finished whatever anti-democratic nonsense they're up to, but it could be coming to a state near you. another hour of "velshi" begins right now. good morning to you. it is saturday, september 25th. i'm ali velshi. today democrats are reminding us what a functional government looks like while republicans are reminding us of the dysfunction that we narrowly escaped. they are finalized $the 3 trillion package that encompasses tax breaks for families and clean energy inis nottives. the fate of president biden's entire economic agenda is hanging in the balance so democrats are putting negotiations over that bill in the fast track. this is because progressives are threatening to tankan upcoming vote on the smaller bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the larger $3.5 trillion package is passed in tandem. this may seem like a type of internal party bickering that's

delivering a blow to president biden's momentum. it's actually the way functional government is supposed to operate. it's full of negotiations and push and pull that goes into real legislating and it includes a lot of juggling. while democrats are pushing forward with the biden economy agenda they're moving forward with the house january 6th investigation. they've issued a fresh wave of subpoenas to four former administration officials including the white house chief of staff mark meadows, and dan scavino and kash patel who was acting for then secretary christopher miller. these subpoenas will compel these four to hand over highly sought after documents that were related to the deadly attack by october 7th and sit for a deposition a week after that. on the other hand, real legislating didn't appear to be what thisity ragsz of the gop is interested in doing at all. instead they'd rather feed into the delusion of this base and

this week is reminding us of the alternative reality to the democratic bickering over infrastructure price tags and priorities. there's a band of crooks who have still not accepted the outcome of the 2020 election. let's look at arizona for a moment. the leader for the republican party in that state is calling for another so-called audit of the election results after the latest attempt blew up if their faces and confirmed what we all already knew. biden won. that fact doesn't matter and now texas is launching a similar so-called audit of the election results in four major counties. so while the gop fixates on attempting to re-write reality, democrats are focused on real issues and the work of governing and given that one party in the two-party system is dedicated to delusion, that's not going to be easy. >> joining me to discuss this is haze brown, the writer and editor of the msnbc daily newsletter. it is so good to see you. i've missed you doing other stuff in the last two weeks and

i needed your wisdom on this. democrats are bickering and they're going to tank biden's domestic agenda. progressives and moderates can't get along and in my world i'm sitting here thinking we've actually got governing going on, we've actually got debates going on and we have an attempt to compromise between competing parties in a broad, democratic party versus what we used to have. >> i mean, i would agree with that except for the fact that the interparty fighting going on right now it's hard to tell who the moderates are coming from. they are trying to say no. we need to lower the amount of something that we will do. there is a smaller group in that group saying no, this prescription drug pricing situation that we have that a lot of democrats have run on. we'd axe that. we don't like it, and because the margins are so low in the house, nancy pelosi is trying to bring these two groups together being the moderates and

progressives who have a much larger set of votes and like you said, it's all about timing right now and trying to figure out what goes first. the moderates want to get this bipartisan infrastructure bill voted on, passed in the house. progressives, rightly, in my opinion are saying, no. if we pass that then you have no need to pass this budget infrastructure reconciliation plan that is all about the biden economic agenda. what is interesting to me here is that the progressives and the white house are the ones aligned on this front so much of the reconciliation bill, the $3.5 trillion investment over ten years that they're looking at is part of biden's build back better agenda. it's the moderates in the house and the two moderates, krysten sinema who are holding back saying no, no, let's not go so big, let's not do so much while the white house is pushing it

saying let's go forward. >> as a business journalist, i'd like to remind people for all of the stuff that was too much in 2008 and 2009, the rush for the american government and the american people is phenomenal. bailing out the industry was phenomenal. the stimulus bill was phenomenal. it didn't fail at all, actually and it ended up working very well. richy torres was on an hour ago with me and said these are not moderate priorities. you wrote about this. i think he might have read your op-ed. what makes their resistance particularly baffling is nobody is asking for this show of stubbornness from them, not the party leadership who want to work with the progressives and the white house on this and not the majority of the americans who were in favor of the spending package's provision. the point you just made a moment ago in the end, some people are worried about losing the house, and the democrats losing the house in 2022, but fundamentally this is a popular -- joe biden and a bunch of stuff he's doing

