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tv   Velshi  MSNBC  October 10, 2021 5:00am-6:00am PDT

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confirm some more information about casualties. >> they're saying at least 14 people were injured, were shot, and at least one person is dead at this moment, it happened around 2:00 a.m. local time there in st. paul in an area that's busy with plenty of restaurants and bars. >> the person who died was a woman. police are asking anyone with information to call them. >> "velshi" starts now. today on "velshi," the very latest on the coming reckoning between the members of congress investigating the january 6th riot and republicans from donald trump's inner circle. plus, abortion rights were restored and then taken away again in texas all in the last few days. who will bear the brunt of attacks on women's rights? and cases of separate but unequal treatment and a man who is trying to make sure this
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story isn't lost to history. "velshi" starts now. good morning, it's sunday october 10th. we begin with major developments in the investigation into the deadly january 6th capitol attack. an elusive trump loyalist and former trump administration official has been reportedly found and served with a subpoena. the panel gave him and three other members of the ex-president's inner circle documents to sit for deposition testimony this week. given the group's varying levels of cooperation, we'll have to wait and see if they decide to comply. the fact that compliance with a congressional subpoena is even up for speculation is a sign of the times we are living in, and an indicator of the shaky ground we now find ourselves on. beyond the january 6th riot, the larger attempt to overturn our democracy is still ongoing with trump leading the way. the failed former president is of course fighting this january
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6th investigation at every turn. but he's also doing something far more sinister by convincing his supporters there's no need for an investigation at all. last night in iowa at his rally, he served his supporters plate after plate of lies with a side of white grievance and they ate it up. that's why we can't let trump's rhetoric cloud the reality of what we all witnessed that day. the heart of our democracy was attacked by the twice-impeached ex-president who couldn't do it alone. the january 6th committee may be setting their sights on fellow republican members of congress as "washington post" critic writes in his review of house intel chair and panel member adam schiff's book, quote, in effect, there were two ins regulations, not one, and he is more interested in the insurrectionists wearing suits and ties than the shirtless ones in buffalo horns.
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we came so close to losing our democracy. the system held, if barely. joined now is a pulitzer prize-winning and msnbc contributor. former national political director for supermajority. thank you ladies both for joining me today. one of the things that i have found so interesting of this insurrection is the fact that there are so many dotted lines that seem to be leading to people inside the capitol. congress congressional members themselves. can you talk a little bit about this? >> sure. the senate judiciary committee last week made a very detailed report based on interviews of former justice department officials and emails and other messages and hand-written notes that show that there were officials in the white house working hard to try to overturn the results of the election. it also shows that there are members of congress including
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representative scott perry -- the report probably raises more questions than it answers, but what it shows is the one justice department official who seemed to want to participate in this plan, he was told and he told others that he was doing it because representative scott had asked him -- so it raises more questions than answers. there is a reason to continue to ask questions. >> can i ask you, how can this investigation right now, how can it be that when you talk about executive privilege, can they completely exonerate trump but then leave his other individuals that are being targeted open for investigation more fully? >> i think that the executive privilege has been somewhat damaged already because the justice department ruled that former justice department officials under trump were able to possibly. and former president trump did not push back on those interviews.
