trumpian malfeasance continues. the latest on american democracy's brush with death and what still needs to be done to untangle a booby trap justice department. also my conversation with the parents of two students, one black and one white, who had to share one top academic honor after a mixup that roiled the town and resurfaced the community's legacy of racism and segregation. "velshi" starts now. it is saturday, june 19. juneteenth, the day marking the true end of slavery in the united states of america. 156 years ago, the general announced in galveston that the union had won the war and that all enslaved americans were free. it was more than two years after the emancipation proclamation was signed.

today marks the inaugural juneteenth federal holiday, america's 11th federal holiday signed into law by president biden on thursday. >> this is a day of profound in my view profound weight and profound power. by making juneteenth a federal holiday, all americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history. great nations don't ignore their most painful moments. great nations don't ignore the most painful moments. they don't ignore those moments of the past, they embrace them. >> following a year's long push, passage of the juneteenth federal holiday legislation actually came together quite quickly, unanimously passing the senate and overwhelmingly passing the house. but these 14 republicans, a who's who of trump bottom feeders voted against this historic legislation.

voted against commemorating the end of slavery in america. while the juneteenth federal holiday shows that congress can get something done, it doesn't mean that they will continue to do so especially with the senate filibuster in place. infrastructure talks for example continue to be mired in the start and stop progression, a new compromise infrastructure proposal is on the table, this one coming from a bipartisan group. the plan's framework is a scaled down version of biden's already scaled down version, but it appears to possibly have the support of at least 11 republicans. we won't get a look at it until monday. >> mr. president, any reaction to the bipartisan plan? >> i'll let you know monday. >> it seems like none will join in a voting rights compromise. majority leader chuck schumer is

set to bring the major voting rights bill the for the people act to the floor on tuesday where it will almost certainly fail since it appears to have no support among senate republicans. the latest version of the for the people act came out in recent days after democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia released a new proposal that is more limited in scope than the initial bill and combines some elements from the john lewis voting rights advancement act which is a bill that manchin does support. however, he does not publicly support getting rid of the filibuster in order to pass it, which is unfortunate since that is what is needed to pass this bill. and that also lacks republican support. newly leaked audio appears to reveal that manchin may be more flexible than he lets on in public. in case you have trouble keeping track, manchin was for the for the people act two years ago and then against this year due to the fact that republicans are against it. and now he is for it again after

his proposals were included, including things like making election day a public holiday, mandating at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections, banning partisan gerrymandering, making automatic voter registration through the state departments of motor vehicles and requiring voter i.d. with alternatives to prove who you actually are. democrats began rallying around the proposal in earnest after this woman, stacey abrams, publicly promoted manchin's plan including the voter i.d. requirement. yet securing and defending the most democratic of institutions, the right to vote, continues to be vitally important amid the republican assault on voting rights across the country and the gop's push for more sham audits like the ridiculous cyber ninja one going on in arizona. in michigan conservative activists delivered several thousand signed affidavits to lawmakers during a weird rally at the state capitol on thursday

demanding a ninja style, quote, forensic audit. forensic audit being the new big thing on the far white conspiratorially blogs. many of the signed pieces of paper were also reportedly inscribed with bible verses and blessed with prayer and an nointed in oil before they were handed over. as one former republican lawmaker says, quote, if you wonder why we're doing this, at a prayer rally, that is because we recognize that this is a spiritual battle. the person who said this is a former republican official, he then went on to compare the 2020 election with the biblical persecution of jesus christ. joining me now is democratic congressman jim clyburn of south carolina, majority whip this the u.s. house of representatives and chair of the house select guilty on the coronavirus

crisis. and we'll get to the designing of the juneteenth frl federal holiday. but first let's talk about joe manchin. he's come up with an alternative that does seem to have the support of some people including stacey abrams. would it have your support? >> thank you very much for having me. i said the morning of the release that i thought that it was a great step in the right direction. i do believe however that voting rights like all other constitution rights ought not be subjected to filibusters. what gets it for me is to remove the filibuster from constitutional issues as we've done for the budget. because i do believe that this

