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tv   MSNBC Prime  MSNBC  May 4, 2022 1:00am-2:00am PDT

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rachel's crack team and i will be hosting all this week what a week it's turning out t let me show you the scene outside the united states supreme court right now. this was new york city this evening. and ewphiladelphia, pennsylvani knoxville, tennessee, boston, massachusetts, wilmington, delaware, reno, nevada, st. paul, minnesota, kansas city, missouri, austin, texas.in americans turning out in city after city across the country, many of them kind of in shock. the country's digesting the bomb shell news that broke just over 24 hours ago that a majority on the supreme court appears poised
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to revoke the constitutional right to abortion in the united states. today the chief justice john roberts confirmed that a draft majority opinion published last night by politico.com is authentic. in that draft opinion, justice samuel alito eviscerates both roe versus wade and planned parenthood versus casey, the foundational supreme court precedence guaranteed the right to an adoption in this country for decades. if the court does ultimately rule that way, the justices take away a right that americans have been guaranteed for nearly 50 years, the ramifications will be immediate, widespread, severe and inpr some ways unpredictabl. but one thing that is predictable is the practical effects of this potential ruling. we don't have to speculate on this one. to o see what it will look liken state after state, if roe v.
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wade is overturned, look no further than texas where abortion has all but been banned since aut draconian new law too effect a fewac months ago. as part of the attempt to block that new law, planned parenthoods in texas supported to the supreme court what texas women have faced under that law. this was just one of those stories. about a texas woman who is, quote, 20 years old and works 60 hours a week at a manager at a fast food restaurant in north texas. took a home pregnancy test a week after she missed her period and it was positive. she was using condoms and also taken plan b. quote, she was in shock. she said, it was overwhelming. i did catch it early. i watched the signs for my body. i did take plan b. i started crying. she decided to travel out of state. woke up at 4:00 a.m. to drive the four hours to oklahoma for
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the abortion plus travel costs in the end it's going to cost 1,000 to $1,500. she noted she still moved and is still missing furniture and the check engine light on her car is now on. i'm going back recounting money to make sure i can get by. i grew up knowing that i have an option and it was taken away from me at age 20. we're going back instead of progressing. you learn about roe v. wade in school. why would youe take that away? so to imagine what things would like like in a world where the supreme court gutted roe v. wade, just take what's happening in texas and imagine it happening in over half the country because there are 26 states across the country where it's not only likely but almost certain that abortion would be heavilybo restricted or outrigh banned if the supreme court were to overturn roe v. wade. these are the states labelled in orange. this map is according to data from the reproductive rights
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research institution. texas has already given us morbid case study of what that could look stlike, since the ste passed ace draconian abortion b a few months ago. stories of women concocting dangerous home remedies, foregoing furniture to get them gas to get across state lines. late last year the good mocker institute released essentially a forecast for what other states are in for if roe were to fall. so let's start, for example, with louisiana. louisiana iswi one of those stas that is basically done everything toat prepare to ban abortion in roe is overturned by the supreme court. right now there is 1.1 million people of reproductive age living in louisiana. with abortion still legal in louisiana, women drive an average of 37 miles one way to
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obtain care. if roe is overturned abortion would be immediately be banned in louisiana. according to the analysis by goodmacher a woman living in louisiana will have to drive an average of 666 miles to obtain an abortion one way. look at the states surrounding louisiana, they're all states likely to ban an abortion. a woman will have to cross multiple state lines to get care show used to get within a 40 mile radius. take a look at arizona, more than a million and a half women ofal childbearing age in arizon. roe protecting that, women have to drive an average of 11 miles one way to obtain abortion care. roe falls, abortion will be illegal in arizona and women will have to drive an average of 251av miles one way to obtain a abortion. let's do one more of these. let's look at florida, 4.6
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million women of childbearing age live in florida. right now the average woman can obtain an abortion in florida by driving just eight miles one way. but if florida were to ban abortion, the average one way distance to an abortion clinic will be 575 miles. based on their analysis, they estimate that 36 million women will be forced to travel extraordinary, oftentimes impossible, distances to obtain the very common, constitutionally protected care that they used toal be able to t after a drive of just a dozen or so miles from their homes. and that's assuming that they will be able to obtain that care once they make that long journey. what if the states that do protect abortion find themselves unable to cope with the sudden influx of people from states that have banned it? the practical, logistical implications for millions and millions of women in this country, if roe versus wade is overturned is seismic. and it's not just limited to
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people living in states hostile to abortion, it's americans everywhere, in every state which may be why today, as the news of this draft ruling sunk in, the response from democratic leaders was unusually raw and emotional. here was the democratic leader of the senate, chuck schumer. >> if we had to pick a word that our caucus feels it's infuriated, infuriated by the alleged decision, infuriated by the lies these justices told us whento they said they respect precedent, infuriated by our republican colleagues who don't tell the truth. i am just -- i cannot tell you the outrage i feel at this decision. and the outrage i feel that republicans who did it won't own up to it. and duck it. despicable. >> and here was vice president kamala harris this evening the pro-choice organization emily's list.
