mainstream in the vept concerning. >> david, thank you so much. we're tight on time and not going to get to the our question about britney spears. qanon is inserting itself in the controversy. i'm joe fryer. thanks for watching. reverend al sharpton and "politicsnation" starts right now. good evening, and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lede, a time for struggle. right now i'd say i'm watching the opening skirmishes in the central political battle of this next year. texas democrats are staying away from their home state to protest its special legislative session to pass voter restrictions. but in reality, they are still

fighting, petitioning the u.s. senate to eliminate the filibuster threat that continues to block any federal voting rights legislation. and because of the senate's inaction, they have to face the threat of arrest issued by their own governor. as leaders of the congressional black caucus and voting rights activists have already been arrested for protest in solidarity. in a larger national sense, it dramatizes the point we who have lived under threat have always made, which is that without the teeth of federal legislative action, minority voters are at the mercy of conservative state lawmakers. so it fits that deep red texas is now at the center of this upheaval in which the state's black and brown democrats literally had to leave in order to protect the definitive right of our democracy.

that was on my mind during president biden's speech this week as he condemned this flood of voter restrictions as un-american. but to the frustration of myself and others in the fight, he said nothing about eliminating the filibuster, sticking point in the law the last few weeks of private conversations he and i have had, and i believe they're working on some situations there. but we want to see it happen. but my next guest says that leaves it up to senate democrats to lead the way, and the senate rules committee will hold a rare hearing next week on the suppression regime that has arisen in the state of georgia, which is where we begin tonight. joining me now is senator jeff merkley, democrat of oregon. senator merkley, thank you for joining us tonight.

let me start with you sit on the rules committee which will convene a rare hearing outside of washington in atlanta on monday to hear testimony on the impact of the state of georgia's election is letting law. your colleague, senator raphael warnock of georgia, will testify as well. now, this field hearing is a rare occurrence. can you elaborate for our audience what the need is in georgia, senator? >> you bet. so good to see you tonight, especially on the anniversary of john lewis's death as we're all pondering his phrase "good trouble" and what that means. right now it means fighting to defend the voting rights of all americans. and georgia is one of those states that has passed a comprehensive set of obstacles really targeted at black americans from keeping them from voting. it ranges from things like the state assembly can take over the county boards to you can't hand out water to somebody who's been

kept waiting in lines because they understaff deliberately the precinct, and the list goes on from there. this hearing is to go to the front line and hear from the people in georgia about what this means for them, both to give them voice and hopefully for america to listen. >> now, i've spoken to president biden a great deal about voting rights in the last two weeks as president of national action network, and i think you made a monumental speech in philadelphia, i've understood the criticism this week that he made no mention of filibuster in his speech on voting rights, though i would hope that the white house is doing other things that are actionable. i've also read where you interpreted the president's call for congressional action as essentially putting the ball in the senate democrats' court. how does this get solved in a

meaningful, long-term way with senate dynamics as they currently are, senator? >> yeah, absolutely. 50 democrats have to get into the room and say what path are we going to take in order to make sure that we set this national set of standards so that everyone's right to vote is protected, so that the coming redistricting is not resulted in gerrymandering that destroys equal representation, and how we take on this insidious, vicious dark money that funds these attack ads all over the country where billionaires are essentially buying elections. and there's a couple ways to do this. one is essentially to reinvigorate and restore the filibuster to the point that the minority has chance to slow things down, to seek amendments, have their voice heard, seek a compromise, but they can't paralyze the senate. that's the balance that there's been some 18 times the senate adjusted its rules in that

direction, and clearly what we have to do right now in order to achieve that is to make some serious adjustments because we don't have right now some kind of balance. what we have is republicans exercising a veto and they're using that veto to strip rights from americans. >> now, senator, i don't have to tell you that the nation is racked with extreme weather right now. let's go there for a minute. your state of oregon is suffering from a severe wildfire, the bootleg fire in its southern region after weeks of record heat in the northwest have killed hundreds of people. i know environmental legislation is one of your greatest priorities and i've heard from a few climate activists on this show that the infrastructure plan disappoints climate action. where do you come down on this, senator? >> yeah, the infrastructure, the

