tv Zerlina MSNBC December 4, 2021 3:00am-4:00am PST
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i've been married twice. this is the only husband i've ever had. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. welcome to the show. i'm zerlina maxwell. we begin with a big development surrounding the school shooting in michigan this week that killed four children and wounded seven other people. today the parents of the 15-year-old suspect were each charged with involuntary manslaughter. the county prosecutor ticked off allegations in the case against the suspect's parents. among them -- the father bought a gun last friday with his son present.
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the teen posted photos of the gun saying, quote, just got my new beauty today. the prosecutor said that hours before the shooting on tuesday the boy wrote a note in class that said, "help me," with the image of a gun. his parents were summoned. they resisted taking the boy out of school, and they did not ask if he had the gun with him. charging parents of child shooting suspects is incredibly rare. the prosecutor called this indicates egregious. >> reading the words "help me" with a gun, blood everywhere, this doesn't just impact me as a prosecutor and a lawyer, it impacts me as a mother. the notion that a parent could read those words and also know that their son had access to a deadly weapon, that they gave him, is unconscionable. and i think it's criminal. it is criminal.
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>> while this legal process unfolds, dozens of michigan schools remain closed due to the threat of copycat shootings. you see, it's not just the families of the kids who were killed or injured that are being affected. it's not just all the kids at that particular school who will live with this tragedy for rest of their lives, it's all of our kids who have to school every single day wondering if a classmate has a gun. we hear a lot of people criticize today's kids as too sensitive, but maybe in spite of the dangers that american kids live with every single day they have inning to teach us. >> you know, i think young people can really show us what compassion looks like. they can show us what empathy looks -- think about it, our biggest insult, our biggest critique besides, oh, all they do is tiktok, our biggest critique is they're so
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sensitive. we hear this all the time. we hear from comedians, we hear from everybody, right. they're snowflakes, they're cupcakes, they're sensitive. when you think about it, what we're doing is insulting them for being empathetic. we're insulting them for being compassionate because they want to see the many slivers of each individual free. imagine that. i think we have much to learn if we could give ourselves a moment of humility to listen a little more. [ applause ] >> that's beautiful. >> aphone that a-- amen to that. federal director for every town gun safety. rob, what is your reaction to the prosecutors actually charging the parents in this particular case? >> hey, my reaction is that if kids weren't able to get their hands on guns, we wouldn't have school shootings. what the prosecutor said there about how unconscionable it was that this 15-year-old had access to gun is the point. three out of four school
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shooters get their guns from the home of their family member or relative. this prosecution isn't just about these egregious facts, this prosecution is about the fact that a 15-year-old could go into a nightstand and get an unsecured handgun that he brought to school. yes, there are things we can and should be doug to intervene -- doing to intervene, but it starts with there's no reason that 5.4 million kids in this country live in homes with unsecured guns. and that's something we could all do something about starting in our school boards, going all the way up to the administration. we all have a stake about raising awareness, raising education, and keeping our community safe by asking are you keeping that gun stored securely. is it locked, is it unloaded, is it set for ammunition. >> one of the things i think that is uniquely american, it's not mental health struggles, it's not depression or anxiety, it's not video games or movies or music, because all of those
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things exist in every country all over the world, we have the unique access and availability of guns. can you speak to the ways in which we often try to deflect that simple truth every single time one of these school shootings happen? >> the deflection is why we see these things happening over and over again. the truth is the facts tragically and sadly repeat themselves. three out of four of the school shooters get their gun from the home, every single time the research shows, they've shown warning signs, they're told somebody. the truth is do you know what we're not doing -- we're not asking every single time, does this student have access to a gun. we're not telling every single parent how important it is to securely store their guns. why is that? it's because of that deflection you spoke about. it's because for decades gun rights extremists have got us so afraid to mention the word firearm and to think that a better world is possible that we don't even ask the question.
