this sunday, republicans block the january 6th commission. >> donald trump's big lie has now fully enveloped the republican party. >> only six republicans vote for an independent panel to investigate the assault on the capitol. >> it doesn't look like we're going to have the opportunity to get the answers that way. >> i think the basic goal of our democratic friends is to keep relitigating in public what happened back on january 6th. >> what this vote says about our democracy. i'll talk to former republican congresswoman barbara comstock who spent the week unsuccessfully lobbying republican senators, and democratic congressman jason

crow of colorado. >> plus, the wuhan mystery. growing concerns that the coronavirus leaked from that lab in wuhan, china, prompt president biden to order a new u.s. intelligence investigation. >> we need to get to the bottom of this, whatever the answer may be. >> what he announced yesterday is too little too late. >> nigh guest this morning, former deputy national security adviser peter pottinger and dr. hotez. and the anniversaries of two racially charged events. the murder of george floyd and the 1921 tulsa race massacre. how the floyd case and its aftermath may have helped a nation acknowledge what happened in tulsa 100 years ago. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett, former obama campaign manager stephanie cutter,aisha roscow, and sara fagen.

welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in telephone history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> a good sunday morning. i hope you're enjoying this memorial day weekend wherever you are. you may be somewhere other than your house. if friday's senate vote on an independent commission to investigate january 6th was a stress test for our democracy, sadly, our democracy failed. and failed big time. republicans managed to block the commission, even with 54 senators voting for it. it was still six votes short of the 60 needed to defeat a republican led filibuster. not surprisingly, democrats condemned the republicans for their nearly unanimous vote. >> shame on the republican party because they're afraid of donald trump. >> also not surprisingly, the republicans voted down the commission after their leader, mitch mcconnell, came out publicly against it. >> there's no new fact about

that day. we need the democrats' extraneous commission to uncover. >> mcconnell has been honest publicly and made it plain he believes the more attention and sunlight cast on january 6th, the worst it will be politically for republican candidates in 2022. that's why he's against it, period. on a memorial day weekend when we honor men and wim whoon gave their lives defending our democracy, this congress has chosen not to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the worst attack on our capitol, the citadel of this democracy, since the war of 1812. among those disappointed by this vote was barbara comstock, a former republican congresswoman from northern virginia. she was shepherding a group lobbying for the panel. it included the mother and girlfriend of brian sicknick, the officer who died as a result of the january 6th assault, and two other officers. barbara comstock joins me now. welcome back to "meet the press." i want to put up the statement that gladys sicknick put out

before you started your meetings on capitol hill. she said i suggest that all congressmen and senators who are against this bill visit my son's grave in arlington national cemetery and while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward. she said this wednesday. you had 36 hours trying to convince these skeptical republican senators to do this. why didn't this message convince more to support this commission? >> well, thank you, todd, for showing that statement. and mrs. sicknick had such a grace and quiet courage and spoke very directly to these members. and i do think because of what she did and brian's partner, sandra, and also officer fernon and officer dunn, we will have a thorough investigation. i would have preferred that be an independent, outside investigation that was

nonpartisan. i think that would remove it from the political sphere and allow republicans and democrats to return to working on the issues that they all say they want to work on. but i think now, it will be an investigation in congress. and one thing that did happen from our meetings this week is lindsey graham did promise to advocate that officer frenon and officer dunn and others who were on the front lines fighting in what was a medieval battle, a lot of people still don't realize how violent that was, that officer frenon was tased 12 times at the back of his neck, that he has traumatic brain injuries, and he almost died that day. he suffered a heart attack. and people are still talking about these were like tourists. we need to have that full story out. it's going to get out one way or the other. and i think because of the courage of mrs. sicknick and the sadness that she's going to have over this memorial day weekend, as will all of the sicknick family, but i think their courage will prevail and that we

