set for any woman, of course, but think about the unrealistic standard that it's actually set for men and what they define as beautiful. the question remains will women buy into this re-brand? we'll see. that's all the time i have for today. a reminder to catch my show "zerlina every day on peacock, the choice and alicia will be back next week for "more american voices" and for now i hand it over to my friend, mehdi hasan. hey, mehdi. >> thanks, zelina. thanks so much. have a great rest of your ton. tonight on "the mehdi hasan show," conspiracy after conspiracy for so-called january 6th truthers. it never ends. why isn't there a congressional investigation? i'll talk to democratic representative bill pack of yawl and covid kills hundreds every day. this is not over and so many of these deaths were preventable.

former white house adviser andy slavitt joins me later in the hour. and senator ted cruz compares critical race theory to the kkk. the worst part. he knows exactly what he's doing. i'll speak with a pioneer of the subject kimberly crenshaw. ♪♪ r of the subject kimberly crenshaw. ♪ good evening. i'm mehdi hasan. we are now nearly six months removed from january the 6th, and there is still no sign from the administration or from democrats in congress of a bipartisan or even partisan investigation of the capitol insurrection. why is that important? well, for one reason meet darren beatty. he was a speech writer for the trump white house until he was fired in 2018 after it emerged he spoke at a conference for white supremacists, as you do, and then he was appointed by a trump white house to a commission that preserves holocaust memorials. no, i'm not making this up. today b.t. runs a far right

website called revolver news. well, you might wonder why should i care about an ex-speech write their was too extreme even for the trump white house? well, because darren beatty and revolver news are behind the latest january 6th conspiracy theory which suggests undercover agents or informants for the federal government were involved in the planning and execution of the attack on the capitol, possibly to, quote, frame the entire maga movement as potential domestic terrorists, a theory which i'm sorry i have to tell you which is starting to take the republican party and conservative movement by storm. this is alex jones info wars. this is real tin foil hat stuff, and yet beatty and revolver news were the sources cited last week by tucker carlson, the highest latest primetime host on fox news. when he decided to give b.t. a platform and amplify this bonkers conspiracy to millions of his republican viewers. >> so it turns out that this white supremacist insurrection was, again, by the government's own admission in these

documents, organized at least in part by government agents. >> tucker carlson is not just asking questions. he's not just wondering whether fbi informants may have been among those who stormed the capitol, a legitimate line of inquiry hemp's not just pointing out that the fbi has been accused of manufacturing terror plots in the past, especially to entrap muslim suspects. that's true. he's been accused of that. he's flat out stating and the insurrection was and i quote by the government's own admission in these documents organized at least in part by government agents which is a ridiculous and false claim for which there is of course zero evidence. perhaps most importantly legal experts explain that the government cannot name undercover agents as unindicted co-conspirators which goes to the heart of carlson's and revolver news' conspiracy. whoops. that old argument about unindicted co-conspirators mentioned in january 6th

charging documents, oops. the thing about carlson and his influence whatever he says no matter how offensive it is these days quickly becomes received wisdom on the right, including among republican lawmakers. his fellow insurrection denier gone representative marjorie taylor greene was quick to tweet after his segment we need names and answers about the fbi operatives who were involved in organizing and carrying out the january 6th capitol riot, and by thursday in this loony conspiracy was being repeated on the floor of the house of representatives by gop representative louie gohmert. >> so if there were federal agents involved on january 6th, we really need to know what the fbi knew and when they knew it and not only that, we need to know how much participation did any of our federal friends, either at doj, fbi or any of the

intel community, what kind of role were they playing? >> this is insane. it's beyond bonkers, and it's another reminder of how unhinged the modern gop has become. from accusing antifa of being behind the capitol attack to now accusing the fbi of being behind it. anybody but the actual people who did it, trump supporters, far right militias, the proud boys. look, 9/11 truthers were mostly on the far left. today the 1/6 truthers are all on the far right. the problem is the far right today dominates the republican party, but wait, there's more, because while there's zero evidence that the january 6th attack was an inside job coordinated and launched by members of the federal government, by fbi agents, there actually are legitimate questions to be asked about what role gop lawmakers played in incopyright the attack, perhaps even coordinating with the attackers. remember the morning of january