very, very important. if you go back through history, and i hate to go there this early, but the 15th amendment was passed by one party. it was not a bipartisan vote. the 15th amendment that gave the right to vote to former slaves. so to me, one party has on horn one occasion saved this country from itself. so this thing has to have a bipartisan support to be valuable is not quite -- doesn't get it for me when it comes to the history. >> it is never too early on "velshi" for a history lesson. you met with the delegation that walked out as their repressive laws were going to be passed and stalled the process. they have gone up there and told legislators including manchin, you met with them, vice

president harris met with them, they have told them that they can only go so far in their states. this federal legislation would help with these sham audits, with these ridiculous state laws that are coming. and they need the federal legislation to protect their voting. >> absolutely. once again, the 1965 voting rights act, at the time of the passing of that act in alabama, only 2% -- 2% -- of blacks in alabama at the time, 40% of the population, and only 2% of them were registered to vote. so the 1965 voting rights act, that changed everything. yes, they need federal protection. all of us need federal protection. the 13th amendment, 14th amendment, 15th amendment, federal protection. and let's go to the 18th when it came to women. so this is all about us using

article 1 section 4 that gives the federal government the right to guarantee the right to vote in federal elections. voting for congress, voting for the united states senate, those are federal elections and congress is well within its right to do what we're doing. >> and yet the minority leader mitch mcconnell has said very specifically in telling republicans to reject manchin's compromise that it would be inappropriate for the federal government to be involved in state elections. that it is an overreach of federal authority. and that seems to be the republican line and that seems to be the basis by which republican senators who might have compromised, who might have looked at manchin and said all right, you've come up with something interesting, are still not going to cast a single vote in favor of it. this vote is likely to go to the senate and fail. >> well, if it stays the way it is, that is true. and that is why i'm saying it is

time for schumer to do what is necessary, to put this into perspective. and that is forget about -- change the rules if you will, when it comes to constitutional issues. if you want the filibuster issues of legislation, how high to build a wall, whether or not the wall ought to be built, those are not constitutional issues, filibuster them all you want. when it comes to my right to vote as a citizen of the united states, it should not be subjected to the filibuster of any one person. >> i want to ask you about a tweet you sent in celebration of juneteenth. i think that it is very relevant with respect to the attacks that are going on in teaching chris cal race theory. you said america is not great because it is more enlightened but because it can repair its faults. we should not be ashamed of or hide from our past.

one of the reasons that we enjoy having you here is because you are that student of history. we have a movement under way in this country to reject the education of that history. the ugliest parts of our history in america. that cannot lead to success for us. >> no, it cannot. and let me make sure that all your listeners know, i'm borrowing that tweet. that was written back in 1835 i believe in the work called democracy in america. and that is when slavery was running rampant in this country. slavery was not abolished until 1863 and of course we're celebrating juneteenth today because the message didn't get down to texas until 1865. yes, we should be proud as joe biden said day before yesterday, we embrace our history, we should work together to overcome

that history. this is a great country. our problem is we seem to refuse to give that greatness -- making it accessible and affordable for everybody in the country. and you know, it is an interesting thing about juneteenth. i talk to people about that all the time as a failure to communicate. >> yeah. >> it was two years down in texas before anybody communicated and told them that they were free. now, that communication, that failure to communicate, may have been intentional. i'm sure it was. but that is what is going on today. we're failing to communicate. and filibusters keep you from communicating. we ought to be able to sit down together and work out our differences. i applaud stacey abrams for giving credit to what manchin has done. i join her in that. but that opens up the communication, that starts the

