tonight's lead, your lying eyes. right now a conclusion that seemed forgone to rational americans four months ago is just now being reached by congressional republicans, and that is the idea that the most visible act of right week terror in a generation should be reckoned with, even if it makes the current gop look worse. just as soon as it was announced that a congressional bill to establish a bipartisan january 6th investigative committee could see a volt as early as this week, the top republican in congress began undermining the effort by trying to rope and tie racists into the same fold as the insurrectionists that carried confederate flags through the halls of our union.

in a minute i'll talk to congressman bennie thompson, architect of the january 6th commission as the same house republicans who cowered in fear of a violent mob are now calling it a school field trip, if they admit it happened at all. that's because the gop has channelled racism for political gain for so long that they cannot imagine winning without it. so every concern, including our national security comes second to either getting votes or suppressing them. and in just a few minutes, i'll talk to our nation's first latino senator, california democrat alex padilla about the sale mate over voting rights in the senate and the gop's fear of our demographic future. but first, the insurrection and

litigating the big lie. my first guest to get us started, congressman bennie thompson, democratic of mississippi. he is the chair of the homeland security committee, and this week was put in charge of an independent commission to investigate the january 6th insurrection at the capitol. congressman, let me get right to it. the chamber is expected to vote on a bill setting up the panel that i just mentioned as soon as next week. i understand it will have ten members, five each appointed by democrats and republicans and issue a report after it finishes the probe. in your own words, what is the main goal of this commission? >> the main goal is twofold really, to get to the facts and circumstances that brought january 6th about. look at what happened, why it was brought about, and then make recommendations to congress as

to how we can go forward and make sure that this never happens again. as you know, the last time the capitol had this kind of attack was in 1814. we've gone a long time without an insurrection on our capitol. now we put this commission together to make sure that it never happens again. >> what can you tell us about this reporting that essentially, as soon as it was publicized that a hearing on the insurrection would take place, house minority leader kevin mccarthy started undermining it? i don't know if we heard me or we're having difficulty -- we have a little technical difficulty. we'll come back to the

congressman. let me go to -- joining me now is senator alex padilla. we'll come back to congressman thompson. senator padilla is a member of the judiciary and homeland security committees. senator, this week you chaired your first senate judiciary committee immigration subcommittee hearing. you were the first latino u.s. senator to do so, and you discussed the essential role of immigrant workers and the need to thank them with a pathway to citizenship that they deserve. what would that pathway look like? >> appreciate the opportunity, reverend, to be on the show and talk about on going efforts and negotiations on immigration reform broadly. i think most people have tracked a growing support and momentum on a bipartisan basis, frankly, to taking care of daca participants and dreamers more

broadly. same thing with farmworkers and other categories. my first bill as a senator, and the topic of the first hearing you mentioned this last week makes a similar pitch for all the immigrants that have been working in our country as essential workers throughout the pandemic. think about all the frontline workers in north korea, in agriculture, in food processing, transportation, construction and more. the ones that couldn't zoom in their work, but did the work day in, day out to keep the rest of us safe, keep the economy going. let's give the ability to live without fear of deportation and put them on a pathway to citizenship. it's a five-year wait. it's not automatic citizenship. i think it's the least we can do for the folks who were on the front lines risking their health and their families protecting

the rest of us. their work has been essential since before the pandemic, but especially since covid, it's been out there for everybody to see. >> last week on this show i talked about the 20 years since the d.r.e.a.m. act was first introduced. back then it was a bipartisan idea that young people brought to this country has children should have a legal pathway to stay. how did we get so far away from that over the last two decades, senator? >> i wish it wasn't the case. the good news is, there's still bipartisan support for taking care of dreamers. the political climate we're living in today is clearly different than 20 years ago or ten years ago. the biggest impact on all of this has been trump. while trump is gone, trumpism clearly isn't. you see what happened with representative cheney in the house just this last week. and to think that the last time

that the united states senate acted on a bipartisan basis to upgrade our nation's immigration law was 2013, eight years ago, not that long ago in the grand scheme of things. the political climate that we're living in is very different. i'm hopeful that in the hearing we had last week of the judiciary subcommittee, one of the meetings i'm having with senators on both sides of the aisle, a bipartisan citizen group trying to get a pathway forward. i'm opted mystic we'll make some progress this year. >> senator, the for the people act has been stalled yet again in the senator, this time in the rules committee. not a single republican showed willingness to bring the measure to the floor. with a 50/50 senate and senator manchin of westchester refusing to entertain filibuster reform, how are other senate democrats planning to stop the assault on voting rights in america?

