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tv   Politics Nation  MSNBC  October 29, 2022 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT

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who have found the right way to lose weight with ten days to go until the and get healthier with golo. midterm election. early voting is already underway in 32 states. more than 17 million voters have already spoken. among those voters's president joe biden, who joined his granddaughter in delaware for her first time casting a ballot. the president was with vice president harris last night here in pennsylvania, rallying in support of john fetterman's senate campaign. former president barack obama is on his way to milwaukee right now, stopping soon for lieutenant governor mandela barnes in his senate race of, after rallying for michigan governor gretchen whitmer and other democrats in detroit earlier today. and last night, he was campaigning for senator raphael
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warnock in his reelection campaign against herschel walker. and for stacey abrams in her bid for the georgia's governor mansion. >> i know these are tough times, but we've been through tough times before. i think is, we can't give in, to the temptation to give up. we can't turn inward. we can't seek politics as a cyril zero sum game, where and anything is possible, we can't give into that kind of thinking. because an our darkest moments, and there have been darker moments before i, we have always had more in common than our politics suggest. >> another former president, donald trump, is poised for a last-minute bit of a swing state rallies in support of
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maga candidates. at the same time, his legal team is laying various rounds to a subpoena from the congressional january 6th probe. and as the gears of our democratic process grind forward, police in san francisco are trying to piece together the details behind the violent attack on the husband of house speaker nancy pelosi, carried out during an apparent home invasion. that is where we start tonight with just ten days to go. joining me now, senator them tim kaine, democrat of virginia. a former vice presidential candidate and former head of the democratic national committee. senator cain, thanks for joining us tonight. and i want to start with the incident in san francisco, first of all, my prayers go out to paul pelosi, who according to a spokesperson for the speaker, he is recovering after
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undergoing surgery for a skull fracture. we don't know exactly yet what motivated this attack, although police have said they believe it was an intentional act, not a random event. what is your reaction, senator, to what we've seen unfold here? >> well, reverend sharpton, i agree with you. it's a tragedy. i know the speaker, and i've met paul, and i'm just praying for them right now. but, look, i've watched the other side, demonize nancy pelosi nonstop for many, many years. you know, it just seems like there is a theme to who they demonize. it's kind of the hillary clinton, or nancy pelosi, or barack obama, or vice president harris. it is not a random distribution of the targets that they are eyeing their hatred on. but when you do that, and you do it in a country where there is an awful a lot of people who are beholden to conspiracy
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theories, and maybe dealing with mental health issues, then you are reaping seeds that can turn into something really bad. they know that. it should curb their behavior, but based on some of these were actions that i'm seeing from some on the other side, you know, it's not having that effect. and that makes me worry for people i care about and for our country. >> senator, you know, most democrats and republicans have been quick to announce, denounced the attack on speaker pelosi's husband, but not everyone seems to be taking it as serious as they should. take a listen to the governor of your state, glenn youngkin, or youngkin, at a campaign event just yesterday. >> and, listen, i want to stop for a minute and, listen, speaker pelosi's husband had a break-in last night in the house, and he was assaulted.
