because the funds aren't there. we are talking about the funds being will there. $40 billion, billions with a "b" sitting there when people are in the middle of a global deadly pandemic sitting on the street. >> congresswoman cori bush, democrat from missouri, thank you for making time with us. congresswoman cori bush was recently on our podcast. i can't recommend it enough. she is an incredible person. into that is "all in" on this monday night. "the rachel maddow show" starts with ali velshi at the helm. >> it's not just that -- she -- this is kind of authentic to her, right? cori bush sleeping out in the streets. she is not so distant from a person who didn't have shelter. so to her this is real. the concept of electk people who have had the experience of real people is find of amazing. >> yes. and she is really one of a kind. well, one of a small group up in that capitol that have the life

experience she has. and we got to get that money out from the states. it's driving me insane. people are getting kicked out. anyway. >> have a great evening. thank you. thanks to you at home for joining us. rachel is enjoying a well deserved vacation. we have a lot to get to in this hour. i will be speak with retired lieutenant colonel vindman. in 2019 he was taking notes on a call between president trump and the president of ukraine. it was those notes that ultimately led to donald trump's first impeachment for trying to pressure the ukrainian president into announcing a politicall damaging investigation into joe biden. colonel vindman is sharing his full story for the first time. that's in a few moments. we start with a dire story out of florida. albeit a devastatingly familiar story. >> we had our numbers down. we were all excited. we were very busy because a lot of non-covid patients had been

waiting for care were starting to come in. but then the delta variant came and in just a very short time, just a few weeks, it has shot up from three to 30 something patients. it feels like it was overnight. these patients are different. they're sick. they're young. they get sick fast. it used to be covid would come in and it would take a good four weeks before his lungs would completely deteriorate if he was going to be one of those patients that didn't do well, get on a vent. now i have patients deteriorating in one to two weeks. i have lost a 40-year-old with a pregnant fiance. i had a 23-year-old we referred for transplant. these are sick people. and the most frustrating and amazing part of this is not one of them needed to be here. >> not one of them needed to be here. that video is not from last year. it was taken at the end of last

month ago at jackson, south medical center in miami, florida. they have eight beds in the covid icu. all eight are filled with covid patients. six are under the age of 350. none of them are vaccinated. the hospital had to open up a second covid icu. the new one with 50 beds. friday florida recorded the highest number of new infections ever in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. more than 21,000 new cases. look at that chart. broward county, the mayor announced his jurisdiction has the highest hospitalization rate in the united states along with miami-dade. he says the hospitals in broward county are becoming overwhelmed. younger people are being

hospitalized. he described a dramatic increase in the number of children falling ill with back to school around the corner. he said the end of june one area emergency room saw 36 children at admitted to the e.r. with covid. by the end of july the number was up to 190 children. the mayor there summed up the situation his state today. he said, quote, this is horrifying. and he is right. it is horrifying because like that doctor in miami said most of these people did not need to go to the hop. only 49% of the people in florida are fully vaccinated. that makes half of the people in the state dangerously vulnerable to the highly infectious delta variant that is ripping through unvaccinated parts of the country. and florida is not even at the bottom of the list in terms of states with the worst vaccination rates. have a look at louisiana. louisiana is tied for third place from the bottom. third place for the state with the maul exist percentage of the population fully vaccinated. right now louisiana has the

highest rate of new covid infections on the entire planet. the governor of louisiana announced today that the state is set to break the all-time record for covid hospitalizations. louisiana's healthcare system is, quote, in peril. and then he reinstated an indoor mask mandate for the state because louisiana is worse off right now than it has ever been before or during the pandemic. the highest volume of covid patients the regional has experienced thus far. we are in august of 2021. for the parts of the country where covid is surging this is scary stuff. but also frustrating for health care providers knowing that the bulk of the pain and the suffering that they are seeing is entirely preventible. now that we have vaccines, august 2020, we didn't have vaccines.