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>> thosemi republican leaders w are trying to weaponize the use of the law against women, what we say, how dare they. how dare they tell a woman who she can and cannot do with her own body. how dare they. how dare they try to stop her from determining her own future. how dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms. >> we'll be talking in just a few minutesin with the chair of the house progressive caucus about the road ahead at the federal level for defenders of abortion rights. but allab eyes are also on the state's right now where the immediate future of access to abortion will be decided. california's democratic leaders are preparing a state constitutional amendment that woulde explicitly protect the right to abortion in that state.
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connecticut's legislature passed a law that the governor says he will sign to make the state a, quote, safe haven for patients who need to travel from states withel abortion bans in order t access abortion care. and today, the governor of new york statehe said her state wil welcome anyone who needs care, quote, with open arms, end quote. but even if some states move to protect abortion rights in the face of this looming supreme court decision, other states are pushing ahead with more restrictions, even just today, a grinning oklahoma republican governor kevin stits signed into law ats new anti-abortion measu even though he already signed a near total abortion ban last month. i guess now that the supreme court looksi poised to let any and all abortion bans stand, why not stack them up? so there are questions tonight about what will happen in congress, what i will happen in the states and what will happen, of course, at the supreme court
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which may not issue its final decision for another couple of months. and throughout the day, activists, lawmakers and citizens converged on the supreme court building. and thoseco gatherings continue right now. you're looking at live pictures, as all americans try to come to grips with what it would mean to live in a country without a right to abortion. joining us now is president of pro-choice america. she was one of the speakers at the rally on the steps outside of the supreme court today. thank you for being with us tonight. i just wantg to start by askin you, this has been quite a 24 hours. the news itself is not unexpected. it was unexpected now. what's going through your mind today? >> so i was actually in addition to being at the supreme court, ali, i was here at emily's list with hearing vice president
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harris. the room was electric. advocates, activists, elected officials, folks are fired up, energized. look, we are devastated by what we've learned from the court, the leak. it's important to note, and i know your other guests will also note this, that abortion is still legal in this country. roe is still the law of the land. this was a leaked opinion, but we faced a believability gap for a few months now, for about six months, since the oral arguments a lot of us have been out there shouting it's very clear what's coming. the court didn't intervene in texas, as you noted. emboldened states like oklahoma, idaho, arizona, florida to take on additional bans. and a lot of americans, to their credit, couldn't believe that the court would reverse such a fundamental protected right. so what happened yesterday has really, as you told the story so
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beautifully, really a claire yan call, a wakeup call for folks who care about these fundamental freedoms and it might be the thing we need to really fight back. >> let's talk about this believability gap because it's obviousab and it's widespread there are reasonable people who just have not been around long enough to understand what it was like for women who couldn't get abortions, who looked for al aerntives in many cases alternatives either unsafe or unaffordable. and now that it is upon us, what does this say? what are people who are now coming to p terms with the fact that this may be very real in a matter of months roe v. wade could be gone, abortion protections could be gone, they could fall very quickly in 26 states and possibly more as time goes on. what does it say? what is one to do? >> you know, i think -- the courts have made it t really clear, there supreme court has made it really clear, we can't
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rely on the courts to protect our constitutional rights. so, the clarian call is we have to hold our elected officials accountable. we have to fight back andfi pus back about f the encroaching extremism from the gop, the rise of authoritarianism. it's deeply connected with the fight around d voting rights an democracy reform. eight out of ten americans in this country support a constitutional right to abortion. yet we have a court that is poised to ioverturn that right. we have a majority being ruled by a b minority, a religious extremist minority. so iem think the wake-up call i to fight back. andig that we have to hold elecd officials accountable up and down the ballot. that's congress. that's state houses. that'ste governors. that's attorneys general. and we need in this midterm election for our base to be energized like they've never been before and we're hoping this will be the opportunity to really raisebe that awareness.
