tv Alex Wagner Tonight MSNBC July 21, 2023 9:00pm-10:01pm PDT
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(music fades) today the little more complicated. the church and former president trump's mar-a-lago's cause of five documents case has set a trial date, may 20th 2024. the government expects that child to last somewhere in the range of 21 to 60 days, and it will come just a few months after trump's new york hush money trial starts in march. we don't know how long that case will last. but both of those criminal cases against the former president comes back dab and the middle of the 2024
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political calendar. both are after the bulk of the republican primaries, but before the general election. and if that calendar seems full now, give it a couple weeks. we are all on indictment watch, waiting for a charging decision from special counsel jack smith and his investigation into trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. and jack smith only has a week left if he wants to indict trump in that case before fulton county district attorney fani willis comes to a charging decision in her investigation into trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. da willis has indicated that she expects to announce that charging decision as soon as a week from monday. so, the clock is ticking. now, i know the entire country is watching every move jack smith makes right now. we even got full press coverage of how he bought a sandwich at subway this week. and that level of public interest makes sense. but we should not be sleeping on fani willis. yesterday, trump filed yet another motion to try to disqualify da willis from his
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case entirely. we are going to get some expert help figuring out how serious that is in a second. but even just trump trying to disqualify da willis, this late in the game, shows how afraid he is a for potential prosecution of him. we also got reporting out of the guardian newspaper today, shown how wide ranging and serious the charges da willis is planning to bring against trump -- how serious they could be. the guardians hugo wall reports that willis has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering or rico indictment next month. now, i should note that nbc news has not independently confirmed that reporting. but we do know that da willis really likes bringing rico cases. earlier this year, she pointed out to the washington post that she had brought more rico indictments in her first 20 months in office than the fulton county office had brought in the past ten years.
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and i know when you hear racketeering, or rico, you probably think of gangs, or the mafia. but rico cases are a lot broader than that. a criminal enterprise can be, really, entity any enterprise committing crimes. for example, back in 2014, fulton county brought a rico case against a group of 35 public school teachers and principals in a cheating scandal. all but one of those educators either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of changing student answers on standardized tests for financial gain. the lead prosecutor in that case was fani willis. oh, and the trial lasted eight hole months. there's lots to talk about. joining us now, kristy greenberg, former federal prosecutor for -- new york, and charles coleman
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jr. a former -- in the brooklyn district attorney's office -- charles, let me start with you. what do you make of the new trial date for the mar-a-lago case said by judge aileen cannon, may 20th, 2024? am i right and thinking that both sides got what they wanted here? >> yes and no. i would say that jack smith's office knew that december was pushing it in terms of trial it, so i don't necessarily know that they expected to get the december -- that they originally asked for. but they wanted something closer to it. so, sort of shoot for the moon and hopefully come back with a couple of stars. and in a case like this, however, if i'm donald trump's attorneys, i am walking away feeling really, really good about having a may 2024 trial date. the reason why is this. when you are talking about donald trump's legal strategy, he does not have a plethora of options right now. but when you are talking about may of 2024, it is very possible that that will get delayed further because --
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a ton of different motion throughout the course of discovery that would naturally push a trial further. and as attorneys -- we expect that to be the case throughout the course of a case like this. not just that -- but, when you are talking about may of 2024, the primary season is all but done at that point. so, donald trump is the nominee. at that point, it gives new life to this argument about election tampering or election interference, potentially because, right now, it's far too early for a judge to consider. that >> kristy greenberg, to throw yet another wrinkle in here, maybe this is a delay tactic. but today on fox, trump's newest attorney, john lauro said that the first thing he would ask for in trump's case was cameras in the courtroom. now, tell the audience, our cameras allowed in the courtroom in federal trials? >> so, they can be. they can be. if there's an order from the judge allowing them, they can be, particularly in high profile cases that are of intense public interest, which
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this is. so, i have to say, i think this is a great thing. i think it is great for transparency. i think it's great for the american public to see what is going on in that courtroom. >> how likely is it, though, that the judge will grant that? the -- judge -- >> well, it is kind of a case, it's going to be tough. because this is all involving classified materials. >> right. >> and so what can be made available to the jury's may be different than what may be available to the public. and so, there is going to have to be a -- if anything is public in camera, there is going to be a lot of discussion about what that would look like and what that would -- >> jonathan, that's a really important point. because when we are talking strategically about donald trump's defense team, one of the things that has come up, with respect to a conversation cipa the classified information and protection, act is the issue of graymail -- to put pressure on the
