versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. we are watching the new york city borough of queens. that's where president joe biden is right now, surveying the damage from hurricane ida, which claimed the lives of 13 new york city residents. the president is expected to deliver remarks within the hour. a senior white house official telling us that in addition to comforting the victims and the families of the victims, the president will note that the extreme weather events of late summer, quote, make the case for action on climate change more compelling. the president also expected to make the case that his build back better plan is urgently needed. we will bring you those remarks as soon as they begin. we're also going to be keeping

an eye on that stop with you so if you keep pictures of the president, that's what we're watching. but we're going to start today with the republican party's full embrace of extremist policy views that completely ignore the views and priorities of a majority of texans. today it's voting restrictions, fueled by fears of voter fraud, even though texas investigated the 2020 election result and found no fraud. no fraud in any of the measures they today banned. but facts be damned. governor abbott this afternoon signed into law a restrictive voting bill that democrats in the statehouse held up for weeks. many of them fleeing to washington, d.c., to rally support for federal legislation. the voting restriction law now set to take effect in texas, targets ballot access measures disproportionately used and needed by voters of color. procedures particularly popular in harris county, that's home to the democratic stronghold of

houston. the new law will also make it much more difficult for disabled voters to participate in elections there. it creates new rules, new penalties and more red tape for people who assist others in filling out ballots. so that is the new reality that texans are grappling with as of 11:00 a.m. today, texas time. already two new lawsuits have been filed. the first one filed by a host of advocacy organizations and the second filed by the ncaa legal defense fund. they followed two lawsuits filed last week ahead of the bill signing. lawyers and advocates alone cannot successfully thwart the damage to democracy republicans are racing to inflict in a growing number of states across the country, which is why the eyes of democratic voters are today turning to washington, d.c., and the democratically controlled house and

democratically controlled senate. looking for one piece of legislation that could single-handedly override the gop war on the access to the right to vote. mark elias, the same attorney leading that state-by-state legal charge against the gop voting laws isn't mincing words when it comes to who in washington is really to blame for the stalled efforts in the senate to get legislation passed. he writes this, quote. if you want to cast blame for the senate's failure to protect voting rights, start with the 50 senate republicans who refuse to support it. they are on the wrong side of history and have cemented their legacy of cowardice. that legacy is where we begin with some of our favorite reporters and friends. chuck lindell is here. also jackie alomeny, author of the "power up" news letter and janae is here, counsel for the ncaa legal defense fund. i want to start in texas.

chuck, i wonder if you can just take me through not just the new reality, the new normal. i think we've read your coverage and your paper's coverage. what were the emotional contours after democrats in the statehouse fled. there was so much drama around this and in recent days we focused on the abortion ban. but this too very much a national story. >> it's been a crazy summer here in texas, and not just for the heat we get. you know, democrats are outnumbered in our state legislature. as the minority party, they really can't do anything to block final votes except walk off the floor. that's what they did. texas has a very liberal quorum policy, it's a super majority. they need two-thirds of the members there. that allowed 51 democrats out of the 150 members of the texas house to skedaddle. they left twice. most recently going to d.c. to

stop our first special session. texas only has a 140-day regular session. they blocked the voting bill the first time. forced the governor to call a special session in july. went to d.c. to try to force congress or at least urge congress to do some federal legislation that still hasn't happened. we only have 30-day special sessions so the governor had to call a second one that started last month. and for the first half democrats stayed away. there was a crumbled -- enough came back to make a quorum. here we are today. they had about two weeks to pass a lot of legislation and they were able to. >> chuck, i followed the state attorney general's effort to find fraud. as far as i read in your paper and others he didn't find any

fraud. i think there were a couple of dead votes for donald trump. but what is the understanding among texans for why this law is necessary since it's predicated on the lie about fraud when in texas tens of thousands of dollars were spent looking for fraud and none was found. >> there is some instances in voting fraud in texas. as in i think pretty much every state. the question is how widespread is it and how necessary is it to change the voting laws in texas in that reality. not surprisingly if you're republican, you see it very differently than if you're a democrat. democrats believe this whole effort is predicated on the big lie. that avoiding crackdown needs to happen because donald trump was denied a second term in the white house by widespread voting fraud. the republicans say how much

voting fraud is too much? they say none. and that's how they justify some of the crackdowns in senate bill 1. they also point out the parts of senate bill 1 that makes voting a little easier. you can cure a mail-in ballot problem under sb-1 in a way you couldn't before. our early voting hours are going to be extended for about an hour a day during our 12 our day early voting period. it's an eye of the beholder situation. >> but is it really? are there two different sets of facts? we've had democrats and republicans attest to the fact that there -- i mean bill barr said there was no fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election, lifelong republican, extremely loyal to donald trump. your attorney general spent tens of thousands of dollars looking and i think he found 12.

is there the kind of fraud in texas that would have changed the result of any election in texas? >> no, not -- our secretary of state, who runs our voting, statewide voting effort, former secretary of state, proclaimed that the election secure and smooth. >> okay. okay. so janae, i want to bring you in. it's really interesting to have chuck's analysis about it being in the eye of the beholder because there's nothing to behold. there's one set of facts. there was not voting fraud in texas or in any state in the united states of america in 2020 that would have changed the result of a single election, not just the presidential election. so i wonder what you see this law designed to do in terms of the fact that the specific measures now rendered illegal have a very specific kind of voter that relied upon them in

2020. >> that's exactly right. you would have to be blind not to see what is happening in texas as a direct effort to disenfranchise black and latino voters who turned out in the last election in robust record numbers and who utilized the tools of mail-in voting and early voting and so many other democracy expanding measures in order to cast a free and fair ballot. and the reaction of the texas legislature rather than encouraging and expanding and rewarding that turnout by ensuring that we retain the measures that enabled texas voters to cast their ballots more easily, especially if you consider the aspect of a pandemic that makes it even more challenging to vote in ways that don't challenge or threaten your health and well-being, texas doubled down in the opposite direction. but if you know anything about

texas' history, this is no surprise. we have been litigating in texas since 1944 when we had to sue to ensure that democratic primaries were open to black voters. fast forward, we are now nearly 80 years later and we are fighting similar battles. and what's surprising is that governor abbott signed this law on the heels of a decision out of the fifth circuit, confirming an attorney's fee award of $6.7 million in a lawsuit that we were part of where texas doggedly defended a racially discriminatory voter i.d. law. and what did texas learn from that? nothing. they are back at it again and that is why they are facing a slew of lawsuits, including one that we just filed earlier today. we're representing black and latino voters and also voters with disabilities who are deeply affected by all of the

incursions on the right to vote that are contained in sb-1. it is a disgrace that texas continues to try to disenfranchise its voters instead of welcome them to the polls, instead of ensuring that they have safe and fair and free access to the ballot. >> janai, are there any measures that were outlawed that to your knowledge resulted in any fraud? nirk nick coursenetti said some of the things were the safest way to vote. in texas some of the most secure ways to vote. so the same question i had for chuck. are you aware of any of the measures that were made illegal today by governor abbott? >> no, not at all. if you look at the measures that are included in the law, it's a way just to make it much more difficult for voters who have busy work schedules, who have

other demands on their time, who have health concerns and don't want to be exposed to throngs of other voters to cast a ballot. you mentioned a ban on drive-through balloting. if you think about it, what is the harm in casting a ballot and showing your i.d., your state-issued i.d. as an option rather than going into a polling site? there was the truncation of 24-hour voting that allowed people to vote in different hours, off hours, if you will, to ensure they had access to the polls and now that has been banned under this law for no reason. there was no fraud or no misconduct associated with that voting. there's also a restriction on how to invite people in to that mail-in ballot process. it actually criminalizes state officials for inviting the application of mail-in ballots

without solicitation so they can't affirmatively and proactively try to engage texas voters in the mail-in ballot process and offer that option to them prospectively. no, they're now prohibited from doing that lest they suffer potential criminal consequences. >> jackie, i don't want to have the same conversation we always have about the filibuster, but i do finding it notable that senator klobuchar is out there seemingly speaking to her own caucus about how much harm it's doing. let me show you some of her comments and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> i believe we should abolish the filibuster. i do not believe an archaic rule should be used to allow us to put our heads in the sand, to use justice sotomayor's words, to put our heads in the sand and not take action on the important issues, the challenges that are facing our country right now.

