i'm not a bad person. and i will never forgive myself. i'm so very sorry. so very sorry. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. e morales. thanks for watching. ♪♪ welcome to the show. i'm zerlina maxwell. president biden campaigned on his ability to bridge the partisan divide and negotiate sweeping reforms, but the failure of democrats' voting rights push -- but with the failure of the democrats' voting rights push, the president seems to be seeing things a bit more clearly. as he embarks on his year two of presidency, one thing is for certain. the negotiator in chief isn't going to be able to win over the

republican party especially when their only goal is obstruction. >> let's just be very clear. he'll do anything to prevent biden from getting success. and i actually get along with mitch. we like one another. he has one straightforward objective, make sure there's nothing i do that makes me look good in the mind -- in his mind with the public at large, and that's okay. i'm a big boy. i've been here before. >> did you ever think that one man out of office could intimidate an entire party where they're unwilling to take any vote contrary to what he thinks should be taken for fear of being defeated in a primary? >> with that in mind, the question now is what's next for the administration as it seeks to turn the page? well, the president gave us a

general idea. while his sprawling build back better plan won't pass in its current form, big chunks of it like a standalone universal prehk bill might have better luck. there are also called for president biden to refocus his energy on the climate crisis, citing the urgency of the warming planet, or the president could stick to voting but push for smaller reforms with both republican leaders kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell signaling some support for changing the electoral count act. look, president biden's policy to the build back better form and the agenda are popular with the american people, but he's handicapped with an entire political party working against him and two members of his own political party making it incredibly difficult. so with pressure ramping up for action, is it time for the

administration to think a little bit smaller and actually deliver? joining me now is danielle melfi. she's the executive director of build back better, an organization that works on the president's agenda. the law that allowing members of congress to dispute election results, let's say the electoral count act, griffin, the white house official, was asked about reworking that law. that's been a hot topic. let's take a listen. >> is it fair to say, cedric, that the electoral college is where all the action is going to be when it comes to election reform. >> absolutely not. we're still working on the john lewis voting rights bill. we're very focused on all the pieces of legislation. we're not picking -- >> what do ewe think about that?

should democrats begin to embrace narrower reforms like this? is it something that's better than getting nothing at all? >> zerlina, thanks so much for having me tonight. to echo what we heard the congressman say, he's steadfast in protecting the vote. we're going to continue to fight for these federal protections, but also not take his foot off the gas with the other work the administration is doing to protect voting rights. we've seen an increase in investment with the justice department, investigating voter suppress indications, intervening in these legislative battles we're seeing in states like texas and georgia. and we know the president and administration will use every tool at their disposal to keep fighting for voting rights. as he said yesterday, disappointed but not deterred. as we have to remember, voting rights used to be a bipartisan

issue tlchlt are folks, members of the republican caucus who supported the voting rights act and then stood in operation to reinvigorating those protections, and it's really disappointing, but we know the work we still have ahead of us. >> in terms of the build back better agenda, that didn't just fail because of republicans. it also failed because of joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. joe manchin specifically wouldn't support the reconciliation effort. manchin said today that he wants to see inflation, covid, and the national debt dealt with before he even touches build back better. what is your reaction to that? are those things more important to deal with before we get to the build back better agenda, which is what everybody's been talking about for many months now? >> all of those issues are pressing challenges to the american people and to working families, and the great thing about the build back better act is it takes on some of those challenges head on.

when we're talking about rising costs, build back better lowers the cost of health care, child care, prescription drugs, utility bills, and that's why it is so popular with the american people. we know, we heard the president talk about yesterday his commitment to continuing fight for pieces of that package, and we anticipate that to continue. that's what you'll hear from groups like mine, building back together, and many of my partners of the outside. >> we're going to take a listen to house speaker nancy pelosi because she responded to biden's big chunk comment about breaking up the bill, and i feel like, you know, getting all sides on the record as to how they feel about the next steps here is important. so let's take a listen to that. >> well, let me just say, chunks is an interesting word. so what the president calls chunks, i would hope would be a major bill going forward. it may be more limited, but it is still significant.