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prosecutor because you want everything expose when you're dealing with classified information and get them to make a decision with what it is that they put it at how much that they put out. now that you are putting in front of jack smith a new fact to navigate with respect to -- what is it with these cameras out that you are going to put out in front of the public and how much of that are you willing to put on the line from a national security standpoint in terms of proving your case? so, this is a very key strategy. not to mention that donald trump, of course, is the key -- he is the king of narrative. and this is also an opportunity for him to sort of play the victim and not necessarily be prosecuted -- >> right. >> but claim he's being persecuted -- >> right. but kristy, may 2024, for the january 6th trial in the classified documents case -- how is that going to impact the trial date that we still don't know yet -- assuming an indictment is coming down from fulton county
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-- for the fani willis case? >> well, i think to the extent we have two indictments that we are potentially looking at -- one from jack smith and one from fani willis -- i think the jack smith january 6th indictment could come sooner. the trial could come sooner for that case. because there are no -- at least, that we know of, we haven't seen the indictment -- there are no classified materials to worry about here. and the d. c. judges are familiar with january 6th cases. they have seen a lot of them. so, we could get a trial date much sooner than may 2024 in that case. with fani willis, it's hard to say. she is bringing, apparently, a sprawling rico conspiracy with at least a dozen individuals who have received target letters. so, depending on how big of a case she is bringing, it's hard to say where exactly her state
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trial would fit in there. >> is it unreasonable to think that da we listened the special counsel are talking to each other, and maybe coordinating, simply because there are two investigations, while one is georgia and one is sort of national -- they do overlap. >> possible, but not likely. i think that, ultimately, it is not unreasonable to suspect that fani willis is proceeding on a course that basically lays out what she wants to do as a state prosecutor in georgia. fulton county, right there, and without any regard for what is going on with jack smith -- and i also think that is why the wheeling from judge aileen cannon become so critical. because his attorneys are going to try, as best they can -- every other jurisdiction -- to use that as a benchmark, even if he is indicted around january 6th, they are still going to try and use that march 20th date as a benchmark for everything else, as much as they can. with fani willis, it becomes a little easier, because you are talking about a state case, which is a federal case. same thing with alvin bragg -- you are talking about, look, if i'm his defense attorneys, i am saying, let's have everything
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tracking federal case. right now, the only thing on the docket from the federal case is the may 20th date. if that changes, with respect to a january 6th indictment, and that comes earlier, now you have a different ball game, but ultimately, they are going to use that as the benchmark for everything else that is on the table and everything else that can be on the table. >> kristy, jack smith's grand jury heard from a return witness, former trump aide will russell. nbc news has learned today that he was questioned trying to -- the questions we're trying to glean from him sort of state of mind. what does that tell you, that jack smith is talking to this trump aide seemingly so late in this process? >> so, the public reporting is that he has actually been in the grand jury -- >> right. >> and -- twice before.
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so, the fact that they are talking to him a third time, it's like they're trying to tie up some loose ends here before they -- again, they sent the target letter to donald trump. they have their ducks in a row here. they have the prosecution. they have their draft indictment. and they are just trying to pull together some last-minute things before they ask a grand jury -- >> and, real quickly, does trump's latest attempt to get da willis disqualified have any chance of succeeding? you are shaking -- no? >> absolutely not. it's untimely. he has not been charged by -- grand jury. he can bring any kind of emotion about a conflict of interest, or any concerns about the grand jury procedures after
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he has been indicted in a pretrial motion. it is completely premature. these are tactics to try and scare her. but fani willis does not scare easily. she has been fearless throughout this entire two-year investigation. and she has persisted despite so many attempts from the republicans in georgia, as well as donald trump, to oust her. so, i think she will continue to persist and do the work that she has been doing. >> you have ten seconds. because i see you itching to say something. >> i agree with kristy -- but it's really important to understand that this is also a -- donald trump. fani willis is a duly elected district attorney in fulton county in georgia. what donald trump is seeking to do is invalidate her authority and invalidate the decision of those voters in fulton county, which is consistent with what he tried to do with the voters who made a decision by electing joe biden the president. so, this is par for the course for him, but it is not going to work as it did before. here kr charles co time tonight. goes t s beneficial to enslaved plus, redra to make them favor to black voters. guess what they did instead. that is next. guess what they did instead. that is next