bipartisan infrastructure bill does only a modest amount. it invests in electric charges and vehicle vehicles to a very modest level. there's much more hope for the reconciliation bill, although the details have not been hammered out in a way that gives people confidence, either the total amount of money or exactly how it will be deployed. if it follows the biden plan, which is our hope and hopefully does even more, then it will be the biggest stride in tackling climate. but we're going to have to keep coming back year and year and do more because the earth is changing right before our eyes. my home state is -- in three days we had this fire grow to 200,000 acres, destroy dozens of homes. last year we had six towns basically burned to the ground. it is truly horrendous. >> now, senator, before i lose you, you also sit on the senate

budget committee and democrats unveiled their $3.5 billion budget proposal. the other half of the biden infrastructure plan. are you at all concerned that your caucus won't have the unity it needs to advance it through reconciliation? >> you know, when we had the budget meeting last tuesday night, we spent two and a half hours and they can have with this deal. it was like a very powerful, very emotional moment because from the progressive side with bernie and the conservative side with mark warner, we agreed this is the vision we're going to push through. we obviously have to get every other member of the caucus, but i think that we're going to do it. we really have to do it. it would be transformative. there's so much in there on housing, early childhood education, college education, child care, the child credit that will lift half of american kids out of poverty.

it is truly transformational. doing things we talked about for decades, but failed on. so we've got to get it done. >> all right. thank you for being with us u senator jeff merkley. in the fight for voting rights, texas democrats made a statement this week by literally leaving the state to deny their republican counterparts the legally required kwor rom to vote on their dro dr. a coneian suppression bill. joining me now is state representative jasmine crockett, democrat representing texas' 100th district. thank you for being with us. since you and your colleagues left the state, your own governor has levied multiple threats of arrest that you and your colleagues. take a listener to this. >> i can and i will continue to call special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year.

and so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they're hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they're going to have to do it for well over a year. as soon as they come back to the state of texas, they will be arrested. >> what's your reaction to that kind of authoritarian rhetoric and your message to the governor? >> first of all, i want to say thank you for having me. also, thank you for the promotion because you called me a senator. but i'm state rep. >> okay. >> i want to say that my governor is dramatic, right? like, that's what republicans do. they get up, they beat their chest and they say how strong and big and bad they are. you know, i have corrected the record multiple times and made it clear that the governor does not have the authority to make any arrests of us whatsoever. that authority was within our speaker's wheel house. it wasn't to arrest us. it's more like to escort us into the chambers.

we've not committed a crime. no matter how many times and how many ways the governor says it, we're not criminals. and so we won't go to jail. we will not be booked in. the most that could happen is we could be detained and basically taken back to the chamber to conduct business or just to be steamrolled, whichever one you want to call it because i don't know that it's conducting business. so many of us decided that we had to leave because there's a lack of business going on in the texas house. instead, it's a lot of bullying, which is what you see out of the governor and the republicans. they are doing what it is that the governor tells them to do. they're not doing what's good for the people of texas. they're just trying to make sure that the governor, who has a huge war chest -- i believe he's raised $19 million since we've been feuding with him. >> wow. >> and, you know, these republicans will tell you most

likely not publicly that they're afraid of being primaried and the governor putting money behind them. this is not how government is supposed to function. >> right. >> sadly enough, this is how government functions in the state of texas, especially since we don't have any campaign finance rules, really, as it relates to maximum amounts of money. there were multiple republicans that were given over $1 million by one donor, by one single donor. >> multiple. you said multiple republicans by one donor. >> multiple, multiple. while they're talking noise and trying to act like the democrats, you know, fled and took some cozy private jet, let me be clear, there are multiple republicans that own private jets. one who decided to flee the state during the winter storm, okay? none of us own private jets on the democratic side, i want to be clear. so flights had to be chartered for some of the members of my

caucus, but they could have went to their backyards and hopped in their own planes and got out. >> one republican left the state during the storm. i wonder who that was. anyway -- >> no, no, no. i wasn't even talking about cruz because cruz took -- >> you're talking about something else? >> i'm talking about a freshman, someone in my class took his private jet. i don't mind calling names. these are facts. >> well, call them out. that's what we do on this show. call them out, state rep. i called you senator, i might have been calling you in the future. >> you gave me a promotion. >> i do that sometimes. i do that. let me say this. i know you and your colleagues have met with one of the key senate holdouts, west virginia democrat joe manchin. just yesterday senator manchin flew to texas for a fundraiser himself hosted by several republican donors. tell us what that discussion with manchin was like that you