discussion. because there are things about the manchin proposal, though there are a lot of good things, there are things that need to be worked on and they will benefit if we sit around the table and maybe we can show manchin that maybe he should two tweak this that a little bit. >> and i have to interrupt you. we have breaking news coming up. a brand new statue, memorial statue, honoring george floyd, george floyd memorial statue has been unstabled in unveiled in brooklyn. you can see this big statue of george floyd. relevant to the conversation we're having, the idea that tease are becoming the statues -- you remember that we were having conversations about confederate statues all over this country. we didn't know george floyd then. we didn't know george floyd was

going to become a common name in america. we didn't know that we would be erecting statues to him. but when it comes to the development and advancement of civil rights in this country, george floyd now becomes a part of that history. >> yes, he does. and i hope that we can come together very soon and do something for the george floyd justice act. i'll reach out to my colleague in the senate, tim scott. i talked to him yesterday, day before yesterday, with karen bass, and we need to advance that legislation. statues are great. they are symbolic. but what will be greater is passing the george floyd justice information act. let's sit down around the table, let's reach a compromise on these issues.

i've been talking about this immunity issue, whether or notes some something that we treat as if it is absolute. so let's sit around the table and get a definition of qualified immunity and what it is all about. absolute immunity? no. qualified immunity? let's define what that is. i really think that we can get this in the bill. >> tim scott has suggested that there is now space for some progress ed there is now space for some progress there is now space for some progress ed there is now space for some progreon qualified immunity. congressman, thank you very

much. always good to see you. majority whip in the house of representatives. you are watching by the way the unveiling of the george floyd statue in brooklyn. this is -- it is uniquely symbolic because it is happening on juneteenth. and we'll be hearing from george floyd's brother as well. we'll keep a close eye on this going on in brooklyn right now. joining me is the democratic representative mary gay scanlan, attorney and long time advocate for voting rights. congresswoman, thank you for joining us. one of the reasons that you and i have been trying to talk for a few weeks, but as somebody who spends a lot of his time in the state of pennsylvania, this nonsense in arizona, this thing -- the demonstration that we saw in michigan, the stuff going on in georgia, it is all happening in pennsylvania too. >> yes, it is. and we remain concerned about that. look, pennsylvania was subjected after the last census to a raft of vote are suppression laws.

strict voter i.d., gerrymandering that was finally struck down as being unconstitutional. and they are working on it again. >> in fact the playbook is interesting because they are a little different but all watching each other and trying to figure it out. malcolm pinata referred to it as artisanal voter suppression. everyone finds their own flavor. so you say shouldn't we make voting as secure as it can be? to explain to them that we don't have that problem to solve at the moment, this is search of ay ends up making it harder for people to vote. >> and this has been the drumbeat we've really been hearing since 2010 or so. it was dubbed the red map proper

project by the republican party. they set out to manipulate the laws and use this idea that there was massive voter fraud in this country. i talked with christopher wray the fbi director on the record just a week ago and said was there interference in our elections. and he said no. and that has been consistently by anyone who has looked at the facts, there was no voter interference in our last election. what we've seen a people trying to undermine confidence in our elections. it has come from russians, rafrn iran and the republican party. and the last one is really disturbing because these are americans undermining our american electoral system. >> i want to ask you about an fbi document that came up in congress. the fbi interviewed transcript of january 6 defendant thomas webster shows that the fbi's asking insurrectionists if they

have ties to congress. what can you tell us about this question and what it may be yielding? >> well, certainly there have been questions from the outset ever since january 6 about how january 6 came to be. was it coordinated? both on the macro level, you know, how involved was the former administration, and i'm one of the members of congress who the day before the insurrection saw people in maga gear being given tours of the capitol. and it was noticeable and we've asked an investigation of that. so someone let folks into the capitol, whether it was simply a violation of the covid regulations, which was a problem at the time, or whether these folks who came through on the tour came back the next day based on what they saw. we do need to get to the bottom of that, so i'm glad that the