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the seven congressional districts is majority black, even though more than a quarter of alabama's population is african american. last month, the supreme court agreed with a lower court ruling from at least two trump appointees that found that alabama's map violated the voting rights act by denying minority voters and equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice. the decision called on the alabama legislature to draw an additional district making black voters the majority -- the voting age population or, quote, something quite close to it. so, alabama republicans had to go back to the drawing board, and today, after long sessions of negotiations and huddling over dueling maps represented by republicans in both chambers
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-- presented by republicans in both chambers -- legislators adopted their final proposal, a map that still doesn't do with the supreme court said. you can see it right here. firstly, it drops the percentage of black voters in the only majority black district from 55% to nearly 51%. and it adds a new district where black voters will only make up about 40% of the voting age population. that is neither the majority, nor something quite close to it. the governor of alabama just
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signed that map into law, leaving black voters in alabama back at square one. joining us now tona boyd associate director counsel of the -- legal defense fund -- tona boyd, it's great to see you. thank you for being here tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> so, as a litigant for the case, what's your additional reaction to republicans in alabama ignoring the supreme court ruling? >> listen, jonathan -- what the alabama legislature has done is appalling. it is lawless, and it's undemocratic. as you just stated, both the district court and the united states supreme court we are clear about what alabama must
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do. and that is create a second district where black voters have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. and instead, what alabama did is appalling. but, you know what? it's not new. we have seen this from alabama before. we have seen this movie before. i mean, recall back to the 60s, when, yet again, alabama defied a court order designed to fully enfranchise and give blacks the
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opportunities that they deserved. this was an infamous moment in which george wallace stood and tried to block scenes from integrating the university of alabama. and he did that in defiance of a court order. so, alabama has done this before. but they did not succeed then, and they -- >> so then, the new map is likely be rejected by the district court, that struck down alabama's first map. so, if that happens -- what happens next? >> i think that is right. so, first of all, although alabama is acting as -- they are not, this math is going to go back to the same district court that rejected their discriminatory map before. that court will then evaluate that. and we will be there to object
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to that map. and the court will likely have the option to appoint a special master who will, then come up with map that comports with the courts order. so, alabama will -- this is not the last word or the last step in this journey. >> you know, what is ldf ready to do to block republicans from denying black voters in alabama a chance and equal representation? >> listen, we are going to continue to fight, as we have for the past two years, to ensure that black alabamians at the representation that they deserve, and that they have a map that is fair. so, we are already mobilized to object to the map that has been put forth thus far. we will continue to fight in court. but, i've got to say, we can't only fight this battle on one front. we have also got to fight to restore -- to fully restore -- and strengthen the voting rights act, so that these type of antics that the alabama legislature has gotten up to don't continue to persist. >> so, how could this new map reverberate across the country, especially with other states in the south confronting similar voting rights challenges? >> i think the message is going to be clear, jonathan. we are going to continue to fight. because this map cannot and should not stand. both a district court and the supreme court were clear. so, we are going to continue to fight. and that is here in alabama, and elsewhere, where folks are continuing to try to subvert
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the will of black voters. >> you know, tona, as i was reading this story about what is happening in alabama -- and alabama defying a supreme court ruling -- i went back to the supreme court ruling in brown v. board of education. correct me if i'm wrong. didn't the supreme court have to do another ruling where they put in there that they have to desegregate the schools, quote, with all deliberate speed? do i have my history right? >> you do. you do, jonathan. and i have to say, it couldn't be more important in this case that we act quickly to ensure that alabamians have the fair representation that they deserve. because you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. and once an unfair map is in place and allows to persist, the harm's irreparable. we already saw that in the 2022 election, when alabamians we are forced to vote under an unfair map. we cannot and will not let that happen again. we have to act, as the court has said before, with all deliberate speed.