now, we do seem to be trending towards improvement on that front. you will remember earlier this spring president biden blehmed 70% much the country would have received at least one dose of the vaccine by july 4th. well, the white house ended up missing that goal. today a little under a month later we got there. 70% of adults in the united states have now received at least one shot of covid vaccine. inching us one step closer to that elusive herd immunity. this chart shows how many covid vaccines have been administered every day. a gentle uptick the last couple of weeks. gradual progress is still progress. it's not enough because the hospitals are still being overwhelmed. we are setting new case records. still a year and a half into this thing, it is affecting the highest levels of our government. republican senator lindsey graham announced he has tested positive. he has mild symptoms. he says it feels like a sinus infection and he is grateful he is fully vaccinated for covid.

otherwise, his symptoms could be a lot worse. i am glad he said that. he was reportedly at a party this weekend on senator joe manchin's houseboat. so far none of the other senators have tested positive and whether they plan to quarantine given their exposure to senator lindsey graham. this is unsustainable. we can't keep doing this. what needs to change? what are we capable of doing differently? joining us is andy, former biden administration white house senior advisor for covid response, the author of the inside story of how leadership, failures, politics and selfishness doomed the coronavirus response. good to see you. leadership failures, politics and selfishness continue to be detrimental to us. there are selfish people out there who are challenging those of us who are vaccinated. you're vaccinated. how do you address what's going on right now? >> well, look, i think we -- as

we sit here today with 30% of adults not vaccinated, we have a highly contagious variant that is much more contagious than the 2020 variety of covid-19, can get covid in five minutes of exposure if you are not vaccinated. it's time to look at the next set of measures, including not just looking at government but having employers step up and say time to be safe in our workplace. if you are going to come to a workplace and expose people who are going to expose their kids to covid-19, you saw the story in florida, it's time for you to demonstrate that you are not going to spread covid by getting vaccinated or by taking a regular -- >> and we're seeing -- we saw last week, we saw that start to happen in new york state. the department of veterans affairs, the state of california and a number of companies. some said they are waiting for full approval of the vaccine. many have told me, including francis collins from the

national institutes of health, he says there may be a legal decision, but generally speaking everybody is in a position to do that if they want to. all employers could do that now. >> that's right. two thins are important. first of all, people who try to confuse emergency use authorization with experimental are either not telling you the truth or don't understand. there is a very high standard to get something approved for emergency use authorization. every fda official has said as much. number one, there is no real -- that is a falsehood. secondly, dr. collins is exactly correct. employers don't need to wait. they can act now. they can act today. and i think if you are working for an employer, you might want to ask them why they are not fwarn teague your safety. if you frequent a business or go to a hospital, go to a doctor, ask them why they don't require vaccinations. that will help push people to take the step i think they need

to take. >> i think you would find it a reasonable exercise to explain to people who have legitimate vaccine hesitancy, but that's only half the problem in this country. there are people who can be talked to and cajoled and coaxed and then there are people who are spouting b.s. all over the place about these vaccines. some of them work in our health care establishment. i mean, gabe gutierrez did a story with four nurses in north carolina. i don't know why they are nurses. do something else for a living. >> well, look, there isn't -- there is the stress of the healthcare system that has historically been earned not for just people of color, but for lots of people who feel left out by the medical establishment and there is a lesson in this. but there are people who are trustworthy here. there are people who -- and if you are not sure if you should get vaccinated, talk to trustworthy people. don't listen to someone on facebook.

don't listen to a political person whether it's myself or anybody else. go talk to people who have been vaccinated. they'll understand the safety that provides them. listen to what's good for you and your family. and i think that those are right decisions to maybe. nobody should shame anybody who has questions about getting vaccinated. by the same token, we have a set of people who -- immunocompromised, under 12, they don't have a choice to get protected. so we need to not only as a society care about the people who have individual decisions to make, we have to care about those people that aren't in a room and don't get a vice. >> voice. >> thank you for joining us. a former biden administration white house senior advisor for covid response. president biden's infrastructure proposals have brought into what i like to call the fox chicken corn problem. there is an old logic puzzle you may have done in a middle school math class about a farmer who has to transport a fox, chicken and a bag of corn in a boat that