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there is no room for violence anywhere. but we're gonna send her back to be with him in california. that's what we're gonna go to. >> senator, do you think governor youngkin's remarks were appropriate, coming not only on the day of the pelosi attack, but also, at the same time cbs is reporting the u.s. government has sent a memo to a lot enforcement, warning of heightened threat to the midterm elections. >> reverend, that comment was completely sick. why did he say i want to interrupt, or interrupt what paul pelosi is under surgery to make a comment like that. unpack what it means. we're gonna send nancy pelosi home. there was no one at that virginia rally who was gonna sent nancy pelosi home. she is going to get reelected to congress. but, you know, there is a great biblical phrase from the fullness of the hard the mouth speaks. we're gonna send her home, like,
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when her place is in the home but not in the house. i mean, it really betrays a cavalier attitude to our political violence. and it betrays a sentiment that like, what, she doesn't belong in the house, we have to send her home? you don't have to comment at all, and if you do, you say violence is bad. but you don't go on to kind of act like it is a political punchline, and you are spiking a football in the insulin about the tragedy in her life. >> wow! senator tim kaine, quoting the bible, i remember right here in philadelphia, you and i spoke at the bright home baptist church, i'm preaching in the morning. i'll give you a regards. senator, let me go to this, top democrats are making their final pitches with ten days to go. president biden and vice president harris who are here in philadelphia last night, rallying for john fetterman's
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senate bid. the vice president was in maryland earlier today, in support of democrat westmore's campaign for governor. of course, probably, the biggest story on the campaign trail right now, the reemergence of barack obama, who has been crisscrossing the country this weekend for democrats in 12 races. he is in milwaukee right now to stump for lieutenant governor mandela barnes in his stuff centuries. just hours after rallying for governor gretchen whitmer in michigan. last night it was georgia for senator raphael warnock's reelection race, and stacey abrams and her bid for governor. i want to play someone of that detroit rally from earlier. >> i get why people are anxious. i understand why people are anxious. i understand why you might be worried about the course of the country. i understand why sometimes, it is tempting just to tune out, watch football, watch dancing
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with the stars. but i'm here to tell you that tuning out is not an option. moping is not an option. >> senator, as former dnc chair, what does former president obama bring to the trail that these swing state democrats need with ten days to go? >> reverend sharpton, he has a way of lifting it above the back and forth of the competing campaign ads, and all of this, when we are in races, i'm not done about it this year, but it's impossible not to get into the daily topper work. what president obama can do, he can lift it above the daily back and forth, and when you tell us what's at stake for the country. and also, what is at stake for each of us. you know, the interest that each of us have, our responsibilities, our duty, democracy is on the ballot in a way that it's not been on the
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ballot during most of my life. but it's on the ballot right now, and president obama has a way of making that claim in underlining the message of a joe biden, you know, 10 million new jobs since joe biden became president. 700,000 manufacturing jobs. we just got good gdp growth figures yesterday. the unemployment rate is at its lowest in american history. health care premiums are coming down. we still got work to do. what we are making some headway even against a complete and neera resolute republican opposition, who is determined to bring everything back. look, it's classic drivers ed. that is what the closing stretch argument is. >> a lot of time, senator, let me ask you this and response, and respond briefly please. is it your impression with just ten days left before election
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day that voters care more about crime and inflation, topics that dominated debates across the country, particularly in swing states, more than, maybe, abortion and voting rights? >> abortion, democracy, and voting rights are way up high on the list than they've ever been. voters do care an awful lot about the economy. so, i think more than crime, i think the economy is the issue. but i don't think the voters who care about the economy really feel completely confident that they can take the car keys and give it to the republicans, because they've been standing in the way of all of the things that we've had to do to build a pattern out of covid, and economic recession that covid created. >> and thank you, and i might add, we are not just discounting grunt, but we also should recognize that crime is high in some red states, higher in blue states. virginia senator tim kaine, thank you for being with us. from virginia to all, joining
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me now is congresswoman shontel brown, representing ohio's 11th district, thank you for joining me today, congresswoman. let me go right at it. you are present a district with the highest concentration of black people in ohio. a new poll from the grillo and the kaiser family foundation finds that black voters overwhelmingly opus policies to defund the police. about half want to keep law enforcement funding as it is, and a third want to see an increase. you've watched as republicans have pushed law and order as an issue in ohio and elsewhere. by painting democrats as soft on crime, how should members of your party be responding? >> well, first of all, thank you for having me, reverend al. and i think it's important that we recognize that democrats have been the ones recently that have passed recent legislations who helped with this very issue. i don't think anyone wants to see a community that is not