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in your opening, you played the audio of nobody asked if he had a gun. how outrageous is that idea that someone who was caught allegedly searching for ammunition on one day, drew a picture of a firearm the other day, no one thought to ask is there access to a gun. and the most devastating fact to me is that gun was sitting in that room in a backpack. and -- >> very chilling. it's definitely a chilling detail, i agree with you there. what is it doing you think to kids, to children of ages elementary school up through high school to know that when they go to school they're not safe, when they go to the mall or to hang out with their friends, they're not safe from gun violence. i mean, that has to be something that i think this generation of young people is processing in way that's completely different than my generation. columbine happened when i was a
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senior in high school, and it was shocking. the fact that we can have school shootings and it doesn't stop the world in the same way each time reflects how this has become normalized. what do you think? >> we're the same. i remember when that shooting happened, and i remember how much it shook everyone that this could happen, and the promises that it would never happen again. i think sadly back when that incident happened, the gun lobby was really at its height. it was incredibly powerful, and we've lived for 15, 20 years with the gun lobby and the nra writing our gun laws, standing in the way of progress. and so what we've had is students, children, including my own, grow up in a school shooting generation. and that is so detrimental to how they view this country, how they view democracy, how they view the ability to be free and to grow up to be whoever they want to be. and so i think it is absolutely tragic, but i also see the ray
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of hope. i see the ray of hope how things are changing, how we have the strongest gun sense administration we've seen with president biden and vice president harris that have taken unprecedented actions. we've seen incredible change at the school board level where right now 1.5 million students are getting information sent home from their school about the need for secure storage. that's something i know students and volunteers are working on across the country because it shouldn't be 1.5 million it should be all 50 million. that's something that everyone can play a role in from school boards to governors to president biden and his administration. so that all this information is getting home. and i think this movement for gun safety growing in a way it's never grown before, to push back against in armed radical gun rights extremism. i know there's hope for our future. >> let's talk about the politics of this. you mentioned that the -- the power of the nra and the extreme right. but they have a lot of elected
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republicans, whether those republicans are extreme or not, in congress that are standing in the way of any changes on gun safety and gun safety reforms even though we're always, you know, sort of living in between mass shootings essentially. we have mass shootings, then we have a lull and another one and another one. again, that obscures the fact that gun violence is happening every single day all over the country. i mean, the republicans blocked the bill in the senate to expand background checks even after the michigan shooting. i mean, what is your response and message to those republicans who are the obstacle at this point essentially? >> that they're losing the country. that nobody wants to live in a world where school shootings are the norm. no one wants to live with the amount of gun violence that we're seeing. the truth is when you see these incidents and realize they're a product of weak laws and reckless, dangerous gun culture, then you build this movement
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that's going to stand up and put in place gun sense champions. once you do, you will see change. and yes, the republicans in the senate are still able to block the most popular policy in all of america, background checks on gun sales, but the truth is with the president's administration, we're seeing the kind of generational change for gun safety that we've never seen before under any president. we're seeing actions on violence intervention programs that will provide funding at the community level to address the unconscionable levels of gun violence in our cities. we're seeing action on suicide prevention where there's a real focus on including access to guns as part of a comprehensive approach, and we've seen action on trafficking. this president, this administration, when you think about it, is changing things in ways that will save lives and make a difference. that doesn't mean we don't have to pass laws, but it means we are seeing that change because we did put in place a gun sense president who is taking the actions that we need. >> rob wilcox, thank you so much for being here tonight and for starting us you.
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please stay safe. >> thank you so much. coming up, i'll talk to michigan secretary of state about the flood of trump allies trying to take over key election roles in her state. we'll be right back. we'll be ri. firefighter maggie gronewald knows how to handle dry weather... ...and dry, cracked skin. new gold bond advanced healing ointment. restore healthy skin, with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin. (vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network.
