something that doesn't exist. i've seen some people are afraid of the word critical. they hear critical. oh, you're criticizing me. no. that's an approach to learning. it's not that i'm criticizing you. i'm taking a critical look at something so if we can get people to understand what it means maybe they won't be so afraid, but they've been whipped up so much through politics. >> don't go anywhere. we're just getting started on this saturday morning. straight ahead representative richie torres joins the conversation and he was part of a group that met with president biden this week. another hour of velshi starts right now. ♪♪ ♪♪ good morning. it's 9:00 a.m. in the east, 6:00 a.m. out west. i'm ali velshi. the ball's in the doj court as it weighs criminal contempt charges against the ex-president former strategist turned podcaster steve bannon. this week the house voted to

hold bannon in contempt for defying the january 6th subpoena order. every democrat in the house voted in favor of this, nine republicans joined them. meanwhile, the committee may soon gain critical insight from one of the main former administration officials who tried to help the ex-president overturn the 2020 election. cnn reports that the former doj official, this man, jeffrey clark may be one of the first to actually comply with the committee's subpoenas and testify before the panel next week. you'll remember clark has emerged as a key figure who helped craft a plan to get the justice department to validate the ex-president's lies about the election results. the january 6th committee has been working quickly despite the former president's efforts to obstruct that investigations. for weeks now the twice-impeached ex-president has made dubious assertions of executive privilege in an attempt to prevent the house select committee from obtaining crucial documents that were

related from the national archives. now the court is set to test those claims as early as next month. tania has scheduled a november 4th hearing against the committee which means we could learn if there's any weight behind his claims. democrats may be closer than ever on reaching a deal on president biden's spending package. nancy pelosi appeared optimistic on friday after meeting with biden. >> it's going to be bigger than anything we've ever done, for moms and dads who have family responsibilities and for children who are taking care of their parents and for women in the workplace, it's remarkable and for children and for job, it's remarkable. >> following weeks of negotiations between the majority of the party and a few so-called moderate holdouts and house democrats are aiming for a vote on both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the build back better spending plan

next week. here's what we know so far about some of the main programs that are staying and that are going. what's likely to stay in the bill is a federal four-week paid family medical leave plan. that's down from the initially proposed 12 weeks. universal pre-k, child tax credits are being extended by one year. there will be possible $800 vouchers for dental costs and funding for child care centers and increases to pell grants and there will be unspecified climate change funding and there have been big cuts to it. elder provisions are staying and here's what's likely to be left out of the plan. free community coverage that includes dental, vision and hearing and clean electricity performance program that's the one joe manchin didn't want to support ask tax rate hikes on corporations and top income earners. joining me now is tara palmieri. i just mentioned joe manchin not

wanting to support clean energy stuff because he comes from a state that does a lot of coal. there was new reporting that joe manchin has seriously considered the idea of leaving the democratic party. he denied this a couple of days ago or sort of suggested that this reporting wasn't true. reuters reports he acknowledges weighing on whether to leave the democratic party. >> the rumors circulate around washington that joe manchin wants to leave the democratic party. is this a way of him saying don't push me too far or i'll leave the party. is it better to have a moderate democrat that drags his feet on progressive policies or do you want me to be republican? in this case, though, he was considering becoming an independent and not a republican, but we hear this all

of the time even during the trump administration, it could be a leveraging tactic. we do know that i was actually at this event on monday and that joe manchin was at this event on monday in which the reporter who first broke this was also there and we tend to see this happen often and it's cocktail party season in washington when these rumors start to swirl about joe manchin is leaving the democratic party and perhaps it's a strategic idea to people at the party that he's considering leaving as a way to have leverage in these intense negotiations right now or it's people who he's around him to weaken his hand, as well. >> he's powerful. >> right.

