the texas legislature will have to pass that law, and then of course osha has supremacy over that. the other issue is that he doesn't get what goes on in terms of covid and how it is spread. right now, the economy is not able to move back to normalcy because so many workers are afraid to go to work. the census bureau does a huge survey every two weeks and there are about 3 million workers out in the workplace right now -- they are out of the workforce because they are afraid of getting or spreading covid. employers are having tremendous difficulty getting people to come to work and this is an important issue. people have to feel like it is safe to get to work and they have to be able to come in every day and not get sick. it is worth talking about that the theory or philosophy behind governor abbott, governor desantis, these are people's right, they have the right to turn down the vaccination. it's an individual choice, and i get that. i think of it the same way as an individual choice to get really drunk so you can't drive safely. it is your choice to get -- to imbibe as much alco

end of the texas legislative session, house democrats walked out of the texas state capitol to break forum and prevent the legislature. more than 50 texas democrats fled again, many to washington. ♪ we shall overcome some day ♪ >> that you have a concerted effort by a major political party to make it more difficult for american citizens to cast a ballot is insidious. and it's reprehensible. and it is a direct assault on our very foundations of democracy. >> they were outnumbered and delaying the inevitable. but they made a show of it to draw attention to the soon to be new texas law. we boarded a bus with texas democrats as they headed to a press conference. the republicans who say what you're doing here in washington, dc, walking out of the session in texas, is a stunt. >> i call it civil rights. protecting the rights of my citizens to vote. >> state representative thompson is the longest serving woman and african-american in texas history. what would be the thing that would make you comfortable with the way that the texas voting law is? >> if they would eliminate giving unfetterred control of poll watchers. i've be

texas rose up and wanted to make abortion illegal. this is because greg abbott, a republican governor, and a rugged blinken right legislature put their own political agenda held of the health and well-being in the women of state of texas. ultimately we have to pass federal legislation, and i would know that the women's health protection act, that did pass the house, was supported, essentially in shrine the ability of people to make their own decisions about pregnancy. and not a single republican member of congress voted for. this is a political battle. and the republican party is clearly on the side of taking away the most fundamental right, that women in this country have, and we have to make that clear to voters everywhere. >> cecile richards, dahlia lithwick, neil, thank you all very much for joining us on this breaking news. you are not scheduled to this when your evenings began, but thank you very much for joining us on this hour. we really appreciate it. >> thanks lawrence. >> thank you. >> and coming up, we are going to have more on the reaction to this decision, by a federal judge in texas. to block the new texas abortion law.

i served for nine sessions now in the texas legislature, and republicans have gone off the deep and.f the political ambition of greg abbott who is not only running for reelection but also running for president. he can't stop himself from doing crazy things when he sees ron desantis do things in their states, he has to out run them and he is running texas off a cliff. >> state representative crockett, let's talk about the harm caused by the antiabortion law which it's all these laws working together and the harm that they all create in different ways, the dallas morning news reports in just one recent month, seven pregnant 12-year-olds and their caregivers sought help at the dallas children's advocacy center, which handles the most serious criminal sexual abuse cases in the county, staff members told of recent pregnant rape victims as young as nine, the advocacy center shared stories of 12-year-old trying to find maternity clothes, of girls who must continue attending their neighborhood school as their pregnancy progresses. of bewildered children who believe their own bodies have beco

what's happening, sadly, and congress, i'm sure in the texas state legislature, is you're not talking about health care and how to boost the economy, and crush the vaccine. we're talking about these ridiculous hate campaigns. so let's get back to that. i've spent all my time talked about build back better and we're gonna fix roads and bridges and bring childcare, and create a federal health care system. so, let's get back to that. >> how do you do that, how does that translate to your republican voters. because in theory, you're trying to make the point that, you might not like it, my like up the side of it, but it's actually gonna benefit you more than arguments about lgbtq and black lives matter are gonna benefit your kids. >> here's the funny thing, we do agree on, this whether republican or democrat, we all use roads and bridges, there's only american wrote so bridges, so let's make sure those roads and bridges are fixed, and we bring our infrastructure back to number one. we're 13th an infrastructure right now, that's in the entire world. and similarly, we have one of the highest

