tv Velshi MSNBC November 10, 2024 7:00am-8:00am PST
7:01 am
that will do it for the supersized edition of the weekend sunday morning. we will see you saturday at 8:00 in eastern and follow the show on social media at the weekend msnbc. velshi continues our coverage. >> i want to continue the conversation about loyalty. you know ray lynn? she's been at me about not having a tie on the weekend. she said look at michael steele, look so good. he has a tie on and all of that. sometimes the shirt gets saggy and whatever. if you can privately text her and say look at velshi short. it looks crisp today. that is loyalty i am asking for . >> i do think your shirt looks crisp. i like you mr. chairman with no thai. >> you will get positions in my cabinet anytime you want. >> have a great show, ali. >> you are the best. velshi starts now. ♪
7:02 am
good morning, sunday november 10th. i'm ali velshi. i spoke yesterday about the path forward for those of us that fear the darkness and danger another donald trump administration is likely to bring. i talked about fighting through the darkness and how history has taught us that the feet paved the way for triumph. today i want to talk about how you find that path. one of the crucial steps we collectively of the country and each of us individually as citizens must take, is reckoning with the fact that our country did this. for many people kamala harris has lost and was a deep disappointment but for many more people, what americans did was more crushing. donald trump's victory was more crushing. he ran such a vindictive and racist and boldly authoritarian campaign unlike anything we have seen in modern american politics and won decisively.
7:03 am
when he emerged victorious in 2016, i said yesterday it felt like an accident or experiment. this time it felt deliberate. and for the second time in three election cycles, the american people denied to the presidency to a woman, a qualified woman and for the second time in three election political career with racist invective has been elected to the highest office in the land. that this time is victory feels like the trail of democratic ideals and rejection of the years of work that generations of americans, the abolitionists, suffragettes, sufferers -- civil rights leaders put into making this country more equal for all. as a writer and civil-rights activist james baldwin said, all that can save you now is your confrontation with your own history. confronting that history means reckoning with this countries ugly history of slavery and the deadly civil war that was fought in an attempt to maintain the brutal social order. it means facing the fact that people who settled this country massacred an unknown number of people who are native to this land.
7:04 am
but when baldwin spoke about the history, he wasn't asking us to be scholars of america's past. he was asking white americans in particular to reckon with how this country succeeded at the expense of some of its group's. quote, one can't afford to care what happened in the past, but your history has led you to this moment. and you can only begin to change yourself and save yourself by looking at what you are doing in the name of your history. end quote. if you believe, as i do, that trump's return to the white house will likely be more extreme than his first administration, there will be rough times ahead that are going to test our collective faith in democracy and perhaps more so, in each other. this country may not be as equal and just as we wish it were. but it doesn't mean it can't be.
7:05 am
this isn't the first test of america's democracy and it will not be the last. and if you believe in democracy, then you have to be an active participant in it. as credit scott king, the wife of martin luther king jr. in a civil-rights leader in her own right remarked, struggle is a never-ending process, freedom is never really won. you earn it and win it in every generation. end quote. is trump repairs to return to the white house with promise of math deportations and plans to get the federal government in order to install his diehard acolytes, we can no longer afford to be naove about what this country and its people have done in the past and what it is capable of in the present. we need to recalibrate a way of thinking to figure out the best way forward. celebs start the discussion. joining me now, distinguished professor of african american studies at princeton, author of several books including begin again, james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own and his most recent and remarkably important book, we
7:06 am
are the leaders, we have been looking for. eddie, good to see you. thank you. i have been reading what you have been putting out and listening to various appearances on tv, and we need your wisdom in this moment. in your book, begin again, he writes about how james baldwin travels in the south, transforming his understanding of americans. i want to read from what you wrote. what shook baldwin at his core was a realization of the nature of the heathen, the white southerner had to lie continuously to himself in order to justify his world, lie that the black people around him were inferior, lie about what he was doing under the cover of night. lie he was christian. for baldwin, the accumulation of lies suffocated at the white southerner, end quote. like baldwin, eddie, you believe we cannot move forward as a country until we confront and then knockdown the lies. >> absolutely, thank you so much for that introduction. the commentary, it is spot on.