may not be popular across the board, but this policy is. >> absolutely. what's really concerning and should be concerning for the democrats more broadly is that if they fail to pass these things then they will lose the midterms. i mean, if these moderates are attempting to shore up support inside there. again, safe, democratic districts and one comfortable margin and it's not a situation where oh, no, if i vote for a bill that's too big then the republican in the race will be able to take me out easily in my swing district. these are safe, democratic districts, but in trying to seem more moderate is putting on the aesthetics of moderation they're risking the moderates getting things done that would help people in their districts which is is good policy and good politics, these bills and trying to tank either one of them and trying to back them back enough that they can't help actual americans is really a

terrible -- it's bad politics in my view. >> thanks very much for joining us. >> heys brown writes about anything smart. >> joining me now is the missouri democratic congresswoman, cori bush. she's on the judiciary and oversight committee and the first black congresswoman in missouri history. i have things i want to talk to you and i want to talk to you about stephanie land and maid and poverty. i don't know if we agree on all sort of things, but i really love the fact that someone who lived in a car, who understands poverty is in the halls of congress making policies about people who live in poverty. stephanie land in her tells us in sharp relief about the back breaking, offensive nature of policy. it's not romanticized at all. it's not fun. >> no. no, it's not fun. thank you for having me. you know, i was listening to her

speak, and what she was saying -- she took me back to those situations that i had gone through myself, always trying to prove that i should qualify for these services. i didn't show up to ask for help because i had another way of doing it and i just wanted to take money from the government or i just wanted to sit in this line for four hours waiting for someone to judge every single thing that i'm doing and why i can't get this together and why my kid -- like, it's -- it's so inhumane how people are treated just to be able to be stable, to sustain. we're not really talking about getting on your feet to make some moves. we're talking about just to eat. >> yeah. >> just to eat and have a roof over your head. >> but as you protested on the steps of congress -- stephanie land said something similar and you who i have had conversations

about poverty and children and that you can eke out food somewhere. it's horrible to be food insecure and kids always want something that you can't necessarily give them, but this idea of not having a roof over your head, we have members of congress, your colleagues in both parties who were prepared to let this lapse, this idea that it's okay. getting evicted is just a thing. we gave you assistance for many, many months because of a problem you didn't cause with covid. it's enough. it's enough already, get on your feet. this is not my problem. tax cuts for the rich we don't suffer such consequences for, we don't debate and we don't twist ourselves into knots trying to justify why we give people tax cuts and give people a couple of bucks a month and it takes months and months of work in congress. >> right. it's like you don't matter enough to me because the people over here fund me better. you don't matter enough because you can do something to get yourself out of the situation without our help.

you figure it out because our friends, our donors, the people who have the big money who make the power moves are where our focus should be. we see that all the time. it's absolutely disgusting and that's why it is so important for regular, everyday folks who have been through certain life experiences that we are seated in congress, that we are seated on state levels of government and local levels because we're coming from experience that is now because the other thing is someone can say to me oh, i went through that. if you went through it 30 years ago, i'm telling you it's different now. i know what you went through it's difficult, but let me tell you what it's like to walk through it rate now and being on those steps and listening to, we had people showing up, ali, showing up to the steps that were unhoused. people were sleeping out there with us that were unhoused or who had recently been evicted. we had people who were battling with what was going to happen with them as far as covid-19. they didn't have a home. i don't know -- do i go into a

shelter? i don't know if it's better for me to sleep out here? i don't know what to do. this is -- these are policy choices. these are failed policy choices and this is failed leadership by people who are so signed up to represent everybody. now that's the thing that baffles me. how do you sign up to support and to represent every person in your district or in your state and you only decide to pull out the small people that prop you up? >> because the poor are voiceless. the houseless are voiceless. >> and that's why i'm here. >> that's why you went into politics. policing wise in ferguson, and we came real close -- i thought for months we were really close to having a federal bill to be able to deal with the stuff this the federal government could deal with on policing and then it suddenly fell apart and i'm surprised by that because i thought we were stuck on one or two little things. where are we now and why? why have these talks broken down