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safe. we all want safer communities, right? and so, when you have this issue of people talking about defunding the police, i think we need to recognize that that is not a democratic motivation devoted. something pushed by the republican party. and look at what's happening particularly after the mar-a-lago fbi search, it's been the republicans that have been actually promoting this issue of defunding law enforcement, to the tune of asking the fbi being defunded. we recently passed legislation to safer communities act, which mmunities to ensure that we are putting dollars towards making communities safer, making investments in mental health. but also, making sure that we hold police accountable, and that is the thing that we want, safety and accountability. >> now, the senate race in your state, ohio, has become one of the most highly contested races to watch in these midterms. in the state that donald trump
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carried by eight percentage points, twice, the latest marris poll shows just one percentage point separation between j.d. vance and congressman tim ryan in the race for senate. that is well within the margin of error. now, you served with congressman ryan in the house. how do you see this race playing out? >> well, i've said from the beginning, if anyone could replicate the sheriff brown winning formula, as a democrat that has successfully won the state of ohio multiple times, it is candidate tim ryan. he is a friend and a supporter, and a true ally since i have risen to congress and before, having served his party chair, county democratic party, for multiple years. i've seen tim doing the work, making the connections, getting the message out to the community. he is running a race that is very ohio focused, ignoring the
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noise of washington, d.c. politics, and really focusing on the needs of the state. and that is what is making him successful. many people have written off ohio as a red state, but when you look at tim ryan's great, you can tell that this state is truly more great than it is right. we see that our constituents have voted in great numbers and contain team, to ensure that we have better -- running on congressional representatives, they've proven to be unconstitutional and you see that when we look at the numbers. we have four democrats out of 16 states right now who will lose a seat due to the census. but tim ryan is showing that the state is far more purple than it reflects and our congressional map. so i'm proud of the race tim ryan is running. i'm excited about the opportunity. and i am confident that he can pull this thing off, reverend al. >> now, also in ohio, there is
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more on the ballot than the high-profile senate and gubernatorial ian near races, voters will also decide on who can vote in that state, and issue to, pushed by secretary of state frank la rose, which would require that only a citizen of the united states who is at least 18 years old, and has been a registered voter in the state for at least 30 days be eligible to vote. however, this measure is worrying some gen z voters, citing concerns, this may reduce the numbers of 18 year olds eligible to vote. opponents of the issue, we have said that this restriction is unnecessary, and is an attack on the freedom to vote. what are your thoughts on that? >> i could not agree more. this will eliminate 17 bureaus to have a duty right now, and the access and the ability to vote and a primary, if they'll
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be 18 by the general election. this will eliminate that. the other part of the law, really, it is preemptive, if you will, as a solution in search of a problem. you have to be a u.s. citizen in order to vote. so what it is? it is a continued attack, and republican majority state like my, to suppress votes for young people, black people, and other minorities. so, we have to take notice of what happens when republicans are in control. they continue to try to make voting more difficult and the reality is, if they can't beat us, they will change the rules to try to cheat us. and this is a prime example, reverend al, it's not happening just here in ohio, but across the country. it's very frustrating for me, when i live in a republican state, and we see the numbers going up for young voters, people getting excited about the opportunity to vote. and here comes the republican legislature, here comes our secretary of state, making it yet more difficult for young people on the future of this
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country to participate in their civic responsibility. >> thank you for being with us, ohio congresswoman shontel brown. coming up -- ♪ ♪ ♪ >> where more than 1 million people have cast their ballot, but also, where election workers have become targets of nasty threats. and later, you will meet the man who sat in jail for 25 years for selling three pounds of weed. and he is finally free now. but first, my colleague richard louis with today's top news stories. richard? >> right, good saturday to you. we are watching a developing story. at least hundred and 46 people are dead, and 150 hurt in a stampede in south korea. it happened at a halloween celebration there. reports saying the stampede began after crowds searched into a narrow alleyway, which led to people being crushed and trampled. as many as 100,000 people were at the halloween festivities.
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russia's military says moscow is suspending its participation in an agreement to export grain and other agricultural products from ukrainian ports in crimea. the announcement comes hours after russia accused ukraine of attacking ships in crimea, that it said were part of that green initiative. a new cdc data friday shows few flute related hospitalizations rising dramatically in recent weeks. that report found flew levels at a height typically not seen until later in the season. the cdc recommends everyone six months and older to go out and get an annual flu shot. more politics nation with reverend al sharpton, right after this break. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ing? for sure. seriously? one up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi.
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so you can wake up refreshed. for better sleep, like never before. welcome back to politicsnation.
