attempting a legislative end-around, pushing what they believe is their best chance to restore some voter protections amid a nationwide suppression campaign by republican lawmakers for the second time this year. democrats have introduced voting rights legislation named for the late john lewis, looking to surmount gop cynicism by focusing squarely on the voter protections that lewis lived, fought, and died for. it comes as the windows are tightening in several states to extract those restrictions before the end of the year and the beginning of the midterm election cycle begins in earnest. and the battle lines are growing clearer in each state, specifically those at the center of the fight as texas democrats ended their standoff with state

republicans, returning to the lone star state this week after a month-long self-exile to protest the suppression that is now the law of their land. meanwhile, the white house continues to weather the political fallout caused by the chaos in afghanistan. and with the utility of our nation's longest war still in question, i'll ask one advocate what america's black veterans are feeling as they watch the country remade in the taliban's image again. we begin tonight with the vote. as always, the perfect guest. joining me now, alabama congresswoman terri sewell, a democrat, and cochair of the congressional voting rights caucus. congresswoman sewell, thank you, first of all, for joining us tonight. as i just said, we couldn't ask for a better guest to lead us off.

earlier this week in front of the edmund pettus bridge in selma, you introduced h.r. 4, john lewis advancement act in the house. the idea here being that because the lewis act focuses on reauthorizing key aspects of the voting rights act, specifically federal pre-clearance for states with discriminatory histories, democrats stand a better chance of passing this bill against the lockstep republican opposition we saw towards the for the people act earlier this summer. do i have this right, congresswoman? because you championed this and you are there in selma, from selma, and i knew personally from visiting every year how john lewis saw you as the one picking up that mantle to carry this on. do i have it right how i distinguished the legislation? >> you have, dr. reverend. reverend al, you have been just

amazing at making sure that we keep the pressure on when it comes to voting rights. i'm honored each and every time you come to my hometown of selma, alabama, but nothing can be more important at this critical juncture that restoring the voting rights act of 1965. the most consequential voting rights law passed by congress. when i think about representing alabama's 7th district, alabama's civil rights district, it's not just about protecting and advancing the rights of the people i represent today, but it's about making sure that the legacy of this district is respected and that we understand how important the voting rights act of 1965 is. and we all know the shelby versus holder decision gutted it. in doing so, it really left open for congress to truly come back

and come up with a modern-day formula, a more recent discriminations for voter protection, so that's exactly what h.r. 4 does. it threads a thin needle, since we know that not only are states and localities having a concerted effort at passing more restrictive voting laws, but we also see a supreme court hostile towards the vra. we saw in june two arizona cases where they literally made it harder to file section 2 lawsuits as well. so the h.r. 4 not only restores the full protections of section 5 pre-clearance, but it also strengthens and clarifies congressional intent. you know, the supreme court just made up factors that would go to voter denial cases. and so we think it's really important that we in congress put back federal oversight. i don't have to tell you, reverend al, that when the

states weren't doing right by african-americans and minority voters in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, it was federal oversight that did give us an opportunity to have an equal voice in this december that's what's at stake, an equal voice for all americans. >> and if this law was in place what they're doing in texas and georgia and florida, would have had to be pre-cleared by the justice department and couldn't do it. that's why this is so important. you know, i read in today's "new york times" about the challenges that 21st century voting rights advocates have faced under the john robert supreme court. it included a quote from the late congressman john lewis on the eve of robert's confirmation in 2005, reading, quote, i fear that if judge roberts is confirmed to be chief justice of the united states, the supreme court would no longer hear the people's cry for justice, end of

quote. the same article said, quote, we are also up against a supreme court that is keen on destroying our nation's most consequential voting rights law. for our audience familiar with the congressional deadlock over voting rights, can you elaborate more on the role this court has played? >> absolutely. you know, it was a roberts court, and roberts in the majority opinion in the shelby versus holder case that threw out section 4, invalidated section 4, which was the coverage formula to determine which jurisdictions had a recent history of voter discrimination, therefore, had to have their laws pre-cleared. but, you know, justice roberts not only threw it out, but it was justice ginsburg that said throwing out an umbrella in the middle of a rainstorm. the reality is that this court has really gone after the voting rights act and has said that it's been a victim of its own