>> well, first of all, we've got to keep the pressure on. get segue, by the way, from your conversation with congressman thompson, about the january 6th insurrection and the big lie. let's remind people what the big lie was. it was trump and his enablers fueling conspiracy theories about the integrity of our election, a tremendous pretext to continue their voter suppression agenda. so s1, the for the people act, and the john lewis voting rights act are both more urgent and necessary than they've ever been. we know in the senate sadly we have this obstacle, i call it the f word, the filibuster. that's a question for all significant legislation, immigration, voting rights, et cetera. if it means reforming or abolishing the filibuster, i'm

supportive of doing that to advance this. i think we'll make progress on a bipartisan basis. senator manchin mentioned he's supportive of the john lewis voting rights act. so that's good. >> but he has not expressed the same about senate bill one. we all know the filibuster has always been used to block civil rights and issues of race. it needs to be dealt with. but thank you, senator alex padilla. as you said, we were talking to congressman bennie thompson, and we've straightened out the technical difficulty. let me go back to congressman thompson. just a moment ago, congressman, mr. chairman, we asked you about the main goal of the jan 5i6rth commission. what can you tell us about this reporting that essentially, as soon as it was publicized, that a hearing on the insurrection would take place, house minority leader kevin mccarthy started undermining it. >> well, i can tell you this,

rev, leader mccarthy along with every other leader in congress was kept informed on a daily basis as to what was going on. he even made sug jekss as to what we needed to do if we needed his support in the bill. we accepted his suggestions and moved on. so i can't really understand why at the last moment he would say that. i'm looking forward to voting on it this week. i look forward to having strong republican support for this commission bill. >> so let me make sure i'm following you right. you and those that work along with you had consistent contact throughout the process with mr. mccarthy. he even made recommendations, and now he's coming with a total opposite point of view, point of

contention even after he participated all the way through this process? >> no question about it. he did. we have letters from him making suggestions in writing. so it was not something that was kept from him. we absolutely included the republican leadership and the democratic leadership in this process. so that's why we got it to be bipartisan because we wanted this thing to reflect who we are as americans. it doesn't matter whether you're a democratic, republican or whatever. what happened on january 6th was an absolute travesty for democracy in this country. and we have to make sure it never happens again. >> well, this is the same mccarthy that got on the phone during the insurrection and told donald trump, the president at the time, that he needs to do something about it, these are not antifa, these are maga

people. you need to do something about it. a few days later he went to mar-a-lago and kissed the ring. i guess he's consistently inconsistent. what's your response to those who call on this commission to investigate black lives matter and antifa as well? >> well, this commission's sole scope is to look at january 6th. if they are interested in investigating anything, they are members of congress just like bennie thompson and others are. they need to bring it forward, but they need to bring it forward in a process that we all can work with. you know, all this was a deflection on the part of the individual. donald trump invited the people to washington on january 6th. if you remember, rev, he even tweeted and said to come and it would be wild. that, my friend, is an understatement compared to what

really happened on january 6th. >> all right. thank you congressman, mr. chairman, bennie thompson. always great to have you on the show. joining me is congresswoman robin kelly of illinois. she chairs the congress black caucus's health subcommittee. congresswoman, let me get right to it with you. the latest racial breakdown of fully vaccinated people show that while whites are overrepresented compared to their share of the population, everyone else is still lacking behind, with black and hispanic folk trailing the most. is this the best time, based on that, for the new cdc guidelines on masking? >> you know, i think that we just have to double town on making sure that black and brown folks get their vaccinations. last week the congress black caucus had our gotv, get out the

vaccines, to try to get more people to get vaccines. it's a little concerning to me. i was out and i'm still wearing my mask, quite frankly. i would encourage people, if they're going to be in an environment with a lot of people, to definitely still wear their masks. but we have to do better and convince people that they have to get their vaccines. >> now, among southern states with large black populations, there is not a single statewide mask mandate, keeping the black community at disproportionately at risk until the access gap in vaccinations can be bridged. how do we get shots into arms when people can't miss work, often at an establishment where customers won't mask up? >> we talk about some of the things we were able to get passed in the american rescue plan.