what if the texas legislature passed a law tomorrow making slavery legal and then passed another law saying, we hereby forbid the courts to get involved to overturn it? it's that bad, that grotesque, and that anti-democratic. i think even a conservative supreme court will take advantage of the opportunity to say you can't do this. >> and very much so, texas will be a test case for the rest of the country, especially when it comes to conservative states, a lot of folks will be watching the supreme court for the next few months. pete williams, wendy murphy, thank you so much, appreciate it. >>> the question so many are asking today, what happened on the ranch? we are hearing for the first time from alec baldwin who fired a prop gun on the set of his movie being filmed in new mexico, and something went horribly wrong. the shot killed a 42-year-old sin he noing to are aer if, halyna hutchins, and injured the director, joel souza. souza has been released from the hospital. detectives are still piecing together the series of events on the set of "rust," which was being filmed in the desert

she's been testifying before the texas state legislature since she was 6. she wants to educate. she wants to share her perspective. she may not be able to stop republicans, but she's not going to let them get away with it silently. here she is earlier this month advocating for transgender kids to play sports on teams that align with their gender identity. >> stop attacking trans kids. if you don't want to understand us, at least don't keep our families, coaches and teachers from supporting us. >> libby is participating in democracy, in civil society. some people are trying to scare her out of doing that. here's how libby's mother, rachel gonzalez, described the harassment they faced when libby testified earlier this year. quote, people were yelling at us, calling me a child abuser. we've been at this for a while, and i've never seen it this bad. it felt really scary. it got so unsafe that libby, her mother rachel, and rachel's other daughter were forced to hide in the office of the texas state representative jasmine crockett. representative crockett has opened her office as a sa

. >> last spring the texas legislature passed fba a law that takes abortion rights in texas out behindt is now the most restrictive abortion law in the country, it it forbids abortion in texas after cardiac activity is de dected, typically around six weeks, before many women know they're pregnant. harsh but not surprising. >> when it comes to restricting abortion texas gonna texta bu what is kirch about fba is how it tries to enforce this ban on a, do. -- abortion. i talked to nancy from the center for reproductive rights for more. >> exactly how [bleep] on the [bleep] meter is this law. are we talking like this [bleep]? >> it is preventing about 85 percent of abortion patients being able to get access in the state of texas. by creating a legal scheme that has been very hard to challenge in court. >> it is outrageous. >> that is [bleep] up. >> st a nasty violation of constitutional law, yes. >> according to nancy the genius of this law lies in how it lets the state of texas put its hands all over women's health without leaving any fingerprints. >> this is a law that is designed to not

assault on voting rights, it were observing state legislatures across the country resolutely focusing on overturning roe v. wade. with sb eight, texasas effectively done just that. so no, we cannot rest in comfort believing that roe will continue to serve as a barrier for state legislatures. instead, we must ensure that there is a statutory right for providers to provide abortion and reproductive healthcare and that patients continue to receive that care when they choose, free from unnecessary restrictions. simply put, this body must pass the women's health protection act and the each act. my first question for miss graves, roe is theoretically still in place. however, restrictions to care already exists in some states, even while roe stands. leaving sb eight aside, can you give us a few other examples of the restrictions to abortion people face in states that are hostile to abortion care? >> there are several categories, you know, there are other bands at different points in pregnancy that have been passed by other states, that have been consistently struck down because of roe. there have been delays. so, you know, waiting periods

. >> the texas legislature has signed off on new congressional districts that "the texas tribune" has described as protecting gop power and reducing influence of voters of color. is this, sir, a prime example of the need for a federal voting rights bill, especially one that would crack down on gerrymandering? >> absolutely. even "the dallas morning news" editorial board, which leans right, recently put out an editorial saying we need federal voting protections because of what happened in texas. we had an extremely successful vote in texas with 11 million texans coming out to vote, no instance of any kind of fraud. yet they passed more restrictions on the ability to vote, severe gerrymanders in the statehouse and state senate. 95% of the growth in texas in the last decade has been driven by people of color but that is not reflected in the maps that came out. >> you know the president is meeting right now is senators joe manchin and chuck schumer. it comes after steny hoyer announced that the house is shooting for a vote sometime this week on the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well a

