governor orders the legislature back in session today for the sole purpose of pushing through a voter suppression package that democrats have fled the state twice to block. we'll talk to one of those democrats next. then with a rash of republican governors making what could fairly be described as pro-covid policies, we'll talk to one state official fighting against her own state government to try keep her fellow citizens alive. plus the star witness in the president's first failed impeachment, a man who risked everything and lost much, trying to blow the whistle on the president who was trying to corrupt the government for his own political gain. "velshi" starts now. good morning. it's saturday august 7th. i'm ali velshi. the ex-president has been out of office for 200 days as of today. we're learning more and more about the coup that could have

been. more information revealing how hard he fought to subvert the will of the people and overturn the 2020 election results. reported by abc and not yet verified by msnbc or msnbc news, jeffrey clark, acting head of the justice department civil division at the time, wrote emails that essentially would have laid out a road map for georgia republicans to overturn the will of the state's voters. clark's message intend to tell georgia election officials that the department of justice was investigating, quote, irregularities in the presidential election and wanted state legislators to go into a special session, quote, pertaining to the appointment of presidential electors. that means georgia officials would have received a letter from the doj, on doj letterhead, essentially telling them something was wrong with the way their election was conducted and they should, instead, appoint their own electors, who would back trump leading to a false

victory for him. that plan, luckily, didn't work. that message was never sent. and biden's legitimate victory in georgia helped propel him to the white house. that's only because the then acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen and acting deputy attorney richard don hue wouldn't sign on to the former president's nonsense. the alarming thing is that if the ex-president had one of his loyalists installed at the department of justice, then this coup might have gone off without a hitch. the election would have been stolen right before our very eyes. in fact, congressman rashnakrishna murthi said that clark drafted letters to six states. in addition to georgia, arizona, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin and nevada. the failed former president and his cronies only needed this ploy to work in one state. if georgia fell, it would have

been only a matter of time before the other weak-kneed republican states fell, too. state level republicans would have been all too receptive to these authoritarian-esque orders. in georgia, where the gop is, right now, trying to take over elections. and disenfranchise atlanta area voters. contrary to what biden may think, you cannot out-organize something like this. currently there are not any guardrails in place to prevent this attack on voting rights. democratic lawmakers from georgia joined over 100 lawmakers from 20 states in d.c. this week to pressure congress to pass desperately needed protections for voters. pushing congress to pass two federal voting rights bills while simultaneously preventing their own state of passing a

slue of new voting restrictions in their absence. however, republicans in texas are adamant about making it harder for mostly black sbroun people to vote there. today, a brand new special legislative session will begin as republicans try again to roll back access to the ballot box for millions of voters. joining me now is state representative raphael acia, who left the state in protest to the restricted voting laws. we're all becoming experts at how texas law works. what happens today? >> yesterday we celebrated a big victory in texas. we were on capitol hill with senator murthi and we did two things when we came here to

washington. first thing we did was just run out the special session. deny quorum to texas republicans who were trying to push through anti-voter bills, anti-women health bills, anti-transchildren bills. we got a nice shout out from speaker pelosi, where she recognized we helped kickstart the discussions back here on capitol hill. and we're really excited and happy about that, that progress that we've made. i'm still in washington, d.c. i know that the session starts today. there have been some covid outbreaks back on the house floor in texas. so, quorum will continue to be an elusive thing for texas republicans. >> you've been here now, has it been three weeks or so you all have been in washington? it's been a long time. how sustainable is this? you sent the message to washington, d.c., lawmakers, please fix this situation. we can only do so much. how much can you do? >> well, we committed to vice

president harris when we met with her after the first quorum break. this is the second time we've done this. we committed to her that we would buy more time for the federal government to act. between president biden, speaker pelosi and leader schumer that this will remain a priority. we know that a bill is going to be dropped in the near term. and then there will be a cloture bill, which will obviously fail for lack of ten republicans that will go along with even a modified version of for the people act. our goal was very, very clear. we were going to kill the bills in the texas legislative special session and we were going to push for federal action. there will be a group of us that will stay here in washington, d.c. to continue to push for that, but we can't hold out much longer. we need federal action by the federal government. we know the special session is starting today and over the long term we need congress to act.