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as early voting gets underway in georgia, the state is already seeing record-breaking turnout. as of friday morning, more than
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1 million people have cast their ballot. meanwhile election workers in the peach state and many other states where donald trump lost the election had become targets of threats and harassment. the office of secretary of state oversees the election process and some argue more can be done to protect election staff. joining me now is the democratic nominee for judge a secretary of state state representative, bee nguyen. i want to start with your efforts to unseat secretary of state brad raffensperger. raffensperger did his job in 2020 and refused to give to under pressure from then president donald trump to overturn georgia election results. however, he's also been supportive of voter restriction measures in the state, inspired by the big lie. why do you think it's time to
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replace him now? >> thank you for having me on, reverend. it's important that a sitting secretary of state follow the law and uphold our democracy by counting the votes. it's also important to have a secretary of state who believes in expanding access to the bow loss. i am for secretary of state because i believe every illiberal georgians should be able to vote without barriers. and the last four years in georgia, we have seen our voting become more restrictive and with senate bill 202 in place, we have to remember that many of those provisions in that bill were predicated on lies and conspiracy theories like you said. under senate bill 202, it is now harder to request application to vote by mail. it is harder to drop about off at a secure drop box, and we know that it also criminalizes handing out a bottle of water to a voter waiting in line. in a state like georgia, people way up to 11 hours just to exercise a constitutional right. it also lends itself to opening the door for a limited voter challenges that we've seen
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across the state of georgia, encouraging vigilante behavior and challenging -- protecting our democracy means that we have to stand up against these suppression bills, especially in 2022, where we should be making more progress, not going backwards. >> miss bee nguyen, i was there last week, and under georgia's new voting law, there are a growing number of voting challenges at the polls. as a result, voters have to complete provisional ballots instead of irregular one, causing mistress that their vote actually counts. this comes as there is more law enforcement presence -- which can be intimidating for voters, especially for black communities, the brunt of well-documented abuse, according to the naacp defense
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an education fund. what can voters do, if they are challenged at the polls? >> it's very important to talk about these voter charges because under federal law, the secretary of state's office is prohibited from doing mass maintenance within a 90-day period prior to a major election. that law is in place for a very specific reason. it cannot be used as a tool to have franchise people. this is a workaround that enables in individual to have on limited voter challenges, and they had to present them in writing and go before our local election boards. with the secretary of state's office will tell you is that this has always been the law of the land, but what a speed 202 did, it explicitly says unlimited voter challenges, and it requires local election boards to respond to these voter challenges. it has created more workload for our liberal election boards and causes food isn't, chaos and voter intimidation. we know recently that a student from morehouse college of
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medicine went to vote, and when she arrived at her precinct, she was unable to cast about because her eligibility had been challenged. when given a provisional ballot, she did not feeling cuttable casting her vote provisionally. she literally said, i feel disenfranchised because she was disenfranchised. what voters need to do is make sure you check your voter registration before you show up at the polls, and you save the voter protection hotline in your vote. it is 188, 7305816. this voter protection hotline will help any georgian no matter what party affiliation. they will not ask you which party you belong to, and they will give you the guidance on what you need to do to verify your voter registration so that you can show up at your polls and be able to your ballot using the machines. >> let me stop the radar because georgia is bracing for an unprecedented effort to disrupt midterm voting. it's among the top seven states
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receiving the most states to election workers. following the election disputes of 2020, the fbi reports in georgia, it is a felony to interfere with their poll worker performing their duties. georgia secretary of state's office has created a tense system for poll workers and other induction employees to report threats or safety concerns in realtime. what do you make of the efforts to curb these attacks to election workers? what can be done more in this regard? >> we have to remember that the reason why we are in this place in the first place is because republicans in the state of georgia allowed these lies and conspiracy theories. from the time they started in 2020, they were complicit in the messaging that somehow our voting system was in secure. in the aftermath, they use that
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to pass voter suppression bill, senate bill 202. in fact, last legislative session, tried to introduce more laws based on lies and conspiracy theories. we have to remember that this is the totality of what has been happening in the state of georgia. republicans have refused to tell the truth about what is actually going on in the state of georgia. they used this as an excuse to pass more voter suppression laws, knowing that it would put a target on the backs of liberal election workers as well as poll workers. the additionally passed a bill that has increased the workload and took away necessary funding. so it is not a surprise that we are facing an election administration crisis because they did not get the safety of georgia workers when they continue to allow these conspiracy theories to drive. and to this day, there are many people in the state of georgia who have not been held criminally accountable, including the lieutenant governor candidate from republicans, who is a fake elector. he came to our capitol and tried to overturn the will of the people. we need accountability across