whip clyburn was a big proponent of this. we go to the people. we have mobile vans and things like that. in the south, we're going to have to look at things like that and going to the people. i know some places are even incentiiing folks in different creative ways to come and get their vaccines. we have to just keep beating the drum, how important it is, and we have to meet people where they are. >> congresswoman, you've introduced two bills recently, the hero for youth act and the medical nutrition therapy act. what problems would these bills address and what are the chances of them making it through the senate where the filibuster is still in fact? >> the medical nutrition therapy act is a bipartisan bill, so that always helps to get it passed. it deals with making sure that people get nutrition therapy and

it's covered by medicare. so often, again, black and brown people don't have access to health care. they might live in food deserts, don't have access to healthy foods and don't have access to exercising. this would really help with health care disparities and making sure that people can get this coverage and get -- take advantage of access to health care, being able to get healthy foods and also exercise, because what you eat determines so much. i know you know this, your health. out of the top ten diseases that americans die from, african-americans are number one in eight out of the ten. when you think about diabetes and heart disease and things like that, what we eat has something to do with how healthy we are or are not. the heroes act helps young people 16 to 24 -- we're hoping

that this will help jobs hire young people that are not employed. they can get tax credits for hiring young people and set them on their way, job training, jobs and things like that. i always say nothing stops a bullet like an opportunity. so this is a way, we're hoping, to build someone's resume, keep them off the streets and get a job. >> and they can get tax credits doing -- giving -- >> right, up to $2,400 in tax credits. >> that's important. thank you for being with us, congresswoman. >> thank you for having me. be safe. >> you as well. coming up on "politics nation," cruel and unusual punishment. i'll speak with south carolina state representative justin bamberg about the push by his state's governor -- watch this -- to bring back firing

squads. plus i want to talk about the covid-19 vaccine and how we must rise up to protect each other. first, my colleague richard lui with today's other top news stories. richard. >> rev, good sunday to you. some of the stories we're watching for you. a u.s. envoy has arrived in tel aviv in hopes to deescalate tensions between israeli and palestinian forces. they're experiencing the bloodiest clashes since 2014. president biden has called for a cease-fire. thousands of palestinian rockets targeted densely populated cities and towns. in gaza, approximately 188 people were killed from israeli air strikes. firefighters in southern california are battling a string of new wildfires northwest of santa monica. the palisades burned up to 750 acres of land. l.a. county fire department issued a mandatory evacuation area around the toe pang ga canyon region.

starbucks joins other retailers lifting mask requirements for fully vaccinated customers in response to new cdc guidance. walmart is allowing vaccinated shoppers and employees to be mask-free in stores as well. the cdc saying last week vaccinated americans no longer have to wear a mask in most day-to-day situations. we have more "politics nation" with reverend al sharpton right after a short break. ton right after a short break. seeing blood when you brush or floss can be a sign of early gum damage. new parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line

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for this week's "rise up," i want to talk about community, specifically your responsibility to your own community, both in getting the covid-19 vaccine yourself and helping your friends and neighbors get protected. first, let's look at the numbers. while vaccination rates are ticking up across all racial categories in the united states, black and brown folks are lagging behind compared to our

relative share of the u.s. population. and while some of that lingering skepticism, we also know that skepticism is dropping all over the country, among democrats and republicans across all races. a lot of the remaining gaps are a matter of access. still, some states are getting creative in their quest to get residents immunized. west virginia is offering savings bonds and ohio is entering vaccinated folks in a lottery for a $1 million prize. here in new york city, anyone riding the subway can get vaccinated in the station and get a free week-long metro card in the bargain. sometimes external incentives aren't enough. here is what the president told my colleague, lawrence o'donnell this week. >> when your neighbor gets a vaccine, your next door neighbor gets it, you say, well, maybe i