7:07 am
it seems to me that these moments require honest confrontation with who we are and we are already engaged in the game of allusions and the kind of construction of fantasies. that really what is motivating us is simply economic insecurity and inflation, and the like. of course those issues matter but when we look concretely at what is happening, when we look at what follows donald trump and his weight, we see all the violence, all of this racial vitriol. we hear nick fuentes declare he owns women's bodies and the like. we have to begin to ask ourselves and i this question, why is there a correlation between the kind of those who support donald trump and this ugliness because it is this ugliness that is the fuel of trumpism. richard slotkin, historian, has said we are in a second lost cause now that we are in a moment in which there is a reassertion of the live.
7:08 am
what does that mean? remember at the heart of the lost cause, the heart of the lost cause is refusal to expect -- accept the reasons for the civil war. it wasn't slavery. it wasn't slavery, it was economics. and here we are in this moment, engaged in a similar denial. >> that is interesting because there are discussions and postmortems about whether the democratic party was too left or engaged in causes too woke. but in the end, it is the response, not perhaps to that, but just to the idea that this country is changing from people who feel endangered and who are creating new reasons to make excuses for what is fundamentally bigotry, misogyny and something that is hubris that america can't go wrong. >> baldwin said the horror of america is is changing all the time but never changes at all. this something like this eternal returned.
7:09 am
because we are dealing with consequences of the tragic choice at the beginning of the republic hear the choice that we reconcile democratic principles with reality, with the institution of slavery. with the subordination of women. with exploitation of children. exploitation of workers. genocide of native peoples, that there is this kind of book -- -- to confront that is not to condemn us to the galas. to confront that is to create the conditions to release us into a new way of being. but let me say this quickly. i come out of a tradition, that has had to deal with violence of when the fever dream spikes. that too many people in my tradition who have lost book, my professor albert rabideau who wrote, slave religion, lost his dad. he didn't grow up with a father. why? because a mississippi star shop owner shot him in the head because he dared to confront him over the way he treated his
7:10 am
wife. this isn't some abstract issue for us. the idea of how we are going to survive and get to the other side, when it seems as if the country has lost its mind, takes on a real tangible kind of feeling because my mom and my dad grew up in jim crow mississippi. this is and slavery. this is immediate, for some people. >> back in the civil war, here is an interesting question because in the civil war there were southerners who justified this on the basis of chivalry, on the basis of states rights, everything but slavery. and most of the people who fought and died in the war had no particular personal relationship to slavery. they did not hold slaves and yet they bought wholesale into the idea. this time they had people talking about come you are not hearing us, you are invested in issues we don't want and inflation. a lot of it was bad information
7:11 am
and lies being believed but most people would not acknowledge what you are saying and what james baldwin is saying. that we are preserving a live. how do you have that conversation with people to vote deserved a lie, preserved misogyny, preserved racism, preserved the patriotism -- the patriarchy. people engaged in it thinking they were fighting for something else and they were not. >> i saw that is a hard question to answer. i have been trying to figure out, how you tell people. i was having this argument this morning with folks. that there are numbers around black voters in the 2024 election was just wrong. how do we deal in a world where passion over rents reason where in different information ecosystems, where we don't agree on simply basic facts. i don't know. the only thing i do know is we can't capitulate to it. we can't try to figure out how to make those folk comfortable. we have to continue to tell the
7:12 am
truth. we have to do what prior to be did in melville story, we have to say i prefer not to. and part of the worry is because of the nature of the election, too many people want to consent and concede to the lie that folk are telling folk. americans prefer allusions straight no chaser. that is what eugene o'neill was exploring in the iceman cometh. we have to shatter those allusions with the truth, and a bit more it seems to me. >> you write a book and i'm going to step over and grab it. your book, i got born again but your newer book speaks about leadership. i want to ask about that in this moment. for this mission you are discussing, you and i discussing this morning for the future, do we have the leaders in place. to do what we need to do, to take this mission forward as a finally, let us put this myth and lie about who we are and
7:13 am
are passed away and do something else. to be the best we can be. are we in a position to do that right now? >> i don't know if we are but we must be. i do know that we have to stop playing games. the democratic leadership council engaged in this triangulation. about what it needed to do was to distance the democratic party from unions and its base, black folk and the like and make its way toward the right and kind of try to triangulate and take the issues from reagan and that gave us bill clinton. and we have been dealing with that as we try to, as democrats have been engaged in this forlorn, romantic tryst, they always want to get the reagan democrats back, right? what we have been doing is conceding the terms of the fight. part of what must happen in this moment is we must reject the framework of politics and people who are current leaders can do it.