>> let's talk about what you were talking about with senator merkley. it does appear that joe manchin will take this bill and try to get republican support for it. do you think there's any hope of getting senate republicans to join in to this effort, or do democrats in washington, do democrats in the senate have to go through with this? forget the filibuster as it relates to voting rights and pass this new bill? >> we also think of lbj as the father of the voting rights act. the most recent reauthorization of the voting rights act was under another texas president, a republican, george w. bush, when voting rights were not controversial and the senate passed 98-0. we're dealing with a new republican party, party of the ex-president, donald trump, which continues to try to subvert democracy. we're hoping at least ten republican members of the u.s. senate that will support senator

manchin in his goal to get this done. >> what do you say to people who don't understand that the texas governor and texas republicans are speaking in code about voter fraud? you and i have talked about this for months on end. you don't have a voter fraud problem in texas. we don't have any organized voter fraud problem in the united states at all. >> well, the republican secretary of state's office has described our elections as safe, secure and successful. and voter fraud, if it exists at all, is a rounding error. texas is one of the hardest states to vote in. we're in the lowest republicans have, for the past decade, tried to make it harder and harder and harder to vote and potentially discriminated against the voting rights of texans as found by three courts across this country on ten different occasions. if you want to know how to suppress the vote, look at texas. what's great about these 30 days, we've been able to tell

senators, whose jaws have dropped, what we've been facing in texas during the last decade. this is happening digital. it's happening contemporary and real time in texas. we need to stop it with national standards that protect the freedom to vote for millions of people. >> thank you again for your time, sir. raphael anchia of texas. the president and senior lecturer of repairers of the bridge and architect of moral mondays, leading in participating marches, urging congress to take action to protect voting rights on what's being called the season of nonviolent moral direct action. and racking up quite an arrest record. he, along with other protesters, were arrested with obstructing and crowding offices protesting in d.c. i want to pick up on what representative anc hichlt a said. he said this is digital, happening right now.

you're saying it other ways, it's not jim crow. it's james crow esquire. it's more sophisticated but the same stuff. >> it is and it's across the board and impacting all americans. we make a mistake when we frame this as a black/brownish. 56 million americans would be not -- would lose part of their right in the ways to vote, who voted in ways of other election days, the very thing that the people's act would protect. we always have to connect it to the money, like dr. king did. voting rights and economic justice are always connected. voting is the bridge to those policies. here we are, august 6 -- 7th, 56th anniversary of the signing of the voting rights act. it's been eight years since 2013, june 25th, 296 days today that congress could have fixed this. when manchin says he wants fix this, he's not telling the truth.

we have to be careful with these watered-down bills. what we need is the bill that john lewis wrote with his dying breath. we said we were going to intensify. we've got calls, ali, to come to west virginia, like we did in texas. this is the 100th year anniversary of the blair mountain fight when black and white coal miners fought together. we're headed to west virginia now. we cannot turn back on this now. this is too serious. it's time for the president to meet with the multi-racial group of clergy, poor and low-wealth people, economists, voting rights lawyers. go to the will of the congress. reset this whole argument. it's about the constitution, about our morality. he said to the poor people's campaign he wanted to do it, but some of his staff don't seem to get it. some of them think you can litigate out of this and mobilize. that's not how we're going to win. we have to have federal protection against this political insurrection going on in state capitals.

>> when merkley comes up with this bill and manchin agrees he's going to support it and he goes to see if they can get any republicans. who knows if any senate republicans will join in. the new bill, the bill you are referring to as possibly watered down. would you support that versus nothing right now? >> well, here is the thing. what are you talking about, watering down? in the florida's people act, first of all, protects access to the ballot. are you going to water down that? are you going to take away registration, automatic voter registration? multiple days of early voting? it deals with dark money. what are you going to do? water that down? it deals with ethics. dealing with gerrymandering. the question is, what's in it? the problem is you're not putting the first thing first. the first thing has to be going to end the filibuster. all this other talk is moot if

you're not going to end the filibuster. senator schumer we said to him this week that all of these procedural votes, allowing people to vote without ending the filibuster is just stuff. i mean, it's just, you know, going through the motion. it's washington two-step. you have to end the filibuster. what should happen first is there should be an agreement. no infrastructure for bridges until we deal with the infrastructure of our democracy, agree to pass the florida people's act, voing rights and $15 minimum wage. let's agree on that. then sure, there may be some changes. right now there is no history that manchin has, number one, he could ever bring those republicans. number two, what he has proposed actually makes the bill so weak it doesn't deal with the problem. thirdly, we're talking about the greatest attack on voting rights since the civil war. why would you water down something that you're trying to