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the board, and we need to reject all of the lies and conspiracy theories and stop passing legislation predicated on these lies and have a real plan in place to mitigate misinformation and to make sure that we are providing safety measures for our poll workers and for their families. >> i am going to have to leave it there. thank you georgia secretary of state candidate, bee nguyen. coming up, in the wake of the attack on speaker pelosi's has been, our political panel weighs in on the growing concerns over violent political rhetoric. rhetoric stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms. and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is where i want to be. call your doctor about sudden behavior
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discomfort back there? instead of using aloe, or baby wipes, or powders, try the cooling, soothing relief or preparation h. because your derriere deserves expert care. preparation h. get comfortable with it. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will help you create a comprehensive wealth plan for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. welcome back to politicsnation. let's bring in my political panel for their analysis on today's big stories. joining me now is dana milbank, political communists for the
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washington post and rick wilson, republican strategists and cofounder of the lincoln project. dana, let's start with you. politico reports democrats are blaming republicans for their failing to rein in a rise of violent rhetoric in the wake of yesterday's assault on speaker nancy pelosi has been, who survived a serious injury. your organization, the lincoln project issued a statement saying in part of the specter of violence is actively being encouraged by maga candidates and gop leaders, who embrace the language of violence as a means to gain support with an extremist based, and of quote. what needs to be done to calm the situation down? i said dana, but i meant to say rick, of the lincoln project. rick? >> thanks, rat, i do think that
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we have entered an era where there is a massive pr effort on the way, massive communication effort on the right that constantly keeps its base stoked on the site of fear and conspiracy and become caught the ball with violence. it needs to come from the top, anything come from the quote on quote respectable republican leaders. we need to tell conspiracy crises like marjorie taylor greene and others that this kind of rhetoric is going to stop, or there will be consequences inside their own party. i don't believe that will happen because i believe it is now a part of using fear as a political lever in the culture. this was amplified dramatically by trump. he used to tell people to knock the hell out of them, i'll cover your legal bills and transition from being a joke to something that is now a central part of political culture. it is going to require corporate sponsors who backed
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these republican candidates and the republican elected officials, and it will will crier people to claim to be the respectable republicans to step up and stop this before it escalates much further. >> into, let's turn to the rise of self appointed poll watchers. armed individuals dressed in tactical gear stood near a ballot drop box in mesa, arizonian next week. according to the maricopa county elections department, voters are having to endure heighten suppression efforts this election season, ranging from drug i.d. loss to cuts in early voting, to mass purchases of voter rolls and systematic disenfranchisement. now, armed people are intimidating voters. these actions disproportionately impact people of color, students, the other ali and people with disabilities. what's your biggest concern
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during the midterms? >> gus, reverent, there are so many concerns, it's hard to list a more. there is the sensor now that we seem to be losing our humanity here between the attack on paul pelosi, the attack on can be hubs, as you mentioned, all of the armed a military stick figures out here at balloting places. i was just a mastriano rally in pennsylvania waiting in line for an hour or so. people were laughing and talking about the attack on paul pelosi. others are saying it was itself a conspiracy, a set up and destruction, that it was not real. it's like things are so far gone, we need grown-ups if there are any in the republican party to say that this needs to stop. no one bit of rhetoric is responsible for any crazy persons activists, but
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collectively our rhetoric is all responsible for acts of violence and politics. it is so far beyond time for some grown-ups, if there remains one in the republican party to say, it's gone too far. >> dana, let me stick with you a minute because he wrote about no, latinos aren't abandoning the democratic party. quote, in which you write and i am quoting, if there is slippage among latinos, it will be because they, like voters of all races, are disenchanted with the majority party and feeling economic anxiety. in the piece, you specifically speak about the senate race in nevada between democratic senate catherine cortez masto and the first hispanic woman elected to the senate, and her opponent, republican adam
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laxalt. the latino community is crucial voting, and is a crucial voting bloc in many close elections. how will democrats and how will have democrats been speaking directly to their concerns, not taking their vote for granted? >> democrats and the media in particular have been doing a lot of sky is falling rhetoric about latinas abandoning the democratic party. it's not really true. there was some slippage between 2016 and 2020. there may have been a little more if you take a lens back a little bit and look at the last 30, 40 years or so. there's been wide swings in the vote. there are regional problems for democrats in south texas, in florida. florida, for example is an area where democrats have not been tested as much as they need to, so, yes, you do see the latino vote slipping away in parts.