the constitutionality of the texas abortion law but the unusual enforcement mechanism that the texas legislaturethe sixth week of pregnancy, the state says we will not enforce that law, instead we will look into deputizing private enforcement. we will outsource it to private individuals, to bring lawsuits against anyone who provides an abortion, or aids and abets it. and one of the things that even gun rights activists have filed with the supreme court have said is, this enforcement mechanism could be used in other contexts, against laws like gun laws, mask mandates. so on one hand, the justices will decide whether or not this enforcement mechanism can apply in the abortion context. they may be concerns amongst justices on all sides of the ideological spectrum, that this enforcement mechanism could be used in other context as well. >> huge implications there. we had a legal analyst on the show yesterday, who told us she will be watching what the chief justice does. let's listen. >> you know, there is a good argument that this is no longer the chief justice's court, but it has so shifted. we will

so in my opinion, the texas legislature should be impeached for treason. what they did was not just offend women's rights by enacting a law that they knew and discussed openly would be unconstitutional, so they knew that what they were doing is antithetical to their mandate which is to pass laws that are constitutional and only laws that are constitutional by doing what they did and then enacting anned a junk difference law that said we'll make it impossible for the courts to get involved so we'll usurp the constitution by this kind of covert way of making the law immune if you will from the courts getting involved to correct it. now, this is the way that our system of government works in this very nice balance, right? that each of the three branches of government, judicial, executive and legislative, hold each other accountable to make sure that they don't act outside their authority. when the legislative branch acts outside its authority, we have entitled as a democracy to have the courts get involved to correct that. well, the way that they enenacted th

so what we're asking the court to do, is blocked the maps that were drawn by the texas legislature, andw apps to comply with the voting rights act. >> there's something of an irony here, which is that republicans are drawing these maps, and you know, latinos in texas, are politically across the spectrum, in terms of their politics. we saw very clearly in what happened in the 2020 election. there's all kinds of folks with all kinds of politics, there's a universe in which you could have more latina representation that does not necessarily impair the public and party, and they've chosen quite clearly, in a targeted fashion, not to make that happen. >> it's correct, latinos are very political diverse all around the united states, but what is the enduring, constant in texas, regardless of which political party is in charge of drawing the lines, because texas used to be a one party democratic state, will endures across all of these decades that we've been doing this work, is to advantage white political influence, and to diminish latino political influence. even when it's growing so quickly.

>> looks like the texas legislature is just playing hard ball, and i will say this.two districts, the current one is clearly gerrymandered. there is a long skinny line that heads north and then west. so it is -- but it is something to go after two sitting members of congress, typically, you see this work out, as the congresswoman said, there are conversations. but let's be clear. it is not only republicans that are doing this. in new york state, the democrats are eliminating -- we have to lose one seat in new york. so they're eliminating a republican seat. when the governor was asked if she would use her influence on the redistricting process to increase the democratic majority, she said yes. while the republicans use it far more egregiously, yeah, the democrats aren't exempt from this either. >> no, 100%. all is fair in politics, kind of. with regard to this, david, you are talking about specifically in houston, what we are talking about. these are two high profile congress persons. could this backfire on the republicans? >> probably not. i'm laughing because i'm go

the legislature, meaning the texas legislature, has imposed a prohibition on abortions after six weekson to the pop pew lass at large. how do you square the concerns about the so-called regulatory scheme with the fact that there are conservatives that may be in favor of an abortion ban? >> ali, you have put your finger on the big point there. on the one hand, yes. we have a conservative majority, many of whom including john roberts himself having expressed skepticism at roe versus wade. on the other hand, you have state lawmakers here that are really trying to circumvent the judiciary. something that the judiciary does not like one bit. so will we have -- there is a potential that the supreme court justices may rule in a way that even though they may not agree with the roe v. wade, they're not going to like the way texas did this and they can strike that part of it down in an effort to prevent other states from following this same approach, but we don't know. it very well could be that the supreme court expresses displeasure at the way they do it but allow this opportunity be one that