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for example, the justice department officials who participated in a january 3rd meeting -- worked to overturn the results of the election. and mark meadows was in meetings where similar expectations were shared. just as importantly, though, the committees investigating what happened on january 6th and the weeks leading up to it -- records from the national archives and the national archives are set to hand those records over. -- talking about the election. so, even if people do not participate, the committee could get fairly far in writing of what people were talking about inside the white house. >> one of the things that i
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found so telling was the rally that trump had in iowa, he continues to spread the big lie. take a listen. >> january 6 was a setup. and there's evidence that's been pouring out since then that it was set up. and the fbi was involved. >> i'm in total belief it was a big setup. everything is a political scheme anymore. >> juanita, what is your take when we have a swath of americans who don't believe that our elections were fair and even? >> well, look, it just shows the continued impact and influence trump has and the willingness of his base to eat this up. when he takes the stage like we saw in iowa last night, he's going to continue to beat that drum. it's the willingness of gop officials across the country to have these fake recounts, these fake election reviews in states
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like arizona or georgia and others where they're continuing to perpetuate that same theme. while we hear this from the crowds that were interviewed for the clip you just showed, we also have to recognize that polling shows that 60% of americans recognize what happened on january 6th was a terrorist attack, recognized that it was an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. so they do represent a small margin of the population, but it's still dangerous because this lie has been used to fuel everything we can think of from voter suppression laws across the country to, again, these fake reviews that we're seeing in key battleground states. it is a battle cry that we're unfortunately going to continue to hear throughout the 2022 midterms and well into 2024 the next presidential election. >> and just very briefly, juanita, what do you think of the fact that the democrats are trying to say, we're not going to have iowa first as a caucus? what's your take on that? >> look, i think it fully tracks
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with what we've heard from biden and other lead democrats after it was recognized that, one, the reporting issues in 2020 in iowa as well as, two, the fact that 91% of voter participation in the iowa caucus in 2020 was white. it fully tracks with democrats' desire to have more representative caucuses and primaries that fully take into account what voters across the country and voters who represent what the democratic party is comprised of today think, and also don't want to give that just to one or two states when we know that those two states are critical in determining who will get the democratic nomination. so, there's going to be a push here. we know the final decision comes to biden. but it's going to get a little bit sticky. >> sticky is the least of it, but you're absolutely right. thank you both for joining me. joining me now is kansas democratic congresswoman sharice davids. she chairs a number of
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committees including the transportation and committee and she co-chairs the negative caucus and the lgbtq equality caucus. thank you so much for joining me today, congresswoman. i want to talk to you a little bit about what is your take right now on the investigation that we're seeing on january 6th? and are you surprised by the reaction of so many of your colleagues who seem to refuse the cooperation? so i believe you're on mute. [ laughter ] so if you can unmute yourself. >> sorry. >> it's only been 18 months, but i also forget the mute button. go for it it. >> everybody's all zoomed out. you would think that we'd have it all down by now. sorry about that. first of all, i do want to just kind of acknowledge how traumatizing the 6th was for so many people and the emotions that it evokes. and one of the things that has
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been so painful, i think, about it is the lack of acknowledgment, particularly from folks who were in the building during that -- on that day, and then i think that i can tell you i'm glad that i've got my colleagues that are on the committee doing that work because it's really important that we make sure that we get down to the bottom of everything we can find out about how this happened to make sure that it never happens again. >> it's interesting because i was talking to a senator, and he was sharing with me how some of his staff might be right now suffering from ptsd of that moment that it was so traumatic that people did not know what they were doing. what kind of support are members getting and their staff and reporters that were there that day? is there support services being offered? >> yeah. so, we actually do have some --
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at least on the house side, i can't speak for the senate side. we have some employee support that has been made available. i know we did include some funding to make sure that the capitol police are able to access some support as well. and then i can say personally for the folks in my office, we actually had a person who is an expert on trauma-informed care speak, was available to speak to my team. because, you're right, for everyone, also for the people who are on the hill often, it was a traumatic day. and then i know the folks at home who are watching felt some of that trauma as well. >> i had the privilege of working, starting my career on capitol hill and watching that unfold with my children next to me was harrowing because they
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were sights that we expected to see in other countries, and the work of a democratic congress, democratic with a little d to see it happen within our facility was difficult. i do want to shift lanes a little bit and talk about the infrastructure negotiations. i know that you sit on the committee. and one of the things that i found striking is that senator manchin says that we have to figure out what we're going to give. what is not going to be included in the package? and one of the things that seems to be the most contentious is whether or not to provide childcare. and we both know that if we don't provide childcare, millions of families, disproportionately women, won't be able to get back to work. can you speak to where we are in the negotiations and what you would tell senator manchin of what they should give up. >> yeah. i think, first of all, just touching on the fact that so