7:14 am
but it all depends if they have the courage, ali. but i know it has to happen. we have to find out. we have to take responsibility for this thing. and we're going to have to say no and engage in a battle. although it is very hard. i can't begin to tell you how distrustful i am right now. what have these people done? >> and it is us. i mean, that is the hard part about this. this wasn't a mistake this time around and it is important for us to understand that we have done this to ourselves. you may not have and i may not have at the ballot box or our efforts but we as a country are making better decisions, that we are and have to face up to. and maybe that is a good part, eddie. maybe that reckoning will be upon us because things are going to happen in the next few years and the fight must continue. i think you for everything that you have done for us, the important books and analysis
7:15 am
you put out there and the friend you have been to the show. eddie glaude jr. is extinguished -- distinguished author of books including we are the leaders we have been looking for, and begin again, james baldwin's america and urgent lessons for our own. those critical reads for this moment in time. coming up, democratic governors and attorneys general are preparing to do battle to protect citizens from the new administration that is expected to target women, immigrants and the lgbtq+ community. i will talk to two attorneys general, chris mays of arizona and liam tong of connecticut about the fight that we are leading. and trump as the presidency, republicans have the senate but there are several important races in the house of representatives to be called and control of the chamber is up for grabs. we will go to capital for the latest update on that. that. prilosec otc. one pill. 24 hours. zero heartburn.
7:18 am
7:19 am
it's our son, he is always up in our business. voltaren, it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people.
7:20 am
overnight, nbc news called the arizona presidential race for donald trump, which means the former president pulled off the sweep of all seven swing states, landing him with a total of 312 electoral college votes. vice president kamala harris earning 226. meanwhile control of the house, which will be critical with democrats to serve as a check on trump's presidency continues to hang in the balance. 19 races remain uncalled by nbc news and of those 19 races, democrats would need to win 14 of them to flip the house. at the moment, the odds are not in their favor. when it comes to the senate, nbc news already projected the republicans have taken control of the upper chamber. joining me now from capitol hill is nbc news correspondent julie tsirkin in. -- lots of races uncalled, 19 of them. what is the bookmaking on whether democrats have a chance of taking 14 of them, and
7:21 am
taking control of the house? >> the odds aren't great, especially when you cut down the 19 races to about 12 or so that are really still competitive including four in swing districts, and deep blue california. that is always in play for the last few cycles in california and new york. of course last time republicans picked up seats in new york and california that gave them the slim majority they were working with. but if you listen to people like former house speaker nancy pelosi who showered house democrats with praise saying they ran ahead of the top of the ticket that she lamented in an interview this week saying there is a chance democrats could hold onto the house. to flip that over with what you heard from the current speaker mike johnson who's also expressing optimism. they only have to flip six more seats to get to the to 18 number but either way you slice it everyone i am talking to really expect this to be a slim
7:22 am
majority whether democrats are in control or republicans are in control, ali. but certainly if republicans get control of the house even by one or two seats, that could give president-elect trump or power to make sweeping policy changes that he keeps talking about. >> in the last congress there were 18 or 20 republicans who wanted seats were joe biden had won and as a result they acted as a counterbalance to the most extreme far right of the republican conference. that is not really the case anymore. does that give mike johnson even with a slim majority, perhaps more control over his conference then he had last time around? >> especially because it really seems when you have seen the statements and comments from senate republicans, from house republicans they are saying republicans are winning because they are riding on trump's coattails. that is not what you see on the other side of the aisle, even in the senate races you are seeing democratic candidates over perform the top of the ticket whereas trump sweep doll the battleground states as you
7:23 am
said, arizona called overnight in his favor. when you look at the upper chamber, this is a margin we haven't seen in years. republicans are poised to end up with at least 53 seats in the upper chamber because i'm looking at pennsylvania senate race between dave mccormick and casey, the ap called it for mccormick and we have not because there's more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted. by all accounts, mccormick is edging ahead in that race. if he does, in fact, become the republican senate elect from the state, that could bring the republican total to 53 seats as i said and protect trump from any possible defections. i'm looking at people like susan collins, like lisa murkowski. any of the sweeping broad changes he wants to make on the tax code, on the southern boarder, anything else, he should have the majority to do it in the senate and not the counter check like we have seen in years past when democrats had a narrow margin over the senate or it was split 50-50. a lot of power in donald trump's hands and we will see how it shakes out >> the pennsylvania republicans
7:24 am
have put out a statement saying, we are not worried about the 100,000 votes. and casey should concede, mccormick has won and of course the democrats are saying let's count the votes and make a decision when that happens. good to see you, thanks for joining us. julie tsirkin on capitol hill. what's governing and trump's a second term going to look like and what is the supreme court community decision going to mean for the balance of power. nce of power.