between democrats and republicans in the senate? >> you know, part of the issue is because this carried on past the protests, you know, the george floyd and breonna taylor protests of the summer of 2020 because this didn't pass both houses then while the momentum was there and while people were in the streets and while companies and clergy and everyone and community members had come together and okay, we didn't understand this seven years ago, but now we get it. because it did happen then it made it so much harder to happen this year, it seems and just in having talks with representative karen bass and senator cory booker and just seeing how we weren't moving forward fast enough, i figured that we were going to get here to this place, it is -- it's -- it is a blow to

the black community that we cannot get a bill across that says that police should be held accountable for their actions. as a nurse i'm held accountable for my actions. if i give you the wrong medication i'll be accountable and it will be in the paper with my name and you'll come against my license and lose my career. police officers get to be social workers when we have social workers. they get to be all the things, why not just have them be police officers right now while that's the thing. have them be police officers and do what you signed up to do, do what you're trained to do and don't do what other people are paid and skilled and trained to do which is why we have the people's response which is one of our bills. >> and in honor of that, ben & jerry's has unveiled a flavor that is named for you, for your act. they're calling it change is

brewing. it's a limited batch flavor of cold brew coffee ice cream with marshmallow swirls and fudge brownies. it doesn't solve the problem, but someone is recognizing the work that you are doing out there. it is always an honor to talk to you. thank you for being with us. cori bush. >> thank you. >> democratic congresswoman from missouri. still ahead on "velshi." more states are following texas' lead and trying to ban abortion. if you can believe it, disinformation on facebook is getting worse. we will take a look at likes surrounding mistrust. millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain in arizona to tell us what we already knew that joe biden won the presidency fair and square. we can't legitimize the arizona fraudit. i'll explain next.

and the future she promises. when we made grand wagoneer, proudly assembled in america, we knew no object would ever rank with the best things in this country. but we believed we could make something worthy of their spirit. i'm not hungry! but we believed we could make you're having one more bite! no! one more bite! ♪ kraft. for the win win.

tide pods ultra oxi one ups the cleaning power of liquid. can it one up whatever they're doing? for sure. seriously? one up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi.

the results that nobody wanted are in. leaders of the arizona state senate held a news conference, if you want to call it that to present the findings of the highly partisan sham ballot audit that they spent months facilitating. state republicans spent almost $6 million just to prove that not only did donald trump lose maricopa county to joe biden by about 45,000 votes as we already knew, but according to the results released yesterday donald trump actually released 261 fewer votes than originally recorded, however there's no reason to trust anything that happened in this audit. there was an election. joe biden won. even though this fraudulent ballot review proved to be an immense waste of time and resources as most of us knew to be the case, this toxic notion that you can cheat your way into overturning a presidential election is actually contagious. republicans in states like pennsylvania, texas and wisconsin have been watching the

arizona fraud closely and are following leads with their own further endangering democracy as we know it. not just watching it. they sent people to literally go there and observe it. joining me now, grant woods former republican attorney general of arizona. >> grant, in philadelphia, "the philadelphia enquirer" said we will not refer to this thing in arizona as an audit because it doesn't meet the basic standards of an audit actually is. in michigan the secretary of state tells me there should be audits of elections. we want to make sure things are safe and fair, but generally speaking they have been in america this notion of fraudulent elections that caused joe biden to win is b.s. and it continues to live. >> yeah. that's right, ali. it is the big lie and it's dubbed that, but it certainly is, but it's -- it goes beyond just the trump election. it casts doubt on all of our

elections and our electoral process, and i was attorney general in arizona for most of the '90s, so we looked at every election and the reality is in arizona as it is in most states, there is no voter fraud. there is no election fraud. in arizona in particular we do a very good job with elections and you see here in maricopa county, this thing was -- was audited by people who knew what they were doing, and it was, like, on the money and then they did it again which is ridiculous, but they did it again by people who knew what they were doing. it was on the money and then they brought in the clown show, and even the clowns couldn't rig it so that the numbers were changed. they could just come up with a bunch of mumbo jumbo to continue to cast doubt on our elections and our processes. there's a group of people, these cyber ninjas and their ilk,