the 6th? >> today is the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass! >> that was mo brooks speaking at the pre-insurrection stop the steal rally in d.c., one of three hardline gop congressman, the other two being andying biggs and paul gosar who one of the organizers of that real accused him of planning the thing, something all three lawmakers vehemently deny and congresswoman lauren boebetter tweeted on the morning of january 6th today is 1776. msnbc received a transcript with an alleged news,ist that agents asked whether the defendants had any potential connections not just to right wing extremist groups but also to members of congress. a line of inquiry that's probably not limited to just one defendant. look. i'm not saying members of congress were involved in the assault on the united states capitol. what i am saying is that we need

to investigate this stuff, find out what connections, if any, there were, and isn't it ironic that the people pushing this bonkers conspiracy claiming it was an inside job by the fbi are also the ones who don't want any kind of investigation or commission at all. that tells you everything you need to know. joining me now is congressman bill pampial, democrat from new jersey. thanks for coming back on the show. what do you make of the conspiracy theory that baselessly points to fbi agents or under cover informants as being the people who were behind the attack, organizing the attack on the capitol? >> well, it would seem to me, mehdi, that we've heard this tune before about conspiracies. in fact, there are a number of groups that are dedicated to making them up. i mean, you remember this picture, the day, the weekend after january the 6th.

these are not tourists floating around wanting to see the statues or wanting to learn. that didn't happen, that didn't happen, and -- and any president of the united states, mehdi, would see the possibilities of this happening particularly when you give orders to them at the white house of the united states of america. i mean, this is pretty fascinating. the day of january 6th, is 134, 135 congressmen voted to overturn the government. remember, we stayed until 4:00 in the morning to january the 7th. >> yeah. >> in order to accept those votes from the electors, and we did it, 4:00 in the morning, mehdi. we finished. >> you've been outspoken on this

issue, including on this show back in january about the alleged role that republicans may have played, not just inciting the insurrection but trying to overturn the election. you went so far as for calling the 130-odd republican members who tried to overturn the election to not be seated in congress, to face some kind of censure or sanction and coming up in the house, your party has done no, no special committees or independent committee, no house committees investigating this stuff. why is there so much inaction from the leader of the democratic party, from speaker pelosi? doesn't it frustrate you and i'm sure it frustrates many of our viewers for sure. >> i'm past frustration. we've got to do something about this and do it soon. i know speaker pelosi has been working every day either with the chairman of the homeland security committee. i carry the constitution with me

at all times, and article 14 is very clear about sedition. i mean, if that wasn't sedition, they have never congratulated and never even shook his hand. i wonder about the internal stuff that that has lost in joe biden. i mean, they are acting like he's not the president, and he is the president of the united states. >> congressman, i understand. you say you're past frustration good but being angry or frustrated isn't good enough. i'm saying to you six months later it's not good enough to say that nancy pelosi is having conversations behind the scene. do you think the republican party if they were in control of the house and antifa or black lives matter had attacked the capitol on the day trump was having his vote certified, do you think the republicans would have waited six months to do something about it?

why can't you your party move faster? >> i don't think you have to go to washington to be arrested. i understand that. i'm telling you firsthand knowledge that nancy pelosi is working on this every day. there are a lot of arrests that have occurred since january 6th, and i can assure you, mehdi, there are going to be more, and i hope that scheme of the fbi plotting against trump is so bizarre. i mean, i don't spend any time responding to that kind of thing. there is no evidence to that. just like there was no evidence, mehdi, and it didn't matter to any one of those judges could have said, hey, wait a minute. this is going on in this state. it's going on, no one. of -- it's bizarre. >> the lawsuits fell apart. >> yes, yes. >> congressman, let me ask you this. let me ask you this before -- before we run out of time, let me ask you about this. what do you make of the new reports that come out that has

kevin mccarthy on the record saying donald trump has told him he wants to be house speaker. it sounds ridiculous but nothing is beyond the modern gop, no constitutional bar for him becoming speaker if they win the mid terms. how worried that donald trump could soon be second in line to the presidency as speaker of the house? >> that's correct, and i like the bizarre things to go on because this only indicates that he's out of his mind or -- or he really plans to be dictator which isn't going to happen in the greatest country in the world. the way they responded to those police officers who protect us day in and day out, they should -- they should be treated like common criminals, not political prisoners, common criminals. that's what they are, and we're going to do something about it, you watch, and you're just as frustrated as i am. >> i hope so, congressman. we will get you back when nancy please announces a commission