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>> with all deliberate speed. tona boyd, associate director of council of the legal defense fund. thank you for making the time tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> there's still more to come tonight. president biden takes a stand and give against the potentially destructive side of artificial intelligence. plus, vice president kamala harris response to the outrage in florida. suggest, that in the midst o these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization >> [applause -- looking for a bladder leak pad that keeps you dry? all of the things that you're looking for in a pad, that is always discreet. look at how it absorbs all of the liquid. and locking it right on in! you feel no wetness. - oh my gosh! - totally absorbed! i got to get some always discreet! hey bud. wow. what's all this? hawaii was too expensive so i brought it here. you know with priceline you could actually take that trip for less than all this. i made a horrible mistake. ♪ go to your happy price ♪ ♪ priceline ♪
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suggest that, in the midst of these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization? >> [applause] -- >> that was kamala harris, the country's first black vice president in jacksonville, florida today, saying something that should not be up for debate. the vice presidents speech comes as florida faces backlash over new standards for teaching black history in public schools. those standards require middle schoolers to learn that enslaved people, quote, developed skills that personally benefited them. the state department of education has responded to criticism with a statement that reads, in part, the intent of this particular benchmark
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clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefited. that statement lists 16 people who allegedly benefited from their enslavement, but at least six of those people were never enslaved. it specifically names ned cobb and while the department of education is not specific about which knit cobb they have listed, history books across the country teach about a ned cobb who was born in alabama in 1885, the son of an enslaved man -- the skill he learned was farming. and he used that skill to escape the financial binds of sheer cropping. if you can call that a personal benefit. joining us now, tremaine lee, msnbc correspondent and into america podcast. tremaine lee, thank you for
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making time for us tonight. >> thanks so much, jonathan. >> today, we heard the country 's first black vice president come out and say, slavery is wrong. what do you make of the necessity of that statement in the year 2023? >> jonathan, perhaps the saddest part is that it actually has to be said, even in 2023. but you are talking about 1923 -- to 2000 2023 -- that slavery -- that black people have been complaining and that -- wasn't that bad. there were some good slaveowners. the difference in acceptable degree of rape, unacceptable degree of human trafficking. and we call it slavery, and we have seen these pictures and where these stories about the genteel south and plantations and mary -- playing their violins and -- rape, separating --
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but the fact of the matter is that that narrative still pervades and there's a huge fraction of this country that wants to not just except the history of this country, because a accepting the history means you have to accept and respect the experiences that black people have experienced in this country, but also take a look in the mirror and see the actual horrors and violence heaped upon white people by black society. >> right. and that's hard for a lot of people. you know, trymaine lee, we go with the names that florida's department of -- one of them seems to refer to george washington center. six of them were never enslaved. what do you make of that? >> well, really, it doesn't matter who these people are,
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they're standings. i think one telling moment was, there's a spokesman for governor ron desantis who tweeted in response to vp harris's speech who said, her mother's indian, her father is of jamaican descent, who they say admitted that they -- also descended from a slave owner. and they pointed that to say, she wasn't descended from a slave, complete opposite. and millions of people in this country are not descendants of people who were -- through rape by white slave masters. -- the names don't matter. the fact is that they want to be able to use folks as a target to dehumanize and it legitimize the experience of black people in this country. and at least the most cynical view in this that is that they are doing this purely for political gain. because they know there is a
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huge segment of voters in this country who are sharing this stuff on. because that means, they look at the entitlements, they look at the welfare. say look at black. folks they look at affirmative action. they look at folks have to feel quote unquote guilty about the role that their ancestors played in the -- again, the facts don't really matter, but isn't that perfect that -- about the truth, that they used lies and misinformation kind of propel their side? if it's perfectly. >> yeah, and trymaine lee, one more question for you. earlier this year, you spoke to florida and -- outside of the classroom. what are they saying about the changes to florida's curriculum? >> you know, one thing that i -- expected to hear from generations of families who say they feel actually, i tacked. folks, especially from the south, who have grown up
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hearing the stories about so much of the violence and all of the barriers setup between black people, who descended from enslaved people, to finally get a taste of freedom, and try to build communities and educate their children -- to have those stories wiped away, it felt personal for a lot of people. and so they say -- some -- have heard time and again that no one is going to save us but us. so, for the group of folks that are led by professor marvin dunn, who are going to the speak the truth tours, going to -- in a split steps of history so that history will never be lost. again >> trymaine lee, msnbc correspondent and host of the into america podcast. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> when we come back, the dangerous and sometimes deadly effects of the heat waves parked over much of america, and why simply cranking up the ac is not the answer. but first, part of the reason hollywood is try king right now is a reckoning over artificial intelligence. we will talk about the threat it may be posing to all of us, and what the biden administration is doing about it, next. gist who can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today.