>> i love that there. she's like, it depends what you mean by that, and, you know, chunks could mean universal pre-k or something a lot less substantial than that. after voting rights it's clear that it's not going to go all together, so we're talking piecemeal here. what does that look like in your view? which pieces do you think can be pushed through individually and actually pass with joe manchin and kyrsten sinema voting in favor? >> we're focused on the substance and not the semantics of this. the substance is that the president is fighting for all of these pieces, whether it's climate, whether it's health care, whether these investments in the care economy and creating jobs and cutting taxes for working families, and that's what you'll continue to see, and i think also operating within what is possible. and what we've seen from this president is he knows congress,

getting done the american rescue plan, the bipartisan infrastructure deal, which is something folks said would never be possible. i know folks are fighting hard in the white house, on the hill, to make sure we're moving this forward to deliver our promises to the american people. >> you mentioned the american rescue plan and also the bipartisan infrastructure package. you know, this week there was a lot of polling around president biden's approval rating. they're low, not as low compared to president trump, but if you look at the numbers, the american people are not yet feeling the impact of these bill s, the american rescue plan or the bipartisan infrastructure bill. what do you think people, everyday families will start feeling the effects of these policies? >> yeah. the american people are still feeling the pain of this pandemic, we all are. the president knows that.

that's why his administration is fighting every day. we just saw over the past week providing free covid tests to be delivered, getting masks to more folks across the country. i believe as we move forward and we see the easing of this pandemic, we will see folks taking stock of what the administration has accomplished over the next year, but that's why it's also so important for us to keep talking about what democrats have already accomplished and reminding folks that it was democrats who delivered this vaccination plan, who delivered stimulus tax, and as they're coming across states and country to rebuild bridges, we need to remind folks it was the biden/harris administration that made that possible. we're in year one of this presidency, and they have more time and more work to do. >> definitely going to look to see president biden on the road trying to talk to the american people about the policies you just described. danielle melfi, thank you so

much for being here and starting us off. please stay safe. coming up, remember that phone call donald trump made to the georgia secretary of state after losing the 2020 election? >> could that be a thing that finally gets the former president into serious legal trouble? well, we'll discuss all of that next. well, we'll discuss all of that well, we'll discuss all of that next ♪ i'm way ahead of schedule with my trusty team ♪ ♪ there's heather on the hedges ♪ ♪ and kenny on the koi ♪ ♪ and your truck's been demolished by the peterson boy ♪ ♪ yes -- ♪ wait, what was that? timber... [ sighs heavily ] when owning a small business gets real, progressive helps protect what you've built with affordable coverage. ♪ life can be a lot to handle. ♪ this magic moment ♪

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donald trump's lawyers have quite a bit on their plate right now. earlier this week we learned the new york attorney general leticia james has found significant evidence of fraud by donald trump and the trump corporation, and now down in the state of georgia, fulton county district attorney fani willis has requested to convene a special grand jury as part of her investigation into donald trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, and you do have to wonder what a grand jury might think about the phone call donald trump had with georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger all the way back in january of 20. >> so what are we going to do here? i only need 11,000 folks. fellows, i only need 11,000

votes. give me a break chl we have it in spades. let's keep it going. that's not fair to the voters in georgia. they going to see what happens. they going to see what happened. >> the she said she needs the grand jury in order to interview people like brad raraffensperge. in fact, in her interview she cited an interview brad did with "meet the press" when he said he would gladly respond to a jury summons. >> if she wants to interview me, there's a process for that. i will gladly participate in that because i want to make sure i follow the law and the constitution. when you get a grand jury summons, you respond to it. >> needless to say donald trump isn't thrilled about any of this. in a statement he said his call to brad raffensperger was, quote, perfect, because, of course, he would say. that joining me now is harry lippman, a district attorney and

host of a podcast. it's a little bit of a theme. break down, harry, this investigation in georgia for us. i feel like it's been in the backdrop. we focused so much on january 6th. we focused so much on the insurrection. this has been under the radar. what does it mean that the fulton county d.a. wants to convene a special grand jury? >> first, the investigation, zerlina, it's simple around clean, and from a prosecutor's point of view it's terrific because the centerpiece is an actual audiotape. why the grand jury now? you need to use it to get subpoena, and if you try to do just a regular grand jury, they expire in two months. so she needs an extended one to investigation. in fact, it's a little surprising she hasn't put it together before. this wouldn't be the grand jury that returns charges. they would put the investigation together and pass them over to a