success. and so i think that it's critically important that we look at what's going on right now. after the 2020 presidential election, seemingly the most safe and effective election ever in our history during this pandemic, we've seen 400 restrictive laws come down from various state legislatures, and 18 states have already enacted 30 very restrictive laws. never have we seen a more concerted effort of state and local governments trying to make it harder for people to vote. erecting barriers. it's almost a concerted effort in the republican party, and we have to do something about it by restoring oversight into this -- into -- federal oversight into voting rights. that's exactly what the john robert lewis act would do. john shed blood on a bridge in my hometown for the right to vote. we must never forget as he would say that when we see something, we must stand up and do something. and so all of us have a role to play. every generation must fight and

fight again for the progress that we made, and all battles have truly become new again, reverend al. you know something about that. the march on washington will be critically important for us to really call that federal oversight is needed in voting zygotes next saturday, august 28, martin luther king iii and i will lead that march. martin and i sat in the courtroom and listened to the oral arguments on shelby versus holder and looked across the aisle and john lewis was sitting there. >> and he was sitting next to me. it was an the other one sit next to him and listen to them defend. the ldf did an amazing oral argument, but it was clear justice roberts had it out for the vra and was looking for every way in order to invalidated it. but they did leave a foot hole. they said only congress is come up with a modern-day formula. and so that's what h.r. 4 does

instead of looking back to the 1960s and 1970s, we'll look back 25 years and states that had ten more more violations, including a statewide violation or 15 or more violations. that's adjudicated violations of voter discrimination. reverend al, these states and localities are going at it right now, and i think that it's more important than ever with redistricting around the corner that we make sure that the full protection of the voting rights act are reinstituted. >> absolutely. you won't say this, but he always insisted that you sit next to him. he always saw you as carrying the torch. in a few hours donald trump is expected to take the stage at a republican rally in your state. of course -- the city where the rally will be held has declared a preemptive state of emergency

due to the strain placed on hospitals in alabama where covid is surging. like so many red states. i wonder how alabama will be able to weather this kind of public health crisis when your governor says no mask mandate. your gop state lawmakers are calling for a mask mandate ban. so many residents are still taking their cues from anti-vaxxers and donald trump, congresswoman. >> yes. you know, i'm so afraid of this superspreader event that will start hours from now in coleman, alabama. if you were an african-american driving down 65 going towards huntsville, alabama, that you shouldn't let the sundown catch you in coleman, alabama. there was a big sign that said the n-word. no one who's an n-word should be caught with sun going down in coleman, alabama. so i think that, you know, we're in serious trouble in alabama

when it comes to hospitalizations. but it seems like donald trump is true to form. he cares more about himself than he does about the people. and the fact that he's actually having an event in coleman when we're in the midst of a serious crisis when it comes to hospitalization and covid-19 in the state of alabama, further shows how much he's all about himself and not about the people. we have to be about the people. >> well, we are certainly clearly looking at that rally tonight, and i promise you, martin and i are going to make sure everyone has masks on. even though it's outside at the march. we're going to the capitol, not lincoln memorial this time in the name of john lewis and, of course, shoulder to shoulder with terri sewell who is anointed and elected bearer of the torch. thank you so much for being with us, congresswoman terri sewell. >> i look forward to being with you august 28th thank you. joining me now is my panel,

david jolly, former republican congressman from florida, and michelle goldberg, "new york times" columnist. both of my panelists are msnbc political analysts. let's start with the crisis in afghanistan with thousands of americans and afghans are trying to get out even as we speak. president biden has been criticized for the way the process has unfolded, but recent polling from reuters showed that 68% of americans think that the 20-year war in afghanistan was going to end badly no matter what. so while there's plenty of blame to go around, david, how much of it should fall on this current president? >> well, i think joe biden would tell you that he accepts the successes and the failures of this mission.

we only have one president at a time, one commander in chief. as joe biden said himself, the buck stops with him. i think that is important. we get to judge joe biden in this moment. but part of judging joe biden in this moment is recognizing that he inherited a mess. he inherited a mess that had been made worse just in the last 12 to 18 months by his predecessor. i don't really like the let's go back and blame donald trump game. but i do like the contrast game, because i think it's important as we evaluate our sitting president. the last president would have sold out this country for a nickel to get a good headline in the news even if it was a false story. we would have given away u.s. interest if he got him re-elected. that's not what joe biden is doing in this environment. joe biden is making a very difficult decision. he's attaching his own legacy to it, and he's saying the successes and the failures start and stop with me. i'm the president, the buck stops with me.

