so they had a one house legislature camera legislature. instead of a governor. they created an executive council the kind of president really and and people that the house representatives would appoint to advise that person that person would sort of execute the will of the legislature. this legislature super hyperpowers itself, right so the legislature, you know appointed judges appointed people to office or they had election of some of these figures of some judicial figures as well. so it's like if they're not elected by the people the business is being conducted by the legislature. the other interesting thing that this constitution did is that it created a lot of accountability? so this is the most people accountable accountable to the people government are created in this period elections were to be annual. so every year you'd have a chance to throw the bum out and elect somebody new. the idea between behind annual elections also was that more people would end up serving. this is also informed a desire for term limits, right they didn't want an entrenched eli

was this in official hearing of the state legislature? >> it was not. >> why was it not a real official hearing of the legislature? >> a legislator can hold a group meeting, he can call it a hearing, but when they ask me to have an official hearing, we established protocols, public notice, et cetera. it's typically held at the capitol, but it doesn't need to be. we can authorize a hearing off campus. i have been asked on several occasions to allow a hearing and denied it, but said you are free to hold any meeting you want to the person who asked, which he ultimately did. he was a little frustrated, but he ultimately did. >> this meeting was the same day, i believe, that the governor of arizona certified biden as the winner of the presidential election in arizona. did you meet with mr. giuliani and his associates while they were in phoenix sometime after that reported legislative hearing at the hotel? >> yes, i did, sir. >> and at that meeting, did mr. giuliani raise any specific allegations of election fraud again? >> his initial comments

and why was it not a real or official hearing of the legislature? a legislator can hold a group meeting, you can call the hearing. but when they asked me to have an official hearing, we establish it by protocols, public, notice, et cetera. it's typically held at the capital, but doesn't need to be we can authorize a hearing off campus. and in this case, i had been asked on several occasions to allow hearing. i had denied it, but said you're free to hold a meeting any meeting you want to the person who asked and which he ultimately did think he was a little frustrated. but he alternately did this. so this meeting was the same day . i believe that the governor of arizona doug, do see certified biden as the winner of the presidential election in arizona. did you meet with mr. giuliani and his associates while they were in phoenix? sometime after that purported legislative hearing at the hotel? yes, i did, sir. and at that meeting, did mister juliani raise any specific allegations of election fraud again? and his initial comments were again the litany o

call your governor and legislatures . demand them here the evidence. >> public pressure on state sofficials in the lead up to january 6. >>. [chanting] >> let's go sessions. >> what are we going to do? what do you and i do as state legislatures? i'm not advising that. >> the punishment for treason is death. >> the state pressure campaign and the danger it posed to state officials and state capitals around the nation 's was a dangerous precursor to the violence we saw on january 6 at the us capitol. today you'll hear from rusty bowers republican speaker of the arizona house of representatives. he will tell us about his conversations with the president, rudy giuliani and john eastman and what the president's team asked of him and how his oath of office would not permit it . you'll then hear from brad raffensberger, republican secretary of state of georgia who trump directed to find 11,780 votes that did not exist. with just the exact number of votes needed to overtake joe biden. also hear from gabriel stirling chief operati

that is the kind of legislature i am working with. that is why this is such a scary moment for michigan women and families. host: michigan governor gretchen whitmer yesterday. taking calls from women only in this first hour of the washington journal, asking you what y >> you can watch the rest of this program but now remarks from senator tina smith on the supreme court decision to rescind abortion rights under roe v. wade. ♪ >> it's a sad day for the court and the country. ♪ >> i am outraged by this decision. i think this is a betrayal and though i was anticipating it, i have to say i am stunned. to think that this radical supreme court is rolling back the constitutional right and are saying government, not women, should make the decision about whether to continue a pregnancy, going against 50 years of precedent is stunning and i'm so angry. >> good morning, i am an anchor at washington post life and co-author of the newsletter. thank you for coming to this important program and i'm joined by senator tina smith. it's about the supreme