only holds him and one other thing at that time. the problem is left alone the fox would eat the chicken, the chicken would eat the corn so the farmer has do a multistep back and forth process to fer think them across the river without anyone eating anyone or anyone else. congress has a similar buzz blewle. chuck schumer and house speaker nancy pelosi are the farmers in this met a far who have to solve it. the senate is finally considering the bipartisan nearly $1 trillion piece of biden infrastructure package. debate started today on the 2700 page bill that senators finished a last night. chuck schumer says it could pass in the senate a matter of days. right now it looks like they have more than enough republicans to pass that bill. progressive leaders like ocasio-cortez have threatened they have enough votes to tank it once it gets back to the house and that they will if the senate doesn't pass the larger

$3.5 trillion infrastructure package through budget reconciliation first. now, republicans on the other hand have no particular interest the larger package. moderates want the smaller bill first. if either pulls out, the bill has no shot of passing both houses and getting to the president's desk. so chuck schumer and nancy pelosi are stuck on one side of the river with the fox, the chicken and corn. there are differences between the bills. the bipartisan one is being significantly smaller. it's also focusing on hard infrastructure, things like roads, bridges, broadband. the larger reconciliation bill issues like education, childcare and climate change. that only matters if they can get passed by both houses with reasons, moderates and progressives onboard. so how do we solve the puzzle? one of the senators who could be voting on one of these infrastructure packages as soon as this week, she is a member of the senate budget, finance and energy committees.

serves as the share of the senate agriculture committee. senator, you told me 36 hours ago or something don't look too closely how the sausage is made. i am fine with that. will we have sausage on the other see will very with two sausages here? is this going to get done. >> first of all, great to be with you whether it's morning, noon or night. i have to tell you as chair of the agriculture committee i am trying to figure out the farmers and the corn. so, yes, we are going to get this done. i also want to make note that this is day 1 h,655 since donald trump took office and started talking about infrastructure week. never happened. now we have infrastructure week under joe biden and folks who are going to cross the aisle in the senate. so, yes, we are going to get it done, and, you know, as i -- i say so many times, i mean, we're focused on the -- who is on first, who is on second, one

bill, second bill. bottom line, is what we want to do for the american people and what we are committed to doing as democrats. >> you hold them both as being really important. so how do you address people like your colleagues alexandria ocasio-cortez or other progressives with whom we have spoken saying i need guarantees. the timeline is you get something done, you come back from the august recess and get the reconciliation bill. others say i am not passing the first until the second is done. >> first of all, we'll pass the infrastructure bill in the senate. it will go to the house and then they will determine, you know, at what point they will pass it. it will pass the budget resolution. bottom line, we want to fix the roads and bridges and get all of the -- rid of all of the lead pipes, lord knows i represent flint, michigan, and others can talk to you about lead pipes. as well as high-speed internet and so on. but we know that we've got to

address the climate crisis. we can create millions of jobs doing that. we want to extend the largest working class tax cut for folks. we want to help cut the cost for folks who are up at night trying to figure out what do i do about childcare and cost of medicine and cost of college. and the great news is, we can pay for this by just making sure that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. we are looking at -- i mean, it's a clunky process that we're involved in right now. i agree with that. and it sort of is step by step by step. but in the end we know what's got to happen. we have to deal with the climb crisis. we can create millions of jobs doing that. and people in this country who are working hard every day need to know somebody's got their back. they want a fair shot. under the republicans what weigh know is the wealthy and the well

connected are gonna get theirs. all the time. and what we're saying is make the tax code work for working people. and then let's to really important things to lower the cost of childcare. i want to have medicare cover the cost of eyeglasses and hearing aids and the cost to go to the dentist for our seniors. there is so many pieces here that need to get so people feel like somebody sees them, hears them, understands what they're struggling with every day, and that they're on their side. and that's what we're doing as democrats. >> you have a lot of work to get done in the senate now and after the recess. unfortunately, one of your senate colleagues has contracted covid, senator lindsey graham. he is feeling all right and he says he was glad he was vaccinated because that's a medicalsage people need to here. they were on hughes boat with joe manchin the other day.