i think joe biden deserves great respect, but i don't think we can say this has been a success. this has been mixed results, and i think the politics of it will play out as they will. >> michelle, as i always tell you, i read you often, so let me -- because i know you're writing, let me turn to the human crisis. the thousands of afghans who helped the u.s. war in its effort only to be stopped from attaining american visas as they were promised. former mike pence homeland security adviser olivia troy revealed on twitter yesterday that members of the trump administration led by stephen miller intentionally sabotaged

that program negotiating with the taliban. how are the loudest critics of joe biden are keeping refugees out of the united states? >> i think it goes without saying that there's going to be a huge amount of bad faith in the republican party. that said, i think -- look, there's no question it was already well-known that this visa process ground to a halt under the previous administration, that the state department was gutted. i don't think any of that should be used as an excuse for it not being rapidly expedited in the months before this was to come. there were lots of people banging the drum to do that. and it's still not too late for them to drop some of the paperwork, drop some of the bureaucracy and get people on planes. there's reports today that people are being held up in the airport, 10,000 people, because they can't process their paperwork fast enough. get them up and process the paperwork later. so, look, i think part of the problem is that the media -- and i include myself in this -- have not covered afghanistan very much until this crisis. and so a lot of people lack the conflict for this crisis.

what's going on is a disaster and i don't think any defenders of joe biden should shy away from acknowledging what a human tragedy this is. i don't think we haven't paid that much attention to the myriad of other human tragedies that are attached to this war. you don't see round-the-clock coverage when there are civilian casualties of an american missile strike. and so we have a somewhat distorted picture that it seems like everything was kind of okay and then all of a sudden chaos broke loose. >> now, i want to turn now to covid-19 pandemic. as schools all over the country reopen, we're seeing huge outbreaks and still many republican governors are banning individual school districts from requiring students to wear masks. president biden has directed the department of education to use the civil rights enforcement arm to investigate these states as

covid learning disruptions have fallen most heavily on students of color, disabled students, and other protected groups. david, what do you think of this approach? >> i think the biden administration is doing exactly the right thing. i think it's unfortunate they have to because republican governors across the country are doing exactly the wrong thing. we see governor huckabee out of arkansas, i believe, but we saw governor desantis, governor abbott who are contributing to the public health crisis that is risking the health of young children throughout their state over this ideology freedom argument. you can argue it's about politics or, frankly, presidential politics in 2024, but what we are seeing is republican governors, ron desantis, making the public health in their state worse, not better they are responsible for putting kids at risk.

reverend, we saw two weeks ago an inevitability in the state of florida. ron desantis said i'm not going to let schools mandate masks. now we have tens of thousands of kids in isolation having been exposed to covid-19 or contracted covid-19. governor ron desantis and governor abbott bear responsibility for their illness. >> meanwhile in texas where the governor himself has been diagnosed with covid after banning mask mandates, the lieutenant governor has decided to shirk all responsibility. here's what he said on thursday. >> the covid is spreading, particularly most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated. and the democrats like to blame republicans on that. well, the biggest group in most states are african-americans who have not been vaccinated. the last time i checked, over 90% of them vote for democrats in their major cities and major counties. so it's up to the democrats to get just as it's up to republicans to try to get as many people vaccinated. >> now, i'll have more on the

debacle in the lone star state in my next segment, but what's your reaction that african-americans are the reason we're having this spread in texas? >> first of all, i thought it was really striking that he said it's up to the democrats as if democrats have no responsibility to their african-american constituents. it's also just not true as a matter of fact. it's certainly true we have very poor vaccination rates among african-americans and other people of color and there needs to be much more work on that. but in terms of who is making up most of the unvaccinated people, it's just not true that it is black people. you have no major black leader who is out there calling vaccination into question, who is out there fighting, you know, vaccine mandates, who is doing as much as the republican party