this was, as judge pitman ruled last night, a scheme and an evil scheme at that, because the texas legislature knew what they were doing was unconstitutional, and that it would only work to prevent women from exercising their rights if no one ever brought a legal challenge. so they added language, very unusual and, frankly, unprecedented and i think unconstitutional, i don't think this is actually legal, that they had the authority to do this. but what they said was -- what they did was, by giving the authority to private persons to file lawsuits against abortion providers and support persons, they were basically preventing courts from becoming involved and from what's called judicial review from overturning this clearly unconstitutional law. so if you want to pass an unconstitutional law and you set it up so that the courts never have a chance to get involved to overturn it, then you've basically usurped the constitution but in way that is deeply anti-democratic, because there's no opportunity procedurally for a court to get involved unless a lawsuit is filed. so why is that important? becaus

as is customary every ten years the party involved in the texas legislature got their lawns redrawn,rates dense hispanic populations into majority white districts. it reports 16 other states have plans that have passed the first stage of redistricting, several of which no longer need to prove that their new maps are not discriminatory before pushing them through thanks to the supreme court's gutting of the voting rights act back in 2013 and it could take years for courts to rule on racially discriminatory gerrymandering that dilutes the voting power of minority voting. they, quote, eliminate all of the current 17 majority minority legislative districts as well as the two majority black congressional districts. that actually violates federal law and montana has to create a new district due to the increase in the population on the western side of the state and both parties are fighting over where the district line will go. if the line falls to far east it may not be as easy to vote a republican in. joining me is joyce vance, a columnist and contributor for msnbc and also joining us on

texas legislatures are locked into last-minute negotiations over new political maps that would give republicansmandering voting rights and the the media for not selling their positive to the american people. that is not really our job there. i'm going to ask my sunday night panel about that, and the breakdown in messaging over that 3.5 trillion dollar spending bill over ten years. that is the key point in all of this. plus, transportation pete has some choice words for those criticize in his opportunity leave, turns out tents actually do more than babysit. who knew? i'm with ayman mohyeldin, let's get started. we but so a redistri

athletics, the new law receiving fierce backlash from democrats and lgbtq advocates because the texas legislature has been pursuing these bills. >> a 150% increase and suicide has occurred in the lgbtq community. predominantly of transgender kids because their government does not care about them earlier this month in a marathon hearing before the texas house. sunny bryant and 8 year-old transgender girl pleaded with lawmakers to stop the bill in its tracks. why are you attacking me? >> and really great and let a friend. i love tree and love for a like baseball soccer and gymnastics. but it's not total opposition. it affects all 332,000 girls. >> currently playing l sports in texas. supporters of the law say it's needed to protect girls teams from transgendered players who might be bigger faster and stronger. we've heard from you. i also that they're getting more and more calls with concerns about changes in birth certificates and males competing in female sports. ethan evans ii know is a transgender man. he tells news nation the law is unnecessary because so few trans athletes are competing in te

the case under an expedited time frame, the court said it would focus on the unusual way the texas legislaturerecall, bans most abortion in the state after six weeks, before many women even know they're pregnant, and it turns private citizens into something like bounty hunters. but it will allow the law to remain in effect for now. nbc's arianna vogue joins us. what does this suggest to you? >> this law remains in effect, so roe is a dead letter right now in the state of the texas. but they have these hearings really, really quickly for them to be able to weigh in. that's maybe why you didn't see the liberal justices, kagan and breyer, dissent here. but they're going to look at how this law was structured. texas courts can't enforce it, private individuals can. opponents of the law say, you can't enforce it. this worries the justices. what happens if a liberal state decides to pass a very similar law, say, on gun rights? then you would see the conservatives racing to the supreme court. maybe that's why they're interested in taking up just that question and dealing with it as quickly as they ca

and so what we are asking the court to do is to block the maps drawn by the texas legislature and drawith the voting rights act. >> there is something of an irony here, right, which is that republicans are drawing these maps and, you know, latinos in texas are politically across the spectrum in terms of their politics, we saw clearly in the rio grande valley what happened in the 2020 election. there are all kinds of folks with all kinds of politics. there is a universe you could have more latino representation that doesn't im peril the republican party, yet they have chosen in a targeted fashion not to make that happen. >> it's correct. latinos are very politically diverse all around the united states. but what is the enduring constant in texas? regardless of which political party is in charge of drawing the lines, because texas used to be a one-party democratic state. what endures across all of these decades that we have been doing this work is to advantage white political influence and to diminish latino political influence, even when it's growing so quickly as it is now and shown in