look, i am hoping everybody is healthy. does this affect anybody's schedule? >> well, we are proceeding. folks that were on the boat have gotten tested. no one else so far has tested positive and we're just going to keep going step-by step by step, you know. the legislative process, first of all, is one where there is never an absolute -- i shouldn't say never. oftentimes, not an absolute deadline. you have to create deadlines, which senator schumer is doing in a really important which way. he is saying we're staying, we're not going home until the whole thing is done. so whether, you know, no matter how that comes together, we're not going home until we teal with the physical infrastructure needs of our country and we deal with the things that keep people up at night, including extending and most important middle class tax cut we have done in a generation. and lord knows we have to address the climate crisis. good news is, it creates

millions of jobs. good news is we can pay for all this by simply saying, you know, i say all the time, republicans say we're trying to raise people's taxes. i say you know what? if you are asking a billionaire to pay more than zero, i don't call that a tax increase. >> senator, good to see you. thanks for joining us. we always appreciate your time. coming up, it was the bombshell that set often the first impeachment of donald trump and it had life changing repercussions for the man to reported it. alexander vindman will be right with me in the studio after this. with me in the studio afte this ♪ when i was young ♪ no-no-no-no-no please please no. ♪ i never needed anyone. ♪ front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪ those days are done. ♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪

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with the best of the olympics, and everything else you love, it's a way better way to watch! cheer on team usa with xfinity x1. say "show me the olympics in 4k" so you can watch in stunning 4k ultra hd. right matters" by retired army lieutenant i was set to testify on tuesday, october 29 and had to prepare an opening statement.

reviewing all of the previous witness depositions that had been made public, i saw that while each had made a persuasive professional case their views on foreign policy, they hadn't attempted to connect on a more personal basis with the ordinary americans who were following the impeachment hearings on tv. as i had a personal story to tell, i decided to begin my statement with my career of service and my im grajt family's american dream. i thought if i provided that context there was a chance that a lot of americans would understand why i had to do what i was to go. my wife and i huddle upstairs in our daughter's room the day before my testimony to go through the final draft word by word. then i sent it to my legal team for their final approval. when elie got home from school i helped her do her makeup for her halloween costume and then we went to pa party. i called my legal team one more time. everything looked good. they ten sent my opening statement to the house permanent

select committee on intelligence. rachel remembers the drive home from that halloween party. we chatted about the logistics of getting me into d.c. next morning for the testimony. . we picked up my uniform from the dry cleaner. those were our last couple hours of normalcy. today there is before impeachment and after impeachment, end quote. well, that night when that opening statement became public all of us for the first time met lieutenant colonel vindman who was at the time the top ukraine expert on the white house national security council. his decision to testify to impeachment investigators about he heard on a phone call between president trump and the president ukraine would change his life. it would change the trump presidency. it would change the country. colonel vindman was the first impeachment witness who actually had listened in on phone call at the center of that inquiry, the phone call in which president trump pressured the ukrainian president, zelensky, to announce investigations into joe biden and his son hunter in exchange

for american support that ukraine desperately needed against russia. the phone call in which donald trump infamously told zelensky, i would like you to do us a favor, though. and the reason i wanted to start with that particular passage from colonel vindman's new book with the wonderful human details of a normal life about to be upended is it gets at reason his testimony was so powerful and so effecting. why it is probably the best remembered testimony of the entire impeachment hearings. the way colonel vindman explained it in his testimony, his decision to report what he heard and to testify about what he heard was inseparable from his life history as an immigrant and as a soldier. he hoped to connect on a personal basis with ordinary americans watching the impeachment on tv. he succeeded. alexander vindman new book "here, right matters" is an exploration of how he found himself at that pivotal moment before impeachment, after impeachment, and how he came to make the decisions that he did at the time.

