good evening, and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lede, repairing the damage. right now our president gets it. joe biden used the bully pulpit of his office this week to attack the historical inequity that has largely defined the black experience and plans to do some things about it, some of which he told me personally when we met in tulsa earlier in the week to commemorate one of the worst symbols of american racial attacks. more on that later. but biden is now reacting to a blanket campaign of voter suppression by state republicans, tapping vice president kamala harris to oversee the white house's federal response to it. he also unveiled his plan to narrow the economic gap between black families and their white

peers, promising spending on brick and mortar programs for black communities while touting his infrastructure plan as doing at least some of the rest. without calling it such, it reads like a tangible campaign of reparation, acknowledging that our nation's racist past is still just prologue to a jim crow that has never truly died. it's just hidden in legislation. like the hundreds of voter suppression bills generated in various state houses in the past year, the difference here is that the president is seizing this national moment of dialogue around reparative justice, while our congress, led by the congressional black caucus, is poised for a historic discussion around making it real. of course it shouldn't be lost that while the gop has never needed an excuse to suppress

black votes or hold up the people's business, the party remains enthralled to donald trump, even though media continues to reject him. but first, reparative justice, the washington version. joining me now is congresswoman sheila jackson lee, democrat of texas. she sits on the judiciary and homeland security committees. congresswoman lee, i must start with the most urgent issue. president biden tapped vice president kamala harris to lead the administration's push for voting rights legislation. what will be her biggest challenge and how can she, for example, solve local fights like the one you are having right now in texas over voting rights. >> reverend sharpton, a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. thank you to very much.

i believe it to not only be the bully pulpit but the handler, handling the united states senate to ensure the voting rights act is passed, the john lewis voter enhancement act is passed, and that the h.r. 1 that deals with the idea of your right to vote, it is an imperative that those are passed. and she has to overcome, of course, the 60-vote margin or to decide in consultation with senate leadership should they go the filibuster way. but the nation needs voting reform. >> now, i was in tulsa tuesday for the president's visit and speech to mark the commemoration of the 1921 massacre. as you know, because you and i sat near each other and all of us had a few moments -- some of this did alone with the president after the speech. you participated there as well.

now, there he introduced his plan to attack the racial wealth gap, centering in large part on home ownership and enhanced assistance to black businesses decimated by the pandemic. the president's plan, of course, comes two months after you and congressional black caucus members scored what i would call an unprecedented legislative victory. the passage in the house of a bill to study and consider reparations, something difficult to even fathom politically just five years ago under president obama. why is america having this conversation now in your judgment? >> there are a lot of issues. let me pay tribute to our young leaders, our black lives matter, our college students, and others engaged with those of us who've been pressing the issue of

racism, institutional racism, white supremacy, that as a member of the homeland security committee we've been talking about for a decade and america waking up to overcome this cancer that really does not allow america to be the shining city on the hill that is spoken of. i think biden is a racial equity president. a bill having to go to the floor of the house, which is what we want to do in this month of june, we think all the elements, reverend sharpton, are there. it is no doubt that the inequities of race impact the black community on housing, what the president wanted to deal with in tulsa, small businesses, health care, and the criminal justice system. and the only way that we will be able to address this, i believe, is a comprehensive approach that comes about with hr 40. but i think it fits in to get this legislation passed and

working with the racial equity president to rid ourselves of systemic racism. >> one year after george floyd's murder, you have been been active, you spoke today in houston where philonise floyd and his wife had their commemoration and what they're doing with their foundation. i spoke by phone from here, so we've been involved a year later in dealing with also keeping that movement going and addressing the core problems that it really demonstrated. but explain to me where do the negotiations stand on the george floyd justice in policing act that's named after him? >> well, today we had an enriched tribute to george because we had the george floyd family, reverend, and we also had eric garner's family, and

trayvon martin's mother among others. and it only points out that it is imperative that it passes. the republicans by and large in the senate keep looking over their shoulder at donald trump, who is pretending to be put back in office in august. if general flynn is talking about a military revolution such as myanmar, it gives people pause to do serious work. george floyd is serious work. i can say that there are serious negotiations going on in that legislation. so where we are in is, there are different pieces that are now people are poring over to fine language, qualified immunity is one, the military provision is another. there may be some work going on on the criminal aspect of holding officers accountable, but i think the message is