exactly, the other senator in west virginia is a republican, and he did win recently in 2020. so he's not up for reelection until 2024 so there's no reason for him to be switching parties right now unless he's floating this out there as a way to have some sort of leverage in they negotiation. >> let's talk about the bannon stuff. it's been referred now to the department of justice. there are questions people have about the fact that the department of justice under biden is supposed to look very different than the department of justice in terms of not doing the president's bidding. he does not know what he's going to do with this criminal reform of steve bannon. what does it look like to you? >> typically, attorneys general don't like wading into these political waters, right? that's not where they want to be. it never works out well for them, even for special counsels.

it's just never the place where they want to go where it's hyperpolitical because they end up being attacked in the process, right? then merrick garland will suddenly be the subject of attack ads and it will be about him. while digging up dirt about him, this is not a fun place to be in, but clearly is necessary when you have people who, frankly, don't care about the law. so what do you do when you need testimony to tell the first story and they don't want to comply. it seems now they're starting to take it more seriously and it was a big step by congress to hold bannon in contempt which is what they had to do essentially and now it's up to the doj. there's nothing more that congress can do and holding someone in contempt is a dishonor, right? most people feel like it would abe dishonor, but for someone like bannon who has a podcast

this could be a badge of honor. >> it's content. >> exactly. the only way to show it is if the doj can back it up, but it has to go through so many processes. here's the thing, trump's allies, they're doing exactly what trump did throughout his career. it's fight, fight, extend, extend, extend. keep using the tactics of delay tactics hoping that the next congress won't actually investigate this. >> good to see you, my friend. thank you for joining thus morning. tara palmieri is the co-author of "political playbook." joining me now is ritchie torres, the congressman sat in a two-hour meeting this week with president biden, vice president harris and the treasury secretary janet yellen. good to see you this morning. thank you for taking time to join us. i've been looking at that list of the reporting of what is likely going to stay in the big

bill and what's going to go from it. i'm a canadian and i'm a little sad about the 12 weeks down to a few weeks of paid leave, the climate change stuff that we don't actually have several kicks at the can and try to get right, but a lot of your colleagues tell me don't be sad. there's still a lot of bill here. >> if you compare it to the original build back better act, it's a disappointment, and i would admit as much, but if you compare it to the status quo it represents a fundamental improvement and under the build back better act, senior citizens would have access to home care. every 3-year-old and 4-year-old would have access to pre-k, millions of children will be lifted out of poverty and we're on the verge of creating a 21st-century social contact. on balance it represents not only physical, but social

infrastructure in the history of the united states. >> does that suggest it me that you and your progressive colleagues are close to being able to go along with what has been agreed to or what is being agreed to as you and i talk? >> negotiations are ongoing and i continue to have concerns and too heavy for me are the child tax credit and affordable housing. for me joe biden's build back better is what fdr's 20th century, and for me there's no greater triumph of racial equity than the expanded child tax credit which led to radical reductions in poverty for black and brown families and we have an obligation to sustain those reductions for as long as we can. i'm concerned that the proposal for a mere one-year expansion could be a death sentence for the child tax credit. it should not assume permanent

democratic control for the federal government. republicans were to take over the senate and the house then the child tax credit would likely be left to expire and millions of children who were lifted out of poverty would be plunged right back into the abyss. >> so the business guy in me says that the child's tax credit has been wildly successful already from an economic perspective, so if you were an economic conservative you would say the return on every dollar spnt on the child tax credit not only immediately by lifting children out of poverty, but by the continued effect of it by allowing them a better education and allowing them greater success in life it almost makes it a must-renew type of program. >> in a rational world, yes, but there's nothing rational about the modern republican party around donald trump. every single american voted against the american rescue plan which cut child poverty by 50%,

and i have no confidence that a party that's willing to dismantle american democracy ask sabotage the full faith and credit of the united states would be willing to preserve the child tax credit in the long run. >> you bring up affordable housing. those two things, food and housing are sort of a weird thing in 2021 in the richest country in the world that we still suffer from the percentages that we do. what more would you like with respect to housing? >> we cannot build back better without making america more affordable. we need to see investments in public housing, section 8 and the trust fund and we have to create more housing and ensure that what we create is affordable to the lowest income americans and it has become dangerously affordable and we're an essential worker, and there are only seven out of 3,000 counties that are affordable to