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many women have been, have left the workforce, unfortunately too many people, of course, because of this devastating pandemic have lost their lives, and more and more information is coming out about the impact on children when it comes to losing either a primary caretaker or guardian or both in some instances of their parents. i think that we have to make sure that as we move forward that we think about the way that this is going to impact whole families, and certainly making sure that women are included in that is -- i mean, there's no doubt, and studies show that when women are included in the policymaking that the outcomes are better. and so i would say that, one, we need to make sure that we're
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increasing the availability of affordable healthcare. i've been pushing for a medicaid expansion look-a-like program. and that's because unfortunately in kansas we have not expanded medicaid. and also things like the child tax credit, making sure that folks have access to -- i mean, those tax cuts in the form of a child tax credit that are hitting people's accounts or the ways that people can afford childcare and get back to work, the ways that people can afford to put food on the table in some instances. so i think for, my hope would be that all of my colleagues in the house and on the senate side would recognize the importance of keeping these provisions in there and making sure that we're getting on track to have really a thriving economy. >> well, and i think, to your point, is we have to recognize that of developed countries, the
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united states spends the least on child development. we have the norwegians that pay the most, which is roughly 30,000 a child. but we spend less than $500. so it speaks a little bit to what our priorities are and if we are to make sure that we keep saying that we are a country of family values, perhaps investing in our children is a good way to start. i want to ask you -- yep, go ahead. >> oh, no, i was just going to say, my mom raised me and my two brothers by herself. and she went back to work -- she was in the army for 20 years. she went back to work very quickly after i was born. and having access to childcare, having access to, you know, things like headstart programs and early childhood education have, i truly believe, were a part of the mixture of support and hard work that my mom put in
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to help make sure that somebody like me could even do something like talk to folks as one of the first two native american women ever to serve in congress, you know. >> and speak a little bit about that. tomorrow marks the very first time that a president has declared national indigenous day. and it's also national coming out day. how does that make you feel? because often times we talk about all the steps we're taking backwards as a country. but this also really marks a recognition of our country's heritage as painful as that may be. what are your thoughts? >> i'm glad you asked the question that way because that's exactly what i've been thinking about is, you know, we have a president right now who, for the very first time, has acknowledged tomorrow as indigenous people's day. also we're in this time where we're trying to make sure that we're doing just that,
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acknowledging the long often painful history for so many people in this country. and that's for natives and for the lgbtq+ spirit community. i love the kind of intersectionality that i'm feeling for tomorrow. but also, recognizing that we're in this era where people are learning so many more about the history of our country, and also about the work that's ahead of us, but how many steps we've taken. i think whether we're talking about now secretary deb haaland or secretary buttigieg, i get to serve in the u.s. house of representatives, but it's not just in the political space and in fashion, in entertainment, we've got -- we have so many amazing things going on right now that i love when we get the
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chance to celebrate those things because, yeah, we have a lot of work, but we also have a lot of successes to celebrate. >> well, democratic representative sharice davids, i couldn't have said it better myself. thanks so much for joining me. we are just getting started this morning. representative mark takano joins the conversation at the top of the hour to discuss the very latest from capitol hill. still to come on "velshi," ali may not be here today but he's still here in spirit, and he helps shed light on a relatively unknown story of race. >> to hear how they still remember what it was like to be a 7-year-old or an 8-year-old and to be treated this way, i really want -- i wanted my kids to know that story. i wanted kids of that generation to understand that it wasn't that long ago that we as a nation and as a state have been struggling with this discrimination, this intentional segregation. gregation.
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if we learned anything this past year, it's that democracy is very, very fragile. even a democracy like america. one of the things that holds democracy together is freedom of the press. it is the fourth estate for a reason. it sheds light on the powerful, holding them to account. and it's this transparency that stems corruption. a thriving democracy is dependent on a free press. it's why despots and autocrats alike despise journalists so. the nobel peace prize was awarded for the third time in its 120-year history. maria ressa and dmitri were awarded for, quote, their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. they ran independent news
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organizations in the philippines and russia respectively. ressa and her digital media company had exposed corruption inside duterte's government. the nobel committee's decision. the agency says, quote, free independent fact-based journalism serves to protect against lies and power. without freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations. journalists all under the world are under immense pressure by authoritarian leaders. holding power to account is a noble job and deserves to be recognized as such. you repeat a lie a million times, it becomes fact. without facts you can't have truth. without truth you can't have trust. without these, democracy as know it is dead. d,