if you look at what's happening probably right now in state legislatures around the country there is unleased momentum to push this further at the state level for sure. and that the federal level, the minority leader mitch mcconnell says if roe v. wade is overturned, the national abortion ban would be on the table. that's the conversation it's happening right now. leigh ann: yeah, i know you said there are conversations about this happening but do you think the democrats should put republicans on the record on some of these issues? just remind our audience, after a couple of months ago, after the leak support -- supreme court decision it -- after the decision was lee, the senate voted on codifying roe v. wade and that failed. on these other issues like contraception andivf, could you put republicans on the record on this before the midterms? sen. smith: i can see some value in putting republicans on the record. my view was that the republicans are already on the record when it comes to the rights to protecting the fundamental of people to decide about their own bodies. they are on th

but the state legislatures wouldn't go along with his scheme. and neither would, the vice president, none of the legislatures agreed to go back in the special session and declare him the winner. no legitimate state authority in the states. donald trump last would agree to appoint fake trump electors and send them to congress. but this didn't stop the trump campaign, either. they assembled groups of individuals and key battleground states and got them to call themselves. electors, created phony certificates associated with these fake electors. and then transmitted these certificates to washington and to the congress to be counted during the joint session of congress on january 6th. none of this worked, but according to federal district judge david carter, former president, trump, and others likely violated multiple federal laws by engaging in this scheme, including conspiracy to defraud the united states. you will hear evidence of the former president and his top advisers, direct involvement and key elements of this plot are what judge carter cal

was this an official hearing of the legislature? was not. >> and why was it not a real official hearing of the legislature? >> a legislator can hold a group meeting, he can call it a hearing. but when they asked me to have an official hearing, establish it by protocols, public notice, etc., it's typically held at the capitol but doesn't need to be. we can authorize a hearing off campus, and in this case i had been asked on several occasions to allow a hearing. i denied it. but said you are free to hold a meeting, any meeting you want to the person who asked, and which he ultimately did. i think he was a little frustrated but he ultimately did. >> this meeting was the same day, i believe, that the governor of arizona, doug doocy, certified biden as the winner in arizona. did you meet with mr. giuliani and his associates after the purported legislative meeting at the hotel? >> i did, sir. >> did mr. giuliani raise any specific allegations of election fraud again? >> his initial comments were again the litany of groups of illegal indiv

and then, following that, a closed-door meeting, between republican leaders and the state legislatureeople from the trump campaign, and this guy, the republican house speaker, says hey, this might be happening behind closed doors, but the public needs to know about this. i'm going public. i'm going to tell the public what's going on here, and also, that i'm not going to stand for it, i'm not gonna go along with it. he says, quote, even if such evidence existed, the arizona legislature simply couldn't do what's being asked. under arizona law, the presidential electors must vote for the winners of the popular vote, nothing in the u.s. constitution or the decisions of the u.s. supreme court, even suggests that the arizona legislature could retroactively appoint different electors who could cast their ballots for different candidates. the law does not authorize the legislature to reverse the results of the election, as a conservative republican, i don't like the results of the presidential election. i voted for trump, and i worked hard to reelect him, but i cannot cannot and will not ente

and in addition there is more funding being proposed by the legislature and above and beyond what the governor proposed. >> in addition to our laws, we front what we call the armed prohibited persons list so in a background check there are various categories where you are not allowed to purchase weapon or possess one. so you may already own it, but then you become on the armed pribited persons list and the department of justice, we fund them to go take those guns out of the homes and that is part of our expenditures and we fund gun violence prevention were folks like in oakland there is a group called youth alive and they show up at the hospital when a gun violence victim shows up and they help that family because a lot of gun deaths are revenge shootings. they intervene and help support that family and support that gun violence victim to demotivate any type of revenge shootings. >> there is also a lot of money for gun buybacks and prevention services and victim programs. >> if you are a victim of gun violence because a gun owner doesn't have to carry insurance and all of those costs,

