she tried to suppress "beloved" the acclaimed novel from nobel laureate tony morrison in which she portrays the graphic horrors of slavery. it happened nearly a decade ago. the democrat in the race today terry mcauliffe said this morning there is a reason morris is the targeted author. >> he wants to ban toni morrison's book "beloved" so he is going after one of the most preeminent african-american female writers in american history, won the nobel prize, presidential medal of freedom, and he wants her books banned. of all the hundreds of books you could look at, why did you take the one black female author? why did you do it? he is ending his campaign on a racist dog whistle just like he started the campaign when he talks about election integrity. >> none of this is principled from the republicans. to be clear in virginia the republican candidate for governor wants to give parent the power to decide which books are on the curriculum but in texas the gop state government is trying to find out what books are on the curriculum and restrict them. it seems they want to decide. which is it? it is

toni morrison's novel about the legacies of slavery and its black pain. which is really a book about feeling since youngkin's message was an ad featuring a white parent who advocated in banning the book in 2013 because it gave her son, a high school senior, nightmares. and within days of the election, the republican leader in the house kevin mccarthy declared the republicans are the party of education, announcing plans to unveil a parents' bill of rights in congress. virginia is just another stop on a road that they've been traveling for months under the guys of anti-critical race theory, which is still not being taught in any public schools, only law schools, launching an all-out war on books. boorks about martin luther king jr., and even seahorses. this week a kansas school district reinstated 29 books removed from circulation after a parent objected, including margaret atwood's "the handmade's tale", toni morrison's "the bluest eye" and "fences." with the approval of republicans, books are also attack in texas. governor greg abbott is demanding school

ironically, in 1995, toni morrison gave a commencement address at howard university called "racism and fascism," where she explained the interlocking history of american racism and european fascism and the strategies by which it works. she talks about constructing an internal enemy. criminalizing the minority boys. these are the long standing structures of american facism that also interlock with things that affected european facism like jim crow, and what they are trying to do is wipe out the history of that so that young children don't learn that history. so that when they come around as they are doing right now to suppressing voting rights, to changing elections so that only one party wins so it is a one party state, no one remembers the history of that. >> that is deeply distressing but toni morrison was ahead of her time in some of her predictions and warnings. ruth, we have seen what happened in hungary. now an ill liberal democracy was built in plain sight. you mentioned it a moment ago. what is so fascinating and depressing here is it is happening in plain sight again, happenin

should they be able to ban tony morrison? >> no. i don't thin individuals should be banning any books. i think we should be adding books, not subtracting them. the question is, how has this been enforced? are the school boards actually open to parents' concerns? is there rl input from parents in these school boards? other school boards themselves now are packed with activists, that the parents can't trust them. in my view, the debate should happen there at the locality. what is in the curriculum and what isn't. if there are issues in the curriculum the parents don't want they should be listened to respectfully and sometimes their view should be taken into account. they can't have a veto, but neither should they be shut out as if they don't have a right to determine what their kids are being taught. people can't stop feeling if they send their kids to public schools they're going to be indoctrinated in left wing ideology. >> you write about the, quote, cult of social justice on the left. first, define a problem for the audience. >> w

once again, glenn youngkin is running down toni morrison and putting his campaign on the line behindve we should be censoring what is taught in our schools. that is not the sort of leadership we need in the governorship. that's why you'll see black voters and many voters show up tomorrow. >> i want to clarify something that i said last week about the campaign having watched president obama's appearance for terry mcauliffe and ratified by the correspondence in the field, when i said i thought it looked like a small crowd for the former president. in fact, i and we and all of us were in error because it was limited by president biden's team and it was a ticketed event, and there were people who were turned away who tried to get there, thousands more people, so i just wanted to clarify that. it would have been a much bigger crowd. thank you very much mayor levar stoney. we have invited glenn youngkin and his campaign on the show. so far they've declined the offer. there's still time. we've got a day to go. >>> one hour until midnight, the dire warning leading into a major climate summit

you have to at some point be able to defend, like you can't be embarrassed by toni morrison. you can't be embarrassed by nicole hannah jones, because these people are going to yell at those people anyway, i would rather have democrats defend toni morrison and defend nicole hannah jones and stand for something as opposed to constantly falling back and falling back and trying to placate these people who aren't arguing in good faith in the first place. >> and who cannot be placated. judith, thank you. >>> and now that steve bannon is indicted for contempt of congress, who is next? >> and getting more dads to speak up about the need for paid family leave. >>> and a look at the other big stories we're watching at this hour on msnbc. >> the goal to reduce coal and fossil fuel emissions and to transition to renewable energy, some scientists say the agreement falls short of limiting the earth warping before quote the point of no return. >>> a federal appeals court protected a challenge by the biden administration, upheld the decision to block the president's vaccine mandate on compan

why do you think he decided to jump on toni morrison? >> he did not like or approve of the content in the book or think that it's appropriate for children. that's why. >> it's a pulitzer prize-winning author. a national treasure. >> could you read it on the air? >> it would be very, very long. it's a very long book. we wouldn't have enough time. >> there's lots of great books you couldn't read on the air. >> i know. that was the issue. >> is it appropriate? >> was it the decider of the race? but that's why he put it forward. >> i can't believe that you believe there's a reason this tough works. he's poking at stuff. for all of the good he did, he also did that. you should apologize for the dynamic. it's happening. you have to get more of that out of your party. i have to get that out of my party. i have to get the demoralizing out of your party. you have to get the racial dog whistling out of your party. >> when we talk about schools, parents should be involved in the schools. but politicians shouldn't be involved in the schools. you hav