has done to sabotage the vaccination program in this country. >> as a matter of fact, you are correct, and we looked it up. the overwhelming majority of the people in texas that have not been vaccinated are whites. david jolly and michelle goldberg, thank you both. coming up on "politicsnation," some well wishes and wise words for the governor of texas who has tested positive for coronavirus. plus, closing the covid-19 racial gap in an unlikely city. i'll tell you where and how they did it. but first, today's top news stories. hello, here are some of the stories we're watching this hour. new york governor andrew cuomo and new york city mayor bill de blasio have declared states of emergency as hurricane henri bears down on new york city, long island, and southern new england. the storm is currently sustaining winds near 75 miles per hour as it moves through the

atlantic and is expected to bring storm surge and flooding when it makes landfall in the northeastern united states late tonight or early sunday morning. the u.s. embassy in afghanistan is advising american citizens trying to leave the country to avoid the airport and the city of kabul because of potential security threats from isis. senior taliban leaders have arrived in the capital city to choose new government in the wake of the u.s. military withdrawal a spokesman for the taliban says they will provide security for evacuees wherever they are based. despite the chaotic situation on the ground, pentagon officials say in the last 24 hours they safely transported 3,800 passengers out of kabul and 32 charters and six u.s. military c-17 planes. hundreds were taken to europe and some are now in the u.s. more "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton after the break. millions of vulnerable ams

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for this week's gotcha, we're headed deep into the heart of texas where republican governor greg abbott tested positive for covid-19. i want to start by making it clear, coronavirus is a serious disease and i sincerely pray for the governor's speedy recovery and continued good health. but at the same time, there are plenty of republican governors who have compassionately guided their states through this pandemic by listening to the science and following the cdc guidelines. mr. abbott has never been one of them. the announcement of the governor's illness came just a day after he attended a packed fundraiser with few, if any, masks on the attendees in his tweeted photos despite the state

hovering at around 50%. this is a man who signed an executive order barring any state entity from enforcing mask mandates, including schools, where many students are not old enough to get the vaccine. we've known for over a year that masks are one of the best ways to slow spread of this virus, and yet the governor has continually thumbed his nose at this simple way to save lives. and his lieutenant governor, dan patrick, is no better, blaming the recent surge of covid cases in texas on african-americans despite his own lack of leadership when it comes to virus mitigation strategies. meanwhile, pediatric hospitals all over the country are seeing a massive influx of young coronavirus patients. in the lone star state, doctors

are, quote, scared of what's coming. the cases keep rising. things are so dire that governor abbott himself has asked for hospitals to postpone effective medical procedures to save space. while the term elective procedure might conjure images of facelifts or tummy tucks, they also include scheduled surgeries like hip replacements, tonsil and appendix removals, even some kinds of cancer. but the governor didn't show any lack of urgency when it came to treating himself. a statement released by his office disclosed that abbott is already receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. though he's asymptomatic and under the typical age to qualify for it. although he does have paralysis from spinal injuries that doctors say could complicate his covid case. the governor's me-first attitude

is unsurprising, as this is a man who has refused to advocate for wide adoption of the vaccine, but has received a third vaccine himself, even though regular americans will not have access to boosters for weeks or even months. this kind of selfish disregard for his own constituents isn't unique to governor abbott. it's modelled by the disgraced former president and current standard bearer of the republican party, donald trump. and embraced by those republican politicians hoping to gain national profile to run in 2024, including abbott's republican counterparts in florida and south dakota. but governor abbott, i think y'all might have miscalculated. there might be political capital in your bluster about masks, but

tyranny or brazen attempts to stop black folk from voting. but killing off your own base, children, isn't good policy or good politics, and you have to go deep into the heart of texas. you really don't have to go that deep to find that out, governor, and to find that this governor doesn't have one. i gotcha.