will get to the truth. >> look, i want to put up a screen here of all the senators you did meet with that you had a chance to meet with, and five of this group did vote for the commission of your meetings. but a majority that you met with did not. so, and i look at certain people here. let's go to james lankford. this is somebody, i think, you and i both know him well. i have no doubt he's somebody torn on this. roy blunt is another one that you would think is torn on this. but they're very loyal to mitch mcconnell. tell me about those conversations. bring me in the room. >> well, certainly, all of the senators, you know, many of them did acknowledge what many republicans have not acknowledged, which is that this was a violent assault on the capitol that can never happen again. and that it does need to be thoroughly investigated. they didn't seem to think this was the answer. that's why i say this will still be investigated because

subpoenas will get the facts, we'll find out who organized the mob, how it was orchestrated, who directed them down to the capitol to assault the capitol. and we also, you know, you did show who we met with and who voted for it. senator sasse also had communicated with us, and he also supported it, as did senator toomey, who we met with, indicated he would have supported it had he been present. so i am still optimistic that we -- i know the truth will come out. you know from decades past that i have worked on investigations, and when people try and hold these things back, it always comes out in the end. that's why i think both for the country as well as for republicans, it would be better to do it sooner rather than later. and i know we can get those subpoenas out, whether it's bipartisan means. i hope nancy pelosi, if she sets up a commission, it will be exactly like the one designed, five democrats, five

republicans, that they share power, and that they get the people who care about this, certainly the 35 house republicans that voted for an investigation would be a good place to start to get five republicans who will work on this and get to the answers that are -- our officers are hurting right now. people need to know those capitol officers that they walk by every day, they want a commission. they are hurting. they are leaving in droves. they're leaving faster than they can be replaced. >> i want to play something -- >> this has to be addressed. >> i want to play something bill cassidy said, because i thought it was -- he put together what i thought could have been an effective argument to convince skeptical republicans to vote for the commission. here was his rationale. >> ask the american people, are they more likely to trust an independent commission not composed of members of congress or are they more likely to trust one hand-picked by speaker pelosi. pretty clear who they would most trust. i think this is as much as anything about building trust with the american people.

>> you and i both know, i could picture mitch mcconnell in another world making the case for this commission using bill cassidy's argument. >> well, that was exactly the argument that we were making to the senators. and senator cassidy is exactly right. and he was so gracious in meeting with the family, and he even indicated how close his family was to capitol police officers, and how his daughter had been close to them since she grew up in this area. so he makes the best case. and i talked to one of the 35 -- i talked to a number of the 35 in the house who voted for it. that's exactly the argument that those who voted for it made to their constituents, some of whom aren't happy they're doing this, but that's the whole point. it would be nonpartisan. it's this protection, i think, i understand republicans want to get away from donald trump. if donald trump disappeared tomorrow, i don't think you would have many republicans in the search party.

maybe a few prosecutors, but not republicans. they want to get away from him. but the problem is, he's not going to go away. but this is not about democrats or republicans. it's about the country, and it's about getting to the truth and about protecting the capitol, the people who work there, and also making sure this never happens again. and that's what the family so eloquently communicated. and i think obviously senator cassidy captured that well. >> very quickly, barbara comstock, chuck schumer has promised one more vote on this commission at least. you think you'll get a face-to-face between the sicknick family members and mitch mcconnell? >> well, senator mcconnell's office had offered to have a meeting with the staff. it was late in the day, it had been a long day for the family. at that point, given they had indicated where the vote was going to be, that was past time. we would be happy to meet with any of the other senators to discuss really why senator

cassidy is right, senator romney, you know, discussed that in the same way, as did lisa murkowski made -- she was the last meeting of the day, and she was so gracious and kind to the family. and really apologizing to mrs. sicknick that she should even have to be there on this painful memorial day weekend when her son lies at arlington national cemetery, as she pointed out, because he fought so well. officer fanone said to many senators, we were so good at our job that day, i don't think a lot of you realize what danger you were in. what could have happened from this mob that was saying "hang mike pence." and i think the officer is exactly right, and he will be heard in public, and should be. as should so many of the officers on the front line. >> barbara comstock, thank you for coming on and sharing your experiences this week. >> thank you. >> with the family members and the officers. >> joining me now is democratic congressman jason crow of