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election officials helped prevent a full-blown constitutional crisis. just by simply doing their jobs and certifying results despite pressure from donald trump and all of his allies. >> i think we must protect the authority entrusted to him and follow the law as written. we must not exercise power we simply don't have. in this case the law is absolutely clear. we have a clear duty to certify the results of the election as shown by the returns that we have given to us. >> that was the former republican vice chair of the michigan board of state canvassers. he did his job and certified joe biden's win. his reward -- he lost his spot on the board. he wasn't renominated by
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michigan republicans. that's part of a trend we're seeing across the country. "the washington post" reported this week on trump applies seeking lower level positions by poll watchers, precinct judges, and county clerks. the "post" writes, quote, few states have seen more fervor for replacing election officials than the state of michigan where the push extends from candidates for statewide office down to the most local level of election administration. joining us is michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson. secretary benson, where do things stand now with the michigan board of canvassers? >> currently, as you mentioned, aaron van langerfeld has been replaced by another member of the republican party. we're seeing efforts to replace certifiers at the local level, as well, with individuals who are perhaps more willing to do the will of their party over protecting the will of the voters when in close elections or any election in the future. it's very troubling. it's a reflection of a broken
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system that importantly could be misused by either side, but that we saw in particular in 2020 abused and misused by appointees of the republican party who -- some of whom threatened to violate the law and not do their jobs and not certify the election. and i anticipate this is only going to become a bigger problem in future elections. >> what are the potential risks of these folks being in these positionses? what is the worst case scenario? what if they were in these positions in 2020 with all of the pressure coming from the white house and trump allies to decertify or not to certify joe biden's win? >> two tracks. first we have to see and recognize that in 2020 democracy prevailed because good people on both sides of the aisle and positionses of authority, be they judges or leader board of canvassers and clerks did the right thing. voters demanded it when it came down to it. importantly, if you replace those people, as many have been
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replaced, and you come back and put the same pressure and scrutiny on another secure election in the future, you have the risk that those individuals will fail to certify the valid election results. what happens then is two things. one, on the legal side we have the ability, especially with an attorney general like the incredible advocate for democracy we have here in michigan, to go to court and compel bad actors to essentially do their jobs and certify the election. however, what happens in the interim is really an additional damaging thing which is that it feeds the fire, the fuel, of illegitimacy of democracy. the sense that an election can't be certified, that there something wrong even though there's not. and when that happens, then people start to lose faith even more in our democracy, and then even if we ultimately certify the valid election results, it creates an air of illegitimacy over the individual or individuals who are elected and harms their ability to govern
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and get things done for the people. there's ramifications that go beyond can you overturn an election which is incredibly damaging to the democracy, but the damage can go much further when it comes to damaging people's psyche and faith in our government and democracy. >> that's really chilling. and you know, it is true that like anybody can run for any office in america. i mean, as long as you're a grown-up and even if you're not in some instances, you can run for office, that's the thing here. what is the policy solution? is there a policy solution? is there a way to prevent these folks from getting into these positions when we know they're not there to act in good faith? >> yes. there are several solutions. one, there is a policy solution, some of which we already have in michigan, a legal protection. the law says if you're on the board of canvassers, you shall, you must certify the election. so if people fail to do their
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job, there's legal recourse. however, there are ways to also strengthen the determination of who becomes a state board of canvasser or local canvasser to ensure that they're individuals who can be individually held liable or accountable if they fail to fulfill their legal duty under the law. so myself and a number of legislators are looking at ways that we can strengthen those protections in our law. but it's important to note that all of this is reliant on citizens to stay engaged and demanding that their vote be certified, and that the truth be told by those in positions of authority. the other story of 2020 is people showed up to the local canvasser meetings and the state board of canvassers meeting and demanded accountability and truth. so we can't -- and the american people can't also advocate their critical role in this moment. it's staying vigilant and showing up to meetings and making sure that those they place in authority or who are placed in authority still do their jobs and protect our