all had, and are there plans for a follow-up meeting to properly address what's happening in your state? >> you know, the timing and the opt ticks of this could not have been worse, right? i will tell you that in every single meeting we've had, everyone is on our side. everyone says texas has lost their minds, right? the problem is that no one seems to have the answer for how do we solve texas' problem, and texas' problem looks like georgia's problem, florida's problem, you know, and they're all seemingly a bit political in trying to get to the answer, right? we don't have time for that, though. that's the problem. and as you see this aggressive governor that wants to lock us up, right, as you see republicans that are spewing all types of hate and lies about us, we're simply asking for the majority on the federal level to

do what they have within their power to do. to be perfectly honest, and you call me back if i'm telling a lie, but if the republicans get their way right now as they're in the minority, i can guarantee you u we will not have the majority, because the only way they can win is when they cheat, when they decide o silence voices, especially the voices of those that are poor and those people of color. when they silence us, democrats lose because democrats work for the people. and right now the people are just asking for one thing, for the democrats to work for us, because that is who we elected them to be, public servants, servants of the people. we know republicans are always serving somebody other than the people. they always have their personal interests they're looking out for. >> but let me emphasize this. texas is already among the hardest states to cast a ballot. the legislation you and your colleagues tried to prevent by fleeing would make it even

harder with provisions like banning extended voting hours, drive-through voting, and expanding the use of partisan poll watchers. in your meetings with folks in d.c., did you find that everyone has grasped the severity of the situation, or were some people surprised by the scope of this emergency? >> so i will say that us being here matters because they did not know how bad it was, right? west virginia, it's a lot easier to vote in west virginia than it is to vote in texas, and honestly the senators seemingly has this opinion that that's pretty much a about their. these are basic things that people should have as a former secretary of state. so in the state of texas -- what people don't understand is you have to look at the full texas. it's already the hardest state to vote in. so us imposing even more restrictions just makes it unbelievable, right? we can't vote, we can't register

online. that has nothing to do with fraud. none of this has anything to do with fraud to be perfectly honest. that's sound bite they like to give. but we can't even register online. we have multiple members that actually filed legislation saying, hey, can we just have online voter registration? they wouldn't even give us a hearing on that. they wouldn't even listen to testimony on that. you know, so in this bill they keep saying you guys should negotiate. it's like, dude, it's already too bad. even that, there has to be provisions for expansion. one of the other terrible things about this, especially when it comes to minority communities, is the number of penalties and crimes that they create. as i was speaking to someone yesterday, i said, you know, when you're creating something like a crime that someone can go to prison for, it should kind of be a basic thing. this is wrong. i don't have to know all the penal code, but i know it's

wrong to steal somebody's money. you know that in the first grade. but they're saying if you send mail-in ballots or mail-in ballot applications out, then you can go to jail. >> all right. i'll have to leave it there. but you've been very informative. thank you, texas state representative, soon to be whatever, jasmine crockett. thank you for being with us. coming up on "politicsnation," tennessee lawmakers are using the state's school system as a playground for their cultural wars. and the only casualties are the students. plus, a new book details what really went down during the final days of trump's presidency and uncovers a big problem for the former guy if he ever wants to return to the white house. but first, my colleague richard lui with today's top news stories. richard? >> rev, very good saturday to you. some of the stories we're watching for you this hour. los angeles county will reinstate an indoor mask mandate

starting tonight at 11:59 p.m. local time. everyone, regardless of vaccination status, will be required to wear a mask. l.a. faces a recent sharp rise in covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. california and oregon firefighters round the clock are battling intense firefighters. the bootleg fire in oregon is now one of the largest of the season so far. it's burnds over 200,000 acres and counting. the southwest in the midst of weeks of dry, hot weather. western europe's flooding weather has caused at least 150 deaths. one estimate says the region got about two months' worth of rain in just two days. and billionaire and amazon founder jeff bezos this time will travel to space tuesday. his company developed a vehicle. dutch 18-year-old orville damon will be on board. he will be the youngest ever to be in space . that teenager got the call after the original $28 million seat holder had a scheduling conflict.

not sure if a rain check was offered. more "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton right after a short break. ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪ (piano playing) here we go. ♪♪ [john legend's i can see clearly now] ♪♪