they're grifters and they find a home in trump world because there are a lot of grifters there and then you have the dummies out there who were willing to be susceptible. it sounds like something might have been wrong. not much you can do about those folks and then you have the devious people out there and that's these republican leaders who are actively trying to cast doubt on our electoral process. why? so that they can justify passing voter suppression measures which will give them a chance to win in the coming election. >> so let's put aside the devious ones because that's our job, yours and mine to hold them to account for their basic attacks on democracy. let's put aside the grifters like the cyber ninjas and anyone that can cash in on donald trump and his nonsense and either the law or us will get to them.

there's this broad middle, friends of yours and mine, mainstream republicans and conservatives who to this day believe the argument that we have to continue to do things to prevent mass and widespread voter fraud from leading to unfair election results, something that you and other attorneys general, former attorneys general, secretary of states, election officials across the country know not to be true. one of the beauties of america is we got this election thing right over the generations. >> yeah. that's a real problem. again, and the biggest picture, part of the irony here from these so-called true blue, red, white and blue americans is that this has always been the goal of russia and of our enemies abroad who couldn't defeat us in any other way. they wanted us to try to fall from within when we as a people no longer had confidence in our democratic institutions. so through all of this nonsense, through trying to support

autocrats, trying to stay in power no matter what, god forbid you'd have to go to that private sector they're so fond of, they've succeeded where our enemies have failed and that you're right, there's a great swath of people. why? it kind of makes sense, i think. it strikes you that, boy, this is a big, complicated thing having these voters checked and their i.d.s checked and to make sure that everything is done just right, and we don't have a lot of confidence in government in general oftentimes for good reason so it makes sense that yeah, it's probably not working right. >> and the reality is just tell the truth. you would, i would, we would tell people that this is a screwed up mess. >> think, we would. >> we'd be happy to tell them and we'd try to fix it. that's not the case. we do a pretty good job in this country. >> grant, it's early where you are. i'm always grateful that you get

up early in arizona because our viewers are happy. >> can i say one thing? i watched "maid," and that was really great and i told one of your producers there, the florida project is one of my favorite movies and it was my favorite movie from a couple of years ago. if people haven't seen "the florida project," it is a beautiful, beautiful piece, and we have to just continue to talk about that in this country. poverty from a human point of view. >> we have the economic perspective and we understand that, let's talk about it from a human perspective. >> grant woods, former republican attorney general of arizona. all right. coming up, one curb we're trying to flatten is the medical misinformation on social media sites like facebook. what we can actually do to stop the spread next.

alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice and long-lasting gain scent beads. try spring daydream, now part of our irresistible scent collection.

♪♪ hi mr. charles. we made you dinner. aww, thank you. ♪♪

i feel like this headline could be not true because i can't believe it. facebook is becoming an even bigger breeding ground for conspiracy-induced medical mistrust. by calling ben collins' groups by calling for vaccines to remove family members from vigilante medicine. they're pushing the false narrative that doctors are standing in the way of unvaccinated patients receiving miracle cures, and might even be killing these patients on purpose. a lot of the people in these facebook groups don't trust a vaccine that's been backed and tested by some of the greatest scientists in the world yet they have no problem whatsoever in the unproven cure ivermectin. it's an anti-parasite treatment, a horse dewormer, if you will, quote, but as the patients begin to realize that ivermectin is

not effective the groups have begun recommending hazardous at-home treatment such as gargling with iodine and inhaling hydrogen peroxide, end quote. please don't do this. joining me now is roger mcnamee and he was an early investor in google and he's the adviser of stop hate for profit and author of "zucked," when it came out a couple of years ago. i thought facebook was stopping this stuff. they were making a commitment to use theiral go rhythms, are they powerless to fix this problem? >> i don't think the issue is that they're powerless. the problem is the business model that has made them so influential and so success frl does this as a core engine of profit growth and so the way to think about this is that what