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a public act of defiance has triggered quite the fallout for the social media giant, but she's just one of a parade of ex-employees to ring the alarm about the dangers of facebook. on tuesday former facebook project manager frances haugen told a senate subcommittee that facebook knew its products were damaging to teens and resisted change to make the platform safer. haugen's testimony may be some of the most damning evidence against the company to date. but she is hardly the first whistle-blower to come out against facebook and social media culture at large. according to "the washington post," dozens of facebook employees have resigned, saying the company has not done enough to protect its users. the article published friday says that despite all of the public relations spin, several current and former employees believe facebook is, quote, obsessed with growth, unwilling to undertake systemic reforms in the face of documented harms and
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ready to accommodate the politically powerful, especially president donald trump in the years before he was banned on the platform after the january 6th siege on the u.s. capitol. joining me now is senior nbc reporter and "new york times" tech reporter. thank you so much for joining me, ladies. i want to start with you, brandy. one of the things that i found so interesting, and you've done a lot of work on this, is how reticent facebook seems to be when it is to actually change this behavior. how surprised were you by frances' testimony? >> oh, not surprised at all. i mean, i think cecilia will tell you the same thing. for those of us who have been following facebook for any amount of time, even the explosive "wall street journal" reports were things that we all sort of knew. this stuff was all out on a platform that employees had access to. so that's tens of thousands of people all with access to the
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same information. i think what haugen did was she was a vehicle for this information and the explosive "wall street journal" reporting just one at a time over and over and over really got at sort of the astronomical size of the problem. in fact, i think haugen actually testified that facebook puts astronomical profits before people. it's just a story that we've heard time and time again. i think the "wall street journal" or "the washington post" story, which you highlighted, i'm glad that you did because it's important to notice and to say that really good people like haugen and like others with civic integrity, like, all through the company, good people work at facebook, smart people, smart people who want to change the world for the better. facebook used to be a pretty closed company where the private things on these platforms, the private meetings from zuckerberg that were companywide just didn't get out. now that has all changed as stories being told by employees
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within the company. >> you wrote the book "an ugly truth." what i found striking is that you were sounding the alarm very similarly to one of the most original whistle-blowers roger mcnamee. he was on the show yesterday. take a listen to what he said, and i'd love to get your thoughts when we return. >> for 50 years tech products empowered the people who use them. and if you sort of think through the promise of personal computers, steve jobs and apple, there was always a very idealist culture in the silicon valley that lasted more or less until facebook was founded. the early 2000s saw a major cultural shift. and ever since then, technology got so powerful, computers got so powerful that it was no longer necessary for entrepreneurs to listen to customers. tech products are where food was in 1900. when we passed the food and drug act in 1906, it was because food was unsafe, we had to make the
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food safe. we now need to do the same thing for tech. have something like an fda. >> cecilia, in your book you follow up with saying, one thing is certain, even if the company undergoes radical transformation in the coming years, that change is unlikely to come from within, the algorithm that serves as facebook's beating heart is too powerful and too lucrative. can you expand a little bit on that? >> yeah. and i think frances haugen this week tried to crystalize and make accessible how facebook's systems work. and that's at the heart of our book as well as the reporting by brandy and so many others, which is that facebook is different in that its system, the technology uses software decisions, software ranking, known as algorithms, to amplify certain content. the content that they amplify is the most agitating content. positive agitation or negative agitation. why they do this and why this is so important to them is because when they do that, people engage
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more. they like, they comment, they share stories, and that's really important to facebook because they need people to come back more and more. and so that particular business model has become so powerful and so persuasive. they're not the only ones, facebook is not the only company that deploys this business model. what facebook has done and what frances haugen and other reporters have shown for quite some time as well as other whistle-blower that's they consistently make decisions to prioritize growth and engagement so much so that even when there are warnings that there are problems, security risks related to january 6th, security risks related to the elections of 2020 and 2016, as well as teen harms over and over they decide to choose engagement over security of people. >> well, and that's one of the things that i found so striking is that it seems as if they're doing research and they find the research, but they're not changing the algorithm because all of a sudden it would be less