colorado. the former army ranger. he helps protect many fellow members of congress on the frightful day on january 6th. he became an impeachment manager as well. congressman, welcome to "meet the press." so i guess the question now is, where do we go now? where does this go next? and would you like to see speaker pelosi, if this is now a house-driven investigation, essentially follow the parameters of the commission? that they wanted to develop to try to give as much credibility as you can to this investigation? >> well, good morning, chuck. thanks for having me on. the question, first, is one of timing. so if mitch mcconnell has said that we are going to take another vote on this, i think the question for speaker pelosi and chuck schumer is, do we believe him that this will be a vote in good faith? we had 54 votes on friday. we think there were a couple more people that would have voted for it had they been present. the question is, can we get those three or four additional votes or are we just delaying

the inevitable? that is, are we going to have to take up a select committee on the house side or some kind of house and senate combined committee and do this ourselves? so i don't know. i can't read their minds at this point, but this has to get done. i'm sick of playing the game of whack-a-mole with gop members in the congress. you know, every time we address one of their concerns, another one pops up. it's like playing whack-a-mole. we can't continue to do that forever. we need to get answers. there's an urgency to this. let's not forget, this is not a process in the integrity of history, although that is important. we have a growing violent extremism movement in the united states. we have the spreading of the big lie that's being used to further voter suppression laws around the country. and a growing number of republicans are actually starting to believe more and more the big lie and undermine the legitimacy of the biden presidency. this is a problem that is

prescient, growing, and we have to address it with some timeliness. >> you sound like somebody like me who has a little hope that, maybe, hey, there's going to be one more vote. maybe after they go home, there's a couple more minds that will change. let's assume that doesn't happen. is there any other alternative, a presidential commission from joe biden? a joint task force of the fbi? is there any other method you would suggest before going to a select committee in congress? >> well, i think what's really important is that we have some sort of bipartisan commission here. we have to make sure we're doing this in a way that helps reinspire trust and confidence of the american people in our institutions. and we have to have subpoena power. we have to get information that you can't get to necessarily with other investigations. there's a gao investigation going on right now that i actually ask for as a member of the house. there are ig investigations that are going on right now. but what we really need to know is what was donald trump doing

in the hours before the riot, during the riot, what was he telling his advisers, what happened with that discussion with kevin mccarthy? those are things i think uniquely we can get through only through a bipartisan commission or a select committee with subpoena power, that would be very, very hard for another government entity or agency to get to. >> i'm sure you have had some constituents say this to you, which is if you can't have a bipartisan agreement on something like this that normally would be above politics, think 9/11, think the iraq study group. we could go through many instances of traumatic events in this country where bipartisanship eventually was used to get to the bottom of things. if you can't do it for this, does this mean bipartisanship is really dead on any issue? >> well, i share that question. i really do, chuck. listen, i was there on january 6th. you know that.

i made the call to my wife, i told her i loved her, i didn't know whether i would make it out of the chamber like journalists, like police officers who were there, over 140 were beaten, one was killed, one later took his life. it was a terrible, brutal, and violent day. let's not forget, you know, the hours and the days after that attack, the way that my gop colleagues were talking, the way they were acting. i remember very specifically, hours after we had retaken the capitol and gone in and recertified the election, kevin mccarthy gets up on the house floor, we were all sitting there on the house floor. there's still the smell of tear gas and broken glass all over. and he gave this speech about how people held the breach against the mob and made sure that the house chamber hadn't been taken. he actually called me out by name, and several other members. then you fast forward a couple months, and it really wasn't a big deal. it's all about politics.

you know, i'm an optimist by nature, i think just like you, chuck. but that's being strained right now because the impact of fear, the fear of donald trump, and the impact of power, the desire for power by certain elements in the gop, is overriding that patriotism, that desire to do what's necessary for the good of the country, and it's frankly very depressing. >> jason crow, an army ranger veteran himself on this memorial day weekend, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us, sir. i appreciate it. >> thanks, chuck. >> when we come back on this memorial day weekend, if congress can't even agree on an independent january 6th commission, what can it agree on? panel is next. t agree on the panel is next. think of what peanuts have given humanity! fuel for vast migrations! sustenance for mountaineering expeditions