facebook did was it transformed advertising by creating a way for marketers to get to the parts of human psychology that we normally hide. there's always been data about people in marketing, but it's always been our public facing severals. facebook got to the things about us that we normally would hide and it gave advertisers a way of poking at people who essentially provoke them with outrage and fear and in doing so, that's enabled scammers of all kinds including anti-vaxxers and sell to seniors and veterans to prosper and it's extremely corrupt and i don't think anybody in facebook intended to break the law, but the reality is i think there's a real case that they've broken the corrupt organizations act which is called rico because with certain

class of advertisers, they identify marks and then facebook push people into groups that radicalize and that's what happened with all of these anti-vaksers and it's grifters top to bottom in this thing and at the end of the day i think we need to use criminal law because facebook has showed no willingness to change the business model. >> roger, you and i talked for a long time about what should be done about it. during the presidential election, prior to the presidential election during the primaries a number of the candidates actually brought up what should be done about it, the concept of how government should regulate it, if government should regulate it. one thing that you have pointed out to us is that some of the legislators don't have a handle on this and bad legislation may be worse than no lgsz. what should we do? it's 2021, we get this. it's actually killing people. it's bad for democracy. we can't stop social media, that would be anti-first amendment.

what does success look like to you now? >> so, ali, we have to recognize that congress has a super important role here. the economy in 2021 is really different than the economy of the 20th century for which most of the regulations was created so we do nied congress to pass law that require safety in technology products and to create some kind of privacy protections for consumers so they can't be exploited and then to re-write the antitrust laws to develop, but that's going to take years? what are we going to do in the short run? we tried pleading with this company and they won't do anything about it. i think we need to recognize that there are six areas at a minimum where facebook has evidence of criminal activity. as i said, i think the core business model may violate rico. not for all of it, but just for certain cases. there's a case that was just consolidated in delaware and related to insider trading.

there is a texas case related to price fixing. there's obviously the insurrection which facebook aided and abetted and then you have the wall street journal two weeks ago put out a story talking about human trafficking which was going on with the knowledge of executives at facebook and lastly, facebook has been accused of overstating its user counts and it has admitted overstating its advertising views which suggest there may be a case for revenue recognition fraud. none of these things is proven in a court of law and facebook deserves this time in court, but the time to have criminal prosecutions, i think, has come, and i think we have so many different areas in which there is evidence in the public domain, that it's incumbent upon the securities and exchange commission. >> roger, good to see you for getting up early to talk about our viewers because it is best for them to hear this stuff

directly from an expert like you. robert mcnamee is an adviser of stop hate for profit and the author of "zucked," waking up to the facebook catastrophe. rikers island has been a source of controversy for years after a spate of new deaths. activists are once again calling for its closure. we'll be right back. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee... yeah i should've just led with that... with at&t business, you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smartphone. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've honorably served.

no matter their rank, or when they were in. a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. still fresh unstopables in-wash scent booster absolutely. downy unstopables downy unstopables you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and you need it here.

and here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. seek a commitment to clean. look for the ecolab science certified seal. if you have this... consider adding this. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this... consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. ♪

so the white house now says that president biden will likely not shield former president trump's january 6th records from the house select committee investigating the insurrection. former president has repeatedly said he will fight subpoenas with executive privilege, but it appears that's not going to fly with biden. this week several trump associates were subpoenaed in the january 6th investigation. congressman jamie raskin, a member of that committee, told rachel maddow said that the subpoenas are just the beginning. >> i think you will find that other subpoenas are forthcoming. we are collecting a lot of information from emails, facebook posting, twitter postings. we have millions of pieces of evidence that have already flowed in to us. >> i'll talk more with the democratic congressman of maryland who is a constitutional professor starting at 8:00 a.m. on "velshi" on msnbc.