fbi is following up. >> juneteenth is a remarkably important day in history. monday will be an important day, it is not in our history, but it will be, child tax credit enhancements are going into effect. it is proposed that this tax credit will take half of children in america out of poverty. it is an embarrassment to discuss how many children are in poverty, deep poverty or food insecure. but a bunch of things are happening. they are making it a monthly pavement as opposed to a tax credit. you still have on go online or have a bank account and that is problematic for some of poorest people in this country. but it does appear that we have a logistical problem but we're making progress toward the alleviation of child pofr city poverty in america. >> and thank you so much for bringing that up. it is so important and the child tax credit is something that has had bipartisan support. the economists say this could be

transformative. and i spent yesterday touring my district with jim mcgovern from the rules committee working with him to try to get the white house to convene a conference on hunger. last one was over 50 years ago. but 20% of my district is hungry before covid. we need to do better. an outrageous proportion of the folks in our country who are hungry are children. it stunts their growth, it hurts their hearts, hurts my heart to even have to talk about it. so we need to do better and the child tax credit is a really great way to do that. it is blessed by the economists, blessed by the people on the ground who will get it. and it helps the family pay for everything from food to summer camp to shoes when you have a teenager who outgrows them every six weeks. >> congresswoman, i want you to hang on for a second. terrence floyd, the brother of george floyd, is speaking now at the unveiling of the memorial in

brooklyn for george floyd. >> last but not least, oh, man, scientific -- i can go on and on about this. let's give it up for pappoos. support the movement, support black love. we should be listening to his lyrics and see how lyrical he is. i'm so shocked that we can throw ideas at each other. i'm like oh, wow.

i'm so grateful, grateful that my team and everybody came out to support the george floyd movement. >> we'll keep listening in to that. that is the unveiling of the george floyd memorial in brooklyn. a relevance piece of extra history on this important day, the first time the 11th federal holiday in the united states, the first time we are celebrating juneteenth as a nation. and of course george floyd part of the new civil rights movement. i was a little shocked that there were a number of your colleagues in the house of representatives who couldn't even vote symbolically to mark juneteenth. a matter that -- i don't know. i don't understand what the impediment is here. >> well, there were only 14 of them. and i agree with you, i don't independent the impediment. this is long overdue.

the 14 who voted against it are those who scream most loudly about cancel culture and juneteenth is the ultimate response to cancel culture. we have canceled hundreds of years of black history in this country. and symbols are important, holidays are important. and it is really important that we recognize juneteenth. i'm so thrilled because i have a day full of activities here in the district, different juneteenth celebrations in different communities, and i was so happy to be able to come back from d.c. this weekend and say hey, we actually got something good done in d.c. and it is a federal holiday. >> representative scanlan, i appreciate your patience with us. appreciate your time this morning. she is from pennsylvania's fifth district. still to come, as the republican push for more ninja style audits continue, colorado

secretary of state has a plan to fight back. i'm talking to jenna griswold later in the show. and we will talk to two black graduating seniors who had to share top honors. i went down to mississippi to sit down with the families of both to dig deeper into the matter. but first members of the gop like to say that they support law enforcement but their actions speak much louder than their lies. der than th their lies and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. tonight...i'll be eating crab cakes with spicy aioli. (doorbell rings) boost® high protein also has key nutrients thank you. can we be besties, simone biles? i guess? yessss! should we dismount now?

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that was january 6 through the eyes of a police officer. every officer defending capitol hill that day experienced some version of that scene. pro trump rioters using anything that they could get their hands on, poles, barricades, stun guns, mace, bare fists to attack cops. the man in the red jacket that you saw in that video is a former nypd police officer. more than 140 members of the capitol and d.c. metro police departments were injured, one died as a result of defending democracy on that day. so when the house proposed a bill to award congressional gold medals to those officers, it seemed like a lay-up, right? no, not to these 21 members of congress who by the way take a good hard look at this, these lawmakers voted against the civil simple act of honoring

