if he doesn't win, i'll support wholeheartedly whoever does win and to me, if you're a republican or democrat or whatever you are, that's what you should do and we have people in virginia that don't want to do that and that's the problem. we need to somehow overcome that. >> reporter: alex, we've been talking to voters here all day and quite frankly i've heard a wide array of names being tossed out in terms of which folks are being ranked as people's top choice but as we know, that counting isn't even going to start until tomorrow so this is going to be a weeks-long process and we'll keep you posted. >> for which i thank you, deepa. and thanks to all of you for watching alex witt reports. yasmin vossoughian is up next. she's going to speak with the reporter who broke the story about the trump justice department secretly obtaining

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♪♪ good afternoon, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. we got a lot of ground to cover right now. a bombshell report involving the trump justice department and secretly obtained records from unsuspecting reporters covering the russia investigation. i'm going to talk to the man who broke this story in just a moment. also, we have some major breaking news we're following, a huge blast at a girls' school leaving more than 30 dead, most of them kids. and violent clashes in israel that has the u.s. state department issuing a warning. and a rally in texas over voting rights under attack from republicans, part of a nationwide effort to make it harder for you to cast your ballot. plus, next hour, you don't want to miss this story. a 7-year-old girl fighting for her own kind of representation. i'm going to introduce you to morgan bug, who launched a battle with an app to