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>> in just a few moments i'm going to speak with pri mill la jayapal who tried to move this forward in congress and there's been atr lot of discussion about doing that. your opinion, what does codifying abortion rights look like? is that something done at the federal level? is it done at the state level? is it both? what does success look like in codifying legal protection for abortion rights? >> so, pri mill la jayapal and nancy pelosi and the team in the house passed women protection act. chuck schumer tried. wek had unsuccessful effort. he's bringing it back next weekt we're really excited to support him there. but look, it's both. it's all of the above. it's state legislative efforts. efforts like governor gavin newsom, grit chen whitmer fighting back with legislation, ballot initiatives in kansas and michigan as well as federal legislation.
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and there's also talk -- and i think there needs t to be really -- we need to be big and bold how we imagine the future of reproductive freedom in the country. we need to think about the e.r.a., equality amendment. we have to fundamentally re-imagine how we want to protect this right in the future. but we have a lot of options. but it all comes down to the access to the ballot box and voting smoch the fact that we have an extremist gop that has really aggressively attacked our fundamental freedom to vote. the attacks on lgbtq communities, it's all connected. and we really need to wake up as organizations across the progressive ecosystem. i know she is leading the charge here. and understand how intertwined these fights are and how intertwined these attacks are. >> it's been a long 24 hours for you and unfortunately doesn't
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look like it's going to get any easier in the near term but i hope you get some sleep. thanks for spending time with us this evening. the president of pro-choice america. we appreciate your time tonight. well, last september a draconian new anti-abortion law went into effect in texas. it's a law that banned abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, which again is before most women even know they're pregnant. now with the endkn of roe versu wade looming, more states are looking at texas as a model, including in neighboring oklahoma where a copy cat law was signed into effect today. it takes effect immediately. joining us nowim is founder and ceo of the whole woman's health which is still providing abortions in texas in the limited circumstances in which they aremi allowed to. ms. miller, thank you for being with us tonight. i want to get your opinion as well or your reaction to the draft opinion that was leaked. >> thank you for having me, ali. it's an honor to be between mini
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and primila. two people i look up to. my reaction l has a couple layep i want to point out that abortion is still legal. we have been hearing from our patients all day today and i want people all over the a couny to know that your appointments are still valid. our clinics are open all over theop country. providers are here to provide care to you in all 50 states abortion is still legal. this leaked decision didn't surprise us unfortunately. it is very difficult to read. it's remarkably disrespectful of our experience as women and families in this country. and while i say it's not surprising, it's still very difficult to read. and we have been preparing for this not just since sb 8 was passed and not just since the dobbs v jackson case was heard.