important. and i think certainly the negotiators -- but we have to speak the message. what is that? the message is that this is a bill that gets rid of bad police misconduct and enhances the relationship between police and community. we can get that moving. if we can get people to stop looking -- our republican friends to stop looking over their shoulder at donald trump and donald trump's ascending to the presidency and work with all of us and president biden. reverend, we can get the george floyd justice in policing act. >> and good police because it makes their work easier and does not make them look like some of the bad policemen that has given policing a very different kind of reputation in many of our communities. let me ask you this, the last question briefly. june 19th, known to many black

americans in the south and midwest as juneteenth is in two weeks. it's been a state holiday in texas for around 40 years. last year you introduced legislation to make it a federal holiday, finding allies in democratic senator ed markey and perhaps, surprising to some, republican senator john cornyn of your home state of texas. the bill was reintroduced in february, and i'll let you tell us if you see it getting taken up again before the 19th. but for those still unfamiliar with the significance of the date, as you give us an update, can you explain why this is so symbolic? >> you know, reverend, it is significant in the backdrop of a major push across america, again, started by the former president, to not teach a critical assessment of our history. how shameful. to run amok over slavery and the

brutality of such, jim crow and lynching. this juneteenth is partly jubilee, but it is partly an acknowledgment of slavery. and that is that juneteenth is 1865. president lincoln announced the emancipation proclamation and it was two years later that the rest of the mississippi -- that -- if you will -- if you decided that they would -- announce by coming to galveston to -- >> i think we're having some technical problems. >> to acknowledge that those were free in texas. so that was 1865. there's never been any recognition of that. that's a day of freedom. there's no recognition of the emancipation proclamation, so

this convergence to get to make this a national holiday. isn't it exciting that we have a senator from boston and my colleague in the united states senate, we worked a lot of things together, including the emancipation trail. senator cornyn supports a national holiday for juneteenth. and of course, the late al edwards was the father of juneteenth. i think we should get it done. if not by june 19th, 2021, it should be a national holiday. i'm going to keep working on it with the george floyd bill. >> all right. we'll be monitoring, watching, and being in touch with you on all those bills. thank you, congresswoman sheila jackson lee. now back to the big lie that refuses to die and the voters of color in the cross-fire. this week the republican speaker of wisconsin's general assembly announced yet another baseless probe into the results of the

2020 general election funded by taxpayers with no discernable result in mind other than the next election. joining me now is wisconsin's attorney general, josh kaul. can you explain to our viewers what republican legislators are pushing in wisconsin with this election probe announced this week? the speaker of the general assembly contracting three retired police officers to look into alleged voter fraud. democrats contending that the probe just undermines a fair and settled election. i mean, what's the gain here, mr. kaul? >> first, thanks for having me. what you said is exactly right. i mean, this is not a serious inquiry into fraud in wisconsin. it's important to note while these are retired detectives, they're not actually acting here as law enforcement officers. they're fell republican legislative staffers and the speaker has even acknowledged

that one of the detectives has republican leanings and has been active in the republican party. we had extensive review of the election here in wisconsin after the election. there were multiple legal challenges that were brought, re-counts occurred no our two largest counties, and we know we had a fair and accurate election result that reflected the will of the voters. what this really is an effort to fan the flames of the big lie and to keep this false narrative going that has been promoted by the former president. >> now, ag kaul, are you aware of participating in any concerted effort by state attorneys general to push back against these fake audits? >> we work together in a variety of ways. prior to the last election, for example, we worked together to challenge the cutbacks at the postal service that created the possibility that voters who cast ballots by mail would be disenfranchised. where we can work together to protect our democracy, you can