fight, which is the greatest attack? you should not be watering it down. you should be strengthening it for the purpose of this democracy. it's not about democrat and republican, ali, as you and i have often talked. this is about the future of this very nation and stopping the political policy insurrection that's going on inside of state capitals now. we stopped the violent one on january 6th. we've got to stop this one that's happening inside these state legislatures now. >> good to see you again as always. dr. william barber is the co-chairman of the poor people's campaign. lot to get to this saturday morning. retired lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, who came into the spotlight for his heroic testimony during the first impeachment of the former president will join me later in the show with the senate xweening for a rare weekend session over the infrastructure plan today. i'll ask senator mazy hirono if

we're about to see a vote. in the midof another surge of covid-19, leaving one doctor to say we are living during the darkest days of this pandemic. it doesn't have to be this way. we'll explain why next on "velshi" on msnbc. on msnbc. say hello to your fairy godmother alice and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

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when you come inside our walls, it is quite obvious to you that these are the darkest days of this pandemic. we are no longer giving adequate care to patients. that has also stopped. you heard from each of these physicians that we no longer think we're giving adequate care to anybody, because these are the darkest days of the pandemic. >> you states once again in cries mode, battling the delta variant that is wreaking havoc in areas with lower vaccination rates. the medical director of a baton rouge hospital that is overwhelmed with covid patients. 37% of louisiana's 4.6 million residents are fully vaccinated.

according to the "new york times," over the last week, the state reported 99 new covid infections per 100,000 people per day. it's not just louisiana. all over the country where vaccination rates are low, hospitals are getting overrun again. the darkest days of this pandemic, paerm, are not behind us. vaccine development at texas children's hospital, dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor medicine. dr. hotez were talking a year and a half ago, more than that, at the beginning of this. you and i were together the morning the vaccine was unrolled. i have to say, i didn't see this day coming. i didn't see a day when this many people would honestly just decide not to take this life-saving vaccine. i don't know what you make of it and what you think we should do about it, dr. hotez. >> yeah. you know, ali, i knew from all my years going up against the anti-vaccine movement that there

would be a problem. what i didn't expect was this wholesale adoption of the anti-vaccine movement and anti-science by the political right where you have members of the -- elected members of the united states congress openly espousing anti-vaccine, anti-science conspiracy views, where you would have the conservative news outlets campaigning on an anti-science agenda. that's the part that has been so troubling. and look at the consequences. you know, that number you flashed up, ali, 97 per 100,000, that is probably the highest rate of covid-19 in the world right now. louisiana, florida are the worst affected. if louisiana and florida were countries, they would be the worst affected countries in the world, right up there with boswana, that is getting hit really hard. that's how terrible this is. and this is just the beginning, ali, because schools haven't opened yet. and they're about to do that next week in louisiana. they're going to start in two

week heers in texas. and so this may just be the warm-up act. and i'm really worried now because so many young people are being hospitalized. that's the different flavor to this phase four of our epidemic. all these 30-year-old people who are defiant of vaccinations and also now the very low rates of adolescents, fewer than 20% of adolescents in southern states that are vaccinated compared to 70% in the north. as they go back to middle schools, high schools, we're going to see unprecedented numbers of pediatric hospitalizations and unfortunately for the first time in the u.s., we'll see pediatric intensive care units overwhelmed and that is going to be incredibly scary. >> many of those people -- >> better get ready. >> -- don't have a say in the matter. there's the whole my body, my choice thing going on right now. a lot of kids don't have a say in the matter. i understand the overlap between

some libertarian anti-government views and vaccines. i didn't know of the overlap between republicans and conservatives and no vaccine. there's a 538 headline that says americans are in favor of vaccine mandates but supports are driven mainly by those who have already gotten the jab. those of us that have gotten the vaccine aren't offended by the fact that we may have to get the vaccine. governments are being cautious about this. companies, it seems, are being less cautious. many are coming out day by day, you want to work here, have you to get a vaccine. you want to be served by us, you have to get a vaccine. >> i don't think that anyone wants to head towards mandates. it makes people uncomfortable. there's a lot of legal challenges. the reason is we're being driven by the accelerating epidemic of delta and realizing that delta is picking off anyone that's not

vaccinated and it's highly destabilizing. here is going to be the next big issue, and that is as schools open, everyone is talking about mask mandates for schools and we're seeing a lot of defiance from the red state governors. the next piece is that we're really going to need vaccine mandates for the schools. if we're really series about protecting our young people and protecting our communities, we need both vaccine and mask mandates in the schools across the country. and we can't sort of deliberate and wring our hands. we need to do it now. delta is accelerating and the delta virus is not giving us the luxury of time. we've got to make this happen. >> at least we have experience with vaccine mandates at schools. hopefully, we don't get the same resistance i suspect you and i will be talking more about this, because we probably will. peter, thanks for being always available to us and helping us get through this.