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change in the next ten years, or even in the next few years, than we've seen in the last 50 years. artificial intelligence is going to transform the lives of people around the world. but we must be clear-eyed and -- about the threats of emerging technologies that can pose -- they don't have to -- but can pose to our democracy and our values. >> that was president biden today after meeting with the leaders of major tech companies about the future of artificial intelligence, or a. i., the president was able to get major tech companies like amazon, google, meta and microsoft to agree to a new set of voluntary guidelines for how to safely and unethically use the emerging new technology. those guidelines include things like testing a. i. products for
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security risks, and using watermarks to help people identify a. i. generated images and videos online. but the new agreement comes as concerns over the potential affects of a. i. a rising, striking actors and writers have demanded studios agree not to this place workers in the entertainment industry using artificial intelligence, and some technology experts worry a. i. could one day pose an existential threat to humanity itself. joining me now, congressman ro khanna, democrat of california, and the ranking member of the house armed services subcommittee on cyber innovative technologies, and information systems. congressman ro khanna, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you, jonathan, for having me. >> so, your reaction to the voluntary agreement the president got today with the tech companies -- and tell me whether you think
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congress needs to follow up with binding rules and regulations for a. i.? >> i give the president credit for moving decisively and quickly and getting some important pledges. it's important that tech companies will have watermarks, so that if you have a deepfake of the president himself, or a view, jonathan, saying things that are false, people will be able to distinguish that. it's important that they are going to do testing. but the reality is, this is not enough. who are they reporting to? there's no agency. there's no enforcement. and we really need to create, like the fda, an agency that is going to oversee a eye with
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standards. and we can get into what else needs to be done. but the main thing is there has to be some accountability or enforcement. >> let me play something that sag president fran drescher said on this topic. watch. >> the entire business model has been changed. by streaming, digital, a. i.. this is a moment of history that is a moment of truth. if we don't stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. we are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines. >> and to that point, congressman ro khanna, background actors have described how they're light like this is gonna be artificially inserted into the background of a tv or film seem. that means actors who once got paid to work as extras no longer would. what kind of protection should be in place in the labor market
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to avoid destroying peoples livelihoods? >> my sympathies on this issue are with the writers and actors for three reasons. firstly, we need to compensate rioters for their actual data. if you are writing a script or you are writing a play, and then you are throwing that into an a. i. machine and it's earning something else out, it's almost a form of plagiarism. and that original data needs to be compensated. secondly, if you start replacing rioters with a. i., they are not going to produce shakespeare or tony morrison. my concern is you are going to lower the standard of entertainment, and the american people may just get accustomed to that. so, we need to make sure that writers and humans, actually,
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at the end of the day, are producing the product, and then we have to figure out how they are going to be compensated in a way of a. i. and where the checks are not to be replaced. so i think the rioters are absolutely in the right here. and the studios need to work with him to give them a seat at the table. the biden ministration said today that the companies must ensure that innovation doesn't come at the expense of americans right and safety. how worried are you about the potential for this technology to spread disinformation or disrupt civil discourse in a way that makes us less safe? >> it's an issue. here's the biggest issue that hasn't been addressed. the a. i. is only as good as the data you put into it, and we all know that the internet is filled with conspiracy theories. so if you are putting in bad data and now you are amplifying it and building solutions off of that, then that is just going to make misinformation that much more dangerous. there are a lot of positive uses of a i, you can customize medicine, education, you can bring manufacturing back. it's not all gloom and doom. but we need strong standards. the president is doing his part. he is really acted well. congress needs to do our part. >> and tonight after the show, msnbc's area documentary about the life of robert oppenheimer, who famously struggled with the technological innovation he unleashed on the world, and similarly the man known as the godfather of a. i. has said this technology poses an existential threat to humanity. congressman, do we as a society have a duty to listen to those kinds of warnings? >> we should take them seriously. there is a difference, though,
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between the machine learning models we have, which can auto complete tasks, and artificial general intelligence that we are still years away from artificial general intelligence. so it's important that we do not scare people. but it's important we also have the guidelines so that we can use a. i. for the good, for making products more abundant, for customizing things, and avoid the danger of misinformation of hurting writers, of having killer robots. we have to do this. we have to have the standards. look at the fda as a model. create an agency like that for a. >> congressman ro khanna of california, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> we have one more story for you tonight. it may be summer, but it is not normal that in parts of the country right now, it can be dangerous just to go outside. what is happening and what we can do, next. ♪inspiring music♪ ♪