regular grand jury. guys like raffensperger, why would you want a grand jury? he said -- he made it sound like he was being very cooperative. he was saying you'd bet very the legal process to make me do it. a lot of people, it's not necessarily that they're trump-like and doan want to cooperate at all, but they would actually prefer to have the subpoena to say, you know, he's a republican in georgia who's now under some political pressure to be able to say, look, i got a subpoena, i've got to comply with the subpoena. i didn't go in there trying to take the president down, but when i got an order from the grand jury, i complied. so in that sense it's a convenience for him to have, and the fulton county d.a. willis knows that. >> so just a point of legal knew a witness, i think folks at home probably -- i don't want them to get confused. so the house committee on january 6th, they're subpoenaing witnesses to come and testify, they're subpoenaing people for

documentary evidence, and people are like, yeah, no, we're not coming, right? you have what's happening with steve bannon and mark meadows and the list goes on and on and on. explain to the audience quickly why a special grand jury subpoena for a witness is different. >> i mean it's more that they're just thumbing their nose at congress because it's going to take so long for them to actually be -- enforce the law. subpoenas -- if i get one from congress or if i get one from a d.a., i'm going to go, but that grand jury seal on top does tend to kind of focus the mind on thinking, i eat better show up. there's a criminal investigation behind the scenes here. >> it's funny you say that. i always did think if you could say no to a congressional subpoena, what's the point of this whole thing, but we are in unprecedented times. >> right. >> is that phone call we played there between trump and raph

ensberger, is that enough to prove a crime, and if so, what is it? >> she's a state d.a., and it is enough to show solicitation to committee election fraud. it seems pretty clean. you heard trump in that piece, he'll say, i generally thought i won. if you bear down on the intent requirement of georgia law, it shouldn't matter. but that will be the fight t sort of state of mind of trump or his defense attorney saying, he really believed it, you know. it's kind of crazy to say he believed it, but i think it's beside the point anyway. but that's where the fight comes up. and, yeah, the prosecution itself, play the tape, and you can almost -- and call raffensperger, and you can almost rest after that. >> so real quickly before we go, ivanka trump today was asked to testify voluntarily. what do you make of that?

what does it mean she's being called in, and what do they want to hear from her? >> she's involved at the beginning, before, and after on january 6th. she's in the room when trump tells pence you don't have the guts to make a good decision. she tries to make him stand out, and she hears after how it was all wrong. so she's got -- she's if there quite a bit. it's interesting. they tried voluntarily. you know, she's someone who has a political future, and perhaps her reputation is being more moderate. we'll see if she gives him the same kind of stonewall treatment. but there's plenty of info she can provide. >> harry litman, thank you so much for being here and helping us understand all of this. thank you so much. again, please stay safe. coming up, the white house is set to distribute 495 million masks to all americans. so how big a deal is that in our fight against the surge? we'll be right back. our fight against the surge? we'll be right back.

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this week the white house begins distributing 400 million free and 95 masks to all americans. this initiative is the largest deployment of personal protection equipment in the history of the united states. the masks will be delivered by the end of next week to locations where many americans receive their vaccinations by

free n95 masks in addition to four free home covid tests for every single household. as exciting as these new and free tools are to combat covid, is it too late? joining me now to discuss is an infectious disease doctor at stanford university. he's been calling for the general public to upgrade to higher quality masks throughout the entirety of the pandemic, and i feel you on that because i've been here for the entire two years with a biologist, and he has been saying the exact same thing. so how important, doctor, is it that the cdc now recommend higher quality masks for every single american and start shipping them out? >> i think this is critically important. we know over the past two years research has shown that small particles have floatsed around in the air knowned a aerosols are primarily what transmits

sars cov-2. we know the better protection you have, the better off you'll be, and that is true regardless of what variant we're dealing with. >> when this pandemic started and, you know, the topic of masks came up, there was a lot of back and forth because of the supply issue of masks for the nurses and the frontline workers, and so i think the masks have been this weirdly politicized and controversial thing, but now that we're all on the page that we need our masks to be high quality, what does that mean? what masks are considered high quality? what should consumers look for when they're buying masks to ensure they're legitimate, the ones not coming from the federal government? >> yeah, definitely. the key to rep is the n95 res conspiracy rater is going to be the best mask you can wear. the difference between that mask and some of the cloth masks is you have a much better

filtration system. i have a couple with me. these masks, if you cut one open, it's got multiple layers, and one of the most important layers is an electrically charged lay their can trap the particles that i mentioned. these masks typically have two head straps that go around the back of your head, and they come in many different shapes and sizes and feels. it's not one mask that's called n95. i have two in front of me as you can tell look very different. i've tried and worn many different ones. i wore them before covid as a doctor. i wore them throughout the pandemic and never got infected by any of the patients that i saw. they work. they're comfortable. you can wear them for long periods of time. i think it's important now we are raising the bar. even if the omicron surge is starting to come down, we don't know what the future's going to hold. we can't predict what the next