now and over the next years. we just will get nowhere if we keep this bustner place. >> jackie, as we head into september and everyone comes back, with not just activists, but this feeling that the power that republicans have in statehouses like texas, the power -- justice roberts didn't even vote with the conservatives on holding up the texas abortion ban. but i wonder if that's causing a recalibration of the conversation around the filibuster in washington as folks get ready to head back. >> i think this is a great segue into this conversation. we haven't seen the lawmakers at least publicly recalibrate their tactics, even though the white house has said that the ball is in congress' court on both of these decisions. but we do know that the house is

set to vote on a measure returning from recess which they're doing today, passing a law codifying a woman's right to an abortion where it is as you noted unlikely to pass in the senate because it would probably not overcome the 60-vote filibuster. and, you know, we've heard white house officials privately say for months now that there would be little point to publicly admonishing lawmakers who don't want to break the filibuster. i think some other things outside of the filibuster should start coming into the conversation, especially as this has now become a scotus, supreme court, issue. there are other federal remedies that are being further highlighted now that have been chewed on and advocated for for months, like expanding the supreme court. we've all thought about biden created a supreme court commission earlier this year when he came into office to study the court, proposed

potential reforms over the next six months which could potentially help democrats in this realm outside of congressional action. the commission is supposed to post drafts of its report on its website in the coming months. i think it was a 160-day period for a final report. you know, this talk of the white house deferring to the congress skims over the fact that vice president kamala harris was tasked with making voting rights her top public focus. we haven't seen much publicly from her either aside from a couple of statements most recently just an hour ago which she called the new texas law signed by governor greg abbott as one of the most restrictive in the nation and then put more pressure back onto congress, calling on congress to pass the for the people act and the john lewis voting rights act. but again, that skims over what we always come back to which is that the filibuster is still

intact. right now with congress having so much on its plate, especially with democrats having such an aggressive agenda, that it seems unlikely that's going to happen at least in the immediate future. >> i think you're right, jackie, and i think we're talking about almost -- there's always an earthquake analogy somewhere but tectonic plates pushing against each other. there are things like the supreme court commission that could widen the playing field. but let me read -- "the washington post" editorial weighs in exerting more pressure on those two plates, seemingly at this point in conflict. "the post" writes this. democrats should not give up on the john lewis act. they should merge it with other provisions designed to promote fairness at the ballot box, such as universal voter registration, protection for absentee voters, standards to guard against rampant gerrymandering and restrictions on partisan interference with vote counting.

they should dare republicans to vote down a package that unambiguously enhances democracy with no extraneous measures. if republicans continue to unify against it, they should consider ways to reform the filibuster rule blocking urgent democracy reform. what "the post" is putting out for democrats is to grab not low-hanging fruit, but the most popular things. these are all 60-plus measures if you look at public support. i wonder if you think that might help democrats find some political courage to think outside the box? >> yeah. i think at the end of the day passing voting rights at the federal level is anathema to being a member of the modern republican party but it is the next important step to take to get republicans on the record and get democrats on the record as well, the mansinema caucus

that's toed the line. majority leader chuck schumer has always said that was the plan. obviously that did not play out prior to recess, but it's likely to happen this fall. that's where i think as you have said lawmakers need to get more creative here. political pressure has so far not had much success, which is why i think we'll see this fight seeping more and more into the private sector like we're seeing right now in portland, oregon, where they're calling on -- oregon will not be purchasing any products -- or services from texas in order to protest this law. earlier this spring we saw amazon, blackrock, google, warren buffett, hundreds of companies sign on to a law, a statement that opposed discriminatory legislation with regards to voting rights law, but i think this further intersection of the private

sector and, you know, congress might sort of spur more action than we've already seen. >> janai, what is the cost of inaction? >> the cost of inaction is the selling away of our democracy. there is no way to say this more bluntly, but our democracy is in peril. this is a state-by-state march to undermine the right to vote, to subvert democracy by putting a veil of access but that's completely undermined by these laws that have been enacted in georgia, in florida, in texas, and in other states across the country. a total of more that 16 that now threaten to minimize the right to vote and minimize the ability of the majority of americans to effectuate a nonviolent mechanism of change in our society. that is a very, very dangerous

road to go down. the right to vote is the currency that each of us possesses. it is a citizenship right. it is the way in which our democracy operates fairly and freely. and when we start to undermine it, we undermine this entire experiment of being a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy that can accommodate all views. what we're seeing effectively is a situation where competition is not working and, therefore, there is a resort to cheating, there is a resort to unlawful conduct, and it is deeply dismaying. that's the cost for our democracy. and everyone, including private actors, should get onboard in protecting it. >> janai nelson, jackie alomeny, chuck lin dell, thank you. president biden is on the grounds in queens, new york,

after touring a town in new jersey, two of the hardest hit areas in the northeast from last week's storm. homes flooded and basically flipped inside out, killing dozens of residents of the we'll bring you the president's remarks when they begin and speak to a congressman from one of the areas affected about what else can be done to help. and warnings coming in about next week's so-called justice for j6 rally in washington. what authorities are looking for and how officials are prepared to respond. plus later in the show, a closer look at how the new voting restriction law in texas is dividing an already polarized nation even further. all those stories and more when "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power. number one in reliability, 16 times in a row. most awarded for network quality, 27 times in a row.

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i don't know how i'm going to pay for this. i don't know how i'm going to fix three houses. this house is gutted right down to the floors. insurance is great until you need it. we need money. we need money to help or else everyone is going to walk away, like last time. hundreds of people just walked away from their homes, which is going to devastate this town financially. >> the desperation, the candor all across parts of the northeast as we await those remarks from president biden. he's on his second tour through hurricane ida's devastation in less than a week. today he's visiting some of the hardest-hit areas in the northeast. hearing earlier from the governor and members of congress from new jersey, from towns that suffered tornados, gas explosions and deadly flash

flooding as well as from officials in queens, new york, just a few moments ago where tragically several people drowned in their basement apartments, they couldn't get out. with 11 counties in the region now eligible for federal relief funds signed by president biden yesterday, local leaders are calling this a wake-up call and residents with piles of debris outside their homes. the woman we just heard from, are begging for more to be done. the president is expected to use the devastating backdrop today to talk about how no one is immune from climate change and push for federal spending on infrastructure, which is right now stalled in congress, to help us prepare for the certain future of more powerful storms. joining our coverage, congressman donald norcross of new jersey and jonathan lemire, white house reporter and msnbc analyst. congressman, tell us what you heard from the president today and what you need. >> what we need is help.

it was a devastating storm. people did not anticipate the water coming in as bad as it did. down in my area of new jersey we had an f-3 tornado that literally ripped houses from the foundation. so making sure that fema came in at the appropriate time, which they did, trying to get people to the point that they can survive in new homes or areas that we're going to be living while this gets fixed. you know, when i grew up, i've been lived in new jersey my whole life, we've only had five in the entire history of new jersey f-3 tornados, and this was one of them. literally ripped them off the foundation. we don't usually have that in new jersey. >> congressman, i'm from the west coast and lake tahoe is on fire in a really real way for the first time in my life. i guess the universality in

terms of experiencing the horrors of climate change know no geographic boundary. i wonder if you have a theory on why they're still so partisan. >> that's a great question, something that we ask literally every day. some common-sense issues. it's science. it's what we all know. we see the evidence. just this last week as that storm came up and literally wreaked havoc. so when sandy came through some years ago, that was the first big wake-up call that we have problems here. the infrastructure is not supporting these types of storms that are happening more and more frequently. well, they talked about gateway tunnel between new york and new jersey and it shut down and we had to get that fixed. we've been arguing since 2012 and we seem to have that on track. president biden had indicated this is going to go forward. but the day before this storm hit, i was in washington marking up the bill for the defense committee.