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for this week's gotcha, i want to focus on a particular state, tennessee. before i get started, i want to make it clear that i do not buy into the stereotypes about tennessee or about the american south in general. i know the governance of the state does not represent every person. there are thousands of folks in the volunteer state working diligently every day to reverse the trends i'll be talking about today. and those folks lead our lives. because just this week in the midst of surging coronavirus cases in the state, and with fewer than 40% of its residents fully vaccinated, tennessee fired its top immunization

official, dr. michelle fiskus because she circulated a memo explaining the doctors in existing state law allow vaccinations for minors over 14 years old without consent from parents. and tennessee officials aren't content with terminating their state's top expert. here's what the doctor told my colleague, chris hayes, this week. >> and now it has devolved into a moratorium on messaging for any kind of vaccine to children, whether that's infants or children for back-to-school vaccines or hpv vaccinations, and even canceling school-based flu munition clinics for the fall as a result of the saber rattling amongst legislators. >> the tennessee department of health responded to these claims on twitter, saying, quote, there has been no disruption to the

childhood immunization program or access to the covid-19 vaccine while the department has evaluated annual marketing efforts intended for parents, end of quote. outreach for these vaccinations is critical as tennessee is already facing some of the worst health outcomes in the nation. u.s. news and world report ranks the state 43rd in public health, and this most recent politicization of life-saving vaccines can only make things worse. tennessee's priorities aren't just limited to health care. it's also persecuting individual educators, like high school teacher matthew hong who was fired for assigning an essay by ta-nehisi coates and a poem about white privilege that included profanities, actions the director of schools classified as assigning

inappropriate materials and refusing to provide students with varying points of view. to his credit, mr. horn stood his ground against this blustering of ill-informed school board members at a hearing. >> it takes more than 45 minutes to talk about some of these issues, like racism. you can't cover that in one class. the opposite of racism is racism. how am i supposed to show an opposing viewpoint to that? i don't consider white privilege an opinion. i consider it a fact, just like the pythagorean theorem or every lubrication. >> just because you consider something don't make it fact. >> here's another fact for the board members who fired mr. horn. tennessee ranks 33rd nationally in education outcomes. perhaps if there were more teachers like mr. horn, who speak truth to power and don't

shy away from the unpleasant racial history of this country, there'd be vast improvement in the state to make sure every child gets a good chance at a quality education and a battery future. so tennessee, you have got to do better, and for the sake of your citizens, their health, their education, and their quality of life, i hope you can get your priorities straightened out, or you'll find that the very worst stereotypes about your state become self-fulfilling prophecies. i chooch. prophecies i choo ch hitting the road this summer? not all 5g networks are created equal. t-mobile covers more interstate highway miles with 5g than the other guys. t-mobile.

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welcome back to "politicsnation." i've had a lot of time to get things in my head, so i got a lot to get to with my political 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. juanita, let me start. it's been nearly six months since former president donald trump left office and the tell-all books are starting to roll in. nbc news has obtained excerpts from "i alone can fix it" written by "washington post" reporters phil rucker and carol leonnig. listen to how they described the president's response to the january 6th storming of the capitol. at the white house, trump was back in his private dining room watching everything unfold on television. the president was riveted. his supporters had heeded his call to march on the capitol with, quote, pride and boldness. for trump, there was no more beautiful sight than thousands of energize people waving trump flags, wearing red maga caps and fighting to keep him in power.

juanita, when you compared that with how the president behaved during the black lives matter protests during the summer of 2020, what does it tell you? >> it tells me that everything we knew about trump continues to track that he is this type of person who all he wanted was chaos following the election. the election that he continues to argue was stolen. and so to hear this reporting about january 6th, i can't feign surprise, rev. this is fully what i expected him to be doing. while we know members of congress were calling him directly to stop this, calling him, pleading with him that while their lives were in danger in that moment, they needed his help to stop this, and he sat and back watched it like it was reality tv. and it wasn't. and this is a moment where i think when we're going to the first hearing of the special

january 6th committee people will want to dig into so america gets a full understanding of how trump not only created the onrapper for this violence and insurrection, but facilitated it on the day, telling people to fight like hell, telling people to fight at the capitol and sat back and watched it play out. we know the explicit reaction he had black bodies and he deployed military tactics like low-flying helicopters, tear gas across the city just because they were black and peaceful. to hear this report, i can't act as though i'm surprised by any of it, rev. i think it fully tracks with what we already know about trump. >> susan, house minority leader kevin mccarthy visited the new jersey enclave of donald trump thursday to see former president trump. this comes as mccarthy is weighing his picks for the