essential workers earning minimum wage. they're essential workers who put their lives at risk for all of us during the peak of the pandemic, who find themselves languishing in the jelte that they cannot afford the bare necessities of life liked if. we owe them access to safety and affordable housing independent you talk about a two-ped room apartment, a single parent parent cannot afford a dwelling if they earn's minh wage in this congressman. congressman richy torres of new york. coming up on "velshi," we have you in internal documents shows numerous employees raised red flags on the site to no avail. five states and counting have analyzed the congressional maps and it will make a difference on both parties and the latest move on the texas abortion ban

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the supreme court had a chance to suspend the near total ban on abortion in texas. they have decided not to do that. yesterday the court decided not to grant the justice department's request to block the texas law which effectively bans most abortions, but in a rare move the court also announced that it would fast track a hearing specifically on

how the challenges to how texas created this law. oral arguments are scheduled for november 1st, that's just nine days from now which means the supreme court will take up two major and possibly consequential abortion cases this term. on december 1st, it will hear mississippi's abortion case which is a much more direct challenge to the constitutionality of abortion. supreme court justice sonia sotomayor emerges as the fiercest defender of abortion rights with the partial dissent to yesterday's decision and she agrees the court should remain in place, and it is cold comfort for texas women seeking abortion care who are entitled to relief now. according to the associated press, the law, quote, has led to an 80% reduction in abortions in the second largest states meanwhile abortions in oklahoma have been inundated with patients from texas and multiple states have passed new legislation limiting abortion rights. these developments underscore

just how intense the abortion discourse has become since texas enacted its law and renewed energy among abortion opponents meaning this battle is not going to end any time soon. hey, mark zuckerberg, do you want to borrow a copy of my frankenstein because your monster is out of control. documents handed over to the fed which highlight the social media giant's role in the january 6th capitol riot, but first a breaking story out of the middle east. a u.s. military has confirmed that it has killed a senior al qaeda leader in syria by a drone strike. a spokesperson u.s. special command says it would have the ability to further plot and carry out -- this after a u.s. outpost was hit by a coordinated attack including drones and rockets. no u.s. personnel were killed or injured. we'll bring you more information as it comes in.

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the fallout continues for facebook as new documents provide by whistle-blower frances haugen detailed the extent of the company's initiative on implementing safeguards on its platform. multiple news outlets reported last night that employees raised flags, and internal research shows that facebook's algorithm represented qanon on to unsuspected yierzs yet facebook continued to make some questionable decisions. as "the washington post" notes in its reporting that the company rolled back some of what it implemented during the election season. it had grown weary of the team's criticisms of the company according to former employees. anger amongst the company's employees boiled over after

january 6th as the associated press put it, over the capitol riot facebook faced its own insurrection. one of the employee's messageboard, quote, we've been fuelling this fire for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised it's now out of control. these documents make clear that employees around facebook had been keenly aware of the social ills tied to the social media platform. the warning signs were there, but for one reason or another, we probably know what the reason is, they were overlooked. joining me is someone who was an early investor in facebook and the author of "zucked," waking up to the facebook catastrophe. you were on with me last night. one of the things that came out in this new reporting and that came out in frances haugen's testimony last week is something that you have been saying for years. facebook knew this is how it worked and what these new reports are indicating is that

they actively made decisions not just to profit from some of this bad information that it was putting out, but they had algorithms that directed innocent people who were not actively looking for qanon and conspiracy theories to those pages. >> the problem with this whole thing is that facebook has created a worldwide network that connects 3 billion people to each other with no walls or safeguards of any kind. they then have an advertising system that is designed to essentially engage people with outrage and fear, and in the process, what happens is it takes fringe ideas like qaon, like antivaccine and white supremacy and the like and it takes them ask drives them into the mainstream and because it was so profitable, facebook was faced with a dilemma. it could do the right thing which was to stomp it out or it could continue to promote the stuff which is what it actually did and it was complicated by