i literally jumped on the 6:00 train from washington to go to philadelphia which is how i get home. they stopped the train. it couldn't make it to philadelphia because it flooded. now we have the same problem going on in philadelphia. it's terrible. >> you know, jonathan lemire, i just want to tell our viewers what we're watching. this is some footage from earlier today. president biden doing what white house officials say president biden does, comforting comfort victims of the storm. we've been going back and forth between a live shot, which is the president's remarks, which are expected to get under way any moment. he's there with the governor of new york. governor hochul, senator schumer and other new york officials. with my bad eyes i can't recognize all of them but i'll put my glasses on in just a second. jonathan lemire, i wonders if thoughts on the white house sort of having to fold into all the crises they're juggling disaster response and helping the congressmen and helping these states so hard hit by these storms that no one expected to

wreak the havoc that they did? >> the storms sadly, nicolle, that are becoming more common. also on that tour is new york city mayor bill de blasio and alexandria ocasio-cortez among others. this is two tracks today, two different messages but intertwined. one is to comfort and console those who lost loved ones or had their homes destroyed by this storm but is indeed also a push for pieces of his agenda that are directed towards climate change, combatting his effects, trying to slow it down. you know, part of the reconciliation bill that's coming later this fall as well as the bipartisan infrastructure bill that touches on climate change as well, saying that these storms now touch every one of us, nearly every state in the country is impacted by extreme weather in recent months. we heard from new jersey about that and we'll have more extended remarks about the need for climate change legislation when he speaks in queens in a

few minutes. you're right, it's just another thing on the plate of a white house already juggling so much. the withdrawal from afghanistan, the president's agenda which right now has many roadblocks, many by fellow democrats in congress, and of course the surging pandemic which is still wreaking havoc through so much of this country. we're going to hear from the president in a major speech on thursday, but today the focus is storms and climate change and being there for americans suffering another loss. >> you know, jonathan lemire, i'm watching these pictures and i'm thinking of president obama working with then new jersey governor chris christie and the hug, which i think some people think doomed chris christie's presidential ambitions. but there is a history in this country of natural disasters and tragedies. i mean the loss of human life was completely unexpected, completely devastating to my home of new york city. i mean i wonder if you have heard from the white house if they see any opportunities to have some bipartisan history

made in terms of bringing around any republicans who are seeing what we're all seeing, that climate change has now changed daily life. it has changed the daily risk factor and made every parent have a different kind of plan on how to get their kid if floods hit the subways. it has changed life for all americans. does this white house expect or hope or want to see any bipartisan legislating on this front? >> certainly you're right, it's a presidential tradition in moments like this, natural disasters usually blur party lines. you can see democrats and republicans working together. the exception of course was former president donald trump who often politicized natural disasters. we all remember his response in puerto rico when the hurricane devastated that island in his -- during his term. the white house i would say there's always hope. i wouldn't say they're optimistic about the chance here. the republican party has changed in many ways.

the moderates who might -- who might support this, they're few and far between certainly outside of the northeast anyway. and i don't think they feel like there's much here. it's going to be a hard sell for republicans, even ones who have supported, say, the bipartisan infrastructure bill. so the senate did but very fewer are expected to in the house where the margin will be so slim and it will be a struggle to keep all democrats in line. we've heard from senators manchin and sinema in recent days talk about how they're not sure if they can support a reconciliation bill of $3.5 trillion. west virginia is a coal mining state. it's hard for climate change legislation, like measures to cut carbon emissions. that's a hard one for joe manchin to sell to his voters. certainly the white house will use this moment and sadly the next storm, the inevitable next storm to try to say, look, we're running out of time. things have to get done. i will say as a final point,

look for climate change to be more a part of the president's agenda going forward, including when he attends a global summit on the matter in scotland this fall. >> congressman, senator schumer is speaking now, i think, according to my bad eyes and postage stamp monitor. if the president starts to speak we may have to interrupt you but i wonder if you could jump in on republicans solidifying an anti-stance identity not just as a pastime or quirk of being a republican but where lives are at stake. if you look at their posture on covid, on mask mandates, on women's reproductive freedoms, on vaccine mandates and now on climate change, it is decidedly anti-science and pro risk. >> well, we look at the difference when president trump was in puerto rico and now we see empathy. i was in harrison township where

the tornado hit. if it wasn't for the national weather service sending out that alert, which an 8-month pregnant woman, her husband and two children heard that, ran to the basement and literally it tore their house apart. we all come together. we're one america. however, it seems like it only runs one way. when sandy hit, the amount of republicans that wouldn't vote for disaster aid for new jersey was unbelievable. and then when it hit their state, they want us to help them. we've got to come together. this is just insane. people are dying. i'm looking at these flooding pictures. it's reality. go out and look. and we have a great plan to build back better reconciliation and the infrastructure. a grid. you turn off the power, that's a big problem. the mutual aid. when those utility workers came

together to get those lights back on, that literally helps people's lives come back and that's what we want to improve as part of the build back better plan. >> congressman, can you speak to jonathan lemire's reporting that the white house is in some ways wrangling its own side? have you heard anything different since your state was so badly impacted. obviously there are people still very much suffering in the heat and without power in louisiana. has that changed the dynamics and unified democrats? >> well, we already are unified. we have different opinions and certainly we're going to work that out over the next couple of weeks. but just because you start from a different place doesn't mean you can finish up differently. i think at the end of the day those numbers will come in more in line that we can all support it because we can't afford not to do it. it's just so critical now. and every day that goes by, the

problems keep getting worse. so i think at the end of the day we'll come together and get the infrastructure out and we'll get the build back better reconciliation to really start to address this, which is once in a lifetime. >> you know, jonathan lemire, your comment about all the crises this white house is juggling isn't one we should gloss over. normal white houses have one crisis at a time and they certainly come too fast for any administration, for any white house. they can knock you back on your heels. they can change the direction of a presidency. obviously i worked in one where 9/11 had that case. but this administration started with an epic 100-year global pandemic and then on its heels ended a 20-year war and you alluded to some of the criticism about the way the withdrawal was carried out. that's obviously something that a lot of people in the white house and across the cabinet are still working on.

you've now got climate change enhanced, horrific natural disasters. just talk about this white house's bandwidth for multiple front-burner crises for a normal white house. >> let's add to that of course what many democrats feel is an assault on the basic tenet of our democracy, voting rights, and now the right to choose endangered by texas and the supreme court. this is a white house that has a lot going on. and they of course say the cliche is we can walk and chew gum at the same time. they believe that, but it's an extraordinary amount of things happening right now. you're right to underscore the first moments of his administration. let's remember that president biden took office not just against the backdrop of a global pandemic but also just two weeks after insurrection at the capitol that was meant to prevent his ascention to power. we certainly have seen an economy battered by the pandemic, real questions of racial and social justice that have been raised over the last

year, year and a half. the president has been dealing with all of those. and then this withdrawal in afghanistan which of course will come under greater scrutiny this weekend when we mark the 20th anniversary of the september 11th terror attacks and now climate change, which is something that has thrust itself to the center of his agenda. there's no way around it. white house aides tell me they can't put it off. they're linking it to the build back better agenda which they desperately want to get through congress in the next few weeks. they feel like that will go a long way and solidify the party's standing going into the midterms next year but it's going to be a juggling act. let's remember that the pandemic hasn't gone away. that's how it started and how he's dealing with it now. >> let's listen to president biden in queens. >> look, folks, let me begin by saying i wish every american could walk down this alley with me to see and talk to the people who have been devastated, just

talk to them. none of them were shouting or complaining. every one of them were thanking me as if it was something special. i mean it sincerely, that i was here. and hoped that we'd be able to do something. this is america where i'm standing right now. these are the people whether scranton or claymont or anywhere around the world, the country, who built this country. and it's about time we step up. they're always the first ones that are hurt and the last ones that are helped. but that's not going to happen this time. the group i have standing with me led by chuck schumer and your congresswoman -- is this your district? >> grace. >> oh, it's grace's district. >> i want to thank her