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profitable. and yet one of the things that mark zuckerberg is now threatening is that, in quotes, many of the claims don't make any sense, if we wanted to ignore research, why would we create an industry-leading program to understand these important issues in the first place? we didn't care about fighting harmful content, then why would we employ so many people dedicated to this? even ones that are larger than us. what do you say about this? because it seems like he's saying, fine, we'll just not use research and all of the problems will go away. >> yeah, lots of companies do, do that. youtube is a big one, for example, where we have really no idea about what's going on, on youtube. separately i think the question that you ask, why would facebook employ these people if it's not going to listen to them? i think you have hundreds maybe thousands of employees within facebook asking themselves that same question. and it's because there are dual
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functions within certain teams. so you might have, you know, a team that's tasked with newsfeed or groups. but within those specific functions of the platform, you have combative teams. some are charged with telling us about how people use them, and some are charged with telling them how we can make them grow faster. and so often you're hearing when people are tasked with finding out, okay, how does this affect elections or how does this affect voting or how does this affect hate speech or whatever, you're hearing people sound the alarm. and then within the same function you're hearing people say, but if we want people to continue to use them, we're going to have to keep this algorithm the way that it is. and that's the story we've heard time and time again. i think it's worth saying, i'm struck by the idea of cecilia's book, the name of it. it actually comes from a 2016 quote from who is now cto andrew bosworth and that is an ugly
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truth. and the ugly truth in that memo is that its growth is the number one point no matter the harms that are come. he mentioned terrorist attacks in that memo, he mentioned bullying. it's never going to end if we're talking about growth. i could have this conversation with you for a very long time because i think you're absolutely right. facebook, we know they've organized the insurrection of january 6th. it's been responsible for sadly ethnic cleansing in asia and the list goes on. thank you so much for joining me this morning. don't go anywhere. our next guest is providing hope for thousands in california. stay with us for a small bit of good news. are you ready to meet the new class of subway's eat fresh refresh™? the new baja steak & jack,
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cruelty of modern capitalist society, all while watching the scariest part of the series is not the gore, it's the fact that for so many americans poverty and economic insecurity is far from a scripted tv show. it is real. we live in a world where people struggling to pay for healthcare, find a home and feed their children often rely on charity and crowdfunding. we're conditioned to think that stories of these communities coming together to fund a young child's chemo is heartwarming. but, really, it's a sign of a fraying society. as the nation puts it, these stories highlight the casual cruelty exploitation, injustice, and multisystem dysfunction we've been socialized to accept in every aspect of our american lives. but what can be done? history and experience tell us that the government cannot solve poverty alone. it's up to partnerships with private sector, nonprofit innovation and individuals to make the difference. our next guest is working on doing just that. hope of the valley is a
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nonprofit that provides tiny homes complete with a lock, hot showers and three meals a day for the thousands of people living on the streets in los angeles. residents can stay rent-free as long as they are on a path toward permanent housing. let's welcome hope of the valley rescue mission president and ceo ken craft. thank you so much for joining me today. i always like to find some heartwarming stories that really put an eye on solving problems. when we came across the work that you are doing, i thought that it was not only relevant, but as it's getting colder, people need good meals and they need place where's they feel secure. can you talk a little bit about your program and the work that you're doing? >> yeah. well, thank you for having me. we're really excited about the progress that we're able to make with these tiny homes. for those who are unfamiliar with them, they're only 64 square feet so they are very tiny. but within each unit, there are two beds, there is air-conditioning, there is heating, a place for storage, three electrical outlets, four
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windows. and a front door that locks. and that locking front door is essential, especially for so many women who've been living on the streets who've been sexually abused and traumatized. there are laundry facilities, three meals a day, mental health services, case management, housing navigation, job training, and job placement. historically, los angeles has been difficult to scale homeless services, but in 2018 mayor eric garcetti declared shelter emergency. and under that emergency such housing as these tiny homes now is legal. and it became available. so we've been able to partner with other organizations that actually manufacture these. in the city of los angeles has taken an aggressive approach to make sure we bring everybody inside. we all agree that permanent housing is the ultimate solution, but the streets cannot be the waiting room for permanent housing. and so we've been able to open, let's see, about almost 500 tiny homes and a thousand beds in
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partnership with the city of los angeles. >> the fact that you're providing wrap-around services helps also stem a lot of the issues that come with homelessness. and so when you look around, what type of impact do you see in the city of los angeles because of hope of the valley and the people that you work with? and the reason i ask that is that we often times see the reporting coming out of los angeles on how homelessness is devastating the city both for the person that's experiencing it and also for the city itself. >> homelessness is devastating on a personal level, individuals who find themselves being homeless and on a community level. but i will say i am more optimistic now than i have ever been before. and there is funding on a state level, funding on a local level, and there is this collaborative effort between service providers and between municipalities and the city itself working together. and so right now with this new