i've served nine sessions now in the texas legislature.blicans have gone off the deep end. it's all in the furtherance of political ambition of our governor greg abbott not only running for re-election but running for president. he can't -- he can't stop himself from going to crazitown when he sees kristy name and ron distant i suppose do things in their state. he is leading texas off a cliff >> state rep crock et let's talk about the harm caused by the anti-abortion law. which i think -- it's all the laws working together and the harm that they all create in different ways. and the dallas morning news reports in just one recent month, seven pregnant 12-year-olds and their caregivers sought help at the dallas children's advocacy center handling the most serious sexual abuse cases in the county. staff members told of recent rape victims as young as nine, the advocacy center shared stories of 12-year-olds trying to find maternity clothes. girls attending the neighborhood school as the pregnancy progresses and a bewildered children who believ

and are putting it into law including greg abbott here in texas and republican leaders of the texas legislature to learn about everyone from cesar chavez to martin luther king and so they're trying to create this society where black and brown families have less of an opportunity to succeed on top of the challenges they already face that you pointed out a couple of them, joy. so the irony is that texas really represents what the america of tomorrow looks like but the leadership is trying to take it in the completely opposite direction and play to a smaller and smaller mostly white base of texans and just juice that out as long as they can to hold on to power even though you have a changing state. it's amazing and also, you know, frustrating and dangerous. >> well, and changing america. joaquin castro, look at just sort of a redo after "cinderella" with a llatin as te star. it's a huge opportunity, i think, for media, for you know, news media, for everything to look at this new young demographic and say hey, let's do something different. why do you think that people are not doing that more aggres

i want to put some numbers up on the screen. 74% of the texas legislature are men. 50% of the state'she legislature is white. 41% of the state is white. 64% of the legislatures over 50, you have a lot of decisions being made by people who shall we say are not necessarily -- they are representing their views, not their population. >> and most don't have uteruses, by the way. let's talk about the idea of agency over a woman's body and, remember, this is all about vigilanteism. the numbers you quote have had been texas -- spes specific. the law allows for people who are not in texas, in alaska and d.c., wherever it will be, can bring lawsuits and a vigilante approach and get a bounty. they are incentivized to do so because unlike any context in our litigious society which is america's favorite path tim, not litigation, is the idea i can bring a suit and get attorney's fees if i win around i get a bounce of 10,000 as opposed to you get nothing. this is one of those things that's just so negatively impacting the way we should envision our judicial system period. >> period. >> i'm pro baseb

the texas legislature will have to pass that law, and then of course osha has supremacy over that.he other issue is that he doesn't get what goes on in terms of covid and how it is spread. right now, the economy is not able to move back to normalcy because so many workers are afraid to go to work. the census bureau does a huge survey every two weeks and there are about 3 million workers out in the workplace right now -- they are out of the workforce because they are afraid of getting or spreading covid. employers are having tremendous difficulty getting people to come to work and this is an important issue. people have to feel like it is safe to get to work and they have to be able to come in every day and not get sick. it is worth talking about that the theory or philosophy behind governor abbott, governor desantis, these are people's right, they have the right to turn down the vaccination. it's an individual choice, and i get that. i think of it the same way as an individual choice to get really drunk so you can't drive safely. it is your choice to get -- to imbibe as much alcoho

the texas legislature just passed new congressional district maps. they did it on monday night.aps would shore up the gop's dominance in texas, and i want to share what mother jones' ar ri berman points out. white people make up 40% of the population and control 60% of the state's districts. 39% are latinos. but latinos only control 18% of the districts, blacks make up 12% and asians 5%, they control zero districts. for more on why all of this should matter to all americans i want to bring in matt dowd, the founder of country over party and a democratic candidate for lieutenant governor of it texas, errin haines, the editor at large of the 19th. matts voting rights is not something the average person thinks about day in and day out. help us understand why we desperately need to. debates infrastructure is meaningless if we're at risk of losing a free and functioning democracy. >> stephanie, i couldn't agree with you more. all the other issues including infrastructure and everything else that seems to be in debate pales in comparison to what's happening with voting rights. the vot