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many of us independent providers and planned parenthoods across the country started to prepare for what this era could look like. try to preserve access in the 26 states you described and build networks with our abortion fund allies andti with our clinic allies to help as many people as we a can get to the 24 states where abortion is secured. it's really been a multi-pronged approach and been a really difficult time to have multiple contingencyti plans and multipl strategies while at the base of everything we do are the people we're here to serve. we have been'r listening to the stories of people denied abortion care for months now. and trying to help people overcome these barriers, whether it's supporting people who may have tried to self manage their abortion, whether it's helping people travel out of the state or whether it's helping families cope with being forced to carry a pregnancy they didn't feel
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ready for beyond the limit of the abortion. and being forced to give birth in texas at this time. and so, it's been rough. and you're right, it is preparing us in many ways for what theny country is going to face in the coming months. >> and in fact, that's one reality whatth the country will face with the overturning of roe andtu casey, but many people ar concerned that decision will not stop there and it can extend to possibly things like emergency contraception or even birth control. do you e share that view? >> you reknow, i agree with wha mini was talking about. i think it's important for us to frame this as religious extremism andre christian extremism and this is born andr bred in this country and does not reflect the majority of people in this country. it does not reflect the feelings and beliefs of the people i serve and thebe people that allf us know across this country. the vast majority of people here want to see abortion legal. they want to see abortion safe
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and available in our communities. all of us know somebody and love somebody who has needed an abortion at some h point in the life. abortion has benefitted men, benefitted women, benefitted republicans and democrats. our country has been able to count unsafe abortion for decades. and it's raised the status of women and made families healthier in our communities across the country. and i am glad to see such outrage today. it is important for us to stand up and talk about the value that access to safe abortion has brought to our communities over these decades. >> amy, thank you, for joining us tonight. the founder of whole women's health. we appreciate your time. coming up next, as i have been telling you, how progressives are hoping to fight back. could the courtig overturning r help democrats keep control of congress? congresswoman pri mill la jayapal joins us live after this. jayapal joins us live after this rients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed.
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you're looking at live video of people protesting in sacramento, california n response to the news that the supreme court drafted a majority opinion overturning roe v. wade ends or would end the federal right to a safe and legal abortion in this country. as people across d country begun to take to the streets in protest, congress is preparing for its biggest political battle in generations. republicans are now on the verge of achieving one of the central policy objectives that their base has been pushing for for nearly half a century.
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but despite that fact, republican leaders spent the day avoiding the topic of roe entirely. when they mentioned it at all, it was in the context of fajing outrage over the fact that the draft opinion had leaked. zero talk on where they stood on the decision itself. dynamic that chuck schumer made clear to note during his own press conference today. at that press conference, schumer informed skeptical reporters that democrats would do everything they could to fight the upcoming decision, including by holding a vote on federal legislation to codify the protections of roe into law. >> the dynamics previously remain. you still don't have the votes to nuke the filibuster, you don't have to votes to pass that bill. what will you do? >> look, it's a different world now. the tectonic plates of our politics on women's choice and on rights in general are
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changing. every senator now under the real glare of roe v. wade being repealed by the courts is going to have to show which side they're on. we will find the best way to go forward after that. >> well, the world today is certainly different than the one in which we were living before the news of this draft opinion broke last night right before rachel's show began, but the fight to codify roe remains uphill battle. over the past two years washington congresswoman pramila jayapal has learned a leader in this fight. she has been key to mobilizing nearly 100 members on key issues of social and economic justice. she's been outspoken leader in the fight for reproductive rights. just a few months ago congresswoman jayapal is one of three members of congress who stepped up to bravely tell the story of her own abortion. >> i speak to you as one in the
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one in four women in america who have had an abortion. i knew i was not ready to have another child, so i religiously took my daily contraceptive pill. despite that, i became pregnant. i consulted with my doctors who told me that any future pregnancy would likely also be high risk to me and the child. after discussions with my partner, who was completely supportive of whatever choice i made, i decided to have an abortion. whether the choice to have an abortion is easy or hard, whether there are traumatic situations or not, none of that should be the issue. it is simply nobody's business what choices we as pregnant people make about our own bodies. >> now, tonight congress woman jie ma pal is one of the democratic leaders tasked with coming up with a strategy for democrats nationwide. joining us now is the washington congresswoman pramila jayapal. thank you for being with us. we appreciate your time as always. you know, this is personal to you but i think it doesn't need
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to be. in other words, for most people looking at this tonight, they need to look beyond whether or not they know someone who had an abortion, know someone who might have an abortion and see this in the context of a right that is being eroded. >> that's right, ali. i think it is -- the personal stories are important because i think that there are republicans across the country who are trying to say that somehow this doesn't matter very much or it's not important to us or it doesn't mean anything for our futures. and i think these stories really showcase how complicated this is, how varied it is for people across the country, very different situations, and ultimately this freedom is a critical freedom that we have already had 50 years of people growing up with the belief that they could make choices about their own body. there was a constitutionally protected, settled law question.