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shelter ordinance, the numbers of new housing that's coming online, interim housing and permanent housing, i remind people that often times it is darkest before the dawn. and i believe when people drive the streets of los angeles they see tremendous amounts of encampments. but i was at the ribbon-cutting for the most recent tiny home community when the councilman for that district, he proudly declared that he now has beds for everybody that is homeless, street homeless in his council district. that's what we want to hear throughout all 15 council districts as we work collaboratively to bring people inside, stabilize them, and then ultimately move them towards permanent housing. and that's what we're seeing happening every day. >> ken craft, hope of the valley president and ceo, thank you so much for the work that you're doing on the ground to alleviate the pain of so many. thank you for joining us this morning. next, the reality of being the child of an undocumented immigrant in modern-day america. for many, it means back-breaking
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work and children stepping up to be the family breadwinners. a new documentary gets to the heart of these children's experience putting food on our table. that's next. that's next. (engines revving, cars hitting one another.) (sfx: continued vehicle calamity.) just think, he'll be driving for real soon. every new chevy equinox comes standard with chevy safety assist, including automatic emergency braking. find new peace of mind. find new roads. chevrolet. [uplifting music playing]
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♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪
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according to the center for american progress, nearly 17 million americans, mostly children, live in mixed-status households, where at least one loved one is undocumented. during donald trump's reign of terror on undocumented workers, millions of these american children witnessed their parents go underground to prevent deportation. many of these children replaced their parents in low-paying, back-breaking jobs trying to make a living for a household. now a new document called "fruits of labor" puts a face on the plight of the american children who work to feed us. it focuses a mexican-american teenager from california who works long days in a strawberry
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field and then in a factory. circumstances force her to become the breadwinner for her family. the documentary is similar to "the grapes of wrath" and more like that than a modern 21st century. >> if you work hard, you can achieve your dreams. ♪♪ [ speaking foreign language ] >> joining me now is the filmmaker behind the documentary. emily, i want to ask you, the reason i found your story was listening to a conversation you had with npr and what moved me so much was that you were able
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to identify so much with this conversation in the document. why did you do it? >> well, you know, i have been committed to the farm workers struggle for decades. but it was really after the 2016 election that i saw a marked increase of i.c.e. raids in ashley's town. while children have worked in the fields since basically since the times of slavery, and that hasn't changed in terms of there's not worker protections for children like other sectors of the economy in agriculture. but what i saw was after the 2016 election, there was a marked increase of children, often times taking the place of undocumented adumts because people were scared to go work in the fields and factories. and so these children, there was a major labor gap, and these children were replacing these
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undocumented adults. and the protagonist of the film was one of these young people. for me i had gotten to know ashley over the years. she's a brilliant young woman, an advocate in her community. and i wanted to do a coming-of-age story that really got to the heart of her family and her work conditions and what it means to be a young woman living in economic precarity in the wealthiest nation in the world. >> i don't think that folks think enough about how the food on our tables are done with hard work, often in dangerous conditions. >> so, children have, like i said, had worked in the fields from times of slavery. then we got in the '30s with jim
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crow, and rather than extend worker protections across the board, agriculture and domestic labor were removed from these protections. it was a negotiation with democrats. so children as young as 12 years old can go and work in the fields in the united states. it's dangerous work. you have exposure to pesticides. with climate change, heat, incredible heat. these are long hours, 12-hour shifts bending down and highly physical labor. strawberries, what a lot of people don't understand, is a delicate product. and so people, you know, it's one of the hardest produce to pick. you are bent over for days or, sorry for the entire shift you're bent down.
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so it's difficult work. >> well, and i think what folks don't realize is that at this time she's also juggling going to school. what has been the reaction of the film? >> yes. we've had really great reception for the film i think because it's this coming-of-age story, people really connect with ashley. she's easy to fall in love with. but, yes, people haven't realized that, you know, children, many children in american small towns are actually working these jobs doing really hard labor and doing night shifts. the night shift isn't legal, but since it's not as regulated, food processing plants hire large numbers of children to do that work. >> and we're going to continue that conversation right now. please stay with me. i want to make sure that we bring in grecia from united dreams so that we can give full
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context of what we're discussing. thank you, emily, we'll be right back. mily, we'll be right back es with home and auto to help people save more! [ laughs ] ♪♪ [ humming ] [ door creaks ] oh. [ soft music playing ] what are you all doing in my daydream? it's better than that presentation. a lot better. you know, whether it's a fraction or a decimal, it's still fun, you know? this is wealth. you know, whether it's a fraction ♪ ♪ this is worth. that takes wealth. but this is worth. and that - that's actually worth more than you think. don't open that. wealth is important, and we can help you build it. but it's what you do with it, that makes life worth living. principal. for all it's worth.