maybe and talk about what's actually happening on the democratic side. congressman bill pascrell, thanks for coming on the show to share your opinions and insights. always value them. thank you so much. >> coming up there, really is a way that republicans could make donald trump speaker of the house. can you believe that? i almost can't, but you know what, it could happen, and we'll talk about it next, and ahead, we've his a crossroads in our covid fight. this thing is far from over. when will it end, and how preventable it was? i'll ask former white house adviser andy slavitt. e adviser andy slavitt

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donald trump as house speaker in 2022? it may sound crazy, but if as expected his republican loyalists win back the house in next year's mid terms, it could become a reality.

donald trump has reportedly been musing to house leader kevin mccarthy about the possibility. see for yourself. >> if you guys do take the house and finish the job that you almost shocked the world by doing a few months ago and take the house, you are only five seats down, then maybe he runs for a seat or just appointed as speaker. would you be for president trump becoming speaker? >> you know, i talked to president trump many times. he tells me he wants to be speaker and i think he should be president. >> a spokesman for mccarthy later backtracked, excuse me, clarified, to an axios report their trump supposedly wants mccarthy himself to be speaker, right. kurt bardello is with the "l.a. times" newspapers and also a former spokesperson for republicans on the house oversight committee back when he was in the gop. thanks for coming on the show. there is no constitutional bar to a non-member of the house being appointed speaker by members of the house. a lot of people don't realize

that. house republicans if they win the majority could appoint anyone, you or i to be speaker. they might appoint donald trump. if you were a betting man, what would you say the odds are that donald trump is speaker of the house and second in line for the presidency come january 2023? >> well, i don't think that's going to happen because i don't think republicans are going to win the house in the mid terms in 2022 and part of the reason why is because of conversations like this. the worst thing you can do in an election is give your opponents motivation to show up and vote and turn out and anything hinting at donald trump returning to power will motivate the democratic base so much. i mean, this is the gift that keeps on giving. at this point democrats just let republicans implode upon themselves. the fact that kevin mccarthy has to spend any time answering a question like that because donald trump has put that out into the atmosphere just tells you the ton of problems that they are going to have and it's only going to get worse as donald trump continues to hit the stumps doing those rallies

and speaking whatever comes to his wasting away mind is going to be a constant distraction for republicans and it's only going to help democrats retain control of power. >> i mean, look, you're an adviser to the democratic congressional committee so, of course, you're not going to say that they are going to lose the mid terms, but history suggests that the incumbent governing body loses in the mid terms. go back to george w. bush for a party that went against that. you're right, trump being a potential speaker would hurt as much as help republicans. i mean, democrats would just need to mock up some fake image of a speaker trump sitting behind president biden during the state of the union address. that would help democratic turnout in a mid-term, wouldn't it? >> that ad almost writes itself, but, i mean, more to your question if -- if somehow republicans were to get the majority, are they crazy enough to make donald trump their speaker? well, of course they are. i mean, we have seen. >> yes. >> there is no bar too low for

this version of the republican party. i mean, they seem to be okay with the violent mob of white nationalists storming the capitol with violent and malicious and killer intention and to just call them tourists for the day, so would they be crazy enough to make donald trump their speaker and are they scared enough of donald trump to do that? is kevin mccarthy too weak to prevent that from happening? yes, of course he is, and i don't see that happening and, again, republicans will have the constant trump problem. we saw how it played in 2018 which was in many ways a referendum on the trump presidency and we saw in 2020 in places like georgia that republicans lost twice in the span of three months. i mean, the demographics are speaking for themselves. that's why republicans are doing everything they can to move heaven and earth to rig the election, to change voting laws and to restrict our voters from being able to participate in the electoral process. the reason they are doing that is because they know that they are losing. >> you mentioned the georgia races.