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welcome back. the panel is with us, nbc news

white house correspondent geoff bennett, former obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter, ayesha rascoe for npr, and former white house political director for george w. bush, sara fagen. sara, i want to put up two quotes and have you explain why one is winning out over the other. first, mitch mcconnell from thursday morning. >> if we set up this commission, i think the basic goal of our democratic friends is to keep relitigating in public what happened back on january 6th rather than getting to a quick solution through arrests of those who did it and security adjustments to make sure it never happens again. >> here is lisa murkowski. >> we just can't pretend that nothing bad happened or that people just got too excitable. something bad happened, and it's important to lay that out. >> is the answer simply politics?

>> look, i think all things being equal, we should have this style of a commission. i think many people would agree. they certainly would agree with it privately. i think, however, what the leader indicated in his quote there was, in fact, that there's no trust by republicans that this commission would be anything other than a political weapon used to defeat republicans in elections. so republicans find themselves in a difficult situation at least politically, which is to say, if you go forward with this commission, all you're doing is setting yourselves up for months of conversation about donald trump which, as barbara comstock just indicated, they want to go away. likely the timing of that would be used in the worst possible way months before the election. look, i remember -- i was in the white house during the 9/11 commission. even though that was truly a bipartisan effort, there were moments of partisanship, and the

timing of it was sometimes conducted in a way to conduct politics as much as finding out the facts, and republicans now just don't believe that this will be anything other than politics. >> stephanie cutter, however you want to look at it, it sounds like they're afraid of the outcome, that that's what it is, they're afraid of what's going to be found out. >> they're afraid of the truth. you know what else they're afraid of? they're afraid of trump. this is more about their politics with trump than it is their politics with democrats. trump doesn't want this commission because the truth will come out and there will be complicity all over the white house and all over congress for what happened on that day for the insurrectionists. when that happens, trump will be volatile, as he usually is. trump will impede their ability politically to take back the house and the senate. trump is a factor here and we need to acknowledge that. >> geoff bennett, there were 11 senators who didn't vote on this.

i want to put them up of the 11. we have an idea, 2 of the 11 missing voters were democrats. pat toomey indicated how he would go. richard burr, who voted to convict the former president for his actions on january 6th, actually said he would not vote for this commission. you look at roy blunt, mike brown, mike rounds. without mitch mcconnell demanding a vote no on this, does this commission go forward? >> that's the question i have. you have chuck schumer saying he's going to bring this up for a vote sometime in the near future, but it doesn't appear what would be different between now and then. even if you have kyrsten sinema and patty murray and pat toomey and a couple other republicans, that still doesn't get you to the 60 you neat. to your earlier question, is this all about politics? the answer is yes. republican lawmakers have been surprisingly frank about their

political aversion to this commission. think back to the second impeachment of donald trump. you had republican lawmakers at the time saying we don't need a second impeachment, these questions will better investigated by a bipartisan commission. democrats on the house gave republicans everything they wanted in these negotiations, and in the senate, it couldn't even pass a test vote. mitch mcconnell, the day after donald trump said he did not support the commission, mitch mcconnell said, you know what? i don't support it either, and he began lobbying members to object to it. john thune has said clearly he doesn't want voters in the midterm elections to be thinking about donald trump and what happened on january 6th. to your question, is it all about politics, yes. the question is there's a short-term solution but does that meet the needs of republicans? if house speaker nancy pelosi comes up with a democratic-led commission, she has control of the subpoenas, she has control of the timing and it could raise the political potency of whatever this commission finds. >> i don't understand the rationale that somehow this commission doesn't exist and people are going to stop talking about january 6th.

ayesha, i want to put up a quote from tim kaine because it takes us to the next, perhaps, avenue of where this story is heading. he said if you can't get a republican to support a nonpartisan analysis of why the capitol was attacked for the first time since 1812, what are you holding out hope for? meaning this is about the filibuster, about 50 votes, if you can't get bipartisanship here, where are you going to get it? >> that's a question. there's a question of how sustainable is this, right, to have a situation where the -- you can't even get republicans and democrats on the same page about an attack on the capitol, on the seat of government. you have people who say, look, this is not sustainable, but you have republicans who are saying this is about making sure that trump -- we're not talking about trump on january 6th.