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. welcome back to "politicsnation." flint, michigan, was once a center of the mighty american auto industry. but in recent years, the city has sadly become known for the lead in its water. in the past several months of the pandemic, flint is now getting attention for something else, closing the racial gap

between black and whites suffering from covid-19. as outlined in a report by mother jones, flint managed to narrow the gap as the coronavirus disproportionately impacted black americans. joining me now, associate dean of michigan state public health integration college of human medicine, dr. debra fur holden. dr. holden, you were part of state and local task forces to battle the covid-19 outbreak in flint. according to "mother jones" and the profile it did, you were featured around april 2020, quote, black residents were dying of covid-19 at a staggering rate of 90 per 100,000, making black residents 73 times more likely to die than white residents from the virus.

now, by october 2020, black residents in flint were equally at risk of getting covid as white residents, and by the winter, the racial disparity was vastly narrowed. how did you accomplish this? >> well, this is great. so the first thing that we did is we actually asked residents what did they need. i feel like during this pandemic what we found is people are not relying on public health and they're also not being informed by the communities that we're trying to serve. we asked what is they need and we met their needs. people know what they need to keep their families safe. we told people to shelter in place. that's a tone-deaf recommendation for many families who simply couldn't afford to sit at home and not earn income. they wouldn't be able to put food on the table or keep the lights on. so we identified what their needs were and then we met them. the most important thing we did after that is we aggressively tackled the systems and structures that by their very

designed have racism baked into them to try to undo some of those things so the systemic and structural barriers this that people faced weren't in the way of getting what they needed to stay safe. >> after the white house announced this week that all americans will be able to get a booster shot of the moderna or pfizer vaccine, there's growing concern in regards to equity during the rollout, mainly that as some americans get a third dose, many minorities still have not received one. why do we still have this disconnect within communities of color? >> well, i think we saw inequity play out in a big way early in the rollout. it falls on deaf ears when you say we really care ought to be and we want you to get this vaccine for your own protection when very early in the vaccine rollout black and brown communities traced tremendous barriers in getting the vaccine,

even though they were in those early eligibility categories. we watched our white residents push right to the front of the line, leaving many of our elderly black and brown residents to suffer and had to wait when, in fact, their number was up. and so i think we're feeling the backlash of that now. people have, in my opinion, a valid, well-earned distrust in the government and health care system. >> you grew up in flint and spent time there living in a zip code with a life expectancy of just 73, one of the lowest in the city. how did your personal history of witnessing flint's racial inequities help you fight the coronavirus? >> well, these are my people, you know. our work is, we don't do things to people or for people or even on their behalf unless we have their permission.

i work in partnership with community. this paternalistic approach of making up what communities need and imposing it on them, i think we need to stop doing that. it's not working. it's a waste of resource, and it doesn't the other one real wisdom and insight and lived experience of people in these communities. >> thank you very much, dr. holden, for being with us. we've seen the world react to the taliban takeover of afghanistan. but what about the veterans who put their lives on the line in america's longest war? stay with us. so i'll take it from here. sorry steph. spokesperson refresh! refresh wait, what? subway® just upped their bread game with the help of some world-class bakers. lookin' at you nance. gotta refresh to be fresh. how many people are in this ad? that means freshly baked new artisan italian

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after being embroiled in a 20-year war in afghanistan, our veterans are left to find the why in their fight. after news of the taliban's takeover sent shock waves around the world, and while many vets say they knew america's longest war would not end in, quote, a ticker tape parade, the fall of kabul shows to many who served like a lingering dismal question mark. joining me now is afghanistan combat vet and executive director of black veterans project, robert brookshire.

before we get started, i want to thank you for your service, first of all. as a veteran yourself, when you watch the events of this week, this chaotic pullout must carry 20 years of trauma for veterans. the associated press suggests 62% of americans say the war in afghanistan was not even worth fighting. you were the frontline grunt. was this 20-year tug of war worth it in your opinion? >> no. i mean, i don't think it was worth it even from the beginning. i think it was reactionary. i think that many americans were kind of trusting and going off emotion in many ways post-9/11 to support the conflict with no real plan. we knew historically afghanistan is the killer of empires, how russians spent treasure and many lives lost for over a decade trying to stabilize the country,

use it for geopolitical reasons. when i got there, i got there in 2011. we had been there for almost a decade at that point. and i arrived on a base, a former russian base that was littered with, you know, equipment of all kidneys that had been abandoned 20 years earlier. it was a foreshadowing of what we're seeing now. >> richard, the veterans crisis hotline resource offered by the department of veterans affairs has experienced an uptick in calls since kabul fell. a 9% increase that occurred this year was last sunday when the department usually sees a lower volume of calls. what relief measures are in place at your organization to protect the mental health of black veterans at this time? >> black veterans project is really focused on research. we know that historically the department of veterans affairs has failed black veterans.