should get it. no matter what your position was, when you see people in a position where you can easily get the vaccine, you don't have to go way out of your way. >> president biden is echoing the expertise of professionals, people who still feel hesitant about the vaccine are less likely to be swayed by celebrity endorsements or cdc press releases. they want to hear from their friends and neighbors. detroit is one city who has taken that approach to heart and is now offering its residents $50 for each person they can get vaccinated, friend, family or neighbor. perhaps the best way to galvanize is unvaccinated folks in your life is to start abiding by the new cdc guideline of masks. once you're fully vaccinated, your life can largely return to normal. make sure you document your

maskless adventures for your social media audience and share your gratitude for the vaccine. the fact of the matter is that, the more people get fully vaccinated, the safer we will be. so what can you be doing about it? well, first, if you're not vaccinated, get that shot. nearly every american lives within five miles of a vaccination center. and if you are vaccinated, spread the word about how good it feels to be protected. i feel great knowing i can do my work without fear of serious illness or concern about infected those around me. finally, talk to your friends and neighbors. tell them about your experience being vaccinated and ask them how you can help. maybe you can offer a car pool to a vaccine appointment or accompany a friend on the bus for moral support ahead of their shot. if your workplace isn't offering time off for vaccinations, offer

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while the debate over criminal justice reform plays out at the federal level, with democrats pressing with some success for progressive gain, this week i was stunned to hear one state, south carolina, is poised to introduce the option of death by firing squad to death row prisoners. this in response to a lack of lethal injection drugs, and the state is not alone in looking at

this. joining me now, south carolina state representative justin bamberg, a deck krat. representative bamberg, you and i have known each other and worked on things, so you're always straight. it is expected that your state governor will soon sign a bill that requires death row inmates to choose between either electrocution or death by firing squads. i mean, tell me this isn't so. as your state's quota of lethal injection drugs has expired, some of our viewers might be surprised to learn that south carolina would not be the only state to execute prisoners in this manner. i've read that amendments were offered up by state legislators to keep even more gruesome means of executions off the book.

hat can you tell us? >> rev, thank you for having me. folks like yourself and others who have been fighting the justice fight for a long time understand that unfortunately a lot of people don't. it blows my mind to see my state heading backwards. we started the death penalty using the electric chair back in 1912. since that time, unfortunately, of the 282 executions that this state has had, the majority of them, almost 74% have been african-american males, even though african-americans only make up 37% of the population in the state. during the course of the debate here, there were amendments proffered by myself and my democratic colleagues, for example, to follow in the footsteps of true leadership like a new democratic virginia did when they recently abolished

the death penalty. all those efforts were cut down pretty quickly. of course, here we are. inmates have a choice, quote, unquote. but not really. there's no humane way to kill a human beings. i don't view the firing squad worse than the lethal injection. the firing squad is something they do in north korea. think about that, north korea. >> i've been a long opponent of the death penalty and either way it's done, it's wrong. i think most americans that i talk to, since you brought this issue are, are stunned to even think in 2021 you're offering people the option of a firing squad. last week your state government closed offices in celebration, for example, of confederate memorial day, commemorating those who died in the defense of slavery 140 years ago.

they actually closed offices. i wonder if it's a stretch to assume that you were still working, and i also wonder what black lawmakers like yourself did while your peers felt the need to celebrate separatists and people guilty of betraying this country. >> rev, when you live in a state like south carolina, you have to fight every day, whether it be a confederate holiday, which for many of us we view it as a slap in the face. i understand folks who lost loved ones in that war. but at the end of the day, like you pointed out and i've been saying for years, living where i live, the confederate army was fighting over slavery, their right to own people like me and you. it's something that states should not be celebrating. it is a shame to put that in the same category as, say, veterans day for people who actually fought for america.