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democracy. >> i think legal accountability is important, especially when you are violating an oath and the legal obligations of your elected job. but do you think that there should be some sort of shaming associated with going into a job of election administration with this mindset? i mean, how do we deter people from getting into these jobs in the first place? it seems like holding them accountable through the law after the fact is not necessarily the best option. >> absolutely right. accountability takes many forms. accountability does -- is possible through the law, as we saw today, and i'm proud in michigan, where we saw sanctions filed against the attorneys who used their positions as attorneys to spread lies and try to undo the election. legal accountability is critical, but it's not the only type. political accountability either not supporting or rejecting or failing to re-elect individuals who -- or appoint individuals
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who don't do their job and demanding that people be removed or not placed in positions when they clearly are and have stated their unwillingness to uphold the law or tell the truth or abide by the simple rules of our democracy. so that political accountability is key. and then again, public accountability, too, to call people out and also demand people be replaced by good actors. how do we find those good actors? by people who care about democracy stepping up and being willing to serve as election workers, as observers, as members of canvassing boards who certify the elections. this is the moment where we can't and no one can stand on the sidelines. we must all engage and say what more can i do beyond voting, beyond just speaking out, and get engaged. if more people essentially flood the system and demand on both sides of the aisle to do the right thing, we have more committees to appoint good people in positions that have the authority and power to do
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the right thing in the future. >> protecting democracy is not a partisan endeavor. i don't know if folks thought that, but i just want you to know. it is a fact. we should all support democracy. secretary jocelyn benson, thank you so much, as always, for being here. please stay safe. >> thank you. stay safe, as well. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, how do we fix facebook? my next guest just told congress how he feels about the social network. rashad robinson joins me after the break. we'll be right back. we'll be ri. this may look like a regular movie night. but if you're a kid with diabetes, it's more. it's the simple act of enjoying time with friends, knowing you understand your glucose levels. ♪♪ ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need.
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facebook whistleblower frances haugen was back on capitol hill this week. she testified before the house energy and customers committee about holding platforms like facebook more accountable for their actions. activists also appeared at the hearing including president of color of change rashad robinson. he compared facebook to big tobacco and took direct aim at mark zuckerberg. >> to keep control, they lie about the effects of their products just like big tobacco lies about the deaths their products cause. they lie to the public, they lie to regulators, and they lie to you. mark zuckerberg lied to me personally more than once. it's time to make the truth louder than their lies but skip the part where we wait 40 years to do it.
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if we're pretending that colorblind policies will solve problems that have everything to do with race because algorithms and moderators and bent advertisers are targeting black people and we don't get closer to the solutions by backing away from that problem. joining me is rashad robinson. tell us about testifying before the house committee on wednesday. explain to all of us specifically what you want to see congress do about online giants like facebook, meta, whatever they're calling themselves these days. >> well, the house energy and commerce committee was taking up four specific pieces of legislation that all do with various acts of section 230 of the communications decency act. what section 230 does which was actually written in the '90s, well before we sort of had these big platforms, is it creates a level of i munt for content --
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immunity for content on these platforms. that was created long before we knew what the platforms would be able to do. all the sort of data mining and surveillance that they're -- they can do in terms of data on their platforms. so what facebook, twitter, google, all these platforms have been able to do is they go into the courts, and when they violate civil rights, for instance, when they market jobs just to men or market housing just to white people, they can say, well, we are immune from prosecution, we are immune to liability because of section 230. so what we were doing was actually supporting a set of legislation which deals with not only more transparency around the algorithms but removes the immunity when these platforms are actually violating laws which we have fought for. the technology that should be bringing us into the future shouldn't be dragging us into the past and taking away laws that we have fought for. laws that our ancestors have fought for for so many years.