the fact that president trump was, you know, driving his fans to maga with exactly the same conspiracy theories that had historically been at the fringe, and so their political interest was tied to the economic interest and it drove it like crazy. >> in preparing for this conversation you and i were texting and there's this other stuff and it's the stuff that we know about and the popular stuff and it's easy to understand and there are disclosures from texas and california that you suggest might have evidence of criminal behavior getting all of the way to the top of facebook management. >> see, ali, the issue that we've got going on here is that facebook has been unpatrolled forever. as a consequence they lost sight of where the legal lines were and there are cases in california and an attorneys general case led by the texas ag that is about price fixing related to google and facebook and there were disclosures on both of those cases friday and in one case it has to do with

revenue recognition and it has to do realistically with the way that facebook, the way that facebook treats advertisers the, and it's historically confessed to overstating how many people saw the ads. we also know that there are issues with the number of people on facebook, that number may also be inflated. for the securities and exchange commission all of these are potential felony indications so there needs to be an sec investigation to figure out whether revenue for the companies is correct. in texas the case is about price fixing and advertising and this is google and facebook working together and it's really a very disturbing situation because there are emails that appear to be in the highest ranks of facebook related to what was a conspiracy, that needs to be taken to the federal government

where the department of justice has the case. >> is any of this going to happen, roger? >> i have no idea, ali. >> it should happen, congress will be passing laws right now for safety, for privacy and for antitrust. the department of justice and sec would be pursuing criminal investigations and not just of facebook, but of all of the internet platforms that have cost lives. this is the great challenge our country faces today. are we, in fact, democracy and are we, in fact, the country with the rule of law and your guess is as good as mine. the pressure is there and frances haugen has given us copious evidence and the cases in texas and california are making it much clearer. >> roger mcnamee is an early investor in both facebook and google and an adviser for stop hate for profit and the author of an important book "zucked." speaking of waking up for us, he is in california and he was up

late with me last night. we always appreciate it. >> microchips, a global shortage of them halting almost everything economic. we'll have more on that ahead. p ♪ ♪ your new pharmacy is here. and here. and here, too. it's here to help you save time and money and trips to the pharmacy. it's here to get you the medication you need when you need it. who knew it could be this easy? your new pharmacy is amazon pharmacy. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks!

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like $0 copays on preventive dental care. ♪ wow! ♪ ♪ uh-huh. ♪ so go ahead. take advantage now. ♪ wow! ♪ crimes and injustices for women go unpunished around the world. if you are a woman of color or indigenous woman, or a trans woman or a woman living in poverty, the system values your life even less. it's time we hold violence against women, black, white, indigenous, poor, wealthy, to the same standard of outrage and action. so semiconductors are tiny piece of technology that are used in literally everything from smartphones and home appliances to video games and

cars, but right now you probably know there's a huge global shortage and holding up the production of various goods around the world. companies in the united states are working hard by easing the chip shortage by ramping up the domestic production of them. here's our colleague, nbc's jacob ward. >> buying a new car has been harder than the johnsons expected. >> a little surprised to find that there isn't much out there. >> or maybe nothing at all. they're thinking of going from two cars to one. typically a car dealership would have hundred of new models for sale, but today, because of the chip shortage, dealerships look like this. >> that's because two years ago just before the pandemic about 3.5 million new vehicles were for sale nationwide. last month there were fewer than a million. toyota sales manager keith hernandez says the shortage has been a shock wave through the industry. >> from service, the technicians, our lot attendance, our greeters, sales managers, our directors. >> as for what's caused the

