i really hope so. âa they said, we need you to get in the s car with us. they zip tied my arms and zip tied 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'll have the opportunity to get the answers that way. >> i think the basic goal of our democratic friend is to keep relitigating in public what happened back on january 6th. >> what this vote says about our democracy. i'll speak with former republican congresswoman barbara comstock who spent the week unsuccessfully lobbying senator and democratic senator jason

crow of colorado. >> we can't exclude the possibility of a lab accident. >> growing concerns that the coronavirus leaked from that lab in wuhan, china, prompted president biden to order a new u.s. intelligence investigation. >> we need to get to the bottom of this, whatever the answer may be. >> my guest this morning, former deputy national security adviser matthew pottinger and dr. peter hotez of baylor university. the anniversaries of two racially charged events, the murder of george floyd and the 1921 tulsa race massacre. how the floyd case as its aftermath may have helped a nation acknowledge what happened in tulsa 100 years ago. joining me for insight and analysis, nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett, former obama campaign manager stephanie cutter. former white house political director for george w. bush, sara fagen. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press."

>> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. i hope you're enjoying this memorial day weekend wherever you are. you may actually 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 opposition. >> shame on the republican party for trying to sweep the horrors of that day under the rug because they're afraid of donald trump. >> not surprisingly, the republicans voted down after 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 made it plain that the more attention cast on january 6th, the worse it will be for republicans in 2022, pure and simple. that's why he's against it, period. on a memorial day weekend when we honor men and women who gave their lives defending our democracy, this congress has chosen not to establish a bipartisan commission. among those disappointed by this vote is barbara comstock, a former republican congresswoman from northern virginia, she was shepherding a group lobbying for this panel. the group included the mother and girlfriend of brian sicknick, the capitol police 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 sicknick put out before you

guys started your meetings on capitol hill. she said, i suggest that all congressmen and senators against this bill visit my son's grave in arlington national cemetery and while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to the 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 do more to support this commission? >> well, thank you, todd, for showing that statement. mrs. sicknick had such 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 fanone and officer dunn, that we will have a thorough investigation. i would have preferred that be

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

prevail and we'll get to the truth. >> i want to put up a screen here of all the senators you did meet with, that you had a chance to meet with. five of this group did vote for the commission of your meetings. a majority that you met with did not. i look at certain people. let's go to james lankford. you and i both know him well. i have no doubt he's somebody torn on this. roy blunt is another one 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 -- many of them did acknowledge what many republicans have not acknowledged which was 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 is the answer. that's why i say this will still be investigated because

subpoenas will get the facts. we'll find out who organized that mob, how it was orchestrated, who directed them down to the capitol, to assault the capitol. you did show who we met with and who voted for it. senator sasse also communicated with us and he also supported us as did senator toomey who indicated he would have supported it had he been present. i'm still optimistic -- i know the truth will come out. you know from decades past that i've 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. 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 that was 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. 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. this has to be addressed. >> i want to play something bill cassidy said. 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 handpicked by speaker pelosi. pretty clear who they would most trusted. i think this is as much as

anything, voting trust for the american people. >> you and i both know, i can picture mitch mcconnell in another world making the case for this commission using bill cassidy's argument. >> well, that was exactly the argument we were making to the senators. and senator cassidy is exactly right. 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. he makes the best case. i talked to one of the 35 -- talked to a number of the 35 in the house who voted for it, and 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 part, that it would be non-partisan. it's this protection -- i understand republicans want to get away from donald trump. if donald trump disappeared

tomorrow, i don't think you'd have many republicans in the search party. maybe a few prosecutors, but not republicans. so 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 it's about protecting the capitol, the people who work there and also making sure this never happens again. 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. do 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, and at that point, given they indicated where the vote was going to be, that was passed on. but we would be happy to meet with any of the other senators to discuss really why senator

cassidy is right, senator romney discussed that in the same way, as did lisa murkowski. she was our 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, he said 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. i think he's exactly right. and he will be heard in public and should be, as should so many of the other officers on the front line. >> barbara comstock, former member of congress from northern virginia, thank you for coming on and sharing your experiences this week with the family members and the officers. >> thank you. joining me is democratic congressman jason crow, the

former army ranger who helped protect many other members of congress on january 6th. he became an impeachment manager as well. congressman crow, welcome to "meet the press." i guess the question now is where do we go now, where does this go next? 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? >> good morning, chuck. thanks for having me on. the question now is of timing. if mitch mcconnell said we'll 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 who would have voted had they been present. the question is can we get those three or four additional votes

or 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? i don't know. i can't read their minds. this has to get done. i'm sick of playing the game of whack-a-mole with gop members in congress. every time we address one of their concerns, another one pops up. it's like playing whack-a-mole at chuck e. cheese growing up and 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's growing

and we have to address it with timeliness. >> you sound like somebody like me who has a little bit of hope that, hey, they'll be one more vote and maybe after they go home, a couple more minds may 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 select committee in congress? >> well, i think what's really important is we have some sort of bipartisan commission here. we have to make sure we're doing this in a way that helps re-inspire trust and confidence of the american people in our institutions. we have to have subpoena power and get information that you can't get to necessarily with other investigations. there's a gao investigation going on that i asked for as a member of the house. there are i.t. investigations going on right now. what we really need to know is what was donald trump doing in