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working at recology is more than a job for jesus. it's a family tradition. jesus took over his dad's roue when he retired after 47 year. now he's showing a new generation what recology is all about. as an employee-owned company, recology provides good-paying local jobs for san franciscans. we're proud to have built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america. let's keep making a differene together. welcome back. we continue our conversation on immigration with emily cone. also joining us is garcia, she's an immigrants right advocate. thank you for joining. i saw this film.
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had emily agree to join. i knew i needed to have you in the conversation. i want to ask you this question briefly. here is a quote from ashley included in the documentary. my path way towards the future has become a narrow hallway collapsing on itself. no butterflies, no kissing bees, no fruit blossoms. my spirit rots. when i heard that -- this was a young woman who her parents brought her here with the idea that she was going to make it in america, that she was going to go to school. previously, we showed a clip that's what her mother was encouraging her to do. she finds herself working back breaking work while trying to manage school. talking about how so many of our latino children grow up faster than others because of these burdens. can you speak a little bit about your own personal experience and how this film touches you?
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>> it's an honor to be with you today. such beautiful words from those that are living in it every single day. as the oldest daughter of a documented immigrant in the u.s., i know what she's talking about. the feelings of feeling overwhelmed. sometimes not knowing whether you are going to have electricity in the house or food on the table. but i also know the spirit that i see in the members of united we dream every single day is one that recognizes the challenges that are ahead and also decides to hang on to the discipline of hope and of joy. as we saw in the clip just now, she was also celebrating birthdays and also getting ready to celebrate life events. so as undocumented people -- millions of undocumented people face the threat of i.c.e. it threatens our lives. i know immigrant young people
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are ready and are always showing up and sharing their story, just like she did on this film. >> emily what are you trying to accomplish with this film? >> i want people to see, you know, the human face to picking our fruits and vegetables. but also, understanding what these draconian immigration policies actually do to families. ashley's mother works seven days a week cleaning houses and businesses. you know, she has four children born in the united states. by having the draconian immigration policies and i.c.e., you are threatening family separation and putting children -- american children in danger. so i want people to understand in that close-up and personal -- we can understand that universal coming of age kind of things that ashley, like many teenagers, anxieties of being a
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teenager and the joys and also this really beautiful relationship between her and her mother. but the strain and the burdens. why are we putting the weight of the world on children? so i think it's a way to re-examine what our policies are actually doing on the ground and how they're hurting children and thwarting their ability to accomplish a higher education or whatever their dreams and aspirations are. >> one of the things i found striking that emily touched upon was that when they were trying to negotiate fair labor standards and regulation, the two sectors that were carved out of those negotiations were domestic workers and farm workers. that is the fight we see ourselves now almost 60 years later. can you speak to where we are on that status? once again, why this historic residue of slavery that seems to
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impact our communities of color. >> this is, of course -- i think we are talking about the impact of capitalism on our communities, on the bodies of black and brown people. i think it's important for us to recognize that the majority of farm workers are black people of whose labor corporations and politicians benefit every single day. it has been 35 years since we have had a breakthrough on immigration policy. we have seen people like the united farm workers be at the forefront of these fights. and yet, we are still to see breakthroughs that we deserve, that our dignity has been continued to be in question. just in this moment there's a conversation in congress about whether or not citizenship will be on table for undocumented
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farm workers, for essential workers, for domestic workers. the reality is, it's simple. the democrats have the majority of the house, the senate and the white house. they have the ability to deliver these things. sometimes you have to ask yourself, who benefits from our ability to be in detention? who benefits from our existence in the farm workers and the farms that have back breaking work and the tearing apart of families? at united we dream, we believe in the discipline of hope. we believe that we are more than time, the circumstance, the history. but that we are much more than that. i am excited and grounded in this discipline of hope and of joy. i also know that it's my job and the job of young people all across the country to demand what we deserve. that's citizenship and protection for all.
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>> i can't imagine anyone else heading up a united we dream at this moment. thank you for joining me. emily, i have to say, ashley was the voice of so many of us. my family worked in the field. it was touching to see her struggle. she represents millions. please do catch the documentary. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. representative mark takano joins the conversation. ali is away, but he filed a report for us before he left about a story of injustice and discrimination unknown to most americans. he will bring us the story and the man who is trying to keep to keep it alive in the face of opposition. good morning. it's 9:00 a.m. on the east coast this sunday morning on october 10th.

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