the texas legislature will have to pass that law if he wants it to take effect. then of course, osha has supremacy over that. but the other issue, which is really important, is he doesn't get what goes on in terms of covid and how it is spread. right now, the economy is not able to move back to normalcy because so many workers are afraid to go to work. the census bureau does a huge survey every two weeks. and there are about 3 million workers who are out of the workplace right now, out of the workforce because they're afraid of getting covid or spreading covid. employers are having tremendous difficulty getting people to come to work. this is a really important issue. people have to feel like it's safe to get to work. they have to be able to come in every day and not get sick. you know, it's worth talking about this sort of, the theory or the philosophy behind governor abbott, governor desantis, some of the thinking. this is people's right. they have the right to turn down a vaccination. it's an individual choice. and i get that. but you know, i think of it the s

we have state legislatures like texas and 20 others contemplated what texas has done. getting out there with antidemocratic voter suppression, laws and policies. visit our website, support our candidates and i would encourage a laser focus on who your officials are at the county level. we need an army, a strong army to combat what seems to be the gop playbook through this year and through the midterms. >> i want to make a plug for the website. our website is www.dems.ag. you can learn about how you can plug in and help us. make sure we keep our amazing ag's and help elect new ag's as well. i know we are running into the last couple of questions here. i want to end it on a fun and nice good note here. we just want to jump in. let me know what song or podcast you are currently listening to. we will start with ag stein. what is on your phone right now? >> this will shock my colleagues to hear but i am not particularly hip. i am pretty old school and what i do is listen to talking heads radio in the background. 80's alternative rock was my era. >> podcast wise, i am listen

. >> reporter: as yfz was under construction, the texas legislature changed the age at which a person with parental consent from 14 to 16. rebecca heard about the ranch, too. she wondered if any members of her family had moved there. so she checked with the local sheriff to see what he knew. nothing, it turned out. but he did begin using rebecca as a sort of interpreter. >> he would call me periodically and ask "can you tell me about this or can you tell me what this means to them?" >> reporter: then on an early spring day in march 2008, authorities in nearby san age -- angelo got a call from a woman who said her name was sarah barlow. claimed she lived at the ranch and was being abused and held against her will by her husband. >> she was a young girl and i think at the time of the phone call 16, she had already given birth to a child and with her age, we were able to do the math and recognized that that would have been a sexual assault of a child. >> so what was the plan then? >> to find sarah barlow. >> reporter: on april 3, 2008, the rangers, child protective services in tow, arriv

the boom in population driven by non-white texans, but the texas republican legislature drawing a congressional map that overwhelmingly favors white republicans. a power play that will be in place for the next decade. cnn's ed lavandera has the latest. >> reporter: cruise down jefferson boulevard in dallas next to the texas theater where lee harvey oswald was arrested and you see the color and flavor that makes it one the most prominent latino neighborhoods in the city. but civil rights activists say it's the kind of neighborhood severely impacted by the way texas republicans have redrawn the state's congressional maps. the activists say neighborhoods like oak cliff are crammed into fewer minority districts to dilute the vote of latinos, blacks and asians. >> the growth in texas is fueled by latinos, 2 million of them, and blacks, asianss and other communities of color. if we don't pay attention to this and don't demand that latinos are represented, we will find ourselves with no representation. >> reporter: texas is the only state in the country that is getting two new congressional seats beca

the texas gop controlled both chambers of the legislature, giving them nearly complete control of the voting rights act took effect in 1965. but this will be the first since the u.s. supreme court ruling said that texas and other states with a history of racial discrimination no longer need to have the justice department scrutinize the maps before they are approved." joining us now, our friend, texas state representative jasmine crockett and our friend, basil smikle, director of the public policy program at hunter college. representative crockett, we are, again, talking about texas. we are again talking about anti-democratic moves by the republicans. this feels like a big one. >> yeah, absolutely. first of all, it's great to see you. obviously, we have to talk about how crazy texas is. >> every day. >> and how racist texas is. yeah. it's a constant down this way. it's really sad, though, because you know, just like i kept saying that they only wanted our bodies in the state house so that they could bulldoze us, they only wanted all of these people to move to the state of texas so that