personally for her gumpion, the way she's fought and hollered and fought so hard for all the people in this alley. i really mean it, thank you, thank you, thank you. but that goes for everybody here. and look, folks, you know, i want to thank the governor and leader schumer and kirsten -- i should say senator gillibrand and congresswoman ming and maloney and meeks and mayor de blasio for being here. you know, it's not -- how can i say this. sometimes some very bad things happen that have a tendency to bring out the best in a people and a country. and i think what people are seeing across this country from

the wildfires in california and the far west which i'm heading to in a couple days all the way to down in louisiana and the gulf where i was a couple of days ago to new jersey and pennsylvania to a lesser extent, delaware to a lesser extent and new york, people are beginning to realize this is much, much bigger than anyone was willing to believe. and a whole segment of our population denying this thing called climate change. but i really mean it. sometimes my mother used to say out of everything bad something good will come if you look hard enough for it. well, i think we've all seen even the climate skeptics are seeing that this really does matter. and it's not just whether or not people who are just trying to get by in these homes and these

alleys here working their butts off do well, it's people in high towers along the shore who find that as this rain and all this change takes place in the groundwater, the buildings are actually beginning to tilt. 100-story buildings. this goes so far beyond what anybody is willing to speak to up to now. we just finished surveying some of the damage in the neighborhood here in queens, and earlier today we were in new jersey, which also got badly, badly hit. walking these neighborhoods, meeting the families and the first responders, seeing how folks are doing after this destruction and pain and another devastating pain is an eye-opener. the people who stand on the other side of the fences who don't live there, who are yelling that we're talking about interfering with free enterprise

by doing something about climate change, they don't live there. they don't live. they don't understand. and you know, last week right here in so many other communities, these waves crashed through the streets here, testing the aging infrastructure and taking lives. more lives were taken here than down in louisiana. let me say that again. they had over 20 inches of rain. they had 178-mile-an-hour wind gusts and more lives were taken here than down in louisiana. and you know, y'all saw the harrowing images of families trapped in flooding basements and struggling to survive. just go along this valley, talk to the people. i'm sure the press has done that. my message to everyone grappling with this devastation is we're here. we're not going home till this gets done. i really mean that. we're not leaving.

we're going to continue to shout as long as it takes to get real progress here. folks, we have to take some bold action now to tackle the accelerating effects of climate. if we don't act now, i'm going to be heading as chuck knows, as the senator knows, i'm going to be heading from here to glasgow in scotland with all the nations of the world getting together to decide what we're going to do about climate change. john kerry is leading our effort putting it together. we are determined, we are determined that we are going to deal with climate change and have zero net emissions by 2050. by 2020 make sure all our electricity is zero emissions. we're going to be able to do these things but we've got to move. we've got to move and we've got to move the rest of the world. it's not just the united states of america.

and so, folks, this summer alone communities with over 100 million americans, 100 million americans call home have been struck by extreme weather. one in every three americans has been victimized by severe weather. the hurricanes along the gulf, the east coast, up through this community. and i saw the human and physical costs firsthand as i said in louisiana. but governor, phil murphy, governor murphy, so many leading with urgency and action have said enough, enough. and there's not a single request i'm aware of, there may be something, that we haven't signed off on. we haven't signed off yet. and here's the deal. the new york fire department, the new york police department, the sanitation department and other first responders, they're leading with incredible, incredible courage.

two linemen have been killed trying to make sure we have it. folks, the evidence is clear, climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, to our economy, and the threat is here. it's not going to get any better. the question can it get worse. we can stop it from getting worse. when i talk about building back better, and chuck is fighting for my program, our program on the hill, when i talk about building back better, i mean you can't build what it was before this last storm. you've got to build better so if the storm occurred again, there would be no damage, there would be. but that's not going to stop us, though, because if we just do that it's just going to get worse and worse and worse because the storms are going to get worse and worse and worse. so, folks, we've got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national security experts. they all tell us this is code

red. the nation and the world are in peril. that's not hyperbole. that is a fact. they have been warning us the extreme weather would get more extreme over the decade and we're living in realtime now. we can look around the wreckage and the ruins and the heartbreak from so many communities to feel it. you can feel it, you can taste it, you can see it. precious lives lost in louisiana and new jersey, new york. families living in shelters, subway stations flooded, decaying infrastructure pushed beyond the limits. lives and livelihoods interrupted once again. we're working closely with governors and mayors and members of congress. i approved the disaster declaration of governor hochul to rush federal assistance where it was needed here. fema is working intentionally

with state and local officials assessing the damage and mobilizing resources. one of the things i want to thank chuck for as leader of the senate, he has helped mobilize state, local and federal. when they're all working together, things happen positively. the health and human services sector is working with the state to ensure folks medicare, medicaid get the emergency care they needed. they're going to make sure it is equitable so that the hardest hit including lower income folks, communities of color and the elderly and the most vulnerable get it help and it first. they're the ones in the greatest need. there's much to be done working around the clock in all of these critical needs and areas. look, i say to anyone who can hear this or if this is broadcast. if you need help, please go to disasterassistance.gov or call

1-800-621-fema. 1-800-621-3362. we can get you help now. we can get you help now. i know these disasters aren't going to stop. they're only going to come with more frequency and ferocity. as i said, i'm working in congress to pass two important pieces of legislation. >> oh, yes. >> that this man here is honchoing through the congress for me. the bipartisan plan to modernize our physical infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our power transmissions, our distribution lines. how many bridges i just went through in new jersey that have been over flown by the river. the river has gone higher than the bridges, having done damage to them. my build back better plan with key investments to fight climate change, cutting emissions and make things more resilient. each dollar we invest, every dollar we raise, a city block by

two feet, flood proof power stations, sanitations, reduction in the build-up of kindling in our forest, installing electrical lines underground rather than overhead saves us $6 for every single dollar we spend to do those things. because the next time disaster strikes, a flood is contained a fire doesn't spread as widely and power stays on, not to mention those investments save lives, homes and create good-paying union jobs. >> yay! we like union jobs. >> i hosted 56 heads of state in washington and i pointed out we were talking about climate change, and i said i think of one word when i think of climate change, jobs. good-paying jobs. each of these things requires a

good-paying job, not $7 or $12 or $15, but $45, $50 an hour plus health care. that's what is needed. so, folks, wall street not too far from here acknowledges if we spend the money on these things we are going to grow the economy. >> yes. >> increase employment. you know, the fire in oregon sent smoke all the way to the atlantic. a storm in the gulf, as you have now figured out, can reverberate ten states away. supply chains and crop production get interrupted. driving up cost, devastating industries all over america. this is everybody's crisis. >> yes. >> everybody's crisis. let me just say again, the fact is that the damage done on the west coast, which i will be heading to, they've already burned 5 million acres to the ground.

that's bigger than the state of new jersey if i'm not mistaken. 5 million acres. you see it by the smoke that ends upcoming over the east coast. folks, we are all in this. it is about time we stopped the regional fights and understand helping somebody make sure there's no fires in the west warrants helping people in this alley make sure they're not flooded. by the way, it is not just the flooding, i will end with this. it is not just the flooding, flooding ends up overrunning sanitation system and it causes disease and people get sick and it is serious, serious business. so we have a lot of work to do. again, it is good paying jobs. we can put the economy back on the path to real growth, but in the meantime we're going to save a whole hell of a lot of people's lives and we're going to save a whole hell of a lot of money. god bless you all.