he writes, quote, i wasn't born with any special degree of courage or some especially firm moral compass. nobody is. we become the people we are by learning. and in kurm vindman's telling everything in his history was at work the day he was on the call with president trump and the ukrainian leader. from his own family's history of adversity in the soviet ukraine to his widowed father's decisions to immigrate to america with alexander and his brothers to pursue a better life, the values he received in the army where he received a purple heart. by lieutenant colonel vindman's own account there was nothing special. he was just a military officer and a government national security official doing his job. he saw wrongdoing and called it out. one of the things we learned from the years of the trump administration is that there are plenty of government officials who will not do that, keep their heads down and please the president no matter what the president wants.

we learned that the government is full of people like alexander vindman, people who cover that their particular sense of patriotism and duty is what is needed in that moment. >> dad, my sitting here today in the u.s. capitol talking to our elected officials is proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the soviet union and come here to the united states of america in seven of a better life for our family. do not worry. i'll be fine for telling the truth. >> why do you have confidence that you can do that? and tell your dad not to worry? >> congressman, because this is america. this is the country i have served and defended that all of my brothers have served and "here, right matters." >> thank you, sir. yield back. [ applause ] >> joining me is retired army lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. the new book is called "here, right matters." an american story.

it comes out tomorrow. colonel vindman, an honor to have you here. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> you said here, dad, i'll be okay. then you were forced out of your job at the white house and then refused a promotion to full colonel and forced to retire from the army. is that okay? >> it's not. but that's not why i took the actions i did. i took the actions i did because i saw that there was corruption and i had a duty to -- doesn't make a difference who it was. the president of the united states or not, i had a responsibility to make a correction to speak to the right people, to see if we could fix the issue. >> you knew immediately that you had to do something. you went directly to your brother's office, who also worked at the white house. and you said to him, if this gets out, the president is going to be impeached. did the sense of weight and consequence come to you at that time? >> absolutely. i was aware of the import of that moment. i had no idea how it was going to change my life.

i knew that there were -- there was a significant amount of risk i was taking on my shoulders and that probably i had jeopardized my position at the white house. but i also knew that the situation was much, much bigger than me and that i had sworn an oath to uphold -- to uphold that oath, i had to report what i observe. >> what did your brother tell new he knew this was going to come down heavy. >> he looked at me. he is my twin brother. he knows me more than just about anybody else in this world. and he -- he immediately recognized the severity of the moment. i quickly told him that, you know, we need to go report this to the right authorities. thinking was very straightforward that these officials had both a duty like i did, which they, unfortunately, failed to fulfill, and an axe ses to the president to get him to recognize that he was engaging in a corrupt enterprise. and that's what i is. >> let's go back.

you start your book with that phone call. let's go back to before that. lake 2018/early 2019. the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani, had been floating this false narrative about ukraine having been sponcil for hacking the 2016 election and getting ukraine to investigate joe biden. you write that this strange political scheme was unimaginably remote from anything i was working on for high-level global u.s. strategy. to use us in the policy community, giuliani's moves were bewildering but also, at first, a lot more noise than signal. people who have read the retrospective reporting have a better sense of what was happening than i or my colleagues could have had at the time or would have necessarily wanted to have. this was really weird. you're a policy expert. you know that part of the world. you speak ukrainian, russian. what giuliani was talking about was complete falsehood. >> it was a political air and to serve the interests of a corrupt president. a president that was seeking to

tip the scales in his favor in an upcoming election. for me i probably didn't calculate all that at that very moment. what i calculated was that this was wrong, this is not the way our system is supposed to work, and that the very foundation of our democracy is based on free and fair elections and the president was looking to upend that. >> it was completely outlandish. were you worried? when giuliani started talking about this, me with my limited sort of understanding what goes on in that part of the world, even i knew it was ridiculous. did you dismiss it as rantings of a -- >> i did early on. but then it started to interfere with the work we were doing in the white house, including canceling vice president pence's participation in the trip. it was directly related to the fact that giuliani wasn't getting the play he needed with the ukrainian government and the president, president trump, pulled the plug to sigi schmid nal this is where he wanted the