variability is going to be, what the next surge is going to be like. now we're not turning to the cloth mask but the fill traded mask. when you have the front line workers out there working when other people could take home. what would have protected them? highfill tracing masks. instead of closing things down but keeping things open, what would have kept things open? highfill tracing masks. if we had these one year ago, things would have been better. i'm glad we're moving now. three masks is not enough. we need to get even more supply. >> i think about this a lot because the way my brain works is like, well, how do you not get an airborne air sewized virus like you mention? i'm going to dress like they do in the hospital room when they work with covid patients because they don't come out covid positive. obviously what i theory doing is effective, so i'm going to do

something similar to that as much as humanly possible even if they make fun of me. i don't care. i can be like jude law in a bubble. i don't care. as you mentioned, we're in year three of the pandemic and these policies could have been helpful in the beginning, but we didn't do them. how helpful will they be now with the potential of new variants on the horizon? >> they'll still be very important. there are people who took it upon themselves to upgrade their respiratory protection. it's kind of sad people had to figure this out on their own. the cdc should have taken on the lead from day one. the science has not changed very much since we have pinpointed it. why they did not come forward earlier, i don't know. i want it to be said more emphatically and more clear and that there's no cost or supply issue. otherwise there's going to be another round of inequiies that

are there going forward. it can't be that way. it's got be easy to access, continuous supply. we've got to have the right communication, give people access to different versions of it so they can try what's comfortable for them. it's still going to matter. omicron, we're still having 800,000 new cases. we still have a long way to go, even if we're starting to turn the tide. there's going to be many, many days where we have ton of infection. a lot of people say, okay, what if you're vaccinated. vaccinations are working to stop hospitalizations, but they don't work to stop the spread of infection. as we can see, spreading infection at these action dem i levels are a problem. health care workers are out of work. a lot of other people are out of work. for the patients who are immunocompromised, even vaccinated, they're still at high risk of severe disease. these are your neighbors, people you're going to be around in public. you know, i think getting better

pandemic preparation, protections is so key, a pillar in the academics. >> it's such a small step each of us can take to protect our fellow community members. i wish it wasn't politicized the way it was, but i'm glad the cdc and government is on the page you've been on from the beginning. doctor, i'm so glad you could be here today. please stay safe. coming up, florida lawmakers are trying to shield people from the discomfort of discrimination. we'll explain what that means next. of discrimination we'll explain what that means we'll explain what that means next ♪takes everything you've got♪ ♪ ♪taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪

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sensor what american schoolchildren are taught about our country's history of enslavement, white supremacy, and racism has not slowed down one bit, like at all. instead it appears to be picking up steam with republicans like florida governor ron desantis using the issue as a way to rile up their base ahead of the 2022 midterms and the presidential election of 2024. take a look at this headline from "usa today." florida could ban lessons about discrimination that could make white students feel discomfort. florida state lawmakers advanced a bill this week to bar schools and private businesses from teachings or training that could make anyone feel responsible for historic discrimination, but some lawmakers warn this bill is dangerous for both private companies and for schools.

>> i don't understand why businesses can't run themselves, can't do their own trainings. why do we as the government need to be the thought police? this is the most authoritarian bill. >> should parents have a voice? yes, parents should know what their children are being taught, but at the same time, you cannot distort history. we cannot turn from the facts of the things that happened. all this legislation is going to do is promote ignorance of race-related content, content children should know about and what children should have access to. yes, we were not born then. yes, you weren't a part of what happened then, but that does not preclude us from being able to sit and have the tough conversations of what happened. no. we must talk about what -- that blacks were oppressed, blacks were beaten, blacks were lynched. >> joining us is carolyn foote. she's a library consult sul tant

and part of freedom fighters. tell us how they're linked to bans on school library books that talk about race and what impact that could have on classrooms. this is really crazy that this has gone to this length, but talk about the impact. >> so i'm in texas, and in texas the -- they have laws they passed last fall and in the summer relating to what can be taught in the curriculum, and so we're well aware of the impact of these laws, and a lot of them are so vague as you mentioned, the wording about shame or guilt, teaching things related to racial history, that it's very hard to discern if you're in a school classroom or library what's permissible and what's not, and even if the bill does