i saw an image recently of the republican senators who lost in georgia going to see donald trump in mar-a-lago, and it was just hilarious because you've lost your seat because of this guy in the united states senate, and yet you're still doing the pilgrimage to go and pay fealty to a loser. you and i can laugh about that. he is a loser and helped them lose the senate seat in georgia. let me be the devil's advocate. you say donald trump will got them. donald trump got more votes than any presidential candidate in history bar joe biden and upped his share of the votes with latinos in places like texas and republicans do still need him despite everything. what's your response to that argument? >> you know, i think that republicans continue to double down on failure andalusian, and i can't for the life of me understand why. i think it's political suicide. i mean, at the end of the day

for as many votes donald trump may have gotten we got more. we know when there is a level playing field and both sides show up there's more of us than there are of them. that's the end of the story right this so for republicans to continue to double down on this to me is insane and the thing is we have historical context what have happened when a political party on life support refuses to adapt and evolve. it's called the california republican party. people forgot that two decades ago the california republican party was thriving, interest they were in party, had a majority in the state assembly and what did they do, they went extreme on the issue of immigration which alienated the largest democratic bloc in california and now republicans can't get elected dog catcher statewide in california and lost control of the state legislature. that's how the story ends for the republican party nationally at large if they continue to go down this road. >> you're assuming they are reasonable. we've got 30 seconds left. i just want to mention this story. "newsweek" is reporting some of the qanon folks in the gone believe trump will be back in office in august don't

understand why he's selling tickets for a history tour with bill o'reilly in december. they don't understand their own leader's end game. >> there's exhibit a, b and c why i think republicans will lose in 2022. they can't get out of their own ways. they keep catering to the conspiracy cuckoo theorists and they look around wondering and say i can't believe he's not president. what happened to that? they are just cannibalizing themselves here. >> that's what happens to every cult sadly. >> curt bardella, thank you for your time tonight. thank you. >> republicans slam biden for being soft on dictators after his meeting on putin. have they forgotten when trump exchanged love letters with kim jong-un but first richard lui is here with today's headlines. some of the stories we're watching, nine children and one adult were killed in a

multi-vehicle crash in alabama. eight of the dead were girls from a residential youth home according to the butler county coroner. wet weather from tromp claudette caused that crash. claudette's threat, by the way, continues to the southeast monday morning and bands of rain may cause flash floods in the carolinas. tornadoes are also possible. claudette is expected to move off the east coast monday. federal regulators say firefighters may be at increased risk from electric car fires. lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles have enough energy to power a home for more than two days, for instance. that energy can fuel massive blazes. regulators say now that they are developing strategies to help responders. more of "the mehdi hasan show" right after this break. he mehdi" right after this break only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back. it's time now for what i call the 60-second ross perot.

start the clock. republicans like tom cotton and kevin mccarthy and mike pompeo fell over one enough called biden pathetically weak on russia to which my response was are you kidding mow? where when they when trump hosted a press conference with point and took their word over his own intelligence agentia and when he refused to say one bad word and when where were they when donald trump exchanged love letters with kim jong-un and xi gin pin said they would always be friends no matter what happened and what about defending saudi prince bin salman. they didn't say a word then so how dare they say a moral high ground on the issue of sucking up to dictators? literally the last people on earth who should be lecturing anyone on standing up to dictators are the spineless

pro-trump members of the modern republican party. s pro-trump members of the modern republican party coming up, hundreds are still dying daily from covid, and a lot of these deaths, if it weren't for trump, preventible. i'll spoke to former white house covid adviser and author andy slavitt next. d adviser and auth slavitt next for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects

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♪that you laughed about♪ ♪well, the names have all changed♪ ♪since you hung around♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. ed. america is at a crossroads in the fight against covid-19 n.areas adult vaccination rates

have topped 70% and reopening is in full swing, but we pier not out of this yet. on friday 304 americans died from covid-19, 304, adding to a death toll over 605,000. right now five states are experiencing an increase in cases, and vaccination rates are declining as the highly contagious delta variant is on the rise, but did it have to be this way? researchers have long claimed that much of this could have been avoided if the trump administration had adopted more widespread prevention protocols much earlier on, if they hadn't been in denial. andy slavitt, former biden white house senior veras for covid response agrees. he's the author of the new book "preventable, the inside story of how leadership and politics doomed the u.s. coronavirus response." thanks for coming on the show. last week you came under foyer from conservatives saying americans should have sacrificed more during the pandemic in. your book you write that in comparison to other countries, quote, the american public was