ukrainians to act. he wanted them involved in the investigation. >> i want to read another passage where you describe what happened after you told your brother and how you decided to report it up the chain of command. once the responsible people up the chain of command with the people with proper clearens learned of the president's actions we could act. we could figure out how to advise the president on the gross error in judge, walk back and cancel his inappropriate demand and continue to move to stabilizing relationships and executing a cogent foreign policy. it was our collective duty to assess the damage, manage the fallout, have the most senior counselors rein him in. that was the process i planned to start. >> that's exactly right. >> didn't unfold that way? >> it didn't. but it culminated in something close to the accountability. it culminated way outside of the scope what i would consider at the moment. it certainly unfolded where

congress took action, investigated the president's wrongdoing and impeached him. the american public held him accountable even though republican leadership didn't. they failed in their responsibility. failed to live up to their oath. but the american public did. for that, for that corruption, for the ineffective management of a pandemic that resulted in some 600,000 deaths, for an economic catastrophe, the american public held the president accountable. i think that's an example of here right mattering. >> there is a lot of stuff about what happened in the room and in the impeachment process. also a lot of stuff about you and how you were formed and history. our guest is retired army lieutenant lieutenant colonel. "here, right matters" comes out tomorrow. we'll be right back after this. tomorrow we'll be right back after this ♪ ♪ ♪

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we're back with retired army

lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. his pook is called "here, right matters." an american story. it comes out tomorrow. colonel vindman, thanks for sticks with us. it's never reward to go a whistle-blower. and you couldn't have thought it was going to be rewarding. you were motivated by other things. you say "here, right matters" and you spend time talking about your father and decisions he made for your family and how you became you. there are people out there who are wondering whether they should report things that aren't right. what do you have to tell them? >> there is a sense of idealism i carry with me to this day. i think it helps me be resilient and about bounce back. but in reality, things are not that easy. there are trials and tribulations throughout the kind of persecution from the white house and then in the period after i left the white house, try to determine if i had a military career. that's the way things really are in life. the question is what do you do with that. do you let that push you down

and do you crumble or do you bounce back and what i try to tell is the story of my family doing this repeatedly throughout the years and the tools that assembled as a young man, maybe a little misguided at times. i talk about that. and then as an army officer, there is tools i assembled all coming together both to navigate that very difficult affair, unprecedented army officer challenging the president of the united states, because the president was not acting inrd couldens with the constitution. and then everything that happened afterwards, rebuilding, starting from scratch and figuring out what i wanted to do next. >> you talk about your dad who also rebuilt and started from skrachlt. he didn't leave the soviet union because things were bad. things were good and he left and came here and started from scratch. an engineer who ended up lifting furniture to pay the bills in america. you talk a lot about him and about the lessons he taught you. but he wasn't sure you were doing the right thing here.

in fact, he was a trump supporter? >> he was. he left at 47 from a comfortable position. but they were bad in that there were possibilities for his children were not there and his wife, my mother that was dying of cancer, wasn't going to survive in the soviet union. yes, he was a trump supporter. and i think that's a common vain amongst immigrants, especially from the soviet era, that have this rejection of anything left liberal and overcorrect and heed to the right. and he certainly -- that was his mindset. but there was more to that when he counselled me to kind of figure out a way to reconcile with the president. he had a deep fear of what might happen to me. the consequences of my actions, for my career and maybe even channeling some of his views of what happens to somebody in russia. i would have not survived that. >> and when you told him what you were going to do, he was worried because he himages of what someone like you in russia

pulling that, what would happen to them, including jail and possibly death? >> more than likely. certainly in various periods in the soviet era it wouldn't just be me. it would be my family. we saw reflections of that in the trump administration when my brother was walked out. a punishment that extended to family members also. totally unacceptable in the united states. >> how do you feel about this given all the ups and downs of it? >> i have no regrets about my actions. one of the most important things is the fact that i could both -- i could live with may actions and look my daughter in her eyes and not have to eequivalent indicate, not try to rationalize, not try to explain away some misdeeds i did, falling short, and that makes me very proud that i can do that. and i also have that deep confidence that my father had coming here to the united states rebuilding that i will end up being fine. i'm working on a doctorate at johns hopkins. i am at a think tank, having