select committee to investigate the january 6th insurrection. it seems the gop leader is trying to stay close to trump as he can for 2022 as it approaches. is this a smart midterm strategy for mccarthy and his party as new revelations about the former president continues to roll in? >> well, there is nothing really -- it's not surprising. it's shocking what we hear in these books. we're not surprised. people know what donald trump is. mccarthy only has one option at this point, and that is to stay tethered to donald trump. my guess is donald trump gave him a list of five names that he said these are the names that should go to the select committee that you should appoint, and kevin mccarthy will listen. right now donald trump is a better fundraiser than kevin mccarthy. he's better connected to the base. if the base doesn't come at it

at the very least in the midterms, if they stay home, then there's no path for kevin mccarthy to take back the house. i just don't see what other choice he has except of course if he wanted to do the right thing as a public servant, and that that be refreshing and nice, but i just don't expect it because he's been very consistent in wanting to kiss up to donald trump and do whatever he can to gain. >> what is your -- power. >> moving to florida facing an uptick, with the daily average of new cases, over 5,000, and only 47% of the population fully vaccinated, but the republican governor ron desantis is mocking covid safety measures and dr. anthony fauci at the same time. his team tweeted out a link this

week to branded t-shirts that say dr. fauci, my florida, and beverage holders that question how can you drink beer with a mask on. who is this trying to appeal to here? >> the same base of trump voters that are fully supporting him and gravitating closer and closer to him. because this is not what you would expect of a governor that's seeing probably in the top three level of hospitalization spike in the country right now as the delta variant continues to spread. this is not something you would expect to see from a governor where they still haven't reached 70% vaccination rate in their state. this is not leadership. and honestly he's feuding with himself, because i promise you, fauci is unbothered because he's continuing to beat the donald trump for more vaccines. this is merely a page out of

trump's playbook to try to demonize fauci, poke fun at fauci, someone who, let me remind you, as served seven presidents as an adviser and is a leading doctor in immunizations and viral infections. this ain't in for desantis. keep your beer cozies and focus on the delta variant that's taking more lives every day. >> susan, a quick last word from you. a federal judge in texas claimed the daca program illegal and is halting new applications. what does the white house need to do to make lawmakers act on immigration now? >> this is critical. he really has to put the weight of the white house behind getting action on at least daca. there is an appetite for it from some republicans. it can be possible. but this is just so critical, i would say, between this and

voter rights, these are the two things the white house must put pressure on the house and the senate to do something about. >> juanita tolliver and susan del percio, thank you both for being with us tonight. up next, texas lawmakers are now in d.c. right now mobilizing for voting rights, but they are not fighting alone. in fact, they just picked 150 powerful new allies in the struggle. i'll introduce you to one of them next. [♪♪] if you have diabetes, it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost today. that delicious scramble was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. wright brothers? more like, yeah right, brothers! get outta here! it's not crazy. it's a scramble. just crack an egg. it's a scramble. ♪ ♪ ♪

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one year ago today we lost the longtime conscience of our congress with john lewis. we're left to navigate the signature fight of his career, the fight for voting rights, without his leadership and example. but as that battle escalates nationally, so too has the response from the business community. this week more than 150 companies signed onto a letter urging congress to pass the voting rights legislation named for the late lion. joining me now, lasha nah lewis. thank you for joining us tonight, ms. lewis. >> absolutely, absolutely.

thank you for inviting me. >> why did you feel compelled to throw your company's name and support behind this bill? and is there something specific in this legislation that you felt demanded that support? >> i really looked at the pre-clearance portion, and that was the thing that kind of really hit me because being here in st. louis, even as the nation watched as we had our own reckoning with racial inequities within the region, one of the things that i was noticing too is how closely tied access and rights to voting was with making sure that we obtained more racial equity within the region. one of the things i saw about the pre-clearance is that -- i was like, yes, i can see how they're making these little tiny adjustments, little tiny moves just to make it a little bit harder for people to get out there and voice their right to vote. >> now, today marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of

john lewis, one of our nation's greatest public servants. i know that in addition to your business career, you're an activist yourself serving the lgbtq community in st. louis. and i wonder how much does the work of people like lewis impact or influence what you do today. >> oh, absolutely. a lot of what i saw happening during many of the voting rights movements john lewis was a part of actually served as inspiration for me when i went to actually seek lgbt equality actions within the st. louis region, even starting within a company i worked in myself, and then being able to be that good trouble, to be able to be that starter of change that is sorely sorely needed and continue the

