ms. jeffries. yes, commonwealth. >> yes, thank you.a brown, who is the mother, is here in the courtroom today, and i believe that she would like to address the court, and if the court would permit her, i'd ask her to come forward. >> all right. >> debra. >> yes, ma'am. >> monique done hit me, jumped on me four times within my lifetime. she is a beast. i still have nightmares to see her hands come down in my face. she took both of my phones so i wouldn't call the police. she burned me on my arm with a hot curler. and her attitude, she went into her mode, oh, shut up, you're not her, your teeth wasn't no good anyway, you going to sit there and you going to let me hot curl my hair and get ready before you call the police. i had to give her a bus check to get out of my home and to leave, but she kept hot curling her hair. i asked her for my phones. she said, you keep on, i'm going to burn you. i grabbed for my phone while she stood there and hot-curled her hair. she kept laying the curlers on my arm. when she knocked my teeth out one at a

ms. jeffries? >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i think the ranking member both for your leadership on this issue. we know that 50 years ago, january of 1964, i believe, president lyndon johnson came to the floor of the house of representatives before a joint session of congress and declared a war on poverty. that war on poverty has largely been successful in helping millions of americans lift themselves out of an impoverished condition and set on a path toward the middle-class but there's still a long way to go although it does seem in this town that there are some more interested in a war on working families than a war on poverty but that's something we'll ultimately have to overcome as well. in the context of this present hearing, i thought i'd start with miss reynolds just to kind of explore the perspective that you've laid out as i believe in your experience you've laid out three broad categories of poverty, is that correct? >> correct. >> and those are chronic, generational and situational poverty. >> correct. >

ms. kelly: thank you, congressman jeffries. i want to thank congressman horsford and the congressional black caucus for this special hour, a very, very important special hour. it is absolutely ridiculous what speaker boehner and his party want to do. it is a waste of time, as many of us have said, a waste of time, a waste of taxpayers' money, and it looks like nothing but a side show. there are so many things we should be working on. things like immigration reform, y equality, helping stop gun violence in urban areas, unemployment insurance that people so desperately need. again speaker boehner has shown he does not pay attention to what the public wants and cares about. 90% of the public thinks we should expand background checks. 74% of n.r.a. members think we should expand background checks. but he's not bringing that bill to the floor. this s going to bring bill to the floor when there's not even the public appetite for a lawsuit. and many americans quite frankly don't feel the president has abused his power. because we don'