experts like you have helped us make sense of this remarkable pandemic that continues to this day. dr. peter hotez, dean of the national school of tropical medicine and co-director at the texas children's center. senator mazie hirono is standing by. ono is standing by. lls plaque bacteriam line to help keep the gum seal tight. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste. front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and get millions of flexible booking options. expedia. it matters who you travel with. i've never slept like this before. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep expedia. to people who were tired of being tired. what is even in this? clinically-studied plant based ingredients passion flower, valerian root, and hops.

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on this show that i know you certainly work on the weekend. give me a sense of the moment. what's happening in the senate right now? are we moving closer to something that feels like a process here? >> yes, we are. we're going to take a pretty important procedural vote today that pretty much will mean that going forward we will burn 30 hours and the amendments going forward will have to be by unanimous consent. we may be voting on the infrastructure bill. >> when you say unanimous consent, is there anything we should be worried about here? i have heard there are some republicans who would like to change things around with the bill but it does seem -- leader schumer was saying you all have been moving through this pretty fast this week. >> we have been. so, as i say, this particular vote is to get us on what's known as the substitute amendment. once we're on to that substitute

amendment, then going forward we're going to need to get agreement on what amendments will be deemed amendments to vote on. and what that means is that we'll have to vote on the bill itself after a week of debate. >> and you have been talking to some of your colleagues in the house, i know, described as more progressive colleagues in the democratic party, who are saying we don't want to stamp this bill. we don't want to say yes to this bill until that other bill, reconciliation bill, is at least written and looks like it's moving forward. do you see a problem with that? do you see some problem getting this harder infrastructure bipartisan bill passed without the bones of the other bill being out there yet? >> when we get to the other bill, that's just going to require the 50 democrats. and i feel quite confident that

the 50 democrats who actually cares about getting our economy back on track and millions of women enabling them to get back to work that there will be an agreement on the budget bill. ali, one of the stop gaps will be that the house is saying we're not going to vote on either bill unless both bills are passed. and so both bills, i think, will pass. i feel more confident than i usually feel that we're going to get there. the democrats want to get on to the american family plan, as i mentioned, that will enable people to get back to work. >> one of the things that is particular to you and hawaii in this bill is that you've got wildfires in hawaii. >> yes. >> largest in the state's history. this is also an issue that's important to you in hawaii. and it is actually connected to the infrastructure bill. >> that's right.

in fact, there are -- weather events happening across the country. not just in hawaii, but wildfires in other places to the point that, yeah, we need to put more resources into preventing and what happens after wildfires. there's a lot in the infrastructure bill that will enable republicans and democrats to support it. >> senator, good to see you as always. thank you for joining us this morning. senator mazie hirono. aloha to you. >> aloha. demanding the resignation of the prime minister in response to the thai government's failure to control coronavirus outbreaks. police in riot gear have been pushing protesters back. thailand hit a record of nearly 22,000 new covid infections in a single day and 212 deaths. we'll get you updates on had

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nine months ago today, nbc news declared joseph biden the winner of the 2020 election and the 46th president of the united states. the 1/2 months between that day and inauguration day were a transition period unlike any in american history. perhaps the only time a sitting u.s. president actively tried to overturn an election result. even nine months later, we're still learning how extensive that effort was. as we mentioned at the top of the hour, abc news reported that the now former assistant attorney general jeffrey clark drafted a letter to georgia officials telling them that the justice department was investigating, quote, voting irregularities and urging them to call a special session to choose their own electors.

neither nbc nor msnbc has verified those materials. we can tell you that the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen rejected the letter. it was never sent. congressman rashnakrishna murthy also said that there were six letters that were drafted to go to other states. trump himself pressured the justice department to declare the election corrupt. joining me now, legal analyst and professor at the university of alabama law school. also with me roland martin, host of roland martin unfiltered, who is so devoted to his craft that he's doing it even while at a benefit golf tournament this morning. good to see both of you. joyce vans, you've written an article along with others in