them of protecting congress and everyone in it. these are the same lawmakers from the same party that pretends to care about police by shouting back the blue from the rooftops. just last month this congresswoman said that republicans will always honor the blue. good old marjorie taylor greene who once proposed gold medals for fought back against "black lives matter" terror will not support medals for these officers who actually fought back against an actual insurrection. and then andrew clyde not only voted against the legislation but added insult to injury by refusing to shake the hand of an officer who suffered a minor heart attack by responding to the january 6 riot. he said he wanted to share his experiences but clyde refused to shake his hand and walked away. good police officers, hero

police officers, deserve to be recognized. the on the job oig risk for police officers is at a record high. in the last five months, 37 police officers were murdered in the line of duty in the united states. that is compared to 46 killed in all of 2020. the rise in violent crime is partially to blame. policing has been at the forefront of a national conversation for over a year in you and for good reason. but while we have legitimate reasons to not like the statein you and for good reason. but while we have legitimate reasons to not like the state of policing in america, we cannot solve it while ignoring another. and gold medals for the cops who defended the u.s. capitol is a good place to start. good place to start. , microwave, gas ranges and grills. and if you're looking for...

♪welcome back to that same old place♪ ♪that you laughed about♪ ♪well, the names have all changed♪ ♪since you hung around♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you.

last weekend we brought you the story of two young black graduating seniors who ended up shaving top honors at their high

school with two white students due to an unannounced change to the way that they calculated their grades. and it was based quality grade point averages or qpa which places more weight on rigorous course loads. but when the parents of two white students responded that qpa was not the school stated protocol, they had to share them with two white students. it divided the community along racial lines. to get the full story, i traveled to the small town to sit down with the families of both salute torians and a member of the local naacp chapter to hear how they are trying to make sense of this matter. these two families have never talked and this is the first time that they met face-to-face to discuss what went down. i asked both sets of parents to walk me through their initial

reactions. >> it was excitement, you know, in the beginning. the day of graduation, we took her to the school to finish her speech and by the time we made it home, that is when we seen that it was another set of valedictorian and salute torian picked. and we were wondering what is going on, we wasn't informed of no mistake or anything like that. and we went up to the school and we wanted to know what was going on. and that is when the principal called the superintendent and he came in and spoke with us. >> when your daughter got the honor, was it something that you were expecting or something that surprised you? >> it surprised me. but i knew that, you know, she's a straight "a" student and she had been that of since she was this elementary. >> so a roller coaster of

emotions over 24 hours? >> yeah. >> how are you feeling now? >> well, it is -- it's pretty much over and done with. and i hate to leave her questioning did i actually get this spot. you know, was everything fair that played out. and our perspective, it wasn't fair. >> my daughter since the eighth grade had led the class in semester average every single year. and she had been looking at class her semester average at the end of the first semester, third semesters she was still top of the class. so when that award ceremony came down and she wasn't named, we were same as anybody else on the other side of the fence, we were shocked and we wanted answers. so we went to the superintendent

to talk to them, to meet with them, and speak explained that they had gone off of the qpa which is not the same as semester averages. >> qpa is sort of a g 36789 a that is adjusted for the type of courses? or the type of credits? >> yeah. and we found in the handbook that the handbook said that student class rank shall be determined for graduating students by semester average. so we suggested immediately, please, do not take this away from them. let's just co-share these awards. and these honors. and that is what the school district agreed to. we were happy. when we left there, we were fine with sharing. we understood what happened was a mistake, was a miscommunication. that is how it went. and graduation -- my daughter almost didn't walk because of the threats that were being made

to her. there were people saying that we'll get that award back in blood. we didn't know what to do. >> what was the basis of the threat? >> because they thought that it was based off of -- i want to be careful. they were just basing it on they didn't think that it was right, they didn't know if it was a white versus a black thing or a race thing. and it wasn't. it never was. >> i personally don't think that there was a mistake because the school board had no intention on telling us. they were just going to let us show up to graduation. and when that comes off as underhanded, you know, why are they hiding this from us. i looked at it as you say i went and talked to them and i look at the superintendent showing favoritism. >> syou hadn't gone to the superintendent first? >> no, only after we found out that those kids were also there.