there is a large slate of bills making its way through the legislature right now, 14 of them, one of which you are the co-author, the constitutional amendment. tell us about that one in particular and maybe touch on some others. >> the leaked decision by the supreme court which threatens to overturn roe versus wade a sickly undermines all privacy. in california, your and my ability to legally have an abortion and our right to an abortion is based on california's privacy les in our constitution. given that the supreme court seems to be willing to rip out privacy, we have to make abortion rights explicit in our constitution so the head of our state senate from san diego has authored that constitutional amendment, which i am confident our legislature will pass and it will be put on the ballot and that the governor would sign and it will be put on the ballot in november for californians to vote squarely that we support the legal right to an abortion for everyone. >> we are also looking at expanding services for people who come out of state but even here in california, and we see abortion

conservative state legislature. words of planned parenthood, state legislatures that declared war on women's health. a chilling effect after this legislation it is presumed well beyond abortion. reproductive health, it will become more difficult 0 access and certainly missouri is one of those states to keep an eye on, because it is such a conservative state and because, garrett, as you know, the state house, governor, the attorney general, all republican. in was no stopping what was to come together. again, this proclamation following the decision in washington. worth noting, of course, in this law, hb-126, now a class-b felony if you assist or conduct an abortion that can come with 5 to 15 years in prison. echoing what the guests have been saying this hour here. >> very conservative legislature there, and if you live in western missouri, in a place like kansas city, geography now becomes a factor. becomes a question when you start talking about abortion access. if you live in kansas city, you're a very long way fro

we certainly walk the halls of congress itself and certainly state legislatures across the country, so we have been around for about 13 years now and it is a treat to be able to work with a lot of people on the federal and state levels on important issues like this. host: if you are interested, you can go to ffcoalition.com. your first principle listed is respecting the sanctity of life. take me through what friday was like at the faith and freedom coalition. guest: that is a great question and it certainly was not just for faith and freedom coalition, but for a number of organizations that focus on issues of life and, frankly just , a lot of voters across the country. this has been -- to be clear obviously the supreme court , decision did not once and for all settle any issues, but it certainly kind of reset the playing field, so to speak for , this lively debate. but for a lot of people that have been kind of in the throes of thinking through and working on issues like this, this was a seminal moment. i think a lot of people, frankly, never actually thought that something like this w

the republicans flipped legislatures. we have to go to ground and focus on every election, contest every seat. everything is being pushed to the states whether abortion today, gun laws, voting rights. if we do not focus on state elections and flipping governorships, we won't make a dent. >> who do you mean by we? i ask this question because i covered a lot of that on the ground. i've covered state legislative races for msnbc and what i almost heard from democrats was we do not get the support from our national party and our state party that we see our republican opponents getting. >> that hasn't changed. the fact this is being pushed to the states now is not an accident. this is decades in the making. flipping the judgeships under trump, the fact that he got all of those supreme court justices. this is not accidental. we cannot be a party that has a strategy from one year to another. we have to have a multi year, decades long strategy. if not now, then when? >> susan, republicans on the other side of this issue are as pas

the lawre does not authorize th legislature to reverse the results of thegi election. as a conservative republican, i don't like the resultsse of the presidential election, i voted for president trump and worked hard to re-elect him but i cannotle and will not entertain suggest la we violate the law to change the outcome of a certified election. i and my fellow legislators swore an oath to support the u.s. constitution and the laws of the state of arizona. it would violate that oath, the basic principles of government and the rule of flaw we attempt to nullify the people's vote based oneo unsupported theoriesf fraud. arizona voters choose who win. 40 years ago next month, president ronald reagan remindeds that you while the orderly transfer of authority is aor commonplace occurrence for americans, cequote, in the eyes many in the world, this every four year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle. he concludes, quote, now, americans are being reminded once again never toan take for granted what president reagan correctly skrish described as the cont

there's been a huge investment in the legislature in recent years for that side of its job.we found that it was fumbling a number of key responsibilities. some of those are in the areas of responding to law quickly and managing data well. and getting legally mandated reports out on time. there are some that are four years late. and a culture of resistance to change with this more prevention mindset. it is critically important to prevent this because were having such a hard time fighting it. there's a lot of money in this budget. if you don't have an agency and permitting it then you don't have a problem. >> it is always better to stop a fire before it starts. >> part of all of this is water. and we are in the middle of a historic drought. it is interesting how gavin newsom and jerry brown seem to be handling this issue of conservation differently. are there any thoughts or observations about that? >> yes. jerry brown instituted kind of a top-down approach. he spoke about water conservation all the time and we saw the californians respond. there leaving it to encourage local