the problem with that is trump is talking about what happened in the election. he's not letting it go. he's still leading the republican party. you're still going to have, regardless of whether they have this bipartisan commission, you are going to have talk about this, and republicans aren't going to be able to escape it. >> sara fagen, you rightly said many republicans want to put trump in the rear view mirror, but trump is almost in some ways looks to be more empowered by the fact that republicans are going along with his demands. >> well, i think to some degree, perhaps that's true. but i think the notion that you're going to do a commission with live televised hearings, weeks or days before elections is probably what gives people pause. i think for something like this to pass, there would need to be a lot of things worked out from committee members to chairmen, to staff, to timing.

i doubt seriously democrats would go along with that. i'm not certain i agree that this commission not coming together means that other legislation can't get done. i think we're at a very partisan time in our political history, and anything getting done is difficult, but this is arguably among the most political things that will come up, just given the nature of it, given the personalities involved. i don't think this means an infrastructure deal can't get done. >> all right. >> certainly not criminal justice reform. >> we will see if those are prescient remarks on this one. i'm going to hit the pause button. when we come back, why more people are saying china needs to be more transparent about the origins of the covid pandemic? that's next. ♪ welcome back ♪ ♪ to that same old place that you laughed about ♪

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welcome back. did the coronavirus leak from the institute of virology in wuhan, china? the w.h.o. dismissed the idea. for months, most scientists scoffed at it. for many, the lab leak idea got tangled up in politics and conflated with the idea that the chinese deliberately released the coronavirus into the world. there's no evidence for that. but while the jump from an animal to humans remains the most accepted theory, a growing number of scientists are increasingly open to the lab leak possibility. last week we learned three chinese researchers became so

ill with flu-like symptoms in november of 2019 they had to be hospitalized. that's just when experts believe the virus itself began to spread in wuhan. now president biden, who himself never dismissed the lab leak theory, ordered the united states intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of this virus. joining me is matthew pottinger, the deputy national security adviser under president trump. he was an early critic of china's handling of this pandemic. he joins me now. mr. pottinger, welcome to "meet the press." i want to start actually with something that the secretary of state said to me a couple weeks ago when i asked him a very point-blank question, whether china knows the answer already. here is what he said to me. >> here is what i think china knows. i think china knows in the early stages of covid, it didn't do what it needed to do which was to in realtime give access to international experts, in realtime to share information, in realtime to provide real transparency. >> so i start with that premise here. there's certainly i think now a

collective agreement that china has not told the full story. what information in the next 90 days do you expect our intelligence community to be able to surface that will give us a better understanding of what happened? >> hey, chuck. it's great to be with you. secretary blinken is certainly right in that. you asked earlier in the show what is an area where we can finally have bipartisan consensus. this is actually one of them. we had an amendment that was passed that was put forward by senators gillibrand and senator marshall calling for an in depth inquiry in the origins of this. president biden had his bombshell statement calling on the intelligence community to do a 90-day review to come up with a definitive answer. i think there's a lot that can be learned in 90 days. it's conceivable we can have an answer. even if we come up short with a definitive answer, what we'll

have is a foundation for additional revelations to come out from scientists around the world who are now going to be emboldened because they know this is a priority of the united states, scientists who were previously frightened of being canceled by the twitter mob are going to contribute to this endeavor. what insights of the origin of the virus, early on, you were the first person to wear a mask inside the oval office. early on you were hearing about this in december. what do you feel like you know about the origins that you think need to be -- threads that need to be pulled? >> well, first of all, we have to agree that it's absolutely essential to find out what the origin of this thing is. it's essential for us to head off the next pandemic. it's essential to better understands the variants of the current pandemic that are emerging, and the virus could mutate in ways that undermine our miraculous vaccines. it also opens up an overdue conversation about how to govern