>> and it was brought up that race or something, i don't know, was a factor. race has had something to do with so much in this state. but actually fairly recently, including at this school. one of my bosses went to school here, grew up here in west point. and talked about the fact that they had separate proms. tell me what we should or shouldn't know about why this overlay of race shows up. >> it is seen on a constant. not everyone sees them. like you mentioned, the history of the proms, you know, even in the school district up until mid 2000, still black home coming queens, still three white, everything was always racist. although the school district is probably i want to say over-75%

if not more percent african-american, even during that course of time, you still had to choose both races. and so this situation is similar. and it is the optics of it all. west point doesn't have outwardly bickering with race. however, you do see the segregation when certain things happen, in the schools, politics, you name it. >> i'm going to tackle the voting for multiple homecoming queens, did i hear you right? this is something that came about following the school district becoming integrated. and at that point, it was majority of white people at the school. and african-americans could not -- they weren't winning. they weren't being voted for as homecoming queens. so this is something that the african-american community asked for. this is late '60s, early '70s.

i don't know the exact date. do you? >> i don't. >> okay. so i think that it is irresponsible to paint this as a segregated school system considering how it came to be in the first place. number two, the notion that this had anything to do with race to me is unequivocally false. for 20 years, the west point school district has been awarding valedictorian and salute torian based on semester averages. and this year a brand new senior counselor who in a past positioned a a different school operated under a different method of calculating that award, this is an honest mistake. and i'll tell you the media should be held responsible for

the things that they have done to these families. you tell somebody something that something is racist long enough, they may start to believe it. i don't think that the media cares about west point, mississippi. i don't think that they care if this community is divided or not. i don't think that they care if they destroy west point, mississippi. ali, the death threats that emma received, i'm not mad at the people that are making those threats. these threats are coming from all over the country. and they are coming from all over the country because the media is telling them that something funny happened in west point. and it didn't. and this needs to stop. and it needs to stop now. >> the racism that they are speaking of i don't think is-we're saying that you don't like black people or anything like that. i think that it is more of like the sense of what they call white privilege, entitlement or whatever, and then the fact that it seems as if you show your

kids favoritism over our kids. if the roles were reversed, mr. mcdonald wouldn't have done it for me. >> right there you hearder use the word privilege. they believes that rather than racism might be central to the situation in west point. but emma's family doesn't agree that that term applies. the second part of my conversation with these four is coming up in the next hour. meanwhile every week we're learning more and more about democracy's near death experience under the ex-president and now the biden department of justice is stuck cleaning up the mess. house democrats have asked merrick garland to release documents tied to efforts under trump's doj to secretly subpoena the communication records of the ex-president's political critics. the judiciary committee announced last week that it opened an effort into efforts by the trump administration to seek the phone and email records of reporters, congressional staff and lawmakers. also this week, new documents

and emails revealing the length that trump and his aides were willing to go to in the final weeks of his term to enlist the department of justice in over turning the results of election. mark meadows actually shared with jeffrey rosen a link to a youtube video that described the outlandish plot of how it had been stolen by the use of military satellites controlled in italy. and rosen's deputy wrote to him privately, quote, purely insanity. -- pure insanity. and joyce vance writes, garland inherited a boop bitrap department of justice. the problem cases don't identify themselves. files don't come with bright yellow stickers that say warning or danger, it will take a top to bottom review of the justice department to root them out. and joining me now is joyce

vance. good to see you. you write eloquently in the "washington post" i think that it is necessary reading if for wherever one is on the political spectrum that there are problems all over this department of justice which run contrary to the kind of person merrick garland is. garland is a straight arrow when it comes to the law and justice and he is dealing with a department of justice that has become politicized and he doesn't know where all the land mines might be. >> it is a difficult situation because of the uncertainty. and this subpoena issue is a great example. we don't really know the truth about what happened. uncertainty doesn't breed trust in the justice department. having lived through the trump administration where the justice department wasn't deserving of our trust, merrick garland has the difficult job of re-establishing with the american people reasons that they can have confidence that when he makes a difficult