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where democrats have remained as engaged as before, latinos are still voting with them. speaking at the sky is falling notion, there is a whole sense of what are democrats doing wrong. the extraordinary thing is that they are holding their own as well as they are, given the economic circumstance, and that is partially because the right thing democrats are doing but also voters are seeing what the alternative is. >> rick, big names in politics are being dispatched to battleground states ahead of election day. today, president biden voted early with his granddaughter in delaware, who is a first time voter. vice president harris was in baltimore at a grassroots event for maryland democratic nominee for governor, westmore. and former president obama rallied for governor whitmer and other democrats in detroit earlier. he's expected to speak in wisconsin in just a few
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moments. meanwhile, donald trump is expected to rally for marco rubio in miami two days before election day. briefly, please, tell me which national figure do you think we'll have the most impact on these midterms? >> i think barack obama has stolen enormous amount of charisma and popularity with voters in this country. his numbers are down voters are still strong, and i do think among the maga voters, you'll see that donald trump is the drop of all drugs. in that race in florida, he is appearing with rubio, but not with his future competitor ron desantis, which is an interesting tell. other than that, i think it is not down and in incumbent upon these candidates to drive as much as they can, as the races are closed in all those states. >> all right, thank you dana and rick. coming up, weeks after president biden has pardoned
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federal prisoners of simple marijuana possessions, you'll hear the incredible story of one michael thompson who served 25 years for a weed offense. you don't want to miss his personal account right after the break. the break.
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discomfort back there? instead of using aloe, which sanofi flu vaccine or baby wipes, or powders, try the cooling, soothing relief or preparation h. because your derriere deserves expert care. preparation h. get comfortable with it. in ten days, five states will vote on whether to legalize cannabis use for adults. those votes coming weeks after president biden's pardoned federal prisoners convicted of simple marijuana possession. still, 34% of drug related arrest last year involved pot. thousands of americans incarcerated for non violent cannabis offenses, even as the legal pot industry is poised to make 24 billion dollars this year alone. that's according to a new documentary premiering on
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msnbc. this pensive michael thomas, which tells the harrowing story of a michigan man who became the state's longest serving nonviolent offender for selling three pounds of marijuana to police informant 25 years ago. after years of appeals, thompson sentence was commuted last year. i'm a free man in a new era. joining me now is michael thompson himself and his lawyer, wrongful conviction attorney kimberly coral. mr. thompson, mrs. coral, thank you for being with us. -- here on msnbc for our audience, i want to play a clip from this brilliant film to let you tell your story about how 70 pounds
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of marijuana to the wrong person has impacted your life for more than two decades. >> the facts are someone came to michael's house, discussed purchasing marijuana. he went to another house, got that marijuana and then delivered it to the confidential informant, and they used the marijuana south of searches has four guns. at no point was a gun referenced, utilized, brandished, spoken about. without the guns, it still would have been and offensively high sense of marijuana, but he would have been maxed 15 years instead of a life sentence. >> watching that clip, mr. thompson, what else should our audience know about that day? >> i was really concentrating on the camera --
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i could see nobody but myself. i was wondering what was going on. could you repeat the question again, please? >> tell us what happened that day. we just went through a clip of the attorney explaining the background, but you tell us in your words what happened that day, that you were arrested. >> the day i was arrested, it was a friend of mine. he got caught up in a situation, and i did not know he got caught up in a situation. he wanted to save his own but, and he asked me for three pounds of marijuana -- >> i think we're getting some feedback. let me go to attorney corral,
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i-2021 people found that 91% of americans favor legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use. five states, some red, will vote on whether to legalize cannabis on this upcoming midterm election day. 34% the drug arrests last year involved marijuana according to the fbi. other than a cultural conflict over the drug, we're in your view is the source of the ongoing resistance to the legalization of a national, federal level? >> you know, that's something that i remained perplexed by. it's hard to understand how this is a topic we're still discussing in 2022. i think the tagline, tough on crime is easy to get behind, but a totally misrepresents the system. nascar serration is failing on every level. it does not reduce criminal conduct, but marijuana is not a
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means to charge, convicted and incarcerated people for weed, but it's a mean to chance bell on fourth of emmett rights to open the door to over investigate, open the floodgates to privacy. -- opens a search like in michael's case, where three pounds of wheat led to the search of his home, even though the marijuana transaction did not occur in his home, it led to a search of his house where they found an antique weapon in a gun safe and that to a weapons charge, which then created a sentencing enhancement. he's served 25 years for three pounds of weed, but that was not even half of his max ands. he was sentenced to 42 to 60. so marijuana is not just a mechanism to incarcerate people for marijuana, it's a mechanism to across our people for all kinds of crimes by eroding the