really cutting edge but risky genetic research, including gain of function research and the like, synthetic biology. so i think that there's actually an enormous amount that could come out. what we know right now is that both of these hypotheses that president biden spoke of are valid. it could have emerged from a laboratory. it could have emerged from nature. both of those are valid. neither of them is supported by concrete evidence. there's a growing amount of circumstantial evidence in particular supporting the idea that this may have leaked from a laboratory. >> "the washington post" indicated over the weekend there is unexamined intelligence that folks are going to be going through which, of course, leads to the question of what happened in 2020? did, in some ways, the sort of irrational attacks on china, did that slow down efforts of the

intelligence community to actually do some fact-finding? >> well, look, i think what slowed down efforts more than anything else were the early statements that were published by a few scientists dismissing the idea it could have come out of a lab, in fact, caricaturing people who thought it might have come out of a lab. i think that -- >> you think your former boss' statements contributed to that a little bit? >> there are political mistakes that lead to trouble in government, and then there are institutional shortcomings. i think this is more of an institutional shortcoming where the intelligence community in truth had really looked to the cdc to have the lead, to be the lead agency to monitor for outbreaks and the like. there's a lot of work that i think the intelligence community needs to do to build up its capacity to monitor these sorts of threats.

by the way, if this investigation expands not only to encompass the intelligence community, but really our national labs like lawrence livermore and rely on allies, third countries like france. france built the institute of virology. i'm eager to know what the french would be able to share in terms of insights and cooperation. >> i'm curious, if we have to go to china to get the facts we need, and you need cooperation of the chinese government and they've decided to cover this up for whatever reason, maybe they don't want to admit to their people they knew about this sooner. can we ever actually get a definitive answer? >> i think we can. it might take more than 90 days, but, look, if this thing came out of a lab, there are people in china who probably know that. we know there were a lot of scientists in china -- china has incredible and ethical scientists, many of whom in the early stages of the pandemic

came out and said they suspected a lab leak. even the wuhan institute of virology said the first thought was this a leak from my lab? those people have been systematically silenced by their government. now that the world knows how important this is to the united states, the united states, when we lead, the world follows. that might provide courage for the ethical scientists in china, for whom this is weighing on on their consciences. i think we're going to see more information come out as a result of this inquiry. >> let's hope it didn't take as long as it did with the soviet union and chernobyl. matthew pottinger, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. appreciate it. >> thanks, chuck. >> we want to get a scientific perspective on the debate as well. joining me now is dr. peter hotez, director of the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development, really one of the nation's leading experts on all things infectious diseases. dr. hotez, welcome back to "meet

the press." let me start with this, how important is it to know the origin of covid? >> it's absolutely essential, chuck. here is the reason why. this is our third major coronavirus/pandemic of the 21st century. we had the original sars in 2002-2003 that arose out of southern china, affected toronto, ontario. we had respiratory syndrome that caused a terrible epidemic in south korea in 2015. this is the third one. nature -- mother nature is telling us what's going to happen. there's going to be covid 26 and covid 32 unless we fully understand the origins of covid-19. this is absolutely critical. what's needed -- what i'm concerned about is i think the intelligence community has been all over this for the last year and a half. it's not like they've not made efforts. i think -- i'm personally of the opinion that we've pushed intelligence about as far as we can.

what we need to do is we need to do an outbreak investigation. we need the team of scientists, of epidemiologists, virologists, bat ecologists in the province for a six-month period and fully unravel the origins of covid-19. that includes collecting virus samples and blood samples from domestic livestock, from bats, from laboratory animals. it means doing the same for people living in the endemic area. remember, there are some indications that this may have actually started in hubei province as early as the summer of 2018. the south china morning post reported the first known case was in november. there's a lot going for natural origins. it also means interviewing the scientists, too, and looking at lab notebooks. we have to do this. it's not only in the national interest of china and the united states, it's in our global interest. >> can it be done without china's cooperation?