the power base is shifting under the state legislatures. we need to elect more democrats in those houses, i just wanna make that point as well. the reason i would call that the legislature, is because otherwise they would be back until january. there's a sense of urgency. we can't allow people at random with a concealed weapon, going on our subway. he's going to a pride festival. we can imagine people carrying a concealed weapon. we read the decision carefully. we knew it might come. when i want the legislature to do is identify the sensitive places where concealed carry guns cannot be used. in fact, the decision already says we cannot, for example, ban concealed weapons from the entire island of manhattan. but we're going to go right up. and 12 those who say that it safer for people to pack their own guns and handle whatever situation comes their way, look at the statistics. new york state, random violent acts resulting in death, five 400,000 -- the states where they have less restrictive access to guns, where they can walk around with the

that is the kind of legislature i am working with. that is why this is such a scary moment for michigan women and families. host: michigan governor gretchen whitmer yesterday. taking calls from women only in this first hour of the washington journal, asking you what y >> you can watch the rest of this program but now remarks from senator tina smith on the supreme court decision to rescind abortion rights under roe v. wade. ♪

two years after california entered the union as a free state, the california state legislature -- theame legislature who had the responsibility now to enact reparations proposals -- actually enacted a fugitive slave law. so if you were somehow free and black in california, let us say you escaped from slavery in the deep south to california, right, you could be rounded up and essentially deported back to the deep south, to be re-enslaved, or even re-enslaved somewhere in the state. kristen: wow. so, i do want to talk to a big headline -- something people talk about from your report, there's many recommendations, a big one of them is financial reparations. what are you hoping that will look like, in practice? >> yes. in this interim report, we have not fully contemplated compensation. that discussion is still an ongoing discussion. we have one year left as a task force, to present to the california state legislature a pumper has a preparations claim that will include recommendations for reparations in the form of compensation. i can't say quite yet what that might look like. but we have

the idea that you could convene, state legislatures to operate in the absence of state legislatures. it was fraudulent and illegitimate from the start. >> can you give us another example of the former congressman's involvement, you had detail in an earlier hearing about trying to secure a pardon from the white house. at what point are we going to see the committee do more enforcement toward the subpoenas ? >> at the end of the day, we are dependent on the justice department. if we move down the route with any witness of terminal and -- criminal intent. we continue to consider remedies that we have. including those with representatives. i don't have any plans to preview today. i want to bring it back to what we just heard. what we just heard was that the president was told over and over again, that what he was telling the country was simply false. you saw him go out time after time, being told way after way, that what he was saying was just a lie. leading up to where he continues to whip up a crowd with this lie. that someone would get killed came into fruition, people inside this bui

the legislature is charged with making policies. that is it passes the laws. the executive is responsible for carrying out policies. and the judiciary is charged with reviewing and judging policies. but while each of these branches of government has its own clearly defined duties they all work together as a team through a system of checks and balances. here are some examples of what i mean. the president appoints justices to the supreme court executive balances judicial. congress determines the size of the supreme court legislative balances judicial the president has veto power over the bill sent to him by congress executive checks legislative. the president can propose laws. he thinks need to be passed executive balances legislative. the supreme court has power to declare unconstitutional any law passed by congress judicial checks legislative. congress must approve many of the appointments made by the president legislative checks executive. congress appropriates money for the executive departments legislative balances executive that's the way the constitution

you would have state legislatures that, to that point -- republican leaders across those legislatures had put together, and put out statements, and we collected these for the vice president as well. the people had spoken in their states, and they had no intention of reversing the outcome of the election. we did receive some signed letter is that mr. eastman forwarded us by minorities of leaders in those states. but no state had any legislative has a indicated that it had any interest in it. so, you would've had just an unprecedented, constitutional jump ball situation with that standoff. and, as i expressed to him, that issue might well then have to be decided in the streets. if we can't work it out politically, we've already seen how charged up people are about this election. and so, it would be a disastrous situation, to me. so, i said i think the courts will intervene. i do not see a commitment in the constitution of the question, whether the vice president has that authority, to some other actor to resolve. there's arguments about whether congress and the vice president jointly ha