let's get this done. >> look at that nice kid with the american flag. say hello. >> how are you, pal? >> what's your name? he can't hear us. >> how old are you? >> seven. >> oh, you're getting old. >> isn't that nice? >> by the way, the neat thing about america, every time we end up with a problem going into a serious circumstance we come out better than when we went in. that's because we're so diverse. that's america. >> yes. >> proud of it. thank you. >> god bless america. >> and don't jump! all right. >> great job. >> thanks. thanks. i didn't get to mention all of the names. >> president biden in queens, new york, today, flanked by senator chuck schumer on one side and new york governor hochul on the other. they're having a moment with the

7 year old in the crowd. we couldn't see the 7 year old, but it was at the end of remarks there where the president's, i think, most quoted line may be this one. quote, "people are beginning to realize this is much, much bigger than anyone was willing to believe, even the climate skeptics are seeing that this really does matter." congressman, following our earlier conversation, this presidential speech had it all from handing out the phone number for citizens looking for help, which ends up being more people than you might think looking for those kinds of details and hearing them from the commander in chief, to talking about the need to finally do something about one of -- not just this country, but the world's most intractable challenges, climate change. >> well, first of all, 27 people died at last count in new jersey, the second deadliest storm in our history. i heard the president mention two linemen died.

that mutual aid that they come from all over the country to put the things back together is the most dangerous time for those linemen, and we saw here that two of them died. evidence, we're seeing evidence, irrefutable, yet people still seem to think that this will go away. well, it is not going away, and i got to give it to governor of new jersey and senate president sweeney and murphy, we have the largest offshore wind being built right off our shoreline here, being built in new jersey, being installed by good union folks, and that's going to help. that's a clean renewable. just a quick comment. there's 214 lawyers in congress but there's only one electrician. i know what it is like and what they do each and every day. i did it for years. incredibly dangerous, but it is

something that is needed more and more. make sure that you put these things together. it helps the economy. it helps the climate. and the one thing that i will take away with me, you heard about fema coming in, the state and local, but do you know who came in first? your neighbors. as soon as that tornado hit from either side, the neighbors came together. that's what we have to remember. if they can do it, we should be able to do it in congress. bring those skeptics to the table. it is better for all of us when we do this. >> yeah, i mean, jonathan lemire, the other side of the extraordinary number of crises facing this white house is the extraordinary opportunity this president has to forge, as the congressman is saying, you know, maybe once in a career, once in a generation partnerships which is what he seems to really

relish doing around these crises, to maybe make some partners that ten days ago weren't interested in his infrastructure plan but now staring down dilapidated infrastructure at risk of another storm, maybe he finds, i don't know, people in his own party or others or local leaders that become new partners rowing in the same direction. does that seem idealistic and ludicrous or do you think that's a realistic hope? >> idealistic, yes. i wouldn't say ludicrous. i think certainly the white house is going to attempt to seize this moment, you know, when crisis strikes, it is often an opportunity to enact meaningful change. they're going to do that. the argument they're going to make to fellow democrats is this, if not now, when? the planet is on fire. we are seeing it across the country right now with disaster after disaster from coast to coast, the president mentioning he is in the northeast today touring storm damage. he was in the gulf states doing

the same yesterday. he is heading to california early next week to look at the wildfire damage. there are disasters as far as the eye can see, and he's going to make the pitch to republicans too, to say, look, this affects your constituents as much as mine. we need to be treating this as americans and tackling this together, not as republicans or democrats. that will be a tough mountain to climb for sure when we have such climate change skepticism in quarters of the republican party, but the president is going to make that argument and certainly he is going to really try to use these moments to push through his agenda which contains a lot of funding needed to pin back climate change. >> congressman donald norcross, thank you for spending time with us. i wish you and your constituents all the best in recovering from this really, really devastating storm. jonathan lemire, it is always great to spend so much time with you. thank you both for taking time out of your day to be part of our live coverage. >> thank you. it is now 5:00 in the east, and back to the gop effort to roll back access to the ballot

box. of course, it is rooted in the lie that there was fraud in the 2020 election. there was no fraud. former attorney general bill barr said so. lifelong republican kris krebs said so. mitch mcconnell said so. that didn't stop or even slow the fervent, maniacal push in state legislatures and gop-led state houses to pass voting restrictions. texas is the latest state to do so, but it will not be the last. now pressure builds on democrats in washington to pass federal voting rights legislation. with texas's restrictive voting bill getting signed into law today, many of the initiatives undertaken during the pandemic that expanded access to the vote and were popular in heavily democratic harris county are illegal, but no group of democrats in the entire country fought as hard as texas democrats fought, who fled their state to block the voting restrictions signed by governor abbott take. but gop-run states run zero risk

of being slowed down if washington democrats remain in a defensive crouch about the sanctity of the filibuster. it might be time to stop talking about if gop voting restrictions go unchecked in state houses and adjust to the new reality. democrats appear poised to do nothing as of yet when it comes to federal voting rights legislation. i want to be wrong about that. message to any washington democrat watching, before you tweet at me or text me, please make me dead wrong about this. two bills, the for the people act, hr-1 and the john lewis voting rights act, hr-4, passed the house. they wait for a vote in the senate. majority leader schuck schumer has signalled democrats will try to pass it again when they turn to washington. time is ticking. in the absence of federal standards for election processes, we are now seeing an emergence of two kinds of america.

"washington post" writes this. quote, red and blue states are increasingly moving in opposite directions on how millions of americans can cast their ballots, exacerbating a growing divide as republicans in states across the country, most recently texas, impose new voting restrictions while democrats and others expand access. the ongoing influences of the former president's lies about election fraud are not only visible in election legislation. "politico" is reporting on how state republican leaders are increasingly embracing 2020 election investigations like the sham audit in arizona, that they once held at arm's length. i wonder why. "politico" discusses efforts in pennsylvania and wisconsin and writes this. quote, it is the next stage in gop efforts to export the republican election review in arizona elsewhere. after state legislators from around the country made pilgrimages to arizona to see the republican state senate's process there. the local republican officials in maricopa county as well as democrats in that state have

derided the arizona audit as a conspiracy sham seeking to undermine the 2020 election result. gop leaders in other states are now giving their blessing to similar investigations, offering significantly more heft than earlier pushes from rank-and-file legislators including more public funding, more staff time and potentially more legal weight. the need for federal legislation to protect the right to vote intensifying is where we start this hour. some of our favorite reporters and friends. joyce vance is here, former u.s. attorney now law professor at the university of alabama. also joining us eddie glaude, chair of the department of african-american studies at princeton university. john heilemann is here, host and executive producer of show time's "the circus" and host of "the hell and high water" podcast. lucky for us, all three msnbc contributors. john heilemann, i want to start with you. what is new i think -- we have

been covering this texas voting restriction law for a long time, and in recent days we have been covering the texas near-total ban on abortion, any abortion after six weeks. i guess what is new is that nothing is going to slow these malevolent but very effective and efficient efforts down if something dramatic doesn't change in washington. i wonder what you make of the chances of anything dramatic changing in washington? >> well, first of all, hi, nicolle. happy monday -- tuesday. >> tuesday. >> i keep getting the days wrong. last week i said it was friday. >> it happens. >> when it was, in fact, thursday. now today i'm saying it is monday when it is in fact tuesday. my whole calendar thing is messed up. i don't know why you come to me first. i don't think it is new. i don't think the thing you just said is new. i think the reason you and i and others who have been on this at least since january 6th and i would say some of us before that, have thought we were in this existential crisis moment

around voting rights is that it has always been the case that nothing was going to stop these republican legislators in the wake of trump leaving office and making this the creed for the party that the election was stolen. they wanted to do this anyway. trump is, as usual, not really a leader. he is the accelerant, the match on the fire, right. >> yeah. >> so all of these republicans have for a long time wanted to restrict voting rights. they've wanted to be able to on the front end to get fewer african-americans and other reliable democrats to vote and on the back end to be able to mess with the counting process, but they didn't have the kind of political will to be as naked or as aggressive about it. now under the whip of donald trump and with the excuse provided by the giant, big, enormous, gargantuan lie about 2020, it has now pushed them down the path, the path they always wanted to go down. i think it has been clear for months and it is part of why you and i have been on the show, sometimes to the annoyance of some people, saying, hey, guys,