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>> facts. i definitely do not want to see that. do you think the members of the house committee were receptive? what is the -- is it a bipartisan issue in this moment where you have people on both sides of the political spectrum agreeing that something needs to be done, including removing that liability protection? >> well, it's interesting, both political parties do speak to it. i think only the democrats are really speaking to civil rights protections. you have a lot of those on the right that are talking about the weapon that sort of have succumbed to the idea that conservative bias on these platforms is the biggest issue. and the right has done a really good job inside of facebook to weaponize this idea of conservative bias. conservatives are actually the ones being most harmed and hurt. but actually the "the washington times" most recently observed -- recently released in terms of kind of secret facebook documents that even the own
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facebook research showed that policies that they had created, that were supposedly colorblind in terms of dealing with harmful content, black people were being punished much more harshly than white people for the same level of infraction. so the kind of inequality that we see out in the sort of real world is existing in the virtual world. when that research was exposesed inside of facebook, it was squashed rather than actually dealing with it. and that's essentially the problem is that these platforms get to operate in ways that no other corporation gets to operate. they get to violate civil rights, then they get to make their own rules, and then when people say are you going to fix it, they say we're working on it, but don't have to be transparent. they are the standard oil, the big tobacco of our time. and unregulated companies or self-regulated companies become unregulated companies. we need to regulate the companies, build the infrastructure to hold them
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accountable. >> i mean, where do we stand now when it comes to regulating them on the spread of misinformation and also the hate speech that's happening on these platforms like facebook? >> well, what we're trying to do at color change is not being inside the conversation of individual pieces of content because that gets us into these false notions of freedom of speech. that's where the platforms want us to be. the platforms want us to believe this is about removing people's freedom of speech. we all have freedom of speech. we don't have freedom to amplification. and what ends up happening on facebook is they have recognized that certain pieces of content actually make them more money, travel further, so they will put more energy behind amplifying that content, elevating that content, it becomes more shareable. these are choices that the platforms make that have nothing to do with our freedom of speech. what we get to say. they have to do with the product design of these platforms.
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also in terms of the paid advertisement on these platforms. just like there's accountability for nbc news and any other sort of news agency in terms of the paid advertisement, there has to be accountability for these platforms in terms. paid advertising. and so what we're trying to get to is the structural sort of challenges that actually allow for hate speech, the worst of the worst content, to not only be present on these platforms but to get more visibility than anything else. one simple thing that frances haugen, the facebook whistleblower who was so brave in coming forward, one thing that she exposed is facebook changed its rules so you are way more exposed to like groups that are amplifying political speech and hate speech, each groups you don't follow than you are to your own family and friends. these are choices because they wanted to lengthen the time we spend on the platform. they know they will lengthen our time if we are inside of conversations that are harsh,
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challenging, are negative. facebook is actually on the back end designed all of these ways to actually ensure that hate speech travels, to ensure that they can sort of create avenues for deeper discrimination. they have to actually be held accountable. if challenges happen on the back end, they can't wash their hands and say we're immune to it all. >> i know you're pushing for congressional action. what can people do? in the last minute here, what can a regular person do on this issue? >> facebook wants us to believe it is up to regular people. i want to say i think it's important that regular people need to reach out to their members of congress. they need push them to move on reform to section 230 and antitrust legislation which we believe is going to be the next thing up after the "build back better" is moved forward. so everyday people need to hold their elected officials accountable. as someone who led the largest boycott, one of the largest
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boycotts in american history, i recognize that these are monopolies. and there's so much at the individual level any of us can do. our government needs to step in. rules need to be put in place. and then there are all sort of things we can too as everyday citizens inside of that -- of those new rules. right now without new rules, we are really at the subject of the algorithms and the structures. >> policy first. policy first. rashad robinson, thank you so much for being here tonight. and please stay safe. we'll be right back after this quick break. r this quick break