plunge in supply, it's something tiny. >> your entire life runs on semiconductors. taiwan makes 60% of the world's semiconductors, but rising tensions with china means global anxiety about the chip supply and the pandemic was a taste of what life was like, when covid struck the pcs and the devices we use to work from home and away from toys, electronics appliances cars. >> it was a pressure test of the system. >> absolutely. absolutely and frankly, we failed. >> which is why intel is working to bring more production stateside. ceo pat gelsinger showed us a $10 billion semiconductor factory outside phoenix that chips can take months to create and can be ruined by a speck of dust. >> it's the cleanest area on earth. >> the company broke ground on two more areas like this one and it would need u.s.-built chips to create a supply for

everything from military aircraft to minivans to microwaves. >> you are a for-profit company and why should americans trust you to drive a national security issue. >> clearly, this is an industry move and intel is uniquely positioned in the u.s. semiconductor industry. we should have been putting more capacity in the ground and we're making up for that as fast as possible. >> now a new bill, the chips act could put $50 billion into the american chip industry to compete with taiwan whose government has funded the semiconductors since the 1990s. it's to level the playing field for what's been established for the last 30 years. in asia, i don't expect it to be resolved until 23. it just takes that long to build new factories and to create new capacity. >> until then, the u.s. will have to rely on others for what it needs. jake ward, nbc news, phoenix,

arizona. >> our thanks to jake for that reporting. others have told me the same thing, 2023 before this problem gets solved. needless to say there is no quick fix for the supply issues plaguing the united states, but with the reform calling for major investments in the framework system it could help us brace for the inevitable next disruption unless congress can pass it. we'll see. one representative is feeling more optimistic than most. congresswoman jayapal is joining tiffany cross on "the cross connection" right after velshi. good morning, my friend. what's going on on the show today. >> good morning, ali. always great to see you. you're right. congresswoman jayapal will be on and the initiatives that the caucus wanted in the reconciliation bill are still there and tampered down expectations because the funding to keep those programs going is not quite there. so we'll talk about that. i'm not sure how much this

matters if voting rights are be on obliterated and we'll see if there's any hope of passing voting rights and you've seen the voter suppression laws. we'll talk to the family of a maude arbery how flawed the process is because it excludes people of color. we'll have a lot coming up, but ali, my new obsession is the new hit show "reservation dogs." i am so obsessed and bingeing it. i'm on episode 3, no spoilers. the actress will be on about talking about the groundbreaking show. the cast is all indigenous and so is the crew when it makes a difference when it comes to the content. you see what happens when people get out of the way and let people of color create and that's all coming up at 10:00 a.m. on the cross connection. >> maybe tiffany will come on here and tell me about some of

the stuff on the show and some of it will not be fantastic. and it never, ever works. i'm tired, tiffany. i need a break! i need to rest and need to sleep! good to see you, my friend. >> tiffany cross, make sure to stay tuned right after "velshi" to hear more "cross connection" with tiffany and as you heard, she's got a great, great show coming up. congressional districts are being redrawn all over the nation and a lot of them are being split up to give republicans an advantage at the ballot box. we'll take a look at that next. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ to unveil them to the world. before discovering nexium 24hr

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texas state legislators are being sued yet again, this time for what a coalition of latino organizations are calling racist redistricting maps that they say, quote, intentionally discriminate against hispanic voters based on race and national origin, end quote. as is customary every ten years the party involved in the texas

legislature got their lawns redrawn, and the governor, greg abbot, this man is expected to sign off as well. it separates dense hispanic populations into majority white districts. it reports 16 other states have plans that have passed the first stage of redistricting, several of which no longer need to prove that their new maps are not discriminatory before pushing them through thanks to the supreme court's gutting of the voting rights act back in 2013 and it could take years for courts to rule on racially discriminatory gerrymandering that dilutes the voting power of minority voting. they, quote, eliminate all of the current 17 majority minority legislative districts as well as the two majority black congressional districts. that actually violates federal