democrats, hello over there, we know this isn't your fault and we know these republicans are doing this and we know that your margins are slim, but if you don't stop this it is going to happen. if it happens, it is going to be cataclysmic in the most macro, meta, existential sense of what our democracy is. but it also will mean that republicans will win a bunch of elections they shouldn't win otherwise. if you want to do it in naked political terms or in ideological terms about the future of the country, you have to get with this program. yes, it is very hard. your margins are narrow. the filibuster is there. there are things that are impeding you from being able to do this. this is not a slam dunk, but the fact that they've screwed around since january and never put this front and center, i know there are other important things. by the way, again, i will say that, too. i know covid is really important. economic rebuilding is really important. the green revolution is really important. but i have to tell you if half the country becomes anti and

undemocratic and republicans are able to run the board on voting rights, that's game over, guys. that's it. that's the ball game. it frustrates me. you ask me how i think -- i think part of the thing and i will shut up in a second, but i think it was always going to be hard without that kind of focus and that kind of determination. if you think about now what is happening, you had lamire on last hour talking about the complexities biden is now facing on the domestic policy front and it will be harder to get through the large spending bill than people thought, it is going to take focus away from this. i'm like you, i wish to be proven wrong but at this moment i feel nothing but dread about the prospect of washington democrats getting it together on voting rights over the course of the next couple of months. >> eddie glaude, let's just play opposite world, homage to "seinfeld." in the office world democrats control state legislatures and have a basically 6-3 majority on

the supreme court, what do people think would be happening at the federal level? republicans would be codifying bans on abortion. they would be codifying voter restrictions based on the big lie. they would be writing into law -- and they would be daring the supreme court to overrule them. they would be happy to wait for these things to run into legal challenges. democrats privately say, oh, we can't do anything about texas because the court, the court. why won't they get out of the gate and try? because i think right now with the republicans have going for them is they smell the democrats' fear and hesitation. >> you know, nicolle, i think you are absolutely right and i agree with john heilemann absolutely as well. i think it has a lot to do with the fact that, you know, the big tent of the democratic party makes it very difficult to be a kind of consensus around particular policy issues, right. because there are members of

that, under that tent who are deeply conservative. deeply, i put that in inverted commas. there are members under that tent beholden to corporate interest. there are members under that tent who are self interested, who is selfish politicians. that's a harsh judgment, but i think it is warranted because, look, there are two things happening. there is not only the disenfranchisement of millions of americans that are taking place right now, but there's also the kind of delegitimizing of our democratic process. so on the one hand we see this kind of crude and crass power grab on the part of republicans by narrowing the electorate, but at the same time that they're doing something even more dangerous, and that is they're undermining trust in the electoral process. so even if they -- >> correct. >> -- lose after doing this, people will not have faith in the process. so the peaceful transition of power, right, is now in question. it seems to me if that's true, and i think it is, democrats need to get off their behinds.

i was going to say another word, nicolle. they need to get off their behinds and start fighting like they should, but because of the big tent and because of selfishness and greed, hmm, it seems like they might have some skin in the game to keep the status quo as it is. >> i'm going to get to the law, but, joyce vance, i read your twitter feed. i have been reading it since the texas abortion ban was upheld by the supreme court. you are from a part of the country where states are going to copy cat the texas law, the bounties on the heads of women. i wonder what you make of how much of this is in the green lighting of the supreme court, how much of this is pent-up ambition to overturn roe v. wade, and how much of this is the politics that we focus on? is this inevitable? >> it seems like it is all of the above, nicolle. it is sort of the perfect storm for bad policy making, because state legislatures -- and texas has been the poster child for the last couple of weeks -- feel

fully empowered to achieve policy goals that have been very elusive to them up until now because they feel like the supreme court will back them. so the issue here with this texas law is a really good case in point. we have got this voting law. there are some legal challenges in place, and one might expect that that law would be enjoined from going into effect while the courts figure out whether or not these laws are constitutional. after the abortion decision and after the supreme court weakened what was left of the voting rights act in the brnovich case at the end of the last supreme court term, now that's really in question because lawyers who have to go to the court and say, "please block this law from going into effect while we're litigating it, we have a substantial chance of success on the merits," they can no longer say that. so the real question for the texas legislators is this. when you make it more difficult for people to vote in the

absence of any justification, let alone a compelling one, just using a made-up one like fraud which we now know didn't exist, what people are entitled to know is who are you serving, because it is not the people. we have this cabul between the supreme court and the legislators which is maybe not a formal one, but the legislators believe they can achieve these goals because the court will aid them. >> are they wrong? >> are they wrong? is it unprincipled to do this? it is absolutely unprincipled to pass legislation that you know to be unconstitutional. is it pragmatic? sure. this is what they've been driving at for a long time. you know, it was so important to them to have this 6-3 conservative majority on the supreme court that we saw mitch mcconnell with an absolutely straight face refuse to give merrick garland a vote when he was nominated to the supreme court, saying, no, we absolutely can't consider confirming a nominee to be a supreme court

justice in the final year before an election, and then amy coney barrett was confirmed to the court after voting was actually underway in 2020. so there was absolutely no shame about getting that conservative majority and now they're going to put it to use. >> john heilemann, i want to deal with the elephant in the room. obviously i'm acutely wear of my complicity in the current state of the united states supreme court. that said, i have voted straight party line democratic ticket since 2016. my only hope, my only wish is that they freaking win, that they win elections. and what i don't understand is the republicans have revealed themselves over and over and over and over and over again, and if you want to know how radical today's gop is, it is so radical that the man picked by my old boss, chief justice john roberts, sided with the liberals on the court in the texas abortion ban. what joyce just described -- i

don't know the legal term, but it sounds a whole lot like collusion between republican-dominated right-wing centric legislators and the far right members of the united states supreme court, whether it is a crime and whether it is real, maybe mueller will look into it. but tell me where we go from here. >> huh, where do we go from here? well, i don't know if it is collusion in the sense that, you know, the -- i think the states -- the state legislators are listening to -- you know, this is public, right? you know, these people -- the people on the united states supreme court went through confirmation hearings and many of them in their public comments prior to being nominated, in their confirmation hearings and subsequently made it pretty clear what their position was on roe v. wade. so i don't think you need to do a lot of colluding for republican state legislatures to have confidence in what the court -- what they think -- not to have certainty, but to have confidence, to make it worth

while, and i think to joyce's point about it is obviously unprincipled to pass laws that are prima facie unconstitutional but when has it stopped anybody. there have been legislators that passed law to test a principle, to try to get the supreme court to make new law. that's not entirely new. so they're making a gamble, a gamble they think on the basis of everything they know, whether it is public or private, they think has a pretty decent chance of paying off. you know, that is the way the republicans have played this game for a long time as you suggest. i think, you know, where it has to go from here it has to be the case where now this becomes a matter where, you know, you can -- you can maintain -- this does not make abortion illegal in 50 states in the country. it is a place where we know if the united states congress passed a law mandating roe v. wade as a federal statute, that would be one way around this. so political pressure at the national level and certainly political pressure at the state level. how much to democrats does this become an issue that is not just

an issue for activists who care about -- and i know this issue. i know that that choice is an issue that appeals to a lot of people beyond activists. but as a voting issue, an issue that mobilizes people, an issue that becomes central to local elections, statewide elections, federal elections, presidential elections, that's what has to happen if this is now going to be a matter decided by politics state by state and federally and where the court is basically going to say anything goes, this will be a matter of who can out organize who and who can use the powers of persuasion to make it into a genuine voting issue in a way that it truly has not been because for a long time people thought that these rights were vouch safed with the court. they no longer are and it is going to change our politics in profound ways. >> and, again, to sort of come back to where we started, eddie glaude, what the democrats having going for them is that choice is a 60-plus percent issue. i want to put up a tweet from