be assured we're going to do that. what we've seen in arizona raise issues potentially under state or federal law, but as ags of different states who might not have a basis to go in. but the u.s. department of justice has an opportunity to go in. that's one of the reasons it's such a pleasant change to have the biden administration there because we know that there are going to take these voting issues seriously. >> now, look at this tweet by maine senator angus king, quote, in maine we have no voter i.d. laws, we have same-day registration. we have no-excuse absentee voting, we have early voting, we have 24/7 drop boxes, and we have virtually no fraud. expanding ballot access does not encourage fraud, it encourages voting. now, that's an independent senator in mostly a white state. should democrats be talking

about more about the laws designed to make it easier for people of all parties and all races to vote to counter republicans who want to make voting inconvenient for everyone over extremely rare instances of fraud? >> i think so. i think we need to expand access to voting wherever we can both in the states and at the federal level. as senator king indicated, we know when you expand access to voting, that doesn't increase fraud. fraud is incredibly rare in every state in the country regardless of whether they have easy access to voting or more restrictive access. so things like automatic voter registration, long hours for early voting can help make voting easier. we need to make sure we're advocating for those policies. but at the same time, we know there are lots of effort around the country not only to restrict access to voting, but also to potentially put legislators or others in a position to manipulate the vote count.

that's a real threat to the integrity of our democracy and we need to make sure we're guarding against it. >> how do you explain that not one republican won an election in 2020 who is object to go biden's victory have objected to their own wins on the same day, on the same ballots, using the very same election system? >> well, it shows you how cynical these attacks on the integrity of our elections are. surely if there were legislators around the country who thought that the election that put them into office was tainted by fraud or any other concern, somewhere you think there's got to be some legislators who has the integrity to say i'm not going to serve in office because i believe this is fraudulent. but that hasn't happened anywhere because the republican legislators who are pushing this, they know this is what you called it at the beginning, the big lie, and we do have fair elections in this country with

integrity. >> all right. thank you, wisconsin attorney general josh kaul. coming up on "politicsnation," how the republican party has completely ditched democracy. plus, facebook shows trump the door for at least another two years. i'll talk about that and more with my political panel. but first, my colleague richard lui with today's top new year's stories. richard? >> rev, good saturday to you. stories we're watching for you this hour, new covid cases are down 35% compared to last week. the seven-day average dropped 94% since its january peak. experts saying it's due to the over 63% of adults with at least one dose of a vaccine. a breaking story out of new york city where rescue crews are responding to a ferry that's run aground in brooklyn. the ferry that runs from new york to new jersey got stuck in shallow water with roughly 100 passengers aboard that are being evacuated and no injuries reported. we'll follow that for you. also tonight, we're watching

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for this week's "gotcha," i want to address the wholesale abandonment of democracy by the republican party. even though there are 3 1/2 years until the next presidential election, the chairwoman threatened top of the nominees skip out on any debates in 2024. her stated reasons included the

same bad-faith quibbles about format and timing that the party what kind about in 2020. but the real reason is two-followed. the republican party doesn't have popular ideas, so a debate wouldn't help them. the biden administration's big policy initiatives are immensely popular, even among republican voters, and the republican party elites are aware that their economic agenda of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations are nonstarters among most of their base. so they tried out distractions instead, banging on about fringe cultural issues so their base voters won't pay attention to the economic policies that would hurt their families with every paycheck. the second reason republicans are threatening to boycott any 2024 debates is that they have long since given up on persuading new voters in favor

of suppressing the votes of those who oppose them. mitch mcconnell admitted as much on the senate floor two years ago, calling mild reforms to making voting easier like making election day a holiday, quote, a power grab by democrats. this approach isn't new. republicans have been looking for ways to suppress the vote for decades. their desperation kicked in and kicked into high gear following the big defeats in the house, senate, and presidency in 2020. not anywhere republicans have any state level power, they are intent on winnowing the voter pool as much as possible, primarily through draconian voter suppression bills intended to make it harder for voters of color, young voters, and disabled voters to cast their ballots. at the same time, the party is