instead, we honor those who didn't want to be a part of the great country we call america. >> they fought against it -- it was sedition. i can't think of a nation in the world that celebrates the people that tried to overthrow their government and has holidays for them. >> not just that. when you look to germany, there's no nazi memorial day. and the confederate memorial day reminds -- this state is home to mother emanuel. a senator was assassinated in that church with eight others under the guise of the confederate flag. we fought way back when to remove the flag from the statehouse dome. it landed in the front yard of the people's house, including black and brown people. we still can't escape it in the south. when the question is asked, what do we do on confederate memorial

day, we work, we work and we work some more. we're going to keep working, and we have to keep working in the south until we hit a point where these dark days are behind us and we can move forward and be more unified and more importantly be treated more equally. >> now, i have to get to that disturbing case out of charleston, south carolina, earlier this year. the body cam footage released friday in which a mentally ill man, jamal southerland, died in attempted transport by police to his bond hearing. an altercation ensuing in his jail cell in which he was apparently tased while subdued and pepper spray was deployed. your thoughts on this, representative? >> we have got, everybody watching -- to not just hear this, but repeat this. we have got to get to a point in

america where law enforcement and government understands being brown in and of itself does not make you dangerous. it does not make you less than human, and just importantly, being mentally ill does not make you dangerous, does not make you less important. what we see in the sutherland case is a perfect example of government power over people they view as worthless. mr. sutherland was tortured. he was tased approximately nine times, and law enforcement -- a taser is not a life raft, rev. a taser is not some safety tool. it's not a band-aid. a taser is a weapon by definition. this individual suffering severe mental health, schizophrenia. he asked officers, what is this about? what is this about officers? i'm not resisting officers. and they continued to cattle

prong him, put a spit mask on his face, lay him on his stomach, put their knees on his back, drag him out of his cell like he was a sack of potatoes. it's disgusting, right? these are not things that just started happening, rev. they've been happening back to when you were young and you were in the fight and you were this the streets and you were at the rallies. the only difference between then and now is now we have it on video. >> yeah. >> and even after video, rev, after video, after video, when are we, as a society, going to take a stance and say we will no longer allow our government, our law enforcement to treat us like the governments -- like we're seeing in colombia right now, like we see in venezuela, like we see in north korea. the line has to be drawn somewhere, rev. it's getting ridiculous. we've been praying for mr. sutherland's family. we've got to make changes now.

>> which is why some of us are still at the rallies and still in the streets raising issues of justice as you are. justin bamberg, thank you for being with me. we're going to follow this story. up next, i'll talk with my panel about the cdc's new guidance on masks. we'll still cover that and the rest of the day's political headlines after the break. headlines after the break. michael: this is the story of two brothers. david: my grandfather, pinchas. michael: my great-great- grandfather, rachmaiel. gigi: pinky and rocky. simi: there was an uprising in poland. david: and then the family broke apart. michael: they scattered around in different places. gigi: they worked hard. simi: and built new lives. michael: but rocky and pinky's families didn't see each other again... all: ...until now. david: more than 100 years later, ancestry helped connect us to our ancestors and each other. ancestry helped connect us to our ancestors hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different.

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welcome back to "politics nation." we have a lot to talk about with my panel. joining me is democratic strategist and former chair of the maryland democratic party, maya rockymoore cummings and former republican strat just for the lincoln project, tara stint meyer. cdc director dr. rochelle walensky was on "meet the press" today. listen to her talk about the new guidance that vaccinated americans with go without their masks in most places. take a listen. >> what is a business supposed to do when somebody walks in without a mask? assume they're abiding by the rules? >> you know, we're asking people to be honest with themselves. if they're vaccinated and they're not wearing a mask, they are safe. if they are not vaccinated and

not wearing a mask, they are not safe. >> some states have dropped their mask mandates in response to the new guidance. there are also many americans who are concerned about going maskless. is the biden administration sending the right message about where we are in this pandemic? >> well, i'm not going to question the science. i'm not a scientist. the people who study this and are experts in this area, clearly there's data that has given them, that has informed them that this is a policy that could go forward. from a public relation is standpoint, messaging zsh wise, it sends a terrible message. we're nowhere close to herd immunity. we have vaccine hesitancy in this country. how are we supposed to know who is vaccinated and who isn't if people are no longer required to wear masks because the cdc rules say, if you're vaccinated, you're safe indoors and