7:27 am
7:28 am
with the likelihood of the republican controlled house, senate and white house, democrats in the minority, will need to get creative if they plan to slow or stop donald trump's most extreme promises. we will later talk about how attorneys general and governors are doing some things, but let's talk about the government. the gop majority in the house is likely to happen and it is likely to be laser thin as we learned the republican -- learning during the republican
7:29 am
controlled congress, congressional republicans can sometimes be their own worst enemy. differences between the house republican caucus over funding led -- to support the government and if that were to play out again, leader hakeem jeffries might be able to squeeze concessions out of the trump administration but as i discussed for julie tsirkin, it is entirely possible republicans have more discipline around themselves this time around. senate democrats in the minority can use the filibuster, a tactic the gop used to suppress the agendas of president joe biden and barack obama. the pier however is trump won't rely entirely on legislation to get to the house and senate. the supreme court has handed immunity and federal government bureaucracy he hopes to transform into a squad of loyalists by firing up to 50,000 people and putting only loyalists in his cabinet, trump is expected to use executive authority to bypass congress on a lot of things. like he often did in his first term. then what? much like trump's first term,
7:30 am
legal rights and advocacy organization can be of help filing motions to block executive orders, using lower courts but keep in mind, most of these things work their way to courts that are at the federal level, the appeals level and to the trump friendly supreme court with conservative super majority, that trump himself built. so the efforts are more like delay tactics than solutions. joining me now is someone who studied the u.s. congress more than four decades. dr. norman ornstein a senior fellow emeritus at the enterprise institute, contributing editor at the atlanta, author of books including one nation after trump, a guide for the perplexed, disillusioned and desperate, and like myself, not yet deported. good to see you, my friend, and i have laid it out there but i don't know what you are going to say about this and that is okay because i want to hear from you how you think this plays out from the perspective
7:31 am
of the country has to run. budgets have to be passed. continuing resolutions have to happen. the government needs to stay open. how does this unfold in the situation we have got? >> one thing about the control of the house, is that it is probably a four trillion-dollar decision in the balance. why? because, the one thing republicans want to do, that donald trump has pledged to do, is to continue the two trillion- dollar deficit busting tax cuts that expire next year and he wants to add another $2 trillion in tax cuts to pay off his friends at the billionaire level, and corporations. that is $4 trillion. they can do that through the reconciliation process that we have seen play out so many times before. it is what they used to get tax cuts done in the past, because it is a fast track with no filibusters, 50 votes in the senate. if the democrats have the house, trump and the congressional republicans are going to have
7:32 am
two negotiate over the last tax cuts, not just the new ones. if it is a republican house, they are going to jam those things through and consequences will be very severe down the road. that is the first thing. i think julie may be right in one sense, about the republicans having a majority in the house. mike johnson was stymied multiple times because of, here he is, a freedom caucus acolytes, but some of the people, even to the right of right-wing mike johnson, walked at the things happening and he needed democratic votes. that may still take place. they have a majority, maybe one or two votes, they don't know if everybody will be there and they don't know if they can count on everybody. but one thing to keep in mind, we lost for example, mike gallagher, who was a more sensible, mainstream conservatives. because he was intimidated out of the house, when he voted against impeaching a orcas,
7:33 am
secretary mayorkas, he was hit by his colleagues and left. how many will be intimidated by threats of violence against them or being shunned, if they don't go along? so johnson may have a little more ability there. but let me turn for a minute to the senate. the filibuster is in place. we don't know how long it will be there. republicans, if they have an agenda through the legislative process, they will get rid of it in a nanosecond. and one other element, democrats kept the blue slip, which is a procedure, which has been a norm, that a home state senator, went district court and before that appeals court judge came up, could veto them. my guess that as soon as democrats try to block more trump style right-wing radical
7:34 am
judges, from being confirmed, republicans will abandon the blue slip. the norms in the senate will go and there again, it depends in part on what the majority is in the house and as you said, if trump wants to, and probably will, he doesn't want to go through the niceties of the legislative process. he will take executive actions even if they are illegal and count on the courts, including the roberts supreme court giving him the green light. >> let's assume that the democrats don't overcome this 14 seat disadvantage they are at, and don't make the majority in the house. do they do, what opposition parties do in a parliamentary system, where they are considered loyal opposition, they are trying as fruitfully as possible to get their priorities implemented in a bipartisan fashion, or do they do what republicans have done as the opposition in recent years and be entirely obstructionist. they are not going to have an easy time being obstructionist for the reasons you cited, so what does the character of the democratic party in congress look like to you in the next
7:35 am
two years? >> i don't think it is the dna of democrats to be entirely obstructionist because they are not nihilists. where they may have weak ridge is in the appropriations process and here is why. you have elon musk and others saying, we're going to cut $2 trillion from the budget and it will be easy to do. they can't and that will cut out a lot of programs that are popular in republican districts as well. but you are going to have some of the freedom caucus radicals who believes it and will hold out for much more dear coney and budget cuts. mike johnson, under those circumstances with a very slender majority is going to have to turn to democrats again and as you said, hakeem jeffries may have some ability to affect change at the margins. one thing that happens if republicans have the reins of power is if there are shutdowns, if the debt ceiling is breached, there is no question as to who is going to be to blame for that.