work john lewis has done. as a basis, it helps me get people off the ground who are striving towards the same goal. >> now, ms. lewis, your company joined some 150 others in signing on this letter. why do you think so many major corporations have come down on this issue when they could have easily stayed quiet and kept on making money? >> june 2020 was a perfect example of that. i was here in downtown st. louis when i saw the 7-eleven on fire and everything happening during the time that the reckoning was coming, when people were starting to actually voice and say we needed to change the way that we looked at our systems. we needed to make a serious look at it. and then all of a sudden these companies started doing grants and being able to pay more and more attention internally, and we weren't taking the nice tag lines anymore, right? they weren't taking the little

banners. what we were doing is saying we want proof, we want to see you in action, and that's what i want to see companies continue to do and tell them what happened june 2020, what you were doing was a great first step. but now we need you to continue on that effort because this is not a sprint, in the a marathon. >> it is definitely a marathon. you know, one of the things i learned from the generation that mentored me, john lewis' generation and others, is that you also have to deal with the intersection of activism. you can't fight for one silo's rights without fighting for all rights. i know that you've had to deal with fighting for black rights, lgbtq rights, women's rights, and all of that is one fight. no one is free unless we're all free. >> absolutely, absolutely. and that is something i continue to say even in my practice where i do d.e.i. consulting, and i say, you know, this is multifaceted.

this is not just a one-person issue. this is not a one-demographic issue. it takes all of us to move forward. >> it takes all of us to move forward and forward is what we must continue to do. thank you for being with us tonight, lashana lewis. up next, my final thoughts. s ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪ subway® has so much new they couldn't fit it in their last ad. like new smashed avocado and artisan italian bread. 100% wild-caught tuna. hold up! 100% wild-caught tuna ain't new! subway®'s always had 100% wild-caught tuna!

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as i said a year ago today, we lost one of the giants of american history, john lewis. i remember in march of 2019 as we went for the annual commemorative march across the edmund pettus bridge in selma, alabama, where john lewis and jose williams and others were teargassed and beaten just marching for the right to vote, that led to the voting rights act. we were surprised when we got to the top of the bridge that john lewis surprised us even though

he was clearly suffering with cancer. he pulled up in a car, and we helped to hold him up as he gave some words the final time he'd object that bridge alive. i was thinking about that today as he was remembered. he told us keep voting, fight for your right to vote, stand up for your right to vote. i thought about how he told us to keep doing good trouble. that's why today was also the seventh anniversary of a police killing of unarmed eric gardner, a police victim in staten island, new york, who was choked to death while he yelled 11 times, "i can't breathe," and i had that at the weekly saturday election rally his mother, his son, eric jr., and even the mother of trayvon martin flew up and other mothers joined as we

kept making good trouble talking about justice for eric gardner, justice for those that have been abused with police brutality. something john lewis also stood up for. that is why he would always admonish us be active, do good trouble, get in good trouble, always stay nonviolent like dr. king said, but don't be uninvolved. that's why on august 28th of this year a year that we mark, a day that we mark when martin luther king jr. and john lewis spoke in washington, dr. king's son martin luther king iii and his daughter-in-law andrea king and the drum major institute and national action network will join ciu and march on to have a national march for voting rights so that we can make the john lewis bill become law. you can go to

www.nationalactionnetwork.net and register. if you're coming on your own or if you need a bus nearby that we can provide, register so you can one that gets in good trouble, not talk about it but do it. that action john lewis called for. we'll be right back. don't forget, you can hear the latest from all your favorite msnbc hosts including myself any time and anywhere, tune in, go to tunein.com/msnbc2021 to listen commercial free, but tune in premium. , but tune in premium after my dvt blood clot... i was uncertain... was another around the corner? or could things take a different turn? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. ...and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding

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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, alicia menendez, picks up our news coverage now. >> thank you so much. hello, everyone, i'm alicia menendez. welcome to "american voices." the speaker of the texas house, a republican, offered to put a private jet on standby in washington, d.c., today, in an attempt to bring house democrats back to texas. the ride on a private jet might make for a great tiktok video. texas democrats are choosing to stay put saying on twitter, "the speaker should save his money. we won't be needing a plane any time soon as our work to save democracy from the tmp