representative mark poken. he said, it is voting rights or the filibuster. it's climate action or the filibuster. it's racial justice or the filibuster. it's worker's rights or the filibuster. it's reproductive justice or the filibuster. it's our democracy or the filibuster. end the filibuster. period. i don't know all of the poll numbers but voting rights, the kinds of measures outlawed in texas today with the flick of governor abbott's plan, i think 60% support those measures. "new york times" reporter on this beat says they're more secure. roe has 60% support abortion in all or most cases. i mean on all of these issues, democrats are in the more advantageous spot. they've got majority issue, 60-plus percent public support. where do you think they go from here? >> well, i think at the end of the day, nicole, democrats have to turn their backs on that

particular political actor that's at the heart of their political imaginations, it seems to me. you know, democrats act like that scorned lover trying desperately to get the reagan democrat to love them again. so at the heart of their political choices, at the heart of their political decisionmaking, their strategizing, it is always this white male heterosexual working class person. you know, that's always at the center of how they imagine their politics. what does it mean to shift? what does it mean to imagine your politics that actually reflect the deep diversity of the country, it seems to me? what does it mean to shift our conception of citizenship where it is more than just simply -- it has the idea that the obligation of citizenship is just to consume, but rather our relationship to each other. what does it mean to imagine, right, a conception of the good that has everything to do with all of us, not just a small few? so it seems to me that if we're going to get past this we have

to shift the center of gravity of our political imaginations, and that's going to involve democrats. let me say this really quickly, nicolle. it is also going to involve us to finally leave behind this melodramatic view of politics where the villains are clears and the heroes are clear and the heroines are clear. maybe we all are caught up in this mess and we need to figure out how to get through this together it seems to me. >> i need you to say more about that. >> right. so oftentimes we think of our politics as, you know, the bad people are over there. the bad people are the republicans. the bad person is donald trump. it has been written about, that all we need to do is ban issue them, get them out of the way, and all things will be okay. what we're seeing in this political mess that is washington, d.c. is that the problem isn't simply republicans. what we're seeing in our country is that the problem isn't just donald trump or power-hungry republicans, that it is -- it

cuts across all of these different lines. if we move beyond melodrama and kind of get at the heart of the tragedy that's seems to me is at the center of american politics and be honest with ourselves and grow the hell up, maybe we can get beyond this but we seem to be content playing games it seems to me. >> i feel like that's a book end to your now famous, you know, "this is us." i mean that's right. get beyond the childish things, i think it was a line or a quote from one of president obama's first inauguration. eddie glaude, john heilemann, two of my favorite humans. thank you for starting us off this hour. joyce is sticking around. when we come back the ripple effect from the highly restrictive abortion law in texas. a group of red states looking to follow texas's lead with potentially devastating dpekts for women across this country. that reporting is next. plus, how to stop the far-right insurgency as the republicans shun the will of the

people to throw red meat at their shrinking base. days before september 11th, preventing another attack goes well beyond al qaeda and isis. how the nypd is facing the threat of domestic extremist. don't go anywhere. extremist don'got anywhere.

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a little preparation will make you and your family safer in an emergency. a week's worth of food and water, radio, flashlight, batteries and first aid kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com i'm pro life. i welcome pro life legislation. what they did in texas was interesting. we will have to look. i will have to look more significantly at it. >> i'm sure you are. that was florida governor ron

desantis, expressing interest in enacting a texas-style near-complete abortion ban in his state. not alone. less than one week after texas's de facto ban on abortion went into effect, lawmakers in at least 11 other states are considering enacting similar laws. officials in arkansas, florida, south carolina, san diego san diego, kentucky, louisiana, oklahoma, ohio, indiana, mississippi and & north dakota have said they will amendment state laws to mirror texas's bill or expected to do so. the cruelty on display and the rush to limit the freedoms of women and place bounties on them has drawn international condemnation. "the guardian" reports that human rights monitors have strongly condemned the state of texas for its new anti-abortion law, which they say violates

international law by denying women control over their own bodies and endangering their lifts. joining us is julia ainsley and joyce vance is back with us. julia, i have seen reports from governor abbott today. there is no fluency, no vocabulary on the republican party's part about what this actually is, which is actually about four weeks pregnant. the six-week legal definition comes from the last day of a woman's last period. so this would eliminate 85% of all abortions in texas. i haven't seen the numbers in all of the states that you are reporting on, but talk about whether they're all doing this eyes wide open and understand that it is essentially for all intents and purposes an abortion ban. >> well, that's exactly right, nicolle. i'm glad you pointed that out. actually, it is about two weeks after most women could even take a pregnancy test, so it is not as if a woman has been living with the fact she is pregnant before six weeks, before she would be banned under the texas

law. as far as what other states are doing, it seems that they are being energized since the supreme court decision last week not to intervene and to let the texas ban go forward, but it could all fall apart pretty quickly, nicolle. it is not a very legally safe basket for these states to be putting all of their eggs in because as soon as one of these lawsuits actually comes where one of those vigilantes like in a place like texas would sue an abortion provider or anyone even remotely connected to a woman getting a procedure after six weeks, then we would actually get the real dialogue about this case. you could have oral arguments in federal court where the big question would come in, how is this stranger to the woman who is suing this abortion provider remotely damaged at all by this decision? do they have legal standing? that could be where it falls apart. we just haven't gotten there yet because no one has actually used

this lawsuit, this law to file a lawsuit like that. so until that comes, we won't really see how strong this law could be. but it could very easily fall apart. the other thing they're doing is they could tee up really what could be a one-upsmanship if you look what lip states could do. you could use the same strategy to, say, sue anyone who illegally sells a gun without a background check. it is not something that seems like it could hold for a long period of time, but right now these states are seeing this is one that has gotten through so far. they're looking at the more conservative makeup of the supreme court and they're quickly as fast as they can getting these bills drafted to try to get them out the door. >> joyce, if the supreme court has green lit bounties on anyone who aids and abets a woman getting an abortion, should democrats look at laws that do the same thing for anyone that, you know, as julia says,

illegally buys a handgun or creates and sells fake vaccination cards or sells masks that don't work? i mean if this is the new tactic, if the supreme court has said, hey, wild, wild west, go get them vigilantes, should the left respond in kind? >> so i'll just start by saying no, that's not the right way to make policy in the states, by setting out to write laws that clearly violate people's civil rights, well-established rights, and to hope that you can get those laws in place. i think we all know that at an instinctive level, right. we have laws. we are a rule-of-law country to make our lives better, not so we can play games with them and not with some of their most serious fundamental rights. julia does a great job pointing out what is at stake because there are two key points in time people opposed to a law can challenge it. one is before it goes into

effect and one is after it goes into effect. we haven't hit this second stage with the texas law. presumably that would happen if someone were to bring a lawsuit against people around a woman, people who aided and abetted a woman in getting an abortion, and then if that lawsuit was brought by some amorphous third party, we would have people to challenge the statute as it is working in practice. but this statute, the evil jean genius is that it is designed not to get to that point. it provided a perfect vehicle for the supreme court to allow it to go into effect. normally you would expect it to go up on the shadow docket to the supreme court. it is procedural. the case has not been briefed and decided in lower courts. this is just a question whether while this litigation over the law's constitutionality does the law get to go into effect or will the supreme court block it. usually the answer is they'll

block it, but they didn't here. that's because the texas legislature, in essence the supreme court says, the texas legislature outsmarted us. they used this unprecedented private enforcement mechanism instead of the government being responsible for enforcing the six-week ban on abortions. it is private citizens, people who can bring these lawsuits. the supreme court said we just don't know who we would enjoin so we will let this law go ahead and go into effect. it all sounds awfully silly when we talk about it in those terms, but it was very much a deliberately designed provision to allow this law to take effect and to deny women their rights for as long as possible, at least until this next term in the supreme court when the court takes a clear look at roe v. wade and determines whether or not to reverse it in the mississippi case, dobbs. >> julia, i understand the legal laboratory sort of conversation, but what is happening to women

in texas now? >> well, by and large there are very few places that they can go if they are seeking an abortion. a lot of these clinics shuttered after the midnight deadline just last week when the law went into effect. of course, there are some procedures that could take place before six weeks, and the clinics will remain open for them, but by and large you would have to go across state lines to get an abortion after six weeks, which is when most of them would take place. i have driven many parts of the state of texas in my immigration reporting. it is not easy to go across state lines in texas, especially many places where you are. especially for people who are poorer or economically disadvantaged, it would be much harder for them to have that kind of access. i think that's really been one of the sharpest criticisms of this ban, is that this doesn't really outlaw abortion in the state of texas. it really just makes them more difficult for people at the

lower end of the economic ladder. >> right, or someone 12 who can't drive at all. joyce vance, julia ainsley, thank you for spending time with us. we will stay on it. when we come back democrats forced to fight with one hand tied behind their backs as republicans work against them to strip away the rights of many americans. our friend steve schmitz joins us after a quick break. joins us after a quick break in america according to j.d. power. number one in reliability, 16 times in a row. most awarded for network quality, 27 times in a row. proving once again that nobody builds networks like verizon. that's why we're building 5g right, that's why there's only one best network. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means... grabbing a hold of what matters. asking for what we want. and need. and we need more time.

