let's bring in msnbc and nbc news national affairs analyst john heilemann. he's a host executive producer of showtime's the circus. author and msnbc political analyst anand giridharadas. we also have a host of msnbc politicsnation and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton, and former u.s. senator from missouri now and nbc news and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill. i will start with you, what is at stake here? >> the first level is peoples lives. you have shown example after example of people who are breathing, thriving, making plans no longer with us. i think it goes deeper than that. at the end of the day, this is an issue, as you've covered, where the vast majority of people want to do something about this, and nothing continues to happen. it raises the question of whether this is even a functional democracy anymore. if things the overwhelming majority of people do not happen again and again and it becomes normalized, then we accept, right, that things we all want don't happen. you can go through the ritual of voting, but i

>> i'm john heilemann with the first word news. gearing up lobbying campaigns to avert a u.s. debt default. they expressed confidence it would muster the necessary votes. the house rules committee is meeting on the bill today. the final houseboat, on wednesday. -- house vote, on wednesday. [indiscernible] hard-line republican lawmakers are threatening to exact rebate for the debt deal with one conservative saying he plans to press mccarthy's ouster. and bishop of north carolina told reporters today he plans to trigger the formal process to remove the speaker. he declined to answer questions on whether he would stick to mount his challenges. elon musk joined apple's tim cook and other technology company bosses and emphasizing the importance of maintaining ties with china. musk met with china's foreign minister in beijing today. he said the interest of china and the u.s. are intertwined. and tesla opposes decoupling and is willing to expand in the country. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm john hyland.

and nbc news national affairs analyst john heilemann.y're both co-hosts of showtime's "the circus." before we get to politics, reverend al, she was electric on stage, ahead of her time, simply the best, tina turner. talk about her passing, what an incredible -- just an icon. >> she was not only ahead of her time, she redefined her time. >> correct. >> what she did to music, you couldn't even really put in words. because tina turner broke through so many barriers in the rock r&b era for women, for blacks, and for people that were recovering from adversity. i mean, she very openly took her suffering and pain in her personal life and showed people how they could overcome and survive and thrive. because i think everyone talks about how her husband used to brutalize her, and she was open about that, talked about it. >> right. >> but what they don't talk about is that he also came at a time where men could dominate and rule women's careers. she not only got by his abuse, she proved that a woman can come back without the man managing her. >> an

and it won't -- for someone who has been the communications director for many campaigns -- as john heilemanntens to tina turner on his phone there. >> what are you doing? >> give me your phone. >> it's fair. >> small glitch. mika, you've had these before. >> wait. >> that was bill clinton -- >> don't you put this on me. >> -- in 1992. i was doing research for this segment. >> excitement for your campaign. >> he was showing us how desantis' launched. >> there was a little -- that was a technical glitch. i broke the "morning joe" set. >> fair enough. >> jen, as a communications professional, you thought what as that rolled out last night? >> it was an abomination and hubris from desantis, from us. 700,000 people isn't that much. twitter should be able to handle 700,000 people. but for the maga base, which surprisingly is the group of voters that, you know, desantis does seem to be going for, not the moderate republicans, he's going for the maga base, i'm sure they loved the unconventionality, the finger in the eye of the press. you know, tim scott needed a good launch. he needed to introduce h

let's bring in john heilemann.is mother. yet the governor of texas decides what he's going to do in statements, in tweets, is underline the fact that they're illegal immigrants, not human beings, not victims, not yet the latest in a long line of tragic victims, but instead underlines every chance he gets that they were illegal immigrants. the callousness, the inhumanity of it all really is breathtaking. >> it is, joe. i saw that tweet. i obviously share that same sentiment that you were talking about this morning. it's not surprising coming from governor abbott. that has been his way when dealing with the question of illegal immigration in texas and the political capital he's derived from it. i find it almost as breathtaking and maybe even more depressing, the fact that a governor who has repeat repeatly used immigrants as political props to foster the resentment toward undocumented workers in the state of texas, that he gets rewarded for it over and over again. there's no gubernatorial race in the country that was