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the virus, and the seriousness of infections which they claim is no longer necessary. the timing of that is quite interesting given the fact that iowa just reported the highest number of patients hospitalized with covid this year. perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to iowans as policy and science and a doctor decided to throw her hat into the ring. dr. megan shanivas is an infectious disease physician running for a seat in the iowa house of representatives. and she joins me now. so doctor, you took to twitter last night announcing your run. what made you say, okay, i'm doing it? >> it's really about everything that i see my patients going through. it's about the fact that my prescription pad alone can't fix most of the problems that my patients face, but it's the systemic issues keeping them behind. the social determinants and political determinants of
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health. those things were only exacerbated over the last two years with the pandemic. it's time that i used my voice to stand up for them on all fronts and try to fix what i cannot just in the medical world but outside of it. >> i mean, it's so -- it is rare to see mds and doctors run for political office. what do you think your specialty and expertise, what can you bring to the table, especially in a pandemic? seems obvious, but you can lay it out for us. >> no, no. it's a really good question because a lot of people probably are wondering why i'm leaving the hospital when i'm an infectious disease doctor who is treating patients. a lot of the issues are far beyond what i see in the hospital. in iowa, for instance, we could have prevented the rampant spread, deaths we've seen, and honestly the record hospitalization that's we're seeing now by merelily putting
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into place public health litigation via policy, by having masks in place. we've had anti-science policies throughout the last two years. there was a ban on having masks within schools as a mandate, and that we fought vigorously in order to try to get that policy changed. and now we've had very anti-vax policies introduced into the legislature. the legislature is making these important health care decisions that impact what happens to people down the line. impact whether the hospitals are going to be filled, whether they'll need my help from the medical side. if i can use that experience, expertise from the public health world, from my public policy research and my medical research to bring it together so i can prevent unnecessary deaths, then that's one of the most effective things i could do. >> and you mentioned that hospitalization rate in iowa just hit a record high for the year. what do things look like right now in the hospitals in iowa?
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>> well, unfortunately i don't see this abating any time soon. we don't have a great vaccination rate. it is improving slowly, but a lot of that messaging that we need to happen to improve that even better needs to come from our leaders including our governor, including our state leader. and unfortunately we're in a position where a lot of that messaging is not happening where it needs to happen. but then on top of that, especially in areas with most of the outbreaks, if you go indoors, you would see more people unmasked than masked throughout the state. and we know especially with this new variant where we're not sure how effective the vaccines are against it that masks are the number one thing we can do to protect both people who are vaccinated as well as those who aren't. and so with that, with holiday gatherings happening, i just worry that these rates are going to get worse. >> i share your concern, and i wonder how we got to a place where masks are like this huge
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deal for people. in other parts of the world, it was completely normalized, and they have been able to keep the pandemic somewhat under control throughout this entire time because of the normalization of masking. iowa is also one of four states to say that they're actually going to pay people who quit over their employer's vaccine requirements. i mean, help me understand why iowa would pay people to not get the vaccine. >> it's something that boggles my mind, and the only thing i can draw it back to is really the politicization that's happened. people worrying more about their political party than the values of trying to take care of fellow iowans. the saddest thing, like you said, it's one of four states, but the saddest thing is what happens in iowa won't stay in iowa. whether it's because it's the virus itself which is a pandemic infectious disease that will not respect geographic borders or
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the very fact that our policy once it plays out here can then set the trend for other states, which we've seen happen before where one of the first states that joined the lawsuit against the federal mandate that was supposed to set into place for employees to have vaccines for january 4th, we were one of the first states to pass the six-week abortion ban felt luckily our courts blocked it. courts have shifted since then, so who knows what would happen. this trend that iowa is setting it doesn't stay here. that's why it's so important that we get people into making health care decisions who understand the ramifications of those decisions. >> doctor who's running in the state of iowa, good luck in your race. i mean, i think it is especially in a pandemic, i'm in favor of folks no matter what side of the political spectrum honestly who have expertise in science, this is a good thing. this is a good development.
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so thank you so much for being here today. >> of course, of course. >> stay safe. >> thank you so much for having me. and anybody who's interested it go to megan4iowa.com to learn about our platform and how they can join the team. thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up, we're continuing our commitment to cover underreported stories of missing -- tonight we're focusing on a brand new task force in the state of minnesota. we'll be right back.