7:36 am
so we have at least some ability, among democrats. but frankly, i am not optimistic it is going to work all that well because i just don't think donald trump is going to utilize the legislative process very much at all. he's going to use executive power by leading his completely unleashed by the supreme court immunity decision. >> norm, i expect this is one of many conversations we will have on the topic and we appreciate you always for participating. senior fellow emeritus at the american enterprise institute and contributing editor at the atlantic and author of books including one nation after trump. coming up, head of trump's return to the white house and 71 days, the democratic governors and states attorney generals are putting forth plans to protect their populations. i will talk to two of them, kris mays of arizona and william tong of connecticut, next on velshi. shi.
7:37 am
these sheets feel amazing! i added downy ultra soft to the wash! i wish we could get out of dinner with ben and kate it's them... hi, oh you have to cancel! downy ultra soft is not only luxuriously soft and fresh, it breathes life into your laundry. speaker: who's coming in the driveway? speaker: dad. dad, we missed you. daddy, hi. speaker: goodness. my daughter is being treated for leukemia. [music playing] i hope that she lives a long, great, happy life and that she will never forget how mom and daddy love her. saint jude-- maybe this is what's keeping my baby girl alive.
7:38 am
[music playing] narrator: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. for just $19 a month, you'll help us continue the life-saving research and treatment these kids need now and in the future. speaker: cancer makes me feel angry, like not in the feel on the outside, just the inside. i'm angry at it. speaker: when your kid is hurting and there's nothing you can do about it, that's the worst feeling in the world. [music playing] narrator: 1 in 5 children diagnosed with cancer in the us will not survive. speaker: those that donate to st. jude, i hope that you will continue to give. they have done so much for me and my family. [music playing] narrator: join with your credit or debit card for only $19 a month, and we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt,
7:39 am
or, for a limited time only, join for $39 a month to receive this exclusive st. jude jacket you can proudly wear to show your support. speaker: are you ready to go have some fun? speaker: yeah. speaker: when we came here, we didn't know what tomorrow would hold. st. jude showed us that tomorrow, there's hope for our little girl to survive. narrator: let's cure childhood cancer together. please donate now. [music playing]
7:40 am
-- knows big numbers. she's written 30 novels with 40 million copies in print worldwide. her last eight books have debuted at number one on the "new york times" best seller list. her books have been translated into 34 languages and 35 countries. for 2007 best seller 19 minutes has been banned in 19 eight -- 98 school districts in this country alone with more surely to come. next weekend, jodi picoult, one of america's most banned, most read, most celebrated contemporary authors will join me on the velshi ban book club. she's not just fighting for 19 minutes, we had to discuss that for derek she siding censorship for every author and every reader. for next weekend, please write to us, my story at velshi.com. with stories -- questions for the prolific jodi picoult and
7:41 am
7:44 am
advil liqui-gels are faster and stronger than tylenol rapid release gels. ♪♪ also from advil, advil targeted relief, the only topical with 4 powerful pain fighting ingredients that start working on contact and lasts up to 8 hours. illinois governor jb pritzker fired a warning shot on thursday declaring come you come for my people, you come through me. those are bold words, signaling his office's readiness for a legal showdown with the trump
7:45 am