in many respects this crisis we're seeing resembles the fall of vietnam and the many, many, many black veterans that came back home to a country that didn't recognize their service, that didn't support them in many ways. we want to make sure that not only those that served are continued to be taken care of and receive restitution, but they're addressed. the national va council said 3 out of every 4 va employees witnessed some kind of discrimination. 65% of va employees believed that racism made their job harder. so the implications for veterans that have going on there for mental health care, that have to go there for any type of care off benefits is exponential. it's damning. so for us, we want to make sure we're studying the issue, being an accountability partner.

we have been forming a black veteran empowerment coalition, a national coalition centralizing our advocacy efforts and making sure the va has culturally competent care. that's what we're focused on. we know that even our service as black vets of the war in afghanistan, this nation's longest war in its history , we're part of a generational struggle to have black service recognized. and so it's really a part of our responsibility as vets that are coming back now to do the work necessary to make sure that the vets that have come before us aren't forgotten because many of them are still homeless on the street. many of them and their families still don't have access to education and housing and job benefits that they should've been afforded 40, 50 years ago. and so these are some of the things that we're thinking about. one of our biggest things i want to make sure we talk about are two. one, we have a national black

veterans survey that will launch in early next spring. it'll be a five-year national effort in partnership with the yale law school to get granular race-based data so we can understand the landscape of what black vets are really going through. we know it anecdotally, but we don't actually know -- >> get the data and the facts, yeah. >> yeah. we got to get the facts. and then the second thing we're working really hard on for the last year is a partnership with yale law school. we sued the department of veteran affairs so they could release race-based data. it gets granular of disability allocation and even some of the data, we haven't gotten a lot of it that's why we have a lawsuit against the department of veteran affairs to get more of that data. it's damning. it shows that there's still disparities in the kinds of benefits that black veterans are receiving. so those are the kinds of things that we know systemically we have to address.

there are many of the organizations that we're partnered with under the black veteran empowerment coalition. they do direct service delivery. we are really the storytelling and research engine and litigation engine that really wants to be an accountability mechanism. >> briefly, while we're on the topic of health, i want your opinion on the military's intention to require vaccinations for its service members. one military medicine historian says the vaccine is, quote, akin to body armor. do you sense any resistance from current black service members to get the vaccine? and what discipline should they face for refusing when it becomes mandatory? briefly, please. >> i've not heard any resistance from veterans of any kind or service members around getting the vaccine. i didn't have a choice in many of the things they stuck in my arm, and so, i mean, honestly i think it's the responsible thing to enforce.

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as stated by congresswoman soule at the beginning of the show, she and others will be joining mart at this point luther king iii and andrea king and i as we lead a march a week from today to call for the passing of the john lewis voting advancement act. the last time john lewis was on the edmund pettis bridge he was beaten brutally and tear gassed along with amelia born king and others, we were there. we were surprised as he got out of his car, with his body already in pain from cancer and stood on that bridge and we held

him up and we accepted the responsibility of protecting a law that is being dismantled. so we are marching next saturday, gathering at 8 a.m. at h and 15th, marching past black lives matter plaza, past the white house to the mall where the capitol will be in our background because the battle today is having the senate deal with filibuster, putting the pressure on the senate. we're not just commemorating what happened in '63, we are talking about where the battleground is now and that is the capitol. you can go to www.nationalactionnetwork.net and reserve a seat on one of the buses around the country that are free or tell us you're coming in your own way, but we must protect our right to vote intergenerational, interracial, all sexual orientations, let's march together and save this democracy.

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picks up our news coverage now. >> thank you so much, reverend sharpton. hello, everyone. i'm alecia menendez. the massive high stakes operation to evacuate americans and their families in taliban held afghanistan. there are more than 80,000 afghans already waiting in a live and death situations. waiting to come to the u.s. the process is a refugee program gutted from the previous administration. this final year in office trump had the refugee ceiling at 50,000 down from the 100,000 refugees allowed per year under president obama. that drastic reduction saw the many reis thelement organizations shut down due to lack of work. the trump administration also deliberately obstructed visa processing from allies in afghanistan. according to olivia troy, counter terrorism adviser to mike pence tweeting,