new york city is facing a reckoning of its own. the notorious rikers island jail has been site of numerous atrocity, so much so that a number of new york congressional delegates have called for it to shutter immediately. mayor bill de blasio is headed there for the first time in four years. tiffany cross is looking into it. i've missed you. it is good to be with you and i am so glad you're digging deep into what goes on in ryker's island. >> let me just say first, ali, it is a pleasure to have you back from your well-deserved time off and glad to share the screen with you this morning. yeah. you brought up a very serious subject, just this past week there was yet another death at rikers and this is the 11th death this year and reports of widespread inmate violence and deplorable conditions that are common place at this complex and i'll be talking to hakeem broader, the brother of khalif broader and as you know, khalif was housed unjustly at rikers

when he was just 16 years old. he was there for three years without a trial. so i'm going to ask the new york state legislator what he and his colleagues plan to do to fix this problem. plus, there's a lot happening, ali. a lot of talk about progressives, versus establishment and we just want to get rid of the labels and policies that will impact the rising majority of this country. and hakeem jefferies will talk us to how they plan to push through the mountain of priorities and you know the case against r. kelly. the defense rested and i'll have the executive producer, dream hampton will weigh in on the disgraced singer's federal trial which is now in the hands of the jury. we have a lot to get to on "cross connection," and i know, ali, you were just talking about facebook and the report that instagram is toxic for teen girls? i would argue is it just teen girls? a jam-packed show. >> do you have extra hours

today? how are you going to get all of that into a couple of hours. >> cramming it into my two little hours this weekend, ali. >> nice to see you, my friend. >> stay tuned after "velshi" to hear a whole lot from tiffany on "the cross connection." it is just two hours long although it seems like a four-hour show. >> we will discuss the texas copycat next. kraft. for the win win. why bother mastering something? why hand-tune an audio system? why include the most advanced active safety system in its class...standard? because when you want to create an entirely new feeling, the difference between excellence and mastery is all the difference in the world. the lexus es. every curve, every innovation, every feeling...

a product of mastery. get 1.9% apr financing on the 2021 es 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. instantly clear everyday congestion get 1.9% apr financing on the 2021 es 350. with vicks sinex saline. for fast drug free relief vicks sinex. instantly clear everyday congestion. and try vicks sinex children's saline. safe and gentle relief for children's noses. as someone who resembles someone else... i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical horn blows ] i mean just because you look like someone else doesn't mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication. oh, yeah. that's the spot. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ 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. 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. both sides of the abortion rights debate are energized weeks after the supreme court brushed aside four decades of protection under roe v. wade and allowed texas to enact a law. back in d.c., democrats on capitol hill seized this moment to vote through the women's health protection act as a means of codifying roe versus wade.

it passed the house along party lines and it is unlikely to meet the 60-vote threshold in the senate that would allow it to bypass the filibuster. there's that filibuster again. the washington post published an op ed last saturday by dr. dr. alan braid titled why i violated texas' extreme abortion ban. two men took action against the san antonio-based physician because that's what the texas law allows them to do, but anti-abortion groups aren't necessarily happy about this development. texas right to life which is an anti-abortion organization which has been a proponent of the bill calls the lawsuit bogus. quote, neither of these lawsuits are valid attempts to save human lives and both are self-serving legal stunt abusing the cause of action created by the texas heartbeat act for their own purposes, end quote. i for one am very confused by

this and when i'm confused about a legal matter i call in joyce vance, she's an msnbc contributor. joyce, can you please tell me what's going on here? the law provided for people to sue people who engaged in abortion activity in texas. two people sued this guy and now anti-abortion groups are saying that the lawsuits are bogus. what's happening? >> i suppose it's a case of be careful what you ask for, ali. the texas statute is drafted very broadly. it permits anyone to take on the role of being a private vigilante and seeks damages for someone who provides, aids and abets in an abortion. both of them are from out of state. the second lawsuit and the plaintiff openly identifies himself as a pro-choice plaintiff and seeks to have sb-8 itself deconstitutionalized and so the conservative proponents of this law are unhappy. what's happening here is that these private lawsuits provide a new mechanism for challenging

the constitutionality of sb-8. conservative his hoped to keep the legal situation in limbo with the law in effect preventing women from obtaining abortions into six weeks into a pregnancy while at the same time avoiding judicial review of the law, and that's what they're unhappy about, now judicial review is going to happen. >> this women's health protection act, there are a lot of people who discussed this and over the years we codified this and made abortion that is actually protected by the legislation as opposed by the courts and it doesn't look like that will pass the senate and that doesn't look likely. so what is the best way for boom who believe in abortion rights in this country to think that they should move forward? >> it's almost as though a time machine is what's necessary for democrats to take the composition of the supreme court as seriously as republicans have over the years. of course, it's far too late to