law and montana has to create a new district due to the increase in the population on the western side of the state and both parties are fighting over where the district line will go. if the line falls to far east it may not be as easy to vote a republican in. joining me is joyce vance, a columnist and contributor for msnbc and also joining us on what appears to be a golf course again, roland martin and the managing editor of the roland martin unfiltered digital show. i should say to our viewers we're not interrupting you for a regular round of golf on a saturday morning. you are there for a benefit so everybody knows. >> yes. yes. let me start with you. i want to understand this, the gutting of the voting rights act in 2013 has been gutted for a weil and this condition sent of pre-clearance, the state with a history of racially motivated gerrymandering would have to seek pre-clearance from the federal government. that doesn't have to happen

anymore. so if you're a state of having a history of doing this badly or using race to determine electoral district, you can keep on doing it. >> yeah. every ten years after the census data is released states draw new maps and historically the goal of the maps was to create legislatures that in the words of founding father john adams were miniatures. the legislatures were supposed to be miniatures of the population at large. unfortunately, gerrymandering over time has reared its ugly head in inserting racial concerns and keeping black voters from seeking elected representatives as well as political gerrymandering designed to keep minority parties in power in increasingly conservative states given demographic shifts in population and the problem with shelby county versus holder, the state that first gutted the voting rights act and that was on the

supreme court last term s that there's very little opportunity, decreasing opportunity for people who are discriminated against as the maps are redrawn to challenge them in courts. the biggest loss here is the loss of preclearance which requires states and jurisdictions with the history of discrimination to submit new proposals whether they were voting laws or other sorts of restrictions to the justice department for pre-clearance before they were enacted and this is a significant -- >> this plays out in texas, roland. texas redistricting tests whether minority population gains will translate into political clout. everybody i hear talk about texas tells me there are more democrats moving in and the population change with the growth of the latino community, that the growing power of blacks in texas, but under these rules it doesn't matter.

it will not change, at least for the time being the ability for republicans who are working very hard to disenfranchise voters of color in texas from continuing to do so. >> 95% of the growth -- of the population growth in texas has been the result of non-whites. the republican party is a white party. here's what's also been happening in texas. i'm still registered in texas in dallas county. the republicans have been getting crushed in the suburbs. they have been losing harris county, dallas county, bayer county, travis county one of the few largest counties where they still have powers is tarrant county. white folks have stopped supporting it so what they have to do is they have to protect their incumbents and that's why you're seeing them distribute these maps this way, but the other thing is here, there is a silver lining in north carolina when the republican party did the exact same thing the naacp and people's campaign and others

sued them over racial gerrymandering. they were successful in getting that knocked back. the problem is this here. elections matter. donald trump put 25% of the judiciary on the bern and you have more right-wing judges who don't care about voting rights and this is why i need earn to understand why voting matters. those who ignore the presidential race, this is what happens when you put federal judges who do not care about racial gerrymandering. >> you've been consist own the that message for all of the years that i've known you, roland. you remind people vote in all of the elections because it all comes back to bite you and all of the things in schools have been done in school districts. >> i want you to read you from the op ed which is the freedom it vote act, not the filibuster is essential to our democracy and there are press regular

issues facing our country and for the focus, theed so of our democracy is the right to vote and it's the right to everything else upon access to health care ask we're not even getting the freedom-to-vote act, after all this dance that everybody did with joe manchin about getting the bill he would support, still not going anywhere. >> this is the issue that the senate faces. they have both the freedom to vote act, which is a bill that provides protections for registering and saying registered to vote. to cast your ballot and have it counted. and the span 81 piece is the john lewis act. both have cleared the house. they're sitting in the senate and the issue we'll face in the next few days, if not the next few weeks is whether or not democratic senators have the

stomach for bypassing the filibuster in order to protect the right to vote. i don't think we will be sitting around after the 2020 election saying, thank god, we still have a filibuster if our votes haven't been counted. >> i love having that conversation with you. we got to go. >> real quick, president biden, you've got to do more to get these voting bills passed. do more. >> all right. message taken. roland, thank you, my friend, good to see you. thank you for taking time, always good to see you. oh, wait a second, i do have a couple more minutes. do i have to pay the bills. that's the part i was right about. we will pay the bills for a second and i will come back and continue the conversation. r a second and i will come back and continue the conversation. without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? for all-day, all-night protection. alberto and i don't fit into those other family plans. that's why we love visible.