decision a decision that not everyone agrees with, that he has made the right decision for the right reasons. so this is really an all-hands on deck exercise at doj. >> and part of the issue, what some people are wondering about, with these emails that have been discovered, with trump and others suggesting that people need to get investigated, were department of justice people just sort of saying whatever, great, the president said this, we'll file this, or did they feel compelled to act on it and should they have felt compelled to do something more about this information to suggest how nefarious it was? >> again, we have so much uncertainty. one picture that emerges is that doj inclined to be implicit in the big lie. doj declined to file lawsuits and declined to side with the president. we know that there was a near coup inside doj when the president considered replaing

jeff rosen, the guy who refused to engage with this, with another acting official jeffrey bosart clark who apparently favored getting engaged in the big lie. and when trump indicated that he might be considering putting clark in place as the acting attorney general, senior officials practice it clear that they would resign en masse to reveal that -- to share that story with the public. so part of the story here is that we can have confidence in doj, but merrick garland needs do -- i think he is in many ways the dr. fauci of the justice system, a trusted truth teller that people can rely on. >> what do you say to people, because you have seen it on twitter and the news, people thatsault falls short of what the country needs to see for the purpose of the rehabilitation of the justice department? or put it another way, he may be moving -- merrick garland may

behooving too slowly for some people's political aspirations. >> and that is the real problem here. the problem when you have weak democratic institutions is that there is a lot of emotion and people for very good reason want to see immediate progress. but you can't fix democratic institutions that are fragile with a sledgehammer. you have to do it slowly. not all of it will happen in public view. what merrick garland owes us is an accounting of the process that he is undertaking, a broad outline of the work that he is doing to make sure that there aren't problems. and look, ali, we've had this conversation many times. i have enormous confidence in the men and women, the career employees of justice department who do their jobs in an apolitical fashion. the fear here is not that doj is corrupt top to bottom, the question is are there other matters like the subpoena matter or like the emails that were

sent to acting attorney general jeffrey rosen that require attention or may require public revelation before they can become toxic for this justice department. >> joyce, you give me faith in the system. thank you for that. joyce vance is co-host of the sisters in law podcast, you need to listen to this thing, you can get it wherever you get your podcasts. turning now to iran where any hopes that the biden administration has of re-entering the nuclear deal may have taken a major hit with the election of hard liner ebrahim raisi as the next president. and joining me now is ali arouzi. tell us more about the man raisi and how his election could affect the discussions about returning to the iran nuclear deal. >> reporter: good morning, my friend. look, he is an austere man who spent most of his career at the judiciary. he staunchly is anti-american,

deeply conservative. he may seek to reinforce puitan calsystems, that means fewer freedoms, maybe more control on the press. you will see a change in tone with the west especially the u.s. where i can see tensions spiking beyond what they have already been recently. unlike rouhani, he won't be looking to the west to resolve iran's economic problems. but he will be concentrating on an economy of resistance as laid out by the supreme leader who he is fiercely loyal to along with the rest of the ruling clerical establishment. but when it comes to the nuclear deal, people may think that it is now in serious trouble with this new government. but that is not the case. there has been an internal consensus here in iran from the people who call the shots that it is in iran's national

interests to return to the deal in order to get rid of u.s. sanctions and kicks start the economy. and with raisi as president, it may be easier to achieve because all the branches of power will be on power will be on the same page. that struggle that rouhani had with the conservatives will no longer exist. they will be going with one voice. rouhani was always said to have had a shadow government over him making decisions. that won't be the case anymore. it would also benefit raisi to secure the deal quickly, to give the economy a boost, which would then enhance his standings with the people. >> good to see you. thank you for taking time to join us today to give us this important news. ali arouzi for us in tehran. a new coronavirus variant is tearing through the united states. it has been described as covid on steroids. the president now says it is particularly dangerous for young people. that's ahead.