pursuing sham election audits all over the country, despite the fact that donald trump's own appointed election officials called 2020 the most secure election in american history. which brings us to the crux of the matter. the republican party has sold out completely to donald trump. they have a policy platform in the last election in favor of a blanket stamp of approval for anything trump wants. all this blind allegiance to a man who has been band from most social media for inciting violence who whose blog was so unpopular that it was shut down in less than a month. the site reportedly got fewer hits than petfinder.com. although at least pet finder might connect you with a furry friend. all you did for trump's blog is the same lying and whining we've

become accustomed to from the former president. and yet, this man, the man of the republican party is throwing away 200 plus years of democracy for. well, i got bad news for the republican party. this power grab isn't going to work. you tried dozens of voter suppression tactics in 2020 and the american people still turned out by the millions to vote you out. you see, the constituencies you see most intent on suppressing, we don't take our votes for granted because we remember our ancestors who fought. whether your nominee shows up to the debate in 2024 or not, we hear your message loud and clear. republicans simply do not want to participate in democracy anymore. so we're against you.

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welcome back to "politicsnation." i have a lot to get through with my panel, so let's bring them in. juanita tolliver is a democratic strategist. susan del percio is a republican strategist. both are msnbc political analysts. so let me get right to it. susan, not the greatest week for trump on the social media front. facebook has banned him off the platform, plus instagram, until at least 2023. that covers the midterms. just a couple days after trump's short-lived blog closed due to low rewardship. the former president still has an influence on the republican party, speaking tonight. what kind of political presence do you expect trump to have in the coming years without these platforms he's had in the past? >> well, you're certainly right,

rev, about not having those platforms and how it hurts him getting his message out. i think he'll be quieter as the investigations continue and he may be facing charges in new york or federally on a whole host of other issues that his lawyers will tell him to be quiet. but these rallies, even tonight's rally, rev s only about 1,200 people. that's not what he's used to. but that's not to say he will not still have an influence on primaries. i think that the greater legacy of trump is not just him and his influence, but trumpism and how it has seeped into the state parties, and being trump-like is what the parties want right now. unfortunately, i think they're picking the whackiest of the wacky, so hopefully they'll just all lose and those parties will internally collapse over the next few years. >> juanita, trump is now reportedly pushing another big

lie, and that is he will be reinstated as president this august and is trying to recruit people to spread this nonsense. i don't need to remind everyone what we saw on january 6th, and audits like the one we're seeing in arizona seem designed to perpetuate the myth the election was illegitimate, even though they uncovered no wrongdoing at all. how should democrats be responding to all of this, juanita? >> look, rev, i think democrats and every elected official needs to call out the lie for what it is, including the media, because we know republicans won't. we know republicans are investigated in this drum beat of trump's big lie, and i feel like this august return date is like him leveling up the lie. he's really feeding into his own fixation on these counts. you mentioned an audit in arizona. i can't even call it an audit. these aren't trained auditors or

people who know what they're doing. these are people coming in to literally be trump's hands and eyes on the ground, perpetuating the same myth about some nonexistent election fraud. we know trump's call for it in georgia, pennsylvania, michigan, ohio, pretty much any major battleground state. and so what democrats have to do is to continue to call it out and continue to educate voters because every time trump says something about this big lie, he plants another seed of doubt in our election. every time he puts out a lie about an august return, he actively crumbles another part of our democracy. and so it's important that democrats take up the mantle because we know republicans won't. republicans have obstructed and fed into this big lie. so it's incumbent on democrats to take up this mantle and continue to preserve our democracy by moving along partisan lies to do that.

>> let's dive deeper into this. trump is speaking later at the north carolina republican party state convention tonight. he's basically trying to kick off his unofficial and unwelcome return to the campaign trail. now, many republican strategists are concerned this will hurt and not help the gop, essentially reliving 2020 elections and its losses all over again. what's your take on this? >> well, they should be concerned. that's exactly what he will do tonight. he will only relive what affected him in 2020. that'sick. he's keeping them suck in 2020. and you have to stay with him there in his mind to be successful. it's also the way he continues to raise money, rev, and that's what i think that this rally is really about. and to juanita's point, i think it's so important what she said about education because

republicans, independents, democrats should be calling out what he says and educating the people, especially other republicans. the one thing i do know, even trump supporters are tired of donald trump, and he will continue to hurt the party the more he keeps speaking about the past because people are done with him. they know he hasn't won. i do fear for one thing as we dig deeper into august, this make-believe month he thinks he can come back. we saw what happened when he talked about a january rally that turned out to be january 6th. i worry about what can happen in august. >> that's real. juanita, let's turn to one of the maga minions, congressman matt gaetz. federal prosecutors are looking into whether he obstructed justice during a phone call with a witness in the probe.