impatient, untrusting and unaccustomed to sacrificing individual rights for the public good. how much of where we are right now can we attribute to the actions not just of government but to individuals, to a culture in america of individualism? >> well, this ought to be a period of reflection. we ought to be looking back seeing what went right and what didn't go wright. we know there were technical things that went wrong and those things ought to be fixed n.fog of war, a new coronavirus. we ought to be generous in allowing for the fact that's going to happen but two things go above and beyond that we've got to pay attention to. one is on the political side. the president committed what i think is three deadly sins. the first was denied the coronavirus for too long and tried to contort reality to the vision he wanted to see. if he would have simply said when he knew that covid in january, hey, folks, we have a problem. we'll have to all pull together on this, we would have been much

better off and would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and then he quashed the science and basically wouldn't let the department of health and human services for the month of february and march, wasn't even allowed to talk to the press, and that comes out clearly in this book. you imagine we have a new pandemic and the white house doesn't let hhs talk to the public or the media, so those are the big issues, and then i do posit there are open questions we should ask ourselves how do we view science and expertise, how divided we are, how unequal incomes are in this country in race and how that has an impact on who lived and died and what people's attitudes were? i do think changing a president alone doesn't fix our problem. >> but during trump's presidency you say in the book that you contacted members of an administration offering help. what were those conversations like? were the people around trump just indifferent to the dangers from covid or just totally ignorant about them, or was there a combination of the two?

>> no, actually what i found was as i chronicled my conversations with jared kushner and debra birx and everyone, they were a reflection of the president. nobody wanted people to die. nobody didn't wanted this pandemic. their marching orders was to make sure no blame landed on the president and no accountability land on the president and you have a situation where jared kushner's job was to make sure that the states got blamed or other people got blamed and not the president and that was at the expense of the work that we were doing so i think, you know, i don't think there was anybody that was ill intended but they were completely locked in by who they serve of. i, on the other hand, served president biden. one of the first things he told me make sure you give the police detective information you need a. don't worry about me making look good. it was a 180-degree difference.

you served inside biden's administration for the first few months which on covid seemingly like on every other issue it's an administration that wants to look forward, not back. 600,000 americans are dead. many of them did not need to die. is there any sense you got from being inside this white house that they will ever hold donald trump or jared kushner or anyone else to account for negligently recklessly presiding over preventable mass death? >> this book is an effort to say we need to have a dialogue about all the things that went wrong and the things that went wrong is the white house that went beyond what you would expect. president biden's attitude and everybody else was we need to all focus hand make shower we don't lose everybody else and we're accountable and one of the decisions that he made is no fights with governor, no weather events, no china, nothing is

going to take away our accountability for bringing this pandemic to an end and helping people recover and, you know, i find it very simple minded about that. >> in terms of bringing the pan dem take an end, we're quickly approaching biden's july 4th deadline to have 70% of adults vaccinated with at least one dose. he's on track to miss that deadline which is not good. have we reached the end of the line on persuading the people who need to be vaccinated in the fight against covid? >> i don't think so. for some people the decision to get vaccinated was a very simple quick decision. i knew i wanted to get vaccinated right away but i have to allow for the fact that some people have a different process. some people it's a more considered process or a lower priority, but, look, we will get close to 70%. the issue to worry about is whether we're at 67 or 70. the issue i'm more concerned about is that we'll be at 50% in arkansas and 90% in vermont and

those differences create -- if you want us to be one country, those kinds of divisions are going to make things work for some people and that's where i think we should focus or energy and concern. >> andy, 30 seconds last. quick last question. are we as one country, are we prepared politically, culturally, logistically for another pandemic? >> i would say we need to have a real dialogue as a country and the book is kind of intended to be a rode that follows people's lives and characters. not on a high policy prescription. it just begs the question that what we need to be talking about as a country. forgot the next pandemic, what about the fact that we know that kids don't get three meals unless they can get lunch at school and don't have internet at home. if we don't fix, that i don't think we fix the next pandemic. i think we need to fix all the things that showed up that are broken out about our society. >> very true, very true. congratulations on the book.