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protections of the fourth amendment and other constitutional protections for defendants. >> that's what i want to talk, michael, if you got your technical problem -- you salt marijuana to a friend who you did not know had been caught up in something and was cooperating with a witness to get out of his situation. marijuana use old, they used that to search your has, found an anti gun and used that to enhancer sentenced to 42 years, 25 years you want to jail for over a simple marijuana to someone who is a friend of yours, a non violent crime. you want to jail for a quarter of a century. how do you want americans to watch this documentary tomorrow night and understand how unfair this is to your life and other similarly situated? >> it's more that i want you to
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understand -- because this is a thing like awe -- it's like a felony murder. a trap sentence, marijuana should not even be in the picture. no one should be imprisoned for marijuana. so my thing is, a trap sentence is for people of color, and you don't find many white guys get a sense -- too many guys get ten felony for murder. my thing is to try to help -- corral work with me on the michael thompson clemency thing. that's why i was upon their, trap sense. you look at people like the
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kardashians, snoop, all of them, if it was not for all the people trying to help me, i would still be on this traps and staying. >> and since you've been out, you've been involved, as we will see in the documentary, enjoying to help others? even with state marijuana laws, you have a -- now be an opportunity in one state, or it could amount to a life altering prison sentence in another. i want to play another clip from the film and hear more on that from you. roll the clip, please. >> i think that thing that attracted me to take this case is that he is the most despair and sentencing i have seen in my career, which has a lot, because i handle a lot of post conviction matters and a lot of matters that deal with these kinds of injustices. beyond that, the governor in
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michigan has unabashedly held the position that nobody should suffer a lifelong consequences for marijuana convictions. we can't give michael back the quarter of a century he spent incarcerated, so he will inevitably face life consequences for this conviction, but we can commute the harm is being done to him and his family with this ongoing incarceration. >> michael, i was struck by that in the film because watching your story, i can only imagine your reaction to the last several years, we see with regards to marijuana. legalization in certain states. with that, a booming legal pot industry. what more should be done at the federal level to fix the damage done by the drug war and even as some americans have gotten rich of legalization? you tell me michael and miss corral.
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>> corral would be better to answer the question, but i would like to say this. when bill clinton signed that bill, that put a lot of guys -- that's what i was up on. if it was not like i said before, for people to come in and help me, i was not supposed to get out until 2030. i am just looking at this, what about the other michael thompson's? they don't have the support i had. and then what about all the people stuck on this traps and staying i speak about. we're speaking about the marijuana thing, but marana should not be spoken about right now. everybody makes money, everybody is happy.
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they spending the money for me, so what i am saying is this, marijuana should not even be an issue today. it should not even be an issue. >> it still is in many places. miss corral, and i think that is the beauty of the story that will be shown here on msnbc tomorrow night. michael not just walking today after losing so much time, he's coming back to stand up and raise his story to hopefully put light on other similar situations. michael thompson and attorney kimberly corral, i am sorry i am out of time, but thank you both for being with us. not to my final thoughts. it's been two days since the brutal attack on speaker nancy pelosi's husband paul. at their and untruth apparently came looking for the congresswoman at her home.
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and gravely injured her husband and did it with a hammer. i continue to pray for mr. pelosi's recovery, i want to be clear about my thoughts on political violence. the new york times is reporting today that since 2016, threats and intimidation against politicians have continued to escalate amid the toxic rhetoric that has come to pass for political discourse and against the backdrop of a deeply polarized landscape. the times documented a surge in violent political speeches, threats against members of congress that has increased over the last several years. we cannot normalize this kind of violence. we cannot normalize these kinds of toxic atmosphere in terms of our political rally.
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when we can for our choices, and we don't have the threat and in cases two in say arm on people that are running or holding political office. we should not be where we are, and we should not be in a position that paul pelosi shows us and whatever else we learn about the attack on paparazzi it is incumbent on politicians regardless of the party to condemn anything that resembles political violence. it's okay to disagree and argue, the campaign and rally, they demonstrate, but it should all be done legally and safety. on another note, today we mourn the death of dr. reverend calvin to third, the longtime senior pastor of the senior baptist church in harlem new york. he passed away yesterday. the reverend was a major pillar in the harlem community and is irreplaceable. he was a dominant