maybe they should march their state legislatures and lobby their state legislatures to change their lawsf their so much political support that should not have a problem. arthel: in terms of appeal or illegal action what work at those who support and those who oppose roe v wade do? >> this is largely going to become a state issue. it is going to be under our constitution the federal government has specific limited and divided powers. nowhere in the constitution is abortion mentioned. therefore this is an issue for the states and for the people. this is an issue, if people don't like abortion restrictions they can move to california for people to like covid they can move to florida. survive a mug of the historic decision during their senate confirmation and private meetings with senators, judges your former boss and kavanaugh mislead or misrepresent their stance on precedent and on roe v wade? >> i helped lead him through that process is on his former law clerk spurred iran the process and the senate as a staff leader for justice kavanaugh's confirmation but he also on the chief justice, c

that's what kind of legislature i'm working with. and that's why this is such a scary moment for michigan women and our families. >> brennan: according to the cbs news polling, most americans feel abortion should be legal within the first tri-mester. a third say it should be legal after that as well. if you're saying you can't talk this out with your state legislature, can you at least put it on the ballot? does the public get to decide here? how do you move forward? >> so 70% of the people in our state do support a woman being able to make that choice herself. whether that is a choice they would make or not. i am horrified, as are so many women who are 50 jeyears old or in my generation, with the thought that my daughters will have fewer rights that i've had virtually my whole life. but i take heart in the fact that the vast majority in this state support that right for a woman to choose. there are independents out here and we need them to join this fight. >> brennan: but if you put it out there to the public, they have to pick and

i wanted him to send it up to the legislatures, so it goes back to pennsylvania, state legislatures, see the same kind of fraud, and if they see the same kind of irregularities -- there was one irregularity that nobody wanted to do anything, and that is that many of these changes were not made by state legislatures. they were made by local politicians. they did many, many things. that's against the law, and that happened in many states. we don't even get into that, what they did. they extended hours. in some cases, they went to the legislatures. they were unable to get approval, and then they did it anyway. you are not allowed to do that. did you know that even if a judge rules against you, even a judge can't change it? a judge can't, politicians can't, senators can't. the only thing that can change it are the state legislatures, and many cases we are talking about, determinative, meaning election-changing, because we did much better in the second election than we did in the first. millions and millions more votes. people said, how did you do it? i said, we did much better. 63 millio

you would have state legislatures that, to that point -- republican leaders across those legislaturesad put together, and put out statements, and we collected these for the vice president as well. the people had spoken in their states, and they had no intention of reversing the outcome of the election. we did receive some signed letter is that mr. eastman forwarded us by minorities of leaders in those states. but no state had any legislative has a indicated that it had any interest in it. so, you would've had just an unprecedented, constitutional jump ball situation with that standoff. and, as i expressed to him, that issue might well then have to be decided in the streets. if we can't work it out politically, we've already seen how charged up people are about this election. and so, it would be a disastrous situation, to me. so, i said i think the courts will intervene. i do not see a commitment in the constitution of the question, whether the vice president has that authority, to some other actor to resolve. there's arguments about whether congress and the vice president jointly have

so, they had a one house legislature. instead of a governor, they created an executive council, a kind of president, really. people that the house representatives would appoint to advise that person, that person is execute the will of the legislature. it's super hyper -- itself. the legislature appointed judges, appointed people to office, election of some of these figures, some judicial figures as well. if an elected by the people, the business is being conducted by the legislature. the other interesting thing that the constitution did is that it created a lot of accountability. this is the most people accountable, accountable to the people government create in this period. elections were to be annual. every year, you'd have a chance to go out and left somebody knew. the idea behind annual elections also was that more people would end up serving me. this also informed a desire for term limits. they didn't want an entrenched ali, they don't want the same people in power. so people could only serve four out of every seven