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and today this five majority supreme court, which by the way, ali, these five justices were appointed by republican presidents who actually did not get the majority of the popular vote. and these five justices are trying to say if this actually is the opinion we think it is, trying to say that this is not a fundamental right. and it is a terrifying thing because people need to understand not only what it means for our economic freedom, for families across this country who are trying to plan their pregnancies, but also for every other issue. think about everything from brown v board of education, you know, marriage equality, you name it. loving, anything that we have considered settled law could really be taken away. and if you look at the language of the opinion, it's very scary
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and dangerous because it seems to be saying that if something isn't specifically named as a right in the constitution, from 200 years ago, that somehow that does not qualify as a right. >> it's not really a right. so one of the options and this is one that you have been pursuing is to codify this, to make this law passed by congress. what is the path for that right now? how do -- it's really the senate where this problem lies. but you heard chuck schumer talking about the fact that it's a different world now. the tectonic plates have shifted. do you believe that to be true? does that mean that there's a likelihood that the efforts that you and the house have gone through to codify abortion protections can be passed in the senate? >> well, i certainly hope so. the house has passed the women's health protection act which codified roe. we can pass it again. the senate i think it's very important for the republican senators who voted for these
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justices but said that they cared about abortion as a fundamental right and actually one who said she got an assurance from one of those justices that this was settled law. i think it's very important for those senators in particular to be on the right side of history in ensuring that we protect this right because they confirmed these justices and now these justices are making a mockery of precedent. they're making a mockery of women's freedoms and really of women overall, pregnant people overall. so the path is that i think the senate majority leader said they're going to bring this to the floor. it would need to get 60 votes in the senate to pass unless there is a carve out for the filibuster. let's be clear, ali. they had a carve out for the debt ceiling. it seems to me that we can have a carve out for the filibuster. and if we got those two women senators who, you know, said
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they supported a woman's right to choose to side with 49 democrats, that would be sufficient to codify roe v. wade. >> congresswoman, we appreciate your time tonight. we appreciate you telling your personal stories, too, to make them real for a lot of people who would otherwise deny how important this freedom is. congress woman pramila jayapal, the chair of the progressive caucus. we appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you, ali. it is primary night in ohio. we'll check in with steve kornacki, big news out of ohio right after the break. of ohio right after the break.
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today's primary day in ohio and indiana. polls closed nearly two hours ago in ohio. nbc projects that congress man tim ryan will be the democratic party senate candidate in november. of course the most anticipated race of the night is republican -- the republican senate primary where donald trump's control over the republican party faced its first major primary test. trump forgot the name of his preferred candidate jd vance over the weekend but just in the past few moments nbc projected that jd vance will win the republican primary. joining us now is the great steve kornacki. steve, it is good to see you, my friend. you have big news out of ohio right now, those numbers are coming in fast and furious. >> yeah, ali. there it is, you see the check mark jd vance we're declaring has won the republican primary. he will face off against tim
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ryan the democrat in the fall. basically what's been happening here, if you've been watching these returns on our air tonight when we first came on the air when about the first ten or 15% of the vote was reported out, vance was running at about 24, 25%. what that was was the way they report the vote out in ohio is every county puts out the early vote and the vote by mail first. in a republican primary, that's a pretty small share of the overall vote. most republicans, most prefer to vote in person on election day. the people that voted in person on election day today have broken sharply for jd vance in county after county we have seen him measurably improving in how he did today versus how he did in the early vote. a couple things could explain that but one of them is that it was the middle of the early voting period on april 15th that donald trump threw his support behind jd vance. so could be one of the reasons vance is doing so much better