you know that's why, again, i applaud governor abbott for what he did and i'm applauding our texas legislatureto codify what his executive order says. jacqui: charles blain, enjoyed the conversation, hope to talk to you soon. griff: jacqui along with masks and vaccine mandate what children learn in schools is a hot-button issue in virginia. for more on the virginia's governor's fellow, amy, amy, thank you for taking time and it is almost voting day in virginia and crt, critical race theory, obviously front and center. i want to play for you it appears that gop challenger glen youngkin taking advantage of something that terry mcallough said at the end of september and how the gop is using it in an add, watch. >> i don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. i get really tired of everybody running down teachers. griff: amy, do you think that will have an impact and if so why? >> well, first of all, griff thanks for having me. i do think it will have an impact. as a former teacher and school principal, someone who has been in federal education policy, i can tell you that

> well, and look at in texas what the response has been to the national rhetoric is that the texas legislature communities of color in texas. and so the rhetoric is really dangerous, but it puts us on a pathway to the autocracy that we talked about before. if an elections official doesn't conduct an election the way that you want, you rip the power away from them. if the outcome is not what you want, you change the rules of the game. if the president who is duly elected is not the president that you want, you strip power away from him or her. we're living in a really dangerous time, and i think that -- i'm glad that we spotlighted texas after talking about virginia because it is as max boot said, it isn't just about electing a president. it's going from the top of the ballot to the bottom of the ballot to ensure that we elect people who believe in little d democracy and that is why for me it's not about being inspired by any particular leader as in virginia with terry mcauliffe. it is about, you know, the danger of having a ron desantis or a greg abbott in charge of all of your elections, in c

we're coming into in hearing fresh off of the heels of a gravely unjust session in the texas state legislature where republicans engaged in deliberate, extreme partisan gerrymandering. texas gained two new house seats fueled by the growth in our latino population. instead of drawing maps reflecting the growth, republicans chose not to add latino districts. according to a lawsuit filed by the mexican american legal defense fund, drew maps that diluted the voting rights of latinos. this process was opaque and nontransparent perhaps because texas republicans hired a political operative. i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article from the texas tribune entitled "texas appears to be paying a secret political open ty $120,000 annually to work on redistricting." >> without objection. >> thank you so much. my own district was impacted in a process that i have described as being akin to looting. unfortunately texas isn't the only state where this is happening. mr. garland, what steps is the justice department taking to ensure that redistricting plans does not violate the voting rights

the effort by the texas legislature here was to chill and deter people from providing healthcare to womenl the law, like this retroactive effort, you know, even if the law is invalidated somehow, there could be retribution against providers. this was done for one purpose and one purpose only. to say if you provide healthcare to women and let women make decisions about their own bodies, you will pay and you will pay notwithstanding what any court says and that shows you the full intent of this law was as nefarious as it sounds. >> the most depressing thing is it's being emulated in other states. >> that's right. there are copy cat laws that are coming in florida but also in some communities that are considering them outside of florida, and we can expect when most state sessions reopen at the beginning of the next year that they will follow suit, and part of that is that they feel like texas was a success, that they effectively banned abortion in the state for over a month and the supreme court allowed it to go into effect. that is going to encourage lawlessness. >> unbelievable state of af

. >> and, fortunately, again, the texas state legislature has finalized the districts and you will not have to do so. that's off the table now. >> finalized only to the extent that the house and the senate have passed legislation. the governor hasn't signed it yet. so we still have that one hurdle left. >> very good point, absolutely. thank you, congressman, for making that one. so this is still largely an issue, the gerrymandering. it's being described as protecting gop power and reducing influence of voters of color. is there anything that texas democrats can do about it at this point to try to battle this? does this underscore the need overall to get a federal voting rights bill through congress? >> absolutely does. we need to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act, hr-4. because it restores the 1965 pre-clearance provisions of the voting rights act. as you well know, section 4b of the voting rights act was eviscerated, which emasculated section 5. section 4b dealt with a coverage area. we need that. texas has been a part of the voting rights act in terms of lawsuits file