turn back the clock, and so people who wish to guarantee reproductive rights for others will have to create new strategies. one interesting question is whether the supreme court will go all the way to reversing roe versus wade when the supreme court hears it in the upcoming term. there's some suggestion that they may strip and seriously deteriorate those rights without actually reversing roe. that isn't something that proponent of reproductive rights might want to see better than outright reversal, but it is a difficult path forward as you point out, ali, because only the absence of the filibuster would prevent roe. >> joyce vance is a former united states attorney in alabama and an msnbc contributor. coming up next, we'll take you back to southlake, texas and hear from the race and culture controversy. t here.

the history she writes in her clear blue skies. the legends she births on home town fields. and the future she promises. when we made grand wagoneer, proudly assembled in america, we knew no object would ever rank with the best things in this country. but we believed we could make something worthy of their spirit. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs bu restorative herbal sleepke to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this before. i've never woken up like this before. crafted with clinically studied plant-based ingredients that work naturally with your body. for restorative sleep like never before. mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. ♪♪ things you start when you're 45. coaching. new workouts. and screening for colon cancer.

yep. the american cancer society recommends screening starting at age 45, instead of 50, since colon cancer is increasing in younger adults. i'm cologuard®. i'm convenient and find 92% of colon cancers... ...even in early stages. i'm for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you.

long before critical race theory became a nationwide buzzword and a conservative boogeyman, a posh dallas suburb became the poster child for the crusade against it. after a video surfaced in 2018 of white students chanting the n' word, the school district in south lake texas tried to implement a cultural competence action plan that was supposed to address the ongoing issues of racism and prejudice in its

schools, but the curriculum was met with swift backlash from white parents who wanted to maintain the status quo. and caught in the middle of all this is the school district's new superintendent. in an exclusive interview with him featured in the next and final episode of nbc's hit podcast south lake that drops on monday you're going to hear some interesting stuff. for more i'm joined by the co-host and also mike, another co-host of the podcast. tell us what we can expect from the episode. >> this is a really fascinating episode and bittersweet for this series to be coming to a close. what we're going to see is we're brought into scenes in the town as they head into this intense election over school board seats, a mayoral election and city council seats at the same time. and all of these local, you know, allegedly nonpartisan open

seats become a referendum on the diversity plan that you just mention there. and people see this on either side of the debate. pro diversity parents, anti-diversity parents. all of them see this plan as being at the center of the fight and what the future of the town's identity is going to be. and then you also get to contrast that with how the school district is charting its path forward in the midst of this political situation in town, and we have this exclusive interview with dr. lane, the superintendent. he went to the school district. he knows the community intimately. and he steps into this role at this terribly challenging time with all these racial tensions, and as you can hear in the clip we're about to share, charting the path forward is difficult and still not clear. take a listen. >> but if queer or minority

students were holding out hope the school district would implement some type of inclusion and diversity training it was baed clear nothing like the ccap would be on the table soon. >> as part of the tro i certainly, we are not at this point because of what's in place looking at any type of diversity, equity inclusion plan right now. >> and as for the problem that the diversity plan was created to address in the first place -- is there racism in south lake and in carroll isd? >> so let me think about that question. i'm going to stop there. i didn't know that was going to be asked. >> it's kind of at the center of what the students have been saying. >> ledbetter paused to consult with the district's

communications director. >> after the viral n-word video two years ago it seemed everyone in town was seeming to acknowledge racism exists but now with all that happened since then the man who'd been hired with the mission of bringing this community back together wasn't willing to say whether he believed that. >> i don't know if i necessarily have to have a yes or no to that question. for me i am focused on as i mentioned several times my priority is the students. >> what? >> right, that's many peoples response to that. you know, i think it's very telling of how toxic trying to solve issues of racism and diversity in these districts have become and how perilous the position has been for leaders in communities not just in south lake but certainly south lake is a prime example. and dr. ledbetter is at the center of it all. >> yeah, but -- you call 911