administration which are pivotally without retribution and threatened to weaponize the labors of power against women, immigrants, lgbtq community and other foldable populations. he joins a growing coalition of governors and state attorneys general who in recent days have vowed to protect their citizens from a second trump term through state laws that are a slew of legal filings. experts called the scale of mobilization unprecedented, as a growing front of legal resistance takes shape around the country from california to new york, half a dozen states are coordinating and committing to protecting reproductive freedom, environmental regulations, immigrant rights, and the lgbtq community. in massachusetts, hours after trump's win, state attorney general andrea campbell announcer office has been working ahead to prepare for a second trump term. quote, where someone violates the law or the protections of our residents or values we hold dear, we will fight and we will do it in collaboration with ag's across the country, end
7:46 am
quote. under trump's first term the massachusetts attorney general's office sued the trump administration nearly 100 times and will there was often a leader or collaborator and most global state suits. california officials similarly spent months attempting to trump proved itself to block trump policies that could affect a host of rights. the attorney general announced thursday quote, you can be sure that as california attorney general, if trump attacks your rights, i will be there. if trump comes after your freedoms, i'll be there. if trump jeopardizes your safety and your well-being, i'll be there. minnesota governor tim walz after losing the democratic vice presidential nominee -- election, also vowed to protect
7:47 am
minnesota citizens, warning on friday, quote, that moment they bring a hateful agenda into the state i am ready to stand up and fight for the way we do things here. minnesota always has and always will be there to bring shelter from the storm, end quote. he criticized abortion rights, climate action, gun safety and labor rights -- i'm sorry, he cited those as areas he intends to defend. while the connecticut attorney general william tong said thursday his office would protect immigrant families from separation under mass deportation plans and in new york governor kathy hochul and attorney general letisha james held a joint press conference to announce their new initiative to protect new yorkers under a plan called the empire state freedom initiative. the measure aims to protect reproductive rights, civil rights, immigrants and environmental standards and more against potential abuses of power. on thursday james told reporters, we will continue to stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge or retribution. we will continue to protect our most vulnerable and marginalized amongst us. we are prepared my friends, to fight back. while many are reeling from tuesday's election, from
7:48 am
tuesday's loss, the state leaders are wasting no time in steering resistance in this dark chapter for america. their actions be a check on authoritarian ambitions but for now, the nationwide legal front offers a measure of assurance for a generation of americans who are confronting one of the greatest challenges that our country democratic foundations has ever faced. after a quick rake i will dive deeper into the specifics of this resistance with the aforementioned connecticut attorney general william tong and arizona attorney general kris mays. ch to mucinex nightt to relieve your cold & flu symptoms. uh oh! both help you get to sleep. mucinex is uniquely formulated to leave your system faster, so you wake up ready to go. going to work groggy? nope. try mucinex nightshift and feel the difference. it's comeback season.
7:50 am
is being stolen from us. i can't believe this is the world we live in, where we're losing the freedom to control our own bodies. we need your support now more than ever. go online, call, or scan this code, with your $19 monthly gift. and we'll send you this "care. no matter what" t-shirt. it is your right to have safe health care. that's it. go online, call, or scan right now.