outdoors. i can tell you from personal experience, just in my social sphere no one feels safe walking into an indoor environment, varks nated or not, without a mask on because you have too many people who already refuse to get the vaccine. you think the honor system is going to work here? people aren't honest about who won the election? you think they're going to be honest about their vaccines at this point? i don't think it's a good idea right now. it's a terrible mixed message by the biden administration. they have to fix it. >> to that point, maya, florida's secretary of health revealed this week only 7% of the state's fully vaccinated population are black. we know that in many other states, minority communities continue to lag behind their white counterparts in terms of vaccination rates. how can the biden administration keep up the pressure on states to get their minority communities vaccinated even as

we lift masking and social distancing restrictions? >> so they need to incentivize the equity mandate they have embraced at the federal level and incentivize it by, of course, providing resources for the states to actually direct resources and do an intense and deep dive in communities of color, african-americans specifically. in florida it's even worse. desantis has been accused of locating vaccination sites in whiter and wealthier communities. we found out one of those vaccination counties that he targeted was actually set up to be a political boon for him. at the same time he's sought to prevent localities from actually enacting their own mandates around masking. meaning that he is setting it up to undermine the ability of african-americans and other vulnerable communities to protect themselves from the

virus. to me, this is a genocidal approach to the vaccination strategy. it needs to be addressed, and i think the biden administration needs to double down on the states and making sure that everybody has access and everybody can be protected. >> tara, there's been a lot of talk this week about what went down during the insurrection at the capitol on january 6th. while a commission has been launched looking into it, there has been several tense events held, including congresswoman marjorie taylor greene confronting congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez and a staffer attacking eric swalwell over wearing a mask. should lawmakers be most concerned about getting to the bottom of what happened in january, or is the aggressive behavior we're seeing from some elected republicans right now even more clear and present

danger? >> i spent seven years as a senior staffer on capitol hill. i never saw anything like this. it was unimaginable that members of congress would be this disrespectful and this level of performative politics, these people are there. they're not serious legislators, not there to debate policy. i saw plenty of heated policy debates and members of congress would still have lunch together, still cordial to one another because they respected each other in congress. this woman's behavior is despicable. she's a disgrace. taxpayers are literally paying her to do nothing but run around and try to get fund-raising gotcha moments, because she doesn't have her committee assignments. her role in january 6th is actually in question. i'm glad to see a bipartisan commission has been approved here to look into the insurrection because it absolutely needs to be. there was an assaults on our

democracy that day and lives were lost. marjorie taylor greene, her behavior is unfit for congress, and there should be an ethics investigation opened up into her immediately. and kevin mccarthy needs to put his foot down and tell her to stop it. i hope speaker pelosi will do that because she needs to be disciplined. this is despicable behavior. >> i'm going to have to leave it there. many thanks to maya and tara. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. at walmart, walmart can buy more tea from milo's. milo's can create new jobs, jobs for people like james and lacey and me. me, i love my work family. family here and home, is my life is better for us because of a job. a job created when you buy this tea at walmart. ♪ ♪ [laugh] a job created when you buy this tea at walmart. dad i got a job! i'm moving out.

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least 46 other instances over the past 25 years in which medical examiners, law enforcement officials, and defenders of accused police officers pointed to this sickle cell trait as a cause for major factor in deaths of black people in custody. 15 such deaths have occurred since 2015. but according to the times, in roughly two thirds of the cases, the person who died had been forcefully restrained by the authorities, pepper sprayed, or shocked with stun guns. the determinations on sickle cell trait often created enough doubt for officers to avert criminal or civil penalties. next week, we will have much more on this story. but the notion that a genetic trait in black people can give the police some sort of cover, the notion that pathologists are

willing to rule the deaths of black people in custody are accidents of natural occurrences caused by sickle cell trait, which is carried by 1 in 13 black americans, is extremely troubling to me. and that is one of the reasons why i'm going to houston and minneapolis next weekend as the president of national action network, because the one-year anniversary of the murder of george floyd is not just a symbolic event. it's a reminder that we have a long way to go until we achieve justice, criminal, social, full justice for all. a young man ask mead, you have been out here for decades, reverend. you don't get tired? i said i didn't start this fight for a season. i started and it is my life and my reason for my life. next week's anniversary is just a step in the way to commemorate the day when the world came

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