this is connected to the allegations against him and a colleague involving the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. gaetz, of course, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. so it would seem the walls may be closing in on the florida republican. at one point does his party stop rallying around him and do the right thing, especially since he's appointed himself the poster boy of the trump election efforts? >> look, rev, as the party that held up trump for four plus years and when he was accused of horrible abuses, i don't see the gop doing that soon. as more comes out about these investigations, it really shows that federal prosecutors are zooing in. we have multiple witnesses. the witness who was on that call, gaetz's ex-girlfriend we

know is cooperating, and we know that his former partner in all of these activities, his former wing man, as he put it, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating fully with federal prosecutors. so i really hope that there's justice for this young woman now but it was a child when she was potentially abused and sexually trafficked and getting to the bottom of holding exactly everybody involved in that account, including gaetz. >> susan, let's talk about the impasse over the infrastructure bill quickly. the white house and senate republicans are continuing talks, but dems say they're willing to go it alone to get the job done. senator joe manchin already voiced opposition to that idea and this bipartisanship is the only way to go. but is there an appetite for bipartisanship on the other side of the aisle? because there doesn't seem to be to me. >> no, with the exception of

maybe five or six senators, and remembering we have to get to ten in order to see a bipartisan law pass. there is not -- as a matter of fact, it's worse than not there not being an appetite. within the republican party and elected officials, if you agree and sign onto a piece of legislation, you look like you're working with democrats and you're compromising, and that in the republican party now is considered a bad thing. they don't want these personality politicians to actually govern. they just want them to spew whatever nonsense they want to hear, whatever anger and hateful words. so no, there's no room for it right now with the exception of very few. >> juanita tal ver and susan del percio, thank you both. up next, the nfl drops a racist practice that's been used against black players for years. but is it too little too late? more after the break.

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it's not too often that we talk about sports on this show, but this week i came across a few stories at the intersection of sports, race, and politics. it's no secret that sports aren't immune to prejudice. the biases that our society are

replicated in our employment. fans were appalled if not surprised at the racist practice of assuming black players started out with lower cognitive functioning than their white counterparts. this has made it harder for black players to access the money they're entitled to, but the nfl also pledges to review past claims for signs of racial bias and rectify those mistakes. joining me now is cavita davidson, sports writer for "the athletic." cavita, walk us through exactly what they can have this week, how we learned about it, and what the nfl has done in response. >> i think a lot of your viewers will remember that the nfl had a $1 billion concussion settlement back in 2013 when everybody was

a talking about the historic lack of acknowledging how much of a role football can play in traumatic brain injury and a lot of health issues that players have had. now, what has come out in subsequent lawsuits we learned about in the last few months, particularly this week, was that the starting point for the measuring of whether or not cognitive functioning was affected by football was measured at a lower point for black players, which is really a stunning development. and it really took subsequent lawsuits to bring that to light. the lawyers that were representing these players argued this was not as common a practice. the nfl itself argued this was something that was up to doctors' discretion to use, but doctors themselves in these lawsuits representing particularly these two players involved have said they felt pressured to use race norming as a proper measure. and i think that it's really important to point out that while football is obviously at

the forefront of this, this is a practice that is commonly used in medicine. so as we continue to have conversations about how particularly black americans are not provided with proper health care the same way that the rest of us are, this is a practice that is actually used that has been disputed within the realm of neuropsychology. and i think that we have to continue to talk about this. >> so the process basically says that blacks come with less cognitive skills, which, therefore, affects your ability to access the right kind of settlements as others because you started at a lower bar? >> you start at a lower bar, and, therefore, the damage done by football can't be as much as white players who are filing similar claims, and the payouts have seemed to go along with that. that's really a very stunning and very concrete way to demonstrate some of these inequities that i think a lot of us have been talking about for years. >> now, the issue of race norming is just one part of a