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and save money while you're at it with special offers just for movers at xfinity.com/moving. for example, after the passage of the voting rights act, right before the passage of the voting rights act in 1964, only 6.9% of blacks were registered to vote. immediately after the passing of the voting act in 1966, that number went up to 60%. then when blacks got the right to vote, there was a countermobilization by rights to suppress the black vote. now if you fast forward -- >> a good thing we don't do that anymore? >> if you pass forward to today, you see the same thing happening in terms of the suppressing of the vote. >> that a political science professor at jackson state

university discussing the history of voting right for black people in this country. it was a part of a larger conversation i had this week with six people from jackson, mississippi, discussing how the nation's complicated history is taught across the country. i want to bring back joins vance, an attorney in alabama and in fact, we have more, roland, talk to me about that, deandre ory telling me about the fact that these bills that allow black people to easily register to vote and to vote and to have their votes counted really, really work. but every time america does them, there is exactly what we are seeing now, a countermobilization for the vote to blacks. >> yeah, that was when it was crazy, justice roberts saying it works, so we don't need it. know, because the very laws. so many republican-led states immediately changed their voting

laws. hello, so that's the problem. supreme court also refused to act on partisan gerrymandering. so the only thing we have left is to try to outlaw racial gerrymandering. so that's the problem. so what we are dealing now with, that's why president biden has to do more. he has to -- how many minutes on infrastructure? he has to call sinema, manchin and others holding out, say, do a carveout, guess what, president bye biden, if you don't, will you lose the senate in 2024, you going to do all of that because you want to keep the filibuster? c'mon. >> joyce, there is actually reporting from righters that the president is actively considering altering the filibuster on some issues. roland is shaking his head, it's not going to happen? what do you think, joyce? >> it ain't going to happen. >> well, it's an interesting challenge that the president faces. you know, joe manchin is on

record as saying that he will not alter filibuster, he won't bypass it. i think there is still wiggle room here. programs one option might be to reenforce the standing filibuster. right now, you can stay home in your bed as a republican and filibuster the voting rights bill. a change in the rules that would require republicans to actually hold the floor and spend the hours it takes in the wee hours of the morning doing whatever they must do to engage in the filibuster. that might wake americans up. this notion we have one party that wants to prevent people from voting, that's a powerful notion when it's on full display. and it deserves the light of day. not the quiet of the senate filibuster rule. >> that's a good point. you have to watch them as opposed to it happens. we got news it was filibustered. that's it. nobody saw what happened. you have to say, why are you reading green eggs and ham whatever it is on the floor of the united states congress? what is it that you are trying

to block from happening? people might be a lt. little more interested in paying attention to it. thank you for being with us. roland, i hope i haven't messed anything up with your golf game there. >>, no, we're fine. national care giving project. they love it. it's all good, hey, go astros. >> ro happened martin. he didn't tell me he was going to do the go astros thing. i'll let it go now. roland harten is a part of ro land martin unfiltered. that does it for me. catch me back here tomorrow morning 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. on "velshi" we may be jones'ing for breakfast or a falloffel. we will wait, "the cross connection" begins right now.

notes notes. >> the build back better agenda is saying let's see folks, let's see what they're going through. can you care about building a strong economy, co-existent with caring about human rights, civil rights and a perspective that the borne out of a sense of humanity and what it requires in terms of holding people up and treating them with dignity. all of these things are at stake right now. >> all right. good morning, everybody. welcome to "the cross connection." as always, we have a lot to get to this morning. but we start on capitol hill. democrats are still hammering out biden's social spending bill with a few sticker price of 1.75 to 1.9 trillion dollars. the haggling continues. here's w