wonderful conversations with people like yourself. these things what not be afforded to me. i would have had a easier go if i would have stayed in, kept quiet, so like so many people. >> you would have been a full colonel. >> yes. >> your title of the book is "here, right matters." you believe that still? >> i do. but not in the very simplistic notion that everything works out exactly as one would hope. "here, right matters" really matters only if we make it matter. if we are active in the process. if we are engaged. if we're trying to drive the things that are important us to. in my case, as soon as i left -- i got out of uniform, i didn't want to be a political actor but i spoke out against president trump. i tried to have an impact, speaking out against president trump, talking about his corruption. i hope that was impactful. i am going to continue to do that, advocating for public servants that don't have a voice while they are in service. i am going to do that by advocating for national security

sand i am going to make it matter. >> thank you for your service, sir. >> thank you. >> appreciate. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. his new book is "here, right matters." it is out tomorrow. we appreciate your time. it's been three weeks since democratic state legislators left their state in texas for washington in a desperate attempt to save voting rights. they have head press conferences, pushing congress to act on voting rights legislation and now they are grinning br inking in reinforcement. much more on the summer of direct action when we come back. . know this about the jungle, everything that you see wants to kill you and can. ♪ ♪ ♪ born to be wild ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ born to be wild ♪ ♪ ♪ see disney's jungle cruise. applebee's and a movie, now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. what can i du with less asthma?

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obstructing offenses as they depnded action from congress. among those were jesse jackson jr. and the co-founder of indivisible, ezra levin. all waiting in line to be cuffed. the co-chair of the poor people's campaign, reverend william barber, also arrested again. poor people's campaign are ramping up rallies and marches to call attention to four demands they want lawmakers to address of the end the filibuster, pass all provisions of the poor the people act, raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour of they are not the only ones trying to spur change this washington. 100 state legislators traveled to d.c. to stand with the texas democratic lawmakers who fled their state to block that restrictive voter bill. the plan to hold a rally outside the capitol tomorrow at noon to urge congress to pass voting rights legislation. they will also hold private meetings with members congress.

joining us is florida state represent anna, spearheading this effort to bring state legislators to the capitol and trey martinez fisher, a texas lawmaker who fled the state to stall a restrictive voting rights bill. thank you for joining us tonight. you really are trying to make the point that not only do you want to stand to stand in solidarity with these texas lawmakers but you want to draw attention to the fact this is not just a texas problem. this is happening all over the country. >> absolutely. i mean, here in florida, we are inspired by the texas democrats. watching members of the texas legislature step up and step out and say we are not going to play this game of voter suppression with you. really, set the tone for other democrats across legislatures in this country and in florida. we watched our governor sign a voter-suppression bill to a fox-news-only audience, which further amplified how this was a political attack on the right to vote and an effort to pander to his political base. so here, in florida, we are

suffering the same efforts of voter suppression. and we have to stand in solidarity with our texans. but also, fight to push for action in congress. >> representative martinez fischer, talk to me about how this feels to you. you are getting this -- the summer of action. you are getting these people, who were marching in austin. the march to austin. this weekend. now, you've got people joining you there and -- and -- and more civil action. you have, all, individually, made the case to congress that you need them to put their back into this thing. you can't hold out, forever. >> well, that's right, ali. we were moving this needle, inch by inch, day by day. it is a shot of adrenaline to have lawmakers from across the country stand with us. number one, we're honored. number two, we're humbled. number three, it's just that important. this is a now-or-never moment for our democracy and this country and we are going to keep pushing the u.s. senate to give us a -- we just need one when it comes to voting in this country and that is an american