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today than he did in the early vote. also worth noting, josh mandel here running second also ran very hard trying to get the donald trump endorsement, went very hard after trump's voters. he's actually doing quite well as well when you look at the same day vote. not as well as vance but he's doing quite well. really does, i think, ali, hard to put an exact number on it, but it's impossible to deny that donald trump's endorsement of jd vance the middle of april changed this race in a way that probably has put jd vance over the top here. you could absolutely have seen mandel winning this primary without jd vance doing as well as he's doing with this same day vote today. and you can see, i'll give you an example of it right here, cuyahoga county, this is matt dolan, the one candidate trump said he did not want winning this primary. this is dolan's base. dolan is leading here. when we were looking at numbers out of cuyahoga numbers, dolan
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was crushing vance. margin was 20 points. now the same day vote has come in, vance has moved that into single digits. that's great to be in dolan's backyard doing that well. suburbs just north of columbus, ohio, bedrock republican suburbs the place that dolan wanted to win and get big numbers. instead vance looks like he's on the way to outright winning delaware county. hamilton county, cincinnati, vance grew up in the area here. you can see he's leading in hamilton county, cincinnati right now. so actually geographically a pretty expansive victory for vance. again the numbers sitting at 31%, more than 70% in. i wouldn't be surprised if it ticked up a little more that vance number before the night is over. also, if mandel ends up running second ahead of dolan, wouldn't be surprised by that either. but bottom line, jd vance wins the primary and donald trump, we said, this was a test of his clout with republican primary
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voters. i think it would be fair to say donald trump was critical in delivering this victory to jd vance. >> big uptick in vance's support since the endorsement by donald trump. steve, great to see you, my friend. thank you as always. the great steve kornacki. up next, the bracing new reality that the end of roe could mean that other rights, like the right to obtain contraception, the right to same sex marriage could now be in the crosshairs of the court's conservative majority. court's conservative majority. . oh! hi . you're jonathan, right? the 995 plan! yes, from colonial penn. your 995 plan fits my budget just right. excuse me? aren't you jonathan from tv, that 995 plan? yes, from colonial penn. i love your lifetime rate lock. that's what sold me. she thinks you're jonathan, with the 995 plan. -are you? -yes, from colonial penn. we were concerned we couldn't get coverage, but it was easy with the 995 plan.
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it is an important precedent of the supreme court. by it i mean roe v. wade and planned parenthood versus casey, been reaffirmed many times. casey is precedent on precedent, which itself is an important factor to remember. >> senator, casey is settled law in the sense it's a decision of the united states supreme court. right? and you also have lawrence, those are all precedents of the united states supreme court, entitled to the weight precedent, which is quite considerable. >> during their supreme court confirmation hearings in 2017 and 2018, trump-appointees, justice gorsuch and justice kavanaugh both told the senate judiciary committee they understood roe v. wade and planned parenthood v casesy were the accomplished laws of the land and carried the weight of precedent, end quote, or, quote,
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were precedent on precedent, end quote. according to the draft supreme court opinion published by politico last night, those cases are likely precedent on precedent for just about another month. while justice roberts confirmed the authenticity of the document today, of course it is still a draft, the language and the justices votes could still change, but for now, this is what all of those justices i just listed voted for. quote, we must hold that roe and casey must be overruled. the constitution makes no reference to abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which defenders of roe and casey now chiefly rely. the due process clause of the 14th amendment. the provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the constitution, end quote.