explicitly allow you to cover certain topics, which there is mention of that in the florida bill, it still creates a chilling effect for schools and for teachers and librarians, and it opens the door for parents who know the law is vague and feels that it kind of opens the door for complaints about certain book titles and libraries in particular. >> one of the things i think about when laws like this pop up, i grew up in melbourne, new jersey, which is a predominantly white community. i was the only black student in my grade until high school. and so i think a lot about my own discomfort when certain topics would come up and the discussions that would come up in class, and i don't remember anybody asking me -- maybe one teacher did, i think, in high school, english, when we were reading "huckleberry finn," but

other than that, nobody checked in. why are we bending over backward to protect the feelings of white children when black children, they have to exist in this world when we don't want to talk about the past, and also there are plenty of books that would make a black child or a native american, indigenous child feel uncomfortable, and we're not talking about that at all. >> well, i think you hit the nail on the head there when you said what makes someone uncomfortable differs from person to person, so it's really hard in essence to determine what one book would cause any one person shame or guilt. any book has the potential to cause anyone shame or guilt. i think the concern from our group, freedom fighters, i'm one of a member of a team pushing back against this legislation, is that there's a hidden agenda here, and it's not so clear on

the surface maybe, but it's clear that it's just looking at one slice like lgbtq students and students of color, and lgbtq authors are the ones particularly getting targeted around the country right now. >> that's an interesting point. one of the things i wanted to play for you is this bite from mitch mcconnell. he was asked yesterday about new state laws making it harder for black people to vote. just take a listen. i want to get your reaction on the other side. i think it actually say as lot how some of these lawmakers that support these laws see the american people. >> well, the concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, african american voters are voting in just as high a percentage as americans. >> what do you think it tells us when the most powerful republican in the congress, you

know, differentiates between african americans and americans. i feel like this is why we need these books and this content so kids can grow up understanding that americans includes black people. >> well, one of the things librarians strongly believe is that books help us with empathy, understanding the experiences even if they're not our own experiences. they open a window for us to look through and see someone else's experience and be more informed as citizens. and certainly that's what we want to see reflected in our political leaders now and our future political leaders who are students in our schools. so we believe that we are able to have civil discourse with our students and that our students can be critical thinkers and read ideas and books with ideas in them and have conversations

about them and come to their own understanding of it, but at least get the information and be aware of the information so that they can be better citizens in a democracy. you know, public schools serve everyone, and so all of our students need to be represented, and all of our students need to have their stories available on the shelves of our libraries because of that civil discourse that we all need to have. we need that so badly right now. >> i love the point about empathy, and i think about that all the time. and i sometimes say i want people to sit in their discomfort. like i want people to feel uncomfortable because we're sparking conversation. i want you to sit in your discomfort because through that process, that's how you get more empathy for people who are not exactly like you, don't look exactly like you and have the same experience. dr. -- not doctor. carolyn foote, excuse me, former

librarian. thank you so much for being here. it was an important conversation. i hope people become more open-minded, not close-minded. please stay safe. coming up, when is someone intelligent enough or stable enough to make their own reproductive decisions. this is a debate going on in florida right now. we'll discuss when we come right back. t now. we'll discuss when we come right we'll discuss when we come right back no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick. ♪♪ three times the electorlytes and half the sugar. ♪♪ pedialyte powder packs. feel better fast.

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this week an appeals court overruled a case. this case highlights everything that is totally wrong with the government sitting in judgment of a pregnant person and essentially forcing them to give birth without their consent. for example, the lower court said the young girl wasn't intelligent enough because they said she was currently making bes but had a c average. yes, the lower court said that as you can see. the lower court said she wasn't stable enough to make this decision because she wasn't driving yet. thankfully the appeals court overruled this nonsense,

nonsense -- i had to say it twice -- and made the right decision for the grow. but as is pointed out, it makes absolutely no sense to say a teen is too immature to have an abortion but mature enough to carry a pregnancy to term, go through child birth, and have a baby against their will. that right there is a problem with the laws that take away our reproduction tissue freedom by intruding on one of the most cones queen chal issues in our life. i want to get your reaction. it seems to be problematic to say that somebody needs consent to make this decision, but they -- you know, they're too -- they're not too immature to have an actual baby and raise it to be a full human being. i mean how does that make any sense at all?