it's an important read. andy slavitt. thanks so much for coming on the show tonight. >> coming up, i didn't think ted cruz could get much worse and then he compares critical race theorists to the ku klux klan. yeah. you heard that right. we'll dive into it next, and tonight at the top of the hour congresswoman barbara lee of california joins joshua johnson on the week to discuss her vote to repeal the 2002 iraq war authorization. that's at 9:00 live right here on msnbc. that's at 9:00 live right here on msnbc aspercreme with max-strength* lidocaine. works fast and lasts. keep it. you're gonna need it. kick pain in the aspercreme stay restless, with the icon that does the same. the rx crafted by lexus. get 1.9% apr financing on the 2021 rx 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. [sfx: psst psst]

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are. you've probably heard the term critical race theory a lot lately. it's a phrase that republicans are deliberately distorting in their latest culture war moral panic, but this week gop senator ted cruz of texas took it a step further. >> and let me tell you right now. critical race theory is bigoted. it is a lie and it is every bit as racist as the klansman in white sheets.

>> comparing critical race theory to the kkk is about as crazy and wildly offensive as it gets, own for ted cruz. equating an academic they're i which argues that racism is systemically embedded in america's legal systems with a white supremacist organization that terrorized and murdered black americans is outrageous. now, many of the republicans stirring up panic of the critical race theory do so out of ignorance. it's doubtful they have ever read a book on one or could even define what it is. that's no excuse, but what senator ted cruz is doing is even worse. let's back up. for those who don't know what we now call critical race theory first emerged in the '70s and '80s at harvard law school when a group of scholars expressed frustration with the limitations of the civil rights movement. a legal theory discussed by law students at a law school, not in your local elementary school and here's the thing. historian rp points out ted cruz graduated from harvard lane in

1959 so he knows he's lying or he was the worst student in the history that have law school. pick one. luckily for us we do have with us tonight a harvard alumnus who was paying attention. in fact, professor kimberly crenshaw is one. young harvard legal scholars in the '80s who co-founded critical race theory, and she will join me after the break. do not go away. do not go away ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

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republicans are fanning the flames after new culture war claiming the teaching of critical race theory as threat to our kids and to community

relations, but this isn't just some abstract argument. they are actually pushing through legislation in state after state as we speak aimed at making sure it can't be talked about in schools, which isn't just dumb because critical race theory isn't taught in schools to begin with, it is taught to law students in university, but it is also a complete violation of the first amendment from a party that claims to be all about free speech. joining me now is kimberly crenshaw executive director with the african-american policy forum and also a law professor at columbia and ucla, host of the podcast intersectionality matters, and she is the one who coined the phrase intersectionality and also co-founded critical race theory. kimberly, a pleasure to have you on the show. your african-american policy forum is campaigning against these republican censorship campaigns. please explain what critical race theory actually is. tucker carlson and marjorie taylor greene clearly don't have a clue.

you do. you helped found it. define it for our viewers please in the simplest of terms. >> well, the simplest of terms, and thanks for the opportunity, critical race theory is the study of law and how it has been part of the infrastructure from slavery to emancipation to segregation to today upon which racial inequalities have been based. it's basically an effort to think about we have had commitments to equality since the 14th amendment, yet our reach has not realized itself in real equality. we're basically just asking questions and looking at the way that law has been a conduit for racial inequality and, therefore, what we need to do about law in order to bring us closer to the dreams that we have as a society. let me be clear. this is not about critical race theory. ted cruz knows what critical race theory is and isn't. the people who are trying to

create this hysteria around critical race theory know what critical race theory is or isn't. what this is, is backlash politics coming precisely at a moment where finally racial justice has become a majorityian interest on the part of americans from all races and all classes, so this is a way of pushing back against that without saying that we're for racism. they can say we're against critical race theory. >> yes, well said. and you mentioned ted cruz. like you an alumnus of harvard law school. he compared critical race theory to the kkk. what is your response to senator cruz on that specific comparison? >> well, you know, it would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous and if it weren't so familiar. this is a mob mentality trying to willy hortonize racial justice. we've seen it before. we saw it right after the end of the civil war when the idea that racial equality was anti-white