"the washington post," inciting insurrection and/or sedicious conspiracy. i heard so many people tell me they didn't want a january 6th commission because it would be like impeachment all over again. donald trump has been impeached twice. we're working on new evidence. we've got new stuff that makes what you thought happened on january 6th even worse than it was. and you and others like you think there should be a criminal prosecution for this. >> so this is why, you know, folks are so often dismayed by the fact that prosecutions take a long time to get -- to come together. indictments can be delayed for what seems to the public like an unconscionable amount of time. the reality is from inside the game, if you're a prosecutor, an investigator, these facts come to light slowly. and often you can miss the worst conduct, if you're too eager to

jump too soon. we're seeing that happen in real time now. and the argument that we make is that doj needs to be, if it is not already, seriously investigating a number of crimes that rage -- that range from a conspiracy to defraud the government to obstruction of official proceedings to sedition and incitement of insurrection charges but voter fraud claims to have states tabulate false votes and even a criminal hatch provision. that's not to say that all of these charges should be indicted but doj must not move past the effort to fully investigate these items in a criminal sense, even while congress continues to keep the momentum up with the january 6th commission. you know, facts can be elusive things and people involved in criminal activity want to keep them from coming to light. so it can be a frustrating

process but, frankly we're not at the point where truth can come to light, the former president no longer has the power of the pardon and acuitriments of the power of the presidency. >> do you think that people get the connection between restrictive voting rights bills and the actual stuff that was going on, the actual efforts that the last administration or last president was involved in to potentially overturn the will of the people in places like georgia and pennsylvania and arizona, and michigan, and wisconsin? do you think that connection is obvious? >> no, i don't think the connection is obvious, because part of the problem has been the unwillingness of democrats who forcefully explain this to the public. that is the fundamental problem here, ali. donald trump is tongue in cheek.

that's who he was. when you see the changing of all these laws, it was to accommodate what he was trying to accomplish. nan is going to run in 2024. we've got to confront this. what they were engaged in was absolutely illegal activity. at some point we've got to be willing to say this cannot happen again. we must target every single person. they will try it again. and the republicans in the senate and the house, they don't care. they care about power. they care about control. and we must confront this. we cannot allow these thugs to be in power again. >> you know, joyce, all through the president's misdeeds, we were talking about watergate. we had experts from watergate. people in watergate telling us about the similarities. watergate almost seems small by comparison to what we are learning now about letters, pressure on the attorney general, the acting attorney general, letters potentially from the attorney general to the state of georgia to say don't listen to the will of the people.

there was something wrong with your election. that becomes a little harder than that weird christmas-time phone call from donald trump to brad raffensperger. one thing i'm most worried about, we don't have guardrails to prevent against this happening. it depended on good people of goodwill to say i'm not doing this. >> it is frightening. we should all be frightened. i think it's easy to discount events when you're living through them. roland is dead on the money. we need to be very focused on what's happening now. i don't say that in an alarmist fashion, just pragmatically as an american. what trump and his cronies tried to do after this election with getting state legislators to throw the election to trump that's become law in a number of states. >> yes. >> for instance, georgia, which permits the legislature to intervene. the good comparison isn't watergate. it's the civil war. you made that point at the top of the show, an effort to run

the union usunder. the difference is at the end of the civil war, there were people who came forward and surrendered, who acknowledged they were wrong. trump has never done that. trump is dedicated to moving forward. he will do it again. he will subvert the law. that's why it's so imperative that doj take this seriously and although doj doesn't like to engage in criminal prosecutions, this is the rare exceptional case where it must happen or we are at grave risk. >> ali, i want to expand a little bit more. >> yeah. >> republicans in pennsylvania literally were trying to change how members of the supreme court in the state were elected. they wanted to go to districts because they were angry with their decision. in north carolina, they lost control of the state supreme court, they tried to give more of the power to the court underneath the state supreme court. what we have to understand here is that republicans today, to your point, they have no morals. they have no values.

they have no principles. this is not about america or democracy. they are choosing power, even over party. and what we have to realize, they are doing it in our face, which tells you, they will continue to do it in 2022 and in 2023 and in 2024 and, god forbid that thug somehow gets the nomination and comes close to being back in the oval office did for four years -- if you think that was crazy, just watch what this man will try to do with the second term the -- america is in danger. and this is real >> all right, roland you got three minutes to tee off i'll be back in three minutes. roland a joyce stay with those of you stay with us as s well. i want to continue this conversationo after the break. hit it, roland. after the break hit it, roland just ask overlyy rashida rashida: wait, was this the right wall? or last minute gift shopping rashida