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identified in india, is 60% more transmissible and is more dangerous for young people. joining me, dr. bedelia, the founding director of boston university center for emerging infectious diseases, policy and research. dr. bedelia, tell us what we need to know about delta. >> well, ali, the trouble is that delta, every time you see a new variant you are worried about the transmissibility, whether it is causing more severe disease, whether they're subverting the vaccine and whether they're altering their genomics so you can't pick it up on diagnostics. it is more transmissible and it is likely causing more severe disease. you only need to look to the countries that have younger populations that escaped during the first couple of waves that are now being hit very hard that younger populations are affected. er here is the good news.

if you are fully vaccinated, you are well protected against both infection, hospitalization and death. the trouble is there are pockets in the u.s. and a huge section of the rest of the world that is not vaccinated that is getting devastated currently from delta, and the concern is here in the u.s. those unvaccinated states -- you know, under vaccinated states may see surges from the new variants. >> can you tell me about the talk about an anti-viral pill? >> this is a great announcement this week from hhs. so funding from the recovery act that is going to be doing two things. one is they're going to push forward on a program that's going to push anti-viral oral pills and other medications for coronavirus of the covid-19 because the concern is, look, if we have come across more and more variants, you know, and our vaccines become less and less efficacious, the way we will know is people will start getting sicker who have had vaccines. having anti-virals in hand will help us to try to deliver help. the other reason it helps is

because that money is investigated in creating anti-virals for other viruses in the future that might have a potential pandemic. it will keep the hospitals from not being overwhelmed and people from getting sick in the future. i think it is a wonderful investment. >> we probably will fall short of joe biden's goal of 70% immunization by july 4th. some states have exceeded that. i was speaking to someone from vermont where they've exceeded that. tell me about the importance of that number and this timeline. >> we don't have a good sense of what is needed for herd immunity, but we have seen that the more people that get vaccinated you are creating buffers in your community and particularly in the face of the variant. so communities within highly vaccinated states, ali, that have not achieved the same level of vaccination, we're likely to see them at higher risk for surges, particularly in the fall

when the weather gets colder and dryer because it turns to mist better then. >> thank you for helping us clear it up. dr. bedelia, boston center for emerging infectious diseases, policy and research. still ahead, my conversation with a group of locals in a mississippi town where a tweet caused a flurry of controversy for graduating teens. plus, jena griswold, staving off a sham audit in her state. that and more coming up. another hour of "velshi" starts now. good morning. i'm ali velshi. it is saturday, june 19th, juneteenth. the very first federally recognized observance of this holiday. on this day in 1865, more that

two years after president lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation, the union army general gordon granger announced in an address in galveston, texas, that the union had won the war and all enslaved americans were free. this week president biden signed into law a proclamation declaring this day a federal holiday, america's 11th federal holiday. >> this is a day profound in my view, profound weight and profound power. by making juneteenth a federal holiday all americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history. it is not going to be fulfilled so long as the sacred right to vote remains under attack. we see this assault from restrictive laws, threats of intimidation, voter purges, and more. an assault that offends the very democracy, our very democracy. we can't rest until the promise of equality is fulfilled for every one of us in every corner of this nation. that to me is the meaning of juneteenth. that's what it is about.

>> the passage of the juneteenth federal holiday legislation actually came about quite quickly this week, unanimously passing the senate and overwhelmingly passing the house. however, these 14 republicans are the only ones to voted against it. it is a conglomeration of trump sycophants and election deniers and pushers of the big lie and voter suppression, in the face of the gop's onslaught against voting rights across the country majority leader chuck schumer is set to bring the for the people act to the floor on tuesday. it will almost certainly fail since it appears to have no republican support whatsoever. the latest version of the for the people act came about in recent days after democratic senator joe manchin released a new proposal more limited in scope than the original and also combines some elements from the john lewis voting rights advancement act. which is a bill, by the way, manchin does support. how, he doesn't publicly support getting rid of the filibuster in order to pass that bill which is too bad,