racism was articulated by the president of the united states. president johnson, who vetoed civil rights, saying it was reverse discrimination, it took away from white people and gave to black people. but that wasn't the last time we saw it. we saw it during the civil rights movement when many white people said, equality, being forced to serve you, violates my civil rights. so the idea that antiracism is antiwhite is a tried and true playbook move. it used to be part of the neo nationalist right. it is now moved to the center of the republican party on the heels of this so-called hysteria around critical race theory. >> and hysteria indeed it is. you've written nearly a dozen books on race issues including one literally called critical race theory. i want to put it in the mail to ted cruz's office. there is new polling out this week from the economists which

found only 26% of americans say they've heard a lot about critical race theory with an additional 38% saying they've heard a little. of those a little, over half say they have a good idea of what critical race theory is or they think they do and the majority view it unfavorably. if you take a look at the number of mentions the term critical race theory is getting on fox news it's gone through the roof in recent months. how much does that worry you? how much does that tell you this country is not in a good places specially on the right? >> you know, i used to wonder a lot about how during the end of reconstruction people of color and people of good will understood what was happening. did they know that african-americans were going to be completely disenfranchised and not able to vote for seven decades? were they aware that violence was going to take hold in capitals throughout the south, that there were going to be coups? did the media participate in it?

were they believing some of the lies or failing to ask the questions, failing to consider the source? and this moment makes me get a sense of what it must have been like, lies being told, people believing, and people of good will being confused and not knowing what to do or what to make of it. see, what they need is for those who are for democracy to just be confused about it and then they win. the point we have to be about right now is saying, a, what critical race theory is but, more importantly, this is about all of racial justice. if you marched last year after george floyd, if you have had a diversity training and suddenly you understand how you can do better in your work force, then you are on our side on this. and you should not allow yourself to be taken to some hysterical set of beliefs about this big, bad thing that you never heard of until the last month. >> indeed.

when i look at this current frenzy, kimberly, on the right over critical race theory in our schools, it is coming for us, it reminds me as a muslim of the frenzy over sharia law, creeping sharia back after 9/11 when you had states like oklahoma amending their constitution to ban sharia even though there are hardly any muslims in oklahoma. they may say it's not racist to be opposed to sharia law or be opposed to critical race theory but then the same people end up behaving in a pretty obviously racist way, banning things that don't actually need banning and that is the dog whistle. >> well, it's not a dog whistle anymore. it's a bull horn. they have shaken the facade. >> yes, that is true. >> but let's understand why it works. it works because scapegoating has always worked to help people cover up their misdeeds and their crimes. let's not forget this is the party that has put democracy on life support. and now while they have a pillow over its head, they're saying, look. critical race theory over there. this has been a tactic used by

charles stored in bont who killed his own family and pointed to a black man. susan smith who kill her own daughter and pointed to a black man. these people are killing democracy and they know they can distract people from that fact by pointing at black people, pointing at racial justice, pointing at ideas that they're uncomfortable with. we need to learn a lesson from that past and not let them get away with it again. it is up to us. we determine whether this is going to be effective or not. >> yes. we do indeed. kimberly crenshaw, an absolute pleasure speaking with you. thank you so much for your insights and analysis. i hope more people will listen. thank you. and thanks to you all for watching at home. we'll be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern as ever and you can catch me monday through thursday, 7:00 p.m. eastern live on the choice on nbc streaming channel peacock. now it's time to turn it over to joshua johnson. good evening, joshua. >> you've done a terrible thing.

you defined a term a lot of people were able to hate by not knowing what it was. you have ruined some people's nights. you know that right? >> yes. i know. what could i do? such a plague to be someone who believes in facts and information like we do. >> shame on you. good to see you. thanks very much. i appreciate you putting that definition out there. thanks, man. hey. good to be with you tonight. tonight we're talking about infrastructure among other things. you know, congress might be close to a bipartisan deal. maybe. could the latest agreement be the breakthrough? new information points to an interesting week ahead. we'll preview what's coming up on capitol hill. also, we're live in austin after a voting rights demonstration in texas. there is not bipartisanship to be found at the state capitol in this key political fight. we'll get the latest. throw and there is bipartisan support for reining in how presidents deploy the military. this week the house voted to repeal the iraq war authorization from 19 years ago.