>> the texas state legislature already anticipated prospect of injunction and built into the law a proposition that says if the law is enjoined temporarily then that injunction later vacated or dismissed, the abortions that occurred while the injunction was in force can be prosecuted. there is no reprieve if this injunction is later vacated. providers who provide abortions, those who help individuals seek abortions or provide abortions during the period of this would still be legally liable under the law. >> all right. melissa and barbara and julia, thank you so much. important story. we will be covering it throughout the day. >>> we turn now to capitol hill where a financial disaster may have been averted. going to say "may" in quotations. it's not over until it's over, but after there appeared to be raising the debt creeling in default. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he is down to lift it through december. kicking the can two more months, less than two weeks before the deadline. the chamber back in an hour from now with democrats set to accept his offer. going straight to leigh

the legislature from texas to georgia to try to restrict the voting rights like the smt ballot and they are not allowing the volunteers. what role does the state play in these laws? >> let me emphasize the litigation room. during the campaign season, we had people announced that they were coming to minnesota and they were going to guard the polls with weapons and were recruiting people to stand outside to claim they were protecting people's right to vote and that is intimidating. we are on the forefront of helping to build that policy but back to the litigation strategies we joined together on the postal services. we have a critical role to play in and citizens work to make sure we protect w the vote. let's build a relationship now. call andnd let them know that yu see them as an ally in the fight for democracy and let me say rightt now all of us have to be thinking about redistricting. that's going down right now in every nearly every ag that you know will make sure you have fair maps coming up and some folks don't want fair maps so that's something we can join together and work on tog

. >> the context of this is one of the many changes that the texas republican-led legislature passedwas to allow more freedom of movement by partisan poll watchers who do already exist, but have them -- allow them more freedom, i should say, again, that's the key word from their point of view, in these election facilities, and actually have criminal penalties against election workers where if they're seeing things untoward, to remove them. all of this relates to the conversation we were having because this kind of change is a direct result of the conspiracies and the lies that people like the guy at turning point stood up and said that the election was fraudulent. so we want to have our people in these voting booths. most remarkable thing about having conversations, particularly with republicans in texas and also in georgia as part of this special is that nobody said that they believed the big lie. they did not believe -- they do not believe that donald trump should still be president. they believed that joe biden was freely and fairly elected, but they all pretty much to a person sa

texas is the latest legislature this year to attack the right to vote based on the light of widespread voter fraud. last month, texas governor abbott signed a law that banned voting opportunities that made voting more accessible particularly during the pandemic , such as drive-through voting and 24 hour. it increased access for partisan poll watchers. a prohibited prohibited local election officials from proactively distributing applications to request mail-in ballots. the legislation also restricts the state's vote by mail access including new i.d requirements for absentee voters. voting restrictions come after voters of color used all of these same options at historic levels in the last election. now, supporters of the bill, and we've heard it this afternoon in the committee, claim you've got to do it. it is the only way to stop voter fraud. so the texas attorney general spent 22,000 hours looking for evidence of fraud. you think they really would have made their case. what they found to try to justify the law was the following -- only 16 potential cases of fraud out of 17 million re

florida, we sent our state troopers down to support the department of safety down to texas and the texas legislaturet to the states to take action because president biden is failing. rachel: you're prepared to sidebar personnel to texas whether trespassing or what wha, you're prepared to do it. >> that's what you're seeing in texas right now, were all going down there to support governor abbott, he's the one to step up and take the actions seeing your august 1 million contacts by customer border patrol, 273,000 last year, nearly five times the number of people coming across, is making it dangerous for the residents of texas, governor abbott is stepping up to protect the citizens, president biden needs to remember these are his citizens he needs to step up. pete: is an invasion and i'm glad you are supporting governor abbott and a lot of people looking at him to step up and stared out the federal government and protect the sovereignty of texas. governor pete ricketts, thank you for being here. we appreciate it. as thousands marched for abortion rights, so-called across the u.s., the babies whose conc