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this is the third pattern or practice investigation i have announced as attorney general. each time i have noted that these investigations aim to promote transparency and accountability. this increases public trust, which in turn increases public safety. >> that was attorney general merrick garland on thursday announcing a patterns or practices investigation into the phoenix police department. that's the third such investigation as he said launched under garland. joyce vanessa and roland martin

are with me now. roll nld, we've been talking about police departments long before the country was talking about it. merrick garland is undo or doing something the trump didn't do, the obama administration had been doing, whether federal supervision or consent decrees or pattern or practice investigations. how meaningful is this in terms of changing policing? we still don't have a federal bill. george floyd policing bill. but does this thing move us forward? >> they actually do, because by having the department of justice come in and putting eyes on these departments and also have monitors they have to abide by all the different rules. the city of cleveland, they've had the issue when mitch landry was mayor of new orleans. they had problems. he called the doj. ramsey called in the dojp unjeff sessions, bill barr abthey said this is hurting morale of police

officers so you didn't have federal oversight. this is why elections matter processor. for all the people out there saying voting isn't a big deal,s in the difference between a biden/democrat white house and republican white house where they want to must go and embrace cops and not hold them accountable. but you still need the george floyd act. i say senator lindsey and senator scott you have to be more aggressive to get your party over the line when it comes to votes to pass that. because if you do not have federal legislation this thing could go back and forth based upon who is in the white house. you need to have a bill that is strong to hold these police officers accountable >> i'm going to get joyce's comments on this. but i know you have a teeoff. if you disappear from the screen we understand and thank you >> i told congressman jim clyburn they can wake >> i like the work he is doing. let's talk about the patterns and practices and the power of the federal government and the department of justice, joyce.

roland makes an important point. it's important. it doesn't substitute for laws that will deal with this. >> well, that's true. and one of the problems doj faces with the pattern or practice investigations is that resources are finite. so if you've got maybe 100 police departments across the country that have significant issues doj doesn't have the resources to go in and do each of these departments. so if you can expand resources and permit a case like this to go forward, the situation in phoenix is a bad one. the city was aware it had problems but declined to address them. now doj goes in and it's actually not the sort of action that's negative for the police department. there will be a full exploration of where the problems exist. there will be a collaborative effort with city leaders and police leaders to come up with methods for fixing those problems. and doj provides technical

grounds which come with funding to help the police department to transform itself. this needs to be billed as a productive process that works well for everyone, citizens and police alike. this effort by the prior administration to, you know, posture it as something that was anti-police is just wrong >> roland -- ali, don't -- we cannot overlook what joyce just said. and here is the piece. everybody wants to focus on congress, wants to focus on the white house. but the real substantive changes in police departments can only happen with mayors when city councils, when county commissioners when they do their job. in maryland the legislatures got rid of the bill of rights. the local officials are the one who who can greatly impact the police department. the protesters have been understanding that. we've got to have strong local

elected officials. they've got to get some guts to stand up to police unions and stand up and fight for citizens. they can't say doj come in and save our butts. no, have the courage to make the changes on the local level >> you two are fantastic thank you for being with me. you're free to go roland. joyce vanessa, the cohost of the sisters in law cohost. roland martin host of roland martin unfilter pd another hour of velshi. i'll be joined by alexander vindman breaking down his time in the white house and his future. amid a surge in the delta variant why the republican governor is lining up on the wrong side against covid. me too founder. on the growing scandal surrounding cuomo. another-mile-an-hour of "velshi" begins right now. good morning, saturday

august 7thwell i'm alv velshi. in just a couple horsepower the senate convenience on the $1 trillion infrastructure back will package following days of negotiations. senate majority leader chuck schumer is expected to hold a procedural vote to wind down debates and get this bill passed as soon as possible. while congress has been mostly focused on legislation that would build up our nation we're continuing to learn more about how hard the former president tried to tear apart the fabric of you are our democracy. in addition to blatant lies about the 2020 presidential election there was a far more insidious plot to actually overturn the results going on in the background. just days before the deadly january 6th assault on the capitol, one of the expresident's top department officials was circulating a draft letter that would have helped georgia republicans overturn biden's victory in that state. according to teerms reported by abc news and not