the hours before the riot, during the riot. what was he talking to or telling his advisers? what happened with that discussion with kevin mccarthy? those are things that uniquely we can get through only to 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 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, told her i loved her, i didn't know whether i would be able to make it out of that chamber like dozens or other members, like journalists, police officers there. over 140 beaten, one was killed, one later took his life. it was a terrible brutal and violent day. let's not forget the hours and the days after where my gop colleagues, the way they were talking, the way they were acting. i remember 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 was still the smell of teargas and broken glass all over, and he gave this speech about how people held the breach against the mob and made sure the house chamber hadn't been taken. he called me out by name and several other members. you fast forward a couple months, it really wasn't a big deal, it's all about politics.

i am 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? the panel is next. what can it a on the panel is next.

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the panel is with us, nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett, former obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter, ayesha rascoe for npr, and 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. two of the 11 missing voters were democrats. i think we know how they'd go. pat toomey indicated how he would vote. richard burr who voted to convict the former president on january 6th actually said he would note vote. 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 kerstin cinema and patty murray and pat toomey and a couple other republicans, that still doesn't get you to the 60 that you need. to your earlier question about

this is all about politics, i think 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 none partisan analysis of why the capitol was attacked, then what are you holding out hope for, meaning this is about the filibuster, about the idea that if you can't get bipartisanship here, where can you 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 to 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. why more people are saying china needs to be more transparent about the origins of the covid pandemic. that's next. emic that's next.

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 what we'll have is a foundation for

additional revolutions to come out from scientists around the world who will now be emboldened, because they know this is a priority of the united states. scientists 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. >> you think your former boss's 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 interested to see what the french have to share in terms of research 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 desired to cover this up for whatever reason, maybe they don't want to admit to their people they knew about it 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. 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 their consciousness. i think we'll see it 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. joining me 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 in 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 pandemic of the 21st century. we had the original sars in 2002 and 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 2019. 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.

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 counted 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. 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 disappearing from city

libraries. this was pushed under the rug. 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. >> reporter: think about that. 83%. 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 stain on our history. >> trymaine lee, thanks very much. 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.

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call today. welcome back. the panel is back with us. president biden will mark the 100th day anniversary of the tulsa massacre with a visit to the city on tuesday. it was only recently that many of us even heard of the tulsa massacre. i certainly don't remember being taught it in school. i learned it later. maybe we learned of it because of the murder of george floyd

and the re-examination of america's trouble racial history. in my home state of florida, we weren't taught about axe handle sunday, a massacre of african-americans in the city of jacksonville. 83% of oklahomans. do you 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 other forms of injustice as well. i think you rightly point out, chuck, it wasn't just tulsa. there were other race massacres, in louisiana, wilmington, north carolina, rosewood as well. ms. viola fletcher, who we heard from earlier in the broadcast, 107 years old. she testified before congress that because of the massacre, her family had to move, never

completed school after the fourth grade, never made a lot of money. the most she's ever done is be a housekeeper. to this day, she has trouble supporting herself financially. she's 107 years old. the centennial commission in tulsa raised $30 million. not a single penny given to the three known survivors. >> ayesha, i want to put up something jelani cobb wrote. these two memorial days point inescapably not only to those who died on battlefields abroad but to the theaters of conflict at home, but race and culpability? i think this has been a moment where we're opening the eyes of more americans on our history. can we have more of it? >> i think when we 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 there still really has not been justice. they're still fighting for justice, still looking for reparations. not only did you have the violence of 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. this was not -- this was not an isolated incident. and while you might not have had massive 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, all of this violence, and there still has been no real justice. 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. i will point out on memorial day, you've had black people fighting for this country 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 more optimistically about bipartisanship earlier. police reform might be the place. 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. they need to get something done. i think one of the positive outcomes of the george floyd tragedy was i think for a lot

of white people in this country, for the first time they realize, a very strong majority of black men feel uncomfortable in the presence of police. i think that cuts across income, educational level. that's a pretty rude awakening for people, to sort of step back and say, wow, i didn't know that. yes, there are things that need to get done. at the same time, it's important to acknowledge that the vast majority of police officers in this country get up and do a fine job and certainly aren't racist. what happens so much in politics is we overcorrect. while police reform is needed and it's important, it can get passed. i think we've seen the defund police movement go too far. you've seen crimes rise, seen homicides rise. that disproportionately hurts black americans. >> stephanie cutter, i know the president met with the floyd family. i want to play some sound here of what george floyd's brother said. i had 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? 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. this is not a new problem. this problem is not going to go away overnight. i think overcorrecting on this issue is certainly in the eyes of the beholder. 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 who are supposed to be protecting them, actually taking their lives. >> 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. i hope you enjoy the rest of

your memorial day weekend. we'll be back next week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." sunday, it's "meet the press. folks, we're unique in all of history. we really are. but those names etched on that wall and every other wall and tombstone in america are veterans are the reason we're standing here. we can't kid ourselves about that. i hope, i hope the nation comes together. we're not democrats or republicans today. we're americans. americans who have given their lives. it's time to remind everybody