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we talked a lot on this show about the crisis of black women going missing. nearly 270,000 women and girls went missing in the u.s. last year. over a third of them were black. and now some people in government are taking action. minnesota has a new task force on missing and murdered black women. it is the very first task force of its kind in the entire country. joining me now is ruth richardson, the minnesota state representative who wrote the bill to create the task force. thank you so much for being here tonight. >> thank you so much for having me. >> so what led you to launch this task force, and why do you think it's so important? >> when we think about politics, politics are often very
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personal. and what led me to start this task force was not only personal experience, but the devastating and heartbreaking stories that i was hearing from too many families across minnesota who had lost loved ones, and in very violent ways, and also from individuals who experience a missing child. and so it was those personal stories that got us to this point. >> what are some of the reasons, you think, that black women and girls go missing at such an alarming rate? >> you know, i think one of the things that we're really struggling with as a society is that we have not done enough work to place a value on the lives of black women and girls because when we look at the data we see some really concerning disparities. black women in cases involving black girls stay open four times longer than cases involving other women. and when we look at black girls,
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for example, black girls are much less likely to get amber alerts than white girls are. and that's a really important distinction because when there's no amber alert, there's no police resources that are invested in those critical first 48 hours. and also, you don't get the media attention when someone is classified as a runaway versus a child in need of support or seeing them as a victim. and so there are so many examples where the data just tells us that we're not placing that value and premium on the lives of our black girls and women. >> so there's obviously that law enforcement piece of it, but that's happening, you know, after a black girl or woman is -- has already gone missing. what do you think needs to be done on the front end to protect women and girls from these devastating circumstances? >> well, and that's the question. how do we prevent it?
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how do we prevent kids from going missing, women from going missing, and women from being murdered as well? and so we're going to be tackling those really complex conversations. and, you know, with this task force we cannot tackle this without talking about the complex set of circumstances that we need to really grapple with. we have to talk about historical trauma. we have to talk about systemic racism. the media, law enforcement. but we also have to talk about intimate partner violence. we need to talk about gang violence. and really how the crisis that we're seeing, not only in minnesota, but across the nation as well, we have to grapple with all of the really difficult conversations that need to happen. >> definitely a nationwide problem. do you hope your task force will serve as a model for other states around the country? >> yeah, that's the goal. we are the first, but we should
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not be the last. other states need to take action to ensure that they're doing the work to protect black women and girls. and to your point of ensuring that we're preventing these cases when we can prevent them. and we also need to have a national response as well, because when we look at the data, we see that, you know, the estimates right now, that they're somewhere between 64,000 and 75,000 black women and girls that are missing. we don't even know within, you know, our nations and within our states how many people are impacted by this, and we just have so much work to do and it's long overdue. >> in terms of -- in terms of your long-term goals, i mean, what are -- what would a success look like for this particular task force? you know, working until you're no longer needed? >> well, that's always the goal, right? you know, part of this is to
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ensure that as a state, that we have a process and a system in place, an office at the state level, that can ensure that the work that the task force does in terms of creating a blueprint of prevention, a blueprint for ensuring that there's better protection for black women and girls, that that work can continue. so that state office, i think, going to be an important goal that the task force is going to be pushing for moving forward. and as we think about, you know, thinking about prevention and how we prevent this from happening, that is also going to require resources, it's going to require support. and it's also going to require that we are working in concert with community to really make meaningful change. >> ruth richardson, thank you so much for being here tonight and talking about this incredibly important issue. we care so deeply on this show about this issue. and i'm so grateful that you took action. please stay safe.
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thank you again. >> thank you. >> that does it for me. i'm zerlina, find me monday through friday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on peacock. on the choice from msnbc. be sure to follow us on facebook, twitter, tiktok and youtube. more news is coming up right here, on msnbc. you're watching msnbc reports, and breaking this morning, fugitives in custody. >> it takes as much manpower has it takes. i mean, personnel and resources to bring that family closure is inconsequential for me. we're going to use as much personal as necessary to give the families in oxford the closure they need. >> police in detroit putting an end to a massive manhunt. the parents of the alleged oxford school shooter found hiding in a commercial building after a tip to law enforcement. this
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