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now, there are several rights that fall into this category. rights like same sex marriage. the right to birth control. justice alito basically wrote a how-to guide to dismantling those rights, too, which is probably why he also peppered in this tepid assurance. we emphasize our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, end quote. that's good. should we take him at his word? like some senators took gorsuch and cavanaugh at their word? tonight the vice president harris warned that roe might not be the only target for republicans. >> you know, some republican leaders they want to take us back to a time before roe v. wade, back to a time before
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hodges, back to a time before griswald v connecticut, but we're not going back. we are not going back. >> the president of the naacp legal defense and education fund also offered this thought, quote, the leaked opinion suggests scotus has abandoned all respect for precedent and a woman's right to choose. if this is true, we can only imagine what's next and what this will mean for respect for the court itself going forward. joining us now is president and director counselor of the naacp legal defense and education fund. ms. nelson, thank you for being with us tonight. i appreciate your time. and you're an expert to whom we often turn as a non-lawyer, i was confused by the fact that justice alito says the supreme
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court can only protect rights that are in his words deeply rooted in the nation's history. so how far does that logic go when it comes to peeling back previously-established rights like same sex marriage, for instance, that are not enumerated in the constitution. constitution doesn't say anything about same sex marriage. >> yeah. it's deeply concerning that justice alito would try to manipulate what is essentially our due process clause in the 14th amendment in that way. what he's referring to is the fact that not all rights that we enjoy and that we are absolute entitled to are specified by name in the constitution. instead, our constitution has broad principles, it has the principle of due process, the principle of equal protection under the law. and under those big umbrellas, lie important and critical rights that are essential to our freedoms as americans, our freedom to choose to decide who
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we would like to marry, whether that be someone of the same sex or someone of a different race. our right to privacy, our right to determine our reproductive future and our access to opportunity as a result. and what justice alito laid out in that extremely disturbing draft opinion is a completely different conception of how this country has evolved over time and treated rights under the constitution. he talks about rights not being rooted in our history or being part of our view of ordered liberty. without recognizing that the court itself has made those determinations not more than 50 years ago as part of an evolving, progressive and more inclusive society. so what he did in this draft opinion is attempt to bring us backwards in a way that is not consistent with how we view rights today.
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it's not consistent with contemporary readings of the constitution. it's rooted in originalism, which locks us into a period of time in which almost a super majority of this country had no rights, including most people of color and women and many other groups. so this is really a call for our country to decide what type of constitutional democracy we want to be. >> yeah. you make a good point, the right for people of color to vote was not enshrined in the constitution. the right of women to vote was not enshrined in the constitution. there are all sorts of rights that have come to be and in this particular case for almost 50 years. so what is the basis of the argument that it's not enshrined in our history let alone the constitution? what does 50 years of abortion protections mean if it doesn't carry any weight with justice alito and the majority on the supreme court? >> what it means frankly and it's very difficult for me to say this as someone who leads an
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organization that put the first african-american on supreme court justice on the court and that has won seminol cases like brown versus board of education using the court to advance society, to help perfect our constitutional democracy, it disturbs to me say that the court has become deeply politicized and this opinion underscores that fact and makes it at this point beyond doubt, that the court has been coopted through political whim and political pressure and power. and i think your opening where we saw justices claim that this was precedent on precedent, that this was part of their duty to recognize starry desigh sis, to recognize when there is settled precedent that justices on the supreme court are bound to respect it, unless there is good reason to depart from that precedent. and justice alito's opinion, despite the 67-page length plus an appendix does not provide
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adequate justification for departing from precedent in this way. this is really an outlandish decision. >> we always appreciate your time. thank you for being with us on this important night. janai nelson, legal defense and education fund. up next, steve kornacki joins us. we're going to take a break. we talked to steve kornacki, we know that jd vance is now the republican nominee for senate in ohio. we'll be right back with some important information. stay with us. important information. stay with us living with metastatic breast cancer means being relentless. because every day matters. and having more of them is possible with verzenio. the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopause status.
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one quick note of business if you record this show on your dvr, if you record the rachel meadow show every night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. keep doing it. please add the show "msnbc prime." it is now what this show is called from tuesday to friday. the reason you need both of those recordings on your dvr is rachel will be here on mondays
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even though her whole team is still producing this show every night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. so you need to set your dvr to record every night at 9:00 p.m. which means setting it record both the rachel maddow show and msnbc. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. ♪♪ supreme court justice john roberts confirmed the leak draft opinion that would overturn roe v. wade is, in fact, authentic. this morning, the latest reaction from the court, the white house and from congress. plus, trump-backed jd vance wins the tightly-contested republican primary in ohio. and he will now face democratic congressman tim ryan in the buckeye state senate race. the question now is whether vance can unite his party behind him. and breaking news overnight, comedian dave chappelle attacked while

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