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continues to swelter amid record breaking heat this summer, including in arizona, where temperatures in phoenix have peaked at or above 110 degrees fahrenheit for the entire month of july. doctors in the state say health risks are also on the rise, including cases of contact burns, some second or third degree burns. the washington post reports that one toddler named mason accidentally slipped through a pet door, stepped onto a
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concrete patio, and was, quote, screaming within seconds. mason suffered second degree burns on the souls of his feet, and when his parents took him to an area hospital, they, quote, met another toddler with burned feet. over in texas, construction workers are protesting after republican governor greg abbott signed a law in june that removed mandates for water breaks for outdoor workers, just as the heat wave began to punish the state. researchers stay human driven client climate change makes extreme heat like this at least five times more likely and this month, july, 2023 is on course to become the world's hottest month in hundreds if not thousands of years, according to one nasa scientists. also, there is this. heat is the number one cause of death in the united states, number one. it often kills more people than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined. as the new book, the heat will
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kill you first, points out, heat is a silent, overlooked danger, quote, when heat comes, it is invisible. it doesn't bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it has arrived. the ground doesn't shake. it just surrounds you and works on you in ways that you can't anticipate or control. joining us now is the author of that prescient book, the heat will kill you first, jeff goodell. jeff, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me, jonathan. >> as you know, he domes happen when the atmosphere traps hot ocean air over an area like a lid on a pot. you live in texas, where heat is particularly dangerous for a number of reasons, including the power grid. can you explain to everyone why the solution cannot simply be crank up the ac? >> we all love it to be that simple that when it gets hot you just turn on the ac. but in fact ac is not the solution to this. first of all, there are billions of people on this planet who don't have ac and will never have ac. while i was reporting this book i spent a lot of time with people in poor communities who
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maybe did have ac but couldn't afford to run it or could maybe afford to run it for an hour and we're trying to decide whether they should run the ac or have enough money to buy dinner. and so it's a huge burden. more importantly, we are not going to air conditioned the oceans. we're not going to air conditioned the wheat fields where our food is growing. we're not going to air conditioned the cornfields. and finally, the other really important point is, in texas where i live we had a blackout a couple of years ago where i was without power for five days. if something like that happened during one of these extreme heat events, all of us in the air conditioning would stop, and we would have a massive, it would be a massive consequences. we would have what one infrastructure expert i talked to called a heat katrina, referring to hurricane katrina. >> it's clear that local state and federal aid programs need
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to do more to mitigate heat related risks. what are some things that can be done in a short term? >> well, there's a whole range of things. you could start with simple things. cities are much hotter than the rural regions around them, so a lot of the efforts focus on how to cool cities off. some of the cities are more planting of street trees so that you have more shade, more green spaces for people to get to, opening of cooling centers so the people who don't have air conditioning have cool spaces to go to. you have cities that are doing larger infrastructure projects like athens, greece, rebuilding a road and aqueduct in order to bring more water into the center of the city to allow more green space and more planting.
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democratizing air conditioning so that people, so that it is cheaper and people aren't worry about having their power turned off. heat deaths are avoidable. we can change how we message about heat, how we talk about it. we all know hurricanes and things have ratings. we don't do that for heat waves. we in the media can get a lot better at it because we often talk about heat waves and show pictures of kids playing in sprinklers or hanging out at the beach and we don't really communicate the scale and urgency of the threat. >> speaking of the scale and urgency of the threat, the heat's not exclusive to the united states. europe, asia, the middle east, north africa are all experiencing massive heat waves this summer. what type of ripple effect does this have?
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do the heat waves happening in asia and here in united states, do they have impact on each other? or are these all separate heat dome's acting independently of each other? >> they are all separate, but they are all a consequence of the changes that are happening in our atmosphere. as we add more and more co2 to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels it is heating up our atmosphere, which is changing the kind of dynamics. the arctic is hitting four times faster than the rest of the planet, which is changing where the jet stream goes. the jet stream kind of gets wiggly, and it creates these heat dons where the heat, the high pressure zones are locked in. so they are separate but they are all a consequence of this new climate we are creating by loading it up with co2. >> so, mr. goodell, experts say this is just the beginning, this may actually be one of the cooler summers of our lifetimes. to the scientists and the experts you talk to still think there is time to course correct?
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