because a building is on fire, we're not discussing with the firefighters whether the building is on fire, right? there may be different ways of approaching how to put that fire out. what is that moment antonio just played. tell us about the state of discourse of racism in south lake. we're not solving racism in southlake or anywhere in america if we're not addressing the discourse. >> southlake has been six months ahead of the rest of the country on this fight. six months before you had parents packing school boards, they were packing them in southlake. six months before critical race theory came up at every suburban school board in the country, they were talking about it in southlake. this fall with conservatives across the country looking to november elections to take control of local school boards, well southlake did that back in may. so one thing we wanted to look

at and ask can we look to southlake to also get a preview of where this is all going not just in southlake but across the country. and i think what you heard in that moment with that interview and the reason we included it and why we're planning it is because two years ago everyone in southlake when that first n-word video came out was willing to say racism is real, it exists, we're going to talk about it. even conservative council members and the mayor, they're all willing to address it head on. now after all that's happened, things have gotten so muddied and toxic that the superintendent of the schools, you could hear he wasn't sure if he should answer it. and he's someone who his job is controlled by the school board. they're the ones who hire him, and you heard there was calculating like am i allowed to say -- >> i sensed he believed racism does exist but that the toxicity stops him from saying it. >> we don't know. and i think that points to where

this is going. now school officials, educators are watching their words, walking a tightrope afraid that they might say something that will upset angry parents. >> antonio, what do you take away from it? what does all this reporting tell you? if they're ahead of the game in south lake are we headed to these conversations where we don't talk about racism anymore? >> you'll hear in this episode after we're left with that conversation where we still don't have answers to the central questions here, we really return to the kids. and this is a theme that is present throughout the series, that the kids can talk about these issues with more frankness, more honesty and a better grip on the reality of both their local and political situation than the adults can. so we come back to students reflecting on this election. many of them were not eligible to vote in it even though this election was about a central issue in their school that changes their education

opportunities, changes their lives, they couldn't vote on that and they reflect on that. my take away from this entire series not just this episode, it's children who really should be at the forefront of these conversations, we talk about race and try to solve these issues in communities. we see parents screaming back and forth and the kids voices get drowned out. and that shouldn't be the case. the kids not only are kinder to each other, they're smarter about solutions, and mike and i try to keep their voices at the forefront throughout the series, but we come back to the them at the end because they have more to say than people in positions of leadership. >> thank you to both of you for doing this, for bringing it to us. we're only going to tell these stories if we tell them in little chunks how this is playing out as opposed to philosophical discussions about racism. i'm deeply appreciative to you. the co-hosts of nbc's southlake podcast. the final last episode drops on monday. subscribe and listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. and that does it for me.

thank you for watching velshi. i think it's time for me to eat some breakfast nacho, but you say right here because a jam-packed cross connection with tiffany cross starts right now. i'm going to watch it while i eat. good morning, everybody. welcome to the cross connection, and we begin right here in the nation's capitol where lawmakers face a long list of to-dos that will have a disproportionate impact on the rising majority of this country. so let's start with police reform. the negotiations have all but collapsed and the future of the george floyd justice and policing act as well as the safety for millions of people subjected to this type of violence hangs in the balance. then there's voting rights. after getting nowhere for months, west virginia senator joe manchin and other dems have introduced a slimmed down

version of the voting rights bill in an attempt to pacify republicans. and i have to say it's not terrible but the question is will it do enough to protect black and brown folks targeted by these restrictive state bills? then there's immigration. democrats hopes of including a path to citizenship in their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill were dashed after the senate parmentarian advised against it leaving 8 million undocumented immigrants in limbo. then there's the womens right to choose. the house passed legislation friday that would codify roe v. wade. this was in response to texas governor gregg abbott turning the state into the next season of the hand maids tale, but it is likely to be doa in the senate. while the debates about progressives and the establishment reigns supreme on twitter we want to forget about those beltway labels and talk about what the federal government is really doing that will directly impact you.

let's get into it