larger conversation about safety of professional football and whether the league does nearly enough to care for its players, and, of course, since colin kaepernick, we've seen the league struggle with how to deal with players expressing themselves about politics and race. football remains the most popular sport in the country, but has the nfl done permanent damage it's to reputation here? >> i think the nfl has a long way to go to demonstrate that it cares about its players, particularly its black players. we had so many conversations throughout the leagues about a commitment to black lives matter, to social justice, and to supporting players who want to use their platform to talk about certain things. but i think what this race norming revelation and discussion has done is point to a much broader conversation which you can point to even when you're talking about the dearth of black coaches or quarterbacks, the way black quarterbacks are talked about in comparison to white quarterbacks.

it really does come with this very deep-seated notion that black players are starting as, frankly, less smart or less intelligent on the field than their white counterparts. it's a pernicious statement and it's something that pervades a lot of the conversations when we talk about how players are treated in the nfl. >> now, tennis star naomi osaka withdrew from the tournament over the media requirements. she has suffered long bouts of depression and says it's hard to cope with that and social anxiety. we all saw osaka promoting black lives matter on an international stage, often wearing face masks emblazoned with names of those killed by police. do you think her being a woman of color has anything to do with the pressure she's under? >> i think it can't be a denied being a woman and a woman of color in a sport like tennis

provides different pressures, especially when it comes to confronting the media. i wrote about this at "the athletic." if you grew up watching serena and venus williams' treatment in the media, it's understandable why you might feel a different level of pressure than your white or male counterparts. it's important to understand where the media is coming from. most of us are just trying to do our jobs, but we haven't been the best at the collective of treating athletes, women, women of color with the sensitivity and with honestly the informed questioning that they deserve. and i think that that's what she was reacting against. >> cavita davidson, thank you so much for being with us and enlightening us tonight. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us.

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joined president biden in tulsa, oklahoma, for the commemorating of the 100th anniversary of the massacre in tulsa, oklahoma, where black wall street was burned, bombed, leveled to the ground. 300 people killed over a lie that a young, black teenage male had assaulted a young, white teenage female. and this president made a direct speech saying it wasn't a riot. it was a massacre. i was able to talk a few minutes with him afterwards one on one and he afforded some of us that had come a few minutes to talk to him and i talked to him about not only how it meant a lot he was the first president in the history of the country to go to tulsa but it is imperative to deal with the george floyd justice in policing act and

senate bill 1 around voting and the john lewis bill. as he listened to me intently and i know him from working in washington as an advocate for years, he seemed committed to understanding how we get there. he wants to reach out and do it bipartisan. i want do get it done no matter because can you imagine 58 years since the march on washington we're still talking about having equal opportunity, equal justice? can you imagine martin luther king talked at police brutality in the march on washington in we deal with policing? we are talking 55, 56 years after the voting rights act and fights for the right to vote. oh, i will hold this president accountable. he knows that.

we fought in the '90s. on this we fight for our rights . why? because it is the right thing to do right now. no excuses. going forward, we can't come any further in this country unless we do it with liberty and justy for all, especially those that were never given it equally in the first place. we'll be right back. ack. i'm greg, i'm 68 years old. i do motivational speaking in addition to the substitute teaching. i honestly feel that that's my calling-- to give back to younger people. i think most adults will start realizing that they don't recall things as quickly as they used to or they don't remember things as vividly as they once did. i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically,

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that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern for another live hour of "politics nation." my colleague alesia menendez picks up the coverage now. >> thank you. good evening. this is "american voices." as voting rights are under attack across this country, the former president is back on stage speaking at north carolina's gop convention in greenville. a live report from there in a moment. but first what the former president's return to the political stage says about this moment in american politics. because as it's written in "new york times," trump is quote both diminished and oversized presence in american life. this week we learned he won't be able to learn facebook until 2023 banned due to the actions that led to the i