7:52 am
before the break i told you about the critical role state attorney general will play in encountering authoritarian ambitions of donald trump's second term. from where i am joined by connecticut attorney general william tong and arizona attorney general kris mays. thank you both for being here. attorneys general -- attorney general tong, we talked about in the past, like the secretaries of state we have heard from but didn't talk to before, attorneys general do this. you look at these laws these things we see sue cases and federal cases, you are often involved with anyway. anytime something big is happening that affects anybody in your state, your office is looking at the ways it affects
7:53 am
people in your state and determining whether you have standing and a role to play. >> we are in these fights every day. we built a fire while and that firewall has never come down. and we were in dobbs, didn't go the right way but we were in the fight to preserve the affordable care act, in daca fight, we are every day protecting people of our country. >> attorney general mays, talk to me about how you do this. we are dealing with tangible issues. reproductive rights, civil rights, voting rights, environmental protections. what are specific things that you can do in the face of an administration that is going to do something that half of americans think are dangerous and that affect them directly. >> it's great to be with you again. what can we do? we do this by planning for it. and i want everyone to know that the state ag's, democratic ags have been planning for this
7:54 am
possibility for many months now. you know project 2025 has been out there for more than a year. obviously we did not want this to come to pass, but the document which they have telegraphed for the whole country, is chock full of unconstitutional provisions. and so we are planning for it, as my colleague, ag tong just said. we stand ready to file lawsuits that will be necessary to stop the unconstitutional and frankly illegal provisions that are in project 2025. one of them, just to name one, would be the reinstatement of, or implementation of the comstock act, which would essentially enact a nationwide abortion ban, even though states like mine just voted to ensconce abortion rights in our constitution. they also have said they want
7:55 am
to surveil women who are seeking reproductive care or who are traveling interstate for reproductive care. that, of course, is unacceptable to the vast majority of women in america. so we stand ready, to file those lawsuits that ag tong was talking about, that they had to file in 2017, 2018. they filed more than 100 lawsuits and when you add 80% success rate. >> ag tong, you are the chief law enforcement in your state, you are familiar with this. you get threats, all sorts of things happen. i was a little shocked by davis, trump lawyer who reportedly is considered for the position of attorney general. he named one of his first target , someone you work with closely, new york's attorney general letisha james. i'm going to read this and i have had, i have thought about
7:56 am
this many times but i'm going to read this to my audience. quote, let me say this to big letisha james, new york attorney general, i dare you to try to continue your law fare against president trump because listen sweetheart, we're not messing around this time and we will put your hat trench while in prison. and i apologize for having to read that but it is important. >> i did that to say to her face. there is nothing tougher than tish james. it is despicable, it is disgusting, it puts her at wrist -- at risk. and tish is one of our leaders. we look to tish. she's one of the key parts of the fire while and she's going to be tougher than ever. >> you are used to these legal fights but this is a different flavor, all together. and by the way, you faced this and arizona with people not engaging in normal level legal or political fights, but go to
7:57 am
these remarkable extremes. they are saying this stuff and part of the effort and authoritarian governments is to try and make people fear so that they obey in advance. and that is the one thing our viewers need to know, that you, kris mays, you, william tong will not do that. >> no, we won't do that. we won't be cowed, we won't be intimidated and we never have. and this is a time for patriots to stand up for our constitution, for us to remember that millions of americans thought and sacrificed and died for our constitution. and just because, you know, i don't even know how to describe the individual, would say those disgusting things about the top law enforcement officer of the state of new york. just because they say those things doesn't mean we are going to stand down. as you know, i have if a collector's case in arizona and
7:58 am
have no intention of giving that case up. i have no intention of dropping that case. a grand jury in the state of arizona, decided that these individuals, who engaged in an attempt to overthrow democracy in 2020, should be held accountable. so we won't be cowed, we won't be intimidated and patriots across the country must stand up for our constitution. for what is lawful and we will do that. and where we can, we -- go ahead. >> i was going to say, to your point, where it is lawful and that is the point. if this person shows up, and i hope this person shows up to the senate hearing, you can't just threaten people for wanting to pursue what they do. william, you do take the law into account when you challenge a case. if you don't have ending, you don't have a legal argument, you won't do it. >> that is what rule of law means and should also say that following tish's lead, and
7:59 am
kris 's lead, we are not going to take it anymore. we are not going to be on defense like we were in dobbs. the mifepristone, the ban is nothing if not an attempt to enact a nationwide ban on abortion. and we went on offense, we went to federal court and filed our lawsuit to detect access. democratic ags are going on the offense. >> that is something lawfare comey talk about surveillance, there are women who are scared about this because a lot of women use apps and part of their efforts to reproduce and understand when they can get pregnant. a lot of women use a lot of technology. women depend on mifepristone. women depend on abortion pill -- i'm sorry, contraceptive pills by mail that the comstock act and republicans would target as well. people have real fears about what they should be doing. stockpiling, finding providers in mexico or canada. these are real issues to people. >> these are real issues to
8:00 am
people and they are real issues for states, and these are all things and reasons that we will stand up for the rule of law, for the states rights, frankly. the rights of states to protect reproductive rights and yes, women are afraid. i can't tell you how many women have come up to me and hugged me or who have been in tears about this and are fearful. we also have, you know, daca recipients, dreamers who are afraid. i will tell you, we are not going to put up with any attempts to undermine our dreamers in this country and deport to dreamers or eliminate daca. these are the kinds of lines in the sand, that i think we have to draw going forward. >> and you have had a lot of experience with that in arizona where the federal government
9 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC WestUploaded by TV Archive on
![](http://athena.archive.org/0.gif?kind=track_js&track_js_case=control&cache_bust=461711039)