>> look, i think we know -- i know you know and your viewers know the myriad of legislation on the books across the country restricting access to abortion for all kinds of nonsensical reasons are not rooted in a by sis of reality. this is another of an opportunity to limit access to reproductive health care for, in really critical population, our teenage -- our teens who are at risk, and yet not provide the full range of services that teen moms need when they are forced by circumstances in states like florida and texas and others to give birth. there's a wonderful network of folks who do work in a paren it will consent. i know you know them well. and this is outrageous. it's outrageous, and it's a perfect example of what we're going to see more of later this year, after the supreme court makes a decision on the mississippi case. >> it's quite -- to always defer to the parents as if they are the ones that can make the best

decision. in some of these cases you're talking about a teenager that's been abused. there's been a lot of cases like that, and then you're going to the abuser to ask for their permission. let's talk about your recent piece in the nation. you drew a through line between the attacks on voting rights and reproductive freedom and you wrote that both are united around white supremacy. lay that out for us and explain it to the folks at home now that congress has failed to pass voting rights. >> first, i'm going to start by saying even though congress has failed to pass voting rights i want to give a thank you to senate democrats and their leadership, and chuck schumer, for really doing what they needed to do the last few days, really telling the story, drawing these connections themselves for the american people. but i appreciate you asking me about this piece. this was really important for us to write. and for me to share, and i'm glad the nation published it. a couple of things. our friends in the reproductive justice community, the women of color leading the movement, have

been making these connections for years, and we've been listening and learning. i think we know the roots of the anti-choice, anti-abortion movement in this country. we've known for a very long time that they're deeply, deeply connected to white supremacy and we know that jim crow laws and filibuster, and voting rights as a whole issue in the nation, and erosion of democracy, are also rooted in white supremacy. as we are paying attention to what happened on january 6th, attacks on congress, attacks on our systems of democracy, we frankly -- it was very easy to see that the same characters and the same leaders were showing up in both movements. so not only is there like an obvious connection of the actual people, like literally the same people, there is a historical underpinning, and root of white supremacy theology and theory, that roots the interests of both these organizations. and fundamentally it comes down to this. they can't win fairly. the majority of americans are not with them. so they want to rig the system and they want to rig the game.

and that is always been what's united them, as the population of this country changes and evolves. they try to obstruct black americans from voting in the south and this is the same game all over again. >> minnie, it's great to talk to you about this really important topic, thank you so much, again, for being here, please stay safe. coming up -- a senator, and baptist preach raphael warnock delivers a voting rights sermon on the floor of the senate. on the floor of the senate (vo) this year, t-mobile for business is here to help you hit the ground running. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $800. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the

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who would've thought printing... could lead to growing trees. ♪ as i'm sure you're well aware by now, the push to change the senate filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation failed last night. but it wasn't for a lack of effort from most of the democrats in the chamber. there were hours and hours of spirited floor speeches yesterday about why protecting the right to vote is so vital in this moment. one of the best came from the democrats resident preacher senator raphael warnock, he's the pastor of the historic ebenezer baptist church in atlanta, the same sanctuary wasn't led by dr. martin luther king jr. as we go to break i want to

leave you with some of his words from last night. take us to church, please. >> some of the same voices ironically who have extolled dr. king's life this week have had at the same time been working vig lousily against the legislation we're debating today to protect the right to vote and many of them have been channelling old state's rights arguments. let the message go out. you cannot remember martin luther king jr. and disremember his legacy at the same time. you can argue whatever side you want. but you do not get to argue both sides. i will not sit quietly while some make dr. king a victim of identity theft. you do not get to offer praises and plaudits in memory of dr. king and then marshall the same kind of states rights arguments

that were used against dr. king and against the civil rights movement. please know that as the pastor of dr. king's church, this -- this argument evokes, i say, really respectfully, it evokes some of the darkest moments in our country's longest, long struggle for equality. >> that does it for me. i'm zerlina, find me monday through friday on the choice from msnbc. follow us on facebook, twitter, tiktok and youtube, more news is coming right here on msnbc. ♪♪

♪♪ it's 7:00 a.m., and first up on msnbc, big lie bombshells, a new report revealing how close donald trump came to ordering the seizure of voting machines in the weeks that followed the 2020 election. and in another attempt to subvert the legitimate results, the former president's allies allegedly put up fake electors in several critical states. the january 6th committee now investigating. plus -- >> and at this point we're all but certainly locked in on this