is this one of those things where we're stuck having to figure out how to get the epidemiologists in country to do these things? can this be done without china's cooperation? >> yeah. i don't see how. i think we have to really put a lot of pressure on china, including possible sanctions to allow a team of outstanding epidemiologists and virologists in china with unfettered access to animals, to people, to samples and the lab. it's not going to be quick. it's going to take a long time. by the way, it's in china's own national interest to do this. now two of the major coronavirus pandemics have come out of china, and if you've ever been to that part of china, we did a lot of work in china in the 1990s. it's this vast mixing bowl in hubei province, this vast mixing bowl of goats and pigs and ducks and chickens and high population density. that's why the influenza viruses

often arise out of china as well. we've got to figure this out. >> is there any way to scientifically prove that this occurred naturally without going to china? it seems like it hasn't been replicated yet with bats. explain that. >> well, i think that's exactly what we need to do. we need to -- that's why i'm talking about full access. i think really a detailed analysis of bat populations, all of the possible reservoir animals and people, and without that, it's going to be really hard to sort this out. it could be that some of the chinese scientists are already doing this. i haven't seen a lot published coming out of china about that. this is -- we know how to do this. we're able to unravel it for other major pandemics. we could do this for covid-19. we have the tools. >> dr. peter hotez, appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise with us to break down this story. thank you, sir. up next, we're going to look

back at something 100 years ago tomorrow, one of the darkest moments in american history and one of the least known as well. did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that works to turn down acid production, blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection. take the prilosec otc two-week challenge. and see the difference for yourself.

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(judith) yep, we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. i will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. i still see black men being shot, black bodies lying in the street. i have lived through the massacre every day. our country may forget this history, but i cannot.

>> welcome back. that was 107-year-old viola fletcher testifying before congress about the tulsa massacre. it was 100 years ago tomorrow that mobs of whites rampaged through the black neighborhood of the city of tulsa. when the shooting and looting by whites was over, hundreds of african-americans were dead and some 35 blocks of the neighborhood was torched including the thriving business district known as the black wall street. our own trymaine lee is in tulsa for us this morning. sadly for many americans, they're learning about this incident for the very first time. >> reporter: that's right, chuck. history during the best of times is messy and complicated. then you add in the kind of violence we experienced here in the greenwood neighborhood 100 years ago, and it's even more so. that's part of the issue here, for so long this history has been buried, intentionally so. the government and the powers that be were complicit in burying the story. evidence disappearing from the police department, news stories

were mysteriously evaporated from city libraries. no longer. the black community here had long been raising their voices. now finally, maybe they're being heard, chuck. >> trymaine, 83% of oklahomans say they've never been taught about this. this is in the state of oklahoma let alone nationally. >> think about that. 83%. what happens is often we want to take black history and silo it off. when you don't engage with the black history as part of the american experience, you're leaving a gaping hole in our history as americans. the fact that 83% of oklahomans never heard of this, that's a terrible shame and a stain on our history. >> trymaine lee, in tulsa for all of the events, plus you're debuting your documentary. you can watch trymaine's documentary "blood on black wall street," 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc and any time you want on our streaming service, peacock. when we come back, race in america. then and now.

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welcome welcome back. the panel is back with us. president biden will mark the anniversary of the tulsa massacre with a visit to city on tuesday. as trymaine lee and i just discussed, it was only recently that many of us heard of the massacre. i don't remember hearing about it in school. maybe we did hear of it because of the trauma of george floyd's one year ago and the reexamination is of america's

troubled racial history that it sparked. geoff bennett, in my home state of florida, we weren't taught about ax handle sunday which was a massacre of african americans in the city of jacksonville. 83% of oklahomans do think without george floyd these commemorations this weekend are as big as they are? >> i think that's a fair assessment. i think the graphic nature of that video that captured george floyd's killing, happening during a pandemic where people were isolated and really had nowhere else to avert their attention, it really opened people's eyes not only to that injustice but to other forms of injustice as well. i think you rightly point out it wasn't just tulsa. there were other race massacres as well, in louisiana, wilmington, north carolina. there was rosewood as well. there are layers to this injustice. miss viola fletcher who we heard from earlier in the broadcast is 107 years old. she testified when she was here before congress and i had a chance to meet her, because of