standard. we do not need voter suppression. we do not need states to have their voices silenced across this country. we need the congress to act. and when 100 lawmakers come together, men and women, who have put everything, you know, on the line. then, we need to convey the message that it's now or never. we need to have voting reform in this country. >> representative, what do you say to people, including joe manchin, who just talked about the fact, this weekend, he said that the for the people act would divide the country further. he and a few others are holding to this idea that, if this is not bipartisan and everybody's not onboard with this thing, it's not going to work. but it doesn't look like republicans are going to be onboard with it. >> well, we have to remember that these are the same republican members of congress that voted to not investigate the january-6th insurrection. so, i mean, with all due respect to senator manchin and others that opposed to this effort, we have to remember one of the reasons why we are in this situation, with an insurrection taking place at the capitol, is because of voter suppression. because of a status-quo approach

to politics that has pushed out voters including voters with disabilities, black and brown people, working-class people, from being able to have representation that reflects them and their values and so it's really important that we stress to all members of the u.s. senate that voting is a -- does -- doesn't have to be a partisan issue. this -- this is about the people of this country, not politicians. and we need to push to make sure that every person has access to fair elections. >> representative martinez fischer, your governor greg abbott tweeted out i will keep calling special sessions until we address every emergency item, including funding for foster care, property tax, and bail reform. the democrats' decision to break quorum inflicts harm on the very texans who elected them to serve. your response? >> my response is the governor had 140 days in the regular session to take care of the people's business. any failure to do so is a responsibility he is going to have to bear. and make no mistake. we are not going to get steamrolled when it comes to

voting rights in our state of texas. we are going to stand up. we are going to push back. we are going to say no. we are going to rally this country, like we have been, and like i said, we are honored to stand with 100 men and women from across this country rallying tomorrow, at 12:00 noon, eastern, right outside the russell building of the u.s. senate. and we want everyone to come join us because it is a now-or-never moment for this country. >> and -- and representative, are you -- are you heartened by the fact that there are people literally willing to put their bodies on the line? they will -- they were literally lined up today, waiting to be cuffed. >> it's inspirational, ali, it really is. and it speaks to this nation's history of one that cares about voting rights. one that cares about democracy. one where people are willing to sacrifice their own livelihoods and put their bodies on the line to do what's right. and we are committed, as lawmakers, across this country to do the same. >> thanks to both of you for being with us tonight. florida state representative and texas state representative, trey martinez fischer. we appreciate your time. up next. we have got an update on a story that rachel's been following very closely. stay with us. very closely stay with us [relaxed summer themed music playing]

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special-immigrant visas. another group of about 4,000 afghan nationals are to go to third countries to complete their visa paperwork, before being resettled in the united states. over 20,000 afghans have applied for special visas, and many can't come to the u.s., yet, because they haven't initiated the paperwork -- paperwork process or completed the security screening. advocates are calling for the biden administration to bring them here, regardless. another concern is what to do with the afghans who do not qualify for those special visas. on this front, the administration delivered some much-needed news. blinken said today the u.s. also plans to expand resettlement eligibility to all those who do not meet the strict criteria of the current-visa program. they are calling it a priority-2 designation. without a doubt, a welcomed effort but, yet, far from perfect. "politico" is reporting quote these newly eligible afghans must receive a referral from a current or former employer before the state department can begin processing their cases. they are also responsible for getting themselves and their families out of afghanistan and

into a third country, without u.s. assistance. we are going to continue to keep you updated on this important story and that does it for us, tonight. we will see you, again, tomorrow. it's time now for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." lawrence, i have to say, we report on really interesting things. but -- but that conversation with -- with lieutenant colonel vindman. um, it's inspiring. you know, his -- his view is that there are lots of americans like him. he is not a standout. there are lots of people in government, and you know this better than any, who are actually prepared to take a stand and -- and suffer the consequences. >> that -- that's exactly what i wanted to mention to you, ali. was really a great interview, and i am so glad that you let it breathe and go on, as long as it did. and i, especially, like the part which we could never hear, before now. of what his life is, now. and what his life is going to be. we all knew about what he lost. we all knew about the military career he lost. as a result of bravely crossing donald trump.