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of the two major political

parties in america right now, only one is openly committed to a systematic attack. only one is looking to gut women's reproduction freedoms. only one is suing schools for enacting mask mandates and ignoring covid. one party is hoping you will forget about an armed insurrection at the u.s. capitol eight months ago. of course, as you all know, that would be the republican party. so through no fault of its own the democratic party is left fighting with one hand tied behind its back to do all of this stuff, protect democracy, end a global pandemic, protect the united states homeland from domestic violent extremism, and preserve the right to vote. our friend steve schmitt joins us now. you and i had a lot of conversations. you were deep in sort of finding

and seeing these historic parallels to where the party was heading. talk about it. >> well, i think the reality is right now we have one pro-democracy party, political party in a two-party system in the united states of america and that we are in this era of radicalization, of political extremism. when we talk about these issues, when we autopsy them, when we evaluate them, we tend to through the coverage look at them deeply moment to moment. so we look at the abortion story or we look at the insurrection of january 6th, we look at the coverup, we look at the white washing. we tend not to look at how historians will look back at this era posthumously, and they will look at it as a series of events. we are in right now the hinge of

history. the door is opening. we are in a period of transition, and these events that are unfolding are profound. this political conflagration we seem to be on the edge of, fuelled by this extremism, fuelled by this abandonment, this commitment to democracy, the idea that we decide who has power in this complicated multi-racial, multi-ethnic, moralistic democracy through majority-rule elections where pragmatism is a virtue, where compromise is a virtue, where common sense matters in the practical delivery of services by government. we're seeing the eradication of that by a minority in the country that controls a lot of political power, and we're seeing it play out

internationally. we are seeing it play out domestically. we are seeing it play out with the intimations of violence by members of congress. marjorie taylor greene, madison cawthorn and others. we are going to have more and more of it as we stand, i think, at the edge of donald trump clearly announcing his intention to be a candidate in 2024 and watching the governor of texas and the governor of florida commit some of the most irresponsible acts in the history of the country with regard to anyone who has held the office of governor, assaulting the public good every day. all of it to audition to one day lead this autocratic movement after donald trump steps away from its leadership. the profound -- >> how do you see the right-wing

voters' indifference to their own death and suffering as a political development? you know, i spent a long time during the trump presidency looking for a bottom, smearing a widow of a service member who died serving this country wasn't it. calling african nations bleep-hole countries wasn't it. grabbing women in the bleep wasn't it. extorting wilensky wasn't it. i stopped looking for it, but i keep reading these horrifically tragic stories out of hospitals in the deep south by and large, pregnant women in their 20s and 30s dying, young men in their 20s and 30s dying of covid, all of them unvaccinated. if that is a reality, a risk they're willing to take on, if the right has become indifferent to death, where are we heading? >> nowhere good. but let me say covid may be the medical cause of their death, but what they were killed by was misinformation.

what they were killed by was lies. what they were killed by is the malice and the immorality of political leaders who would risk their lives in a big con for the purpose of appeasing a base, of appeasing a ratings god in the form of fox news and the constellation of right-wing sites that fuel all of this insanity in this country. the people that are choking to death and suffocating in the fluid of their own lungs in miserable, lonely deaths, these people by and large are victims. what we are seeing, and we see it at a media level, we see it at a government level, is some of the greatest acts of irresponsibility and malice, contrary to the public good, for

selfish purposes in the history of the country. i don't say that dramatically. we are the oldest constitutional republic in the world but we are still a relatively young country. in the history of the country, you will not find other instances of such direct purposeful, malicious violation of any sense of public duty to the common good as we are seeing today. >> steve schmidt, it is a kufrg conversation that needs to be had and had regularly. i hope you will come back and do that. stopping the next terror attack when the threat to our homeland is growing right here.

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extremists right here at home. >> reporter: when it comes to terrorism, new york city's police department isn't afraid to publicly show force. but in the shadows, in places they don't allow cameras, the brains of the department work 24/7. >> so i would imagine after these events that we are probably going to see a pickup. >> reporter: this is the nypd's intelligence bureau. >> we decided that if we really want to do this right, we have to have a dedicated force that is specially trained. >> reporter: the man in charge, a 37-year veteran nypd cop from the beat, chief thomas galati, determined to try to stop the next terror attack, building on the lessons from the past. >> i think if you look at the 9/11 commission report, the failure was the failure of sharing of intelligence. so, you know, you don't want to be the person that's holding a piece of information and then something happens. >> reporter: assistant commissioner rebecca weaner,

based at a secret location in manhattan, says there's more plots than ever. >> there's been 51 plots and attacks against the city in the last 20 years. half of those, 25 have been in the last five years. >> reporter: a rising number originating at home. >> other actors like actors mot violent extremists and neo-nazis and antigovernment extremism. >> let's bring in our correspondent, tom winter. tom, it is so interesting that what's happening in new york is what's happening all across the country. it is what the fbi director testified to congress. the greatest threat is domestic violent extremist. is the nypd hinder on all law enforcement by the fact that the threat is domestic? >> there are different rules by

which the nypd operates, the part of the agency we spend time with. they are guided by guidelines and without getting the complicated history of intelligence bureau of what they are allowed to do. there is a panel that reviews the investigation, conducted by the intelligence bureau in the areas along the line of domestic terrorism. the nypd intelligence bureau and analysts and sworn officers do have the ability to research and review and look at the comments and things people are saying online. a great example of that is the nypd intelligence bureau sent four packets to the capitol police leading up to january 6th, before detailing the types of threats and comments people are making about january 6th.

that's the type of work they do. that's the type of work that assisted assistant rebecca weiner we saw there, her team looks at and asked to disclose in lower manhattan. when they see that type of opportunity moving towards violence, to come to new york city or some where in the jurisdiction to commit violence, that's when they can move from an analysis to an investigation standpoint and work with the task force and the fbi making an arrest instances. that's something they are focused on. outside of that, they try to share that information with the capitol police is a good one. as far as some of the things they hope to do, nicole. >> how do they feel in terms of their concerns this weekend? >> i think one of the things they are focused on is what will

happen with propaganda? what will isis do of the airport attack? we see a lot of propagand followed by attacks over the years. that's something we keep an eye on, nicole. >> tom winter, really nice to see you my friend. tomorrow msnbc's films and peacock will produce something special "memory box echoes 9/11"ment it tells the story of 9/11 through personal recollection reported from the video booth in the wake of 9/11 that never been shown on film. the same eyewitnesss return to the booth to reflect on the past

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thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we are grateful. "the beat" with jason johnson in for ari melber starts right now. hi jason. >> thank you so very much. welcome to "the beat," i am jason johnson. we start with the fight over voting rights. greg abbott signs into law the worst voting measures in the country. civil rights group immediately challenging the law with three separate lawsuits filed in both states and federal