the massacre, her family had to move. she never completed school beyond the fourth grade. she never as a result of that made a lot of money. the most she has ever done is be a housekeeper. to this day she still has trouble supporting herself financially. she is 107 years old. the centennial commission in tulsa has raised $30 million and not a single penny has given to the three known survivors, chuck. >> i want to put up something jelani cobb wrote that i think was pretty poignant. he said this. these two millennium yam days point inescapably not only those who have died on battlefields abroad, but to the theaters of conflict at home and the freighted politics of race, grief and culpability. how can we continue, frankly? i this has been a moment opening the eyes of more americans on our history. can we have more of this? >> well, i think when you talk about what happened with george floyd, the murder of george floyd and the response to that, and then you look at what

happened in tulsa, the survivors of tulsa are now over 100 years old. it's been 100 years, and they're there still has not really been justice. they're still fighting for justice. they're still looking for reparations. and not only did you have the violence of that, what happened in 1921, but you had all of the state violence that happened afterwards, where they weren't allowed to get loans. they weren't allowed to rebuild. and this was not an isolated incident. and while you might not have had mass violence on this scale, you had so many things happening to black people in this country. so that's part of what was sparked last year with the murder of george floyd, that there have been all of these instances, that there has been all of this violence. and there still has been no real justice. and so i think that's why you see people looking for and asking for answers. and this has to be talked about. if you're going to get any type of -- if you're going to have

anything happen in this country that changes. and i will point out on memorial day that you've had black people fighting for this country. >> right. >> for from the beginning and coming home and being lynched in their uniforms, being tortured and attacked in their uniforms. black people have fought for this country. >> sara fagen, you were trying to talk a little more optimistically about bipartisanship earlier. police reform might be the one place. is this going to -- will -- is this going to be the place where republicans join democrats on something when it comes to racial injustice? >> i think that they can definitely get something done, and they need to get something done. i think one of the positive outcomes of the george floyd tragedy was for a lot of white people in this country, for the first time they realized that a majority, perhaps a very strong majority of black men, you know, feel uncomfortable in the presence of police. and i think that cuts across, you know, income, education

level. and that -- that's a pretty rude awakening for people to sort of step back and say wow, i didn't know that. and yes, there are things that need to get done. at the same time, i think it's important to acknowledge the vast majority of police officers in this country get up every day and do a very fine job, and certainly are not racist. and i think what happens so much in politics is that we overcorrect. and so while police reform is needed and it's important, i think it can get passed, i think we've seen the defund police movement go too far. you've seen crime rise. we've seen homicides rise. and that disproportionately hurts black americans. >> stephanie cutter, i know the president met with the floyd family. i want to put up something -- i want to play some sound here of what george floyd's brother said. i'd not heard this metaphor before, but i thought it was pretty powerful. take a listen. >> if you can make federal laws to protect the bird which is the bald eagle, you can make federal

laws to protect people of color. >> stephanie, this is something i think president biden wants to be a legacy. >> absolutely. and i think george floyd's brother right there summed it up. why can't we do this? and, you know, i agree with most everything that's been said on this program about race relations and the awakening that's happened since george floyd's death, but let's not forget even just this year a thousand people have lost their lives because of police violence. >> yeah, yeah. >> so this is not a new problem. this problem is not going to go away overnight. >> right. >> i think overcorrecting on this issue is certainly in the eyes of the beholder. and for african american men across this country, why not overcorrect this so they can live in this country without fear of their own police officers supposed to be protecting them actually threatening their lives. >> i think a lot of people would like to see what overcorrecting looks like first before we get upset about it. tremendous panel, thank you all

today. and thank you all for watching. i hope you can enjoy the rest of your memorial day weekend. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we are on the scene of america's latest deadly mass shooting, this time in miami-dade. we have the very latest on the conditions of the victims, how it happened, what we know about it. plus this. >> we clearly have to get to the bottom of what happened, why it happened and how do we prevent something like that from ever happening again. we're going to reevaluate what the way forward is in the next few days. >> i would have preferred that be an independent outside investigation that was nonpartisan. but i think now it will be an investigation in congress. >> democrats and republicans n