and that's very influenced by toni morrison in this book of essays. she writes about how, you know, well, first of all whole career she centered the black american experience. and she wrote that for herself, for others. she didn't, i mean she wasn't trying to appeal to any other audience. i wanted to write a book was truly like years the truth about what our people have been through. and she says in the book i just pulled out in one essay, it jumped out at me, that, you know, racial oppression may never go away. it may never change we can write about it. we can tell the truth. that's what i set out to do, to make it clear to myself and my people, all these forces that are set against us and they never seem to stop, right? the more i learn, the angrier i was that i wanted to tell the truth about that. you know, i wanted it to be a bit of a viable frankly where people, if you want to understand why it is, here, here. >> yes. can you tell us one of those stories? let's pick a chapter and talk about -- >> okay. so many come to me but ongoing to pick ligia

particularly black americans and i have her here but very influenced by toni morrison in this book of essays she writes about how syou know, first of all her whole career she centered the black american experience. and she wrote that for herself, for others. she wasn't trying to appeal to any other audience. i wanted to write a book that was truly like your the truth about what our people have been through. and she says in the book i just pulled out in one essay jumped out at me that you know, racial oppression may never go away. it may never goaway but we can write about it . we can tell the truth. that's what i set out to do, to make it clear to myself and my people all these forces that are set against us. and they never seem to stop. and the more i learned the angrier i was but i wanted to just tell the truth aboutthat . and you know, i wanted it to be a bit of the bible frankly where you if you wantto understand why it is , here. >> can you tell us one of those stories? let's take a chapter okay. so many come to me but i'm going to pick lakei barnett who is a descendent in the te

toni morrison, kim o'brien.ometimes we the same the two or three times that if i could write to anything close to these writers at least i could just how my way into the fieldis of journalism and i did and i wound up at a small newspaper in alabama. they planted a seed in a thought just maybe now looking back it is an inspiration for writing my first book at age 55. >> i will ask you both a question. and empire of pain you take on three generations of the steckler family and have experiences of my own so did you ever feel threatened or intimidated by the sackler family. >> the first thing i should say for clarity, i wrote this three generations but the family would not talk to me and did not want me to write the book. they started to threaten to sue me even before i started mwriting once it was announced publicly i was writing a book that's when the legal threat started to come inn a continued over the next couple of years. >> what type of legal threats? >> there was the long contentious letters. objecting to my

i would argue that attacks on toni morrison are not a dog whistle because toni morrison was overtly blackapproach to defending her, i think he could have been more fervent in declaring not only that critical race theory is not being taught in schools but that we need curriculums that focus on race-conscious issues to right a lot of the issues -- pardon me, a lot of the injustices that have been committed in america throughout many years. so, i think he could have taken a more full-throated approach to defending multiethnic studies than he did. >> all right, ja'han jones, thank you as always. great piece, by the way. appreciate it. >>> coming up, everybody, we are awaiting a news conference on that deadly stampede at a music festival in houston scheduled for the top of the hour. as soon as it starts, i'll bring it to you. as it starts, i'll brg it to you. frequent heartburn? not anymore. the prilosec otc two-week challenge is helping people love what they love again. just one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. because life starts when heartburn stops. take the challenge at prilosecotc d

one of his final ads featured toni morrison, a voiceover with danny glover, telling black voters, wenow what this is about, don't let them try to take your voice in those final hours. but turnout really was not the question -- as was mentioned before in this program. used to record turnout from democrats -- you saw record turnout from democrats and republicans. there's a messaging issue when it comes to race. democrats are going to have to figure out how to address this, because race is going to be a part of the playbook in 2022, 2024, and beyond, because it is effective. we don't know how much of a factor infrastructure and the build back better bills passing would've been in the selection -- bills' passing would've been in this election. a lot of the black voters i talked to certainly are wondering, here we are this week, year out from the historic election where you saw black voters as part of the coalition that sent biden and harris to the white house, that gave them a democratic majority in congress, and a year later, a lot of those black voters are wondering what they got for t

this film about a documentary about a heroin, toni morrison said she would get up at 5 a.m. if you can just commitce to that in a month, you've got 15,000 words. most books these days are like 80 to 100. a lot of them don't want you to get too long, my publisher doesn't want you to go too long. what was left out in this book i spent a lot of time thinking about it. it's very well structured. you really did it in a powerful way. other questions. if someone wants to know how the bronx are doing in terms of these issues. >> i can't speak to the bronx. i haven't been there. i don't have any specifics to offer. i don't have any firsthand knowledge. coded to the previous question i also have a law degree. you were talking about how powerful it is and how it's laid out. it's the engineer in me that built the argument. i melded the passion of history with just a sort of scientific system approach. >> i definitely can see it. there is a question about whether your bookoo is in dialoe with reisinger profit and how there's a real estate industry underlining the home ownership. do you k

thought he might-- i might be interested in some other authors, and he gave a list, included ursela, tony morrison, charles o'brien and tc boyle and those are the books that opened up the world to me. actually the universe, and i read and read and read. baled hay, read, baled hay, read and sometimes read the same book two or three times and planted the seed if i could write close to any of those writers, i don't say i can, but at least i could find my way into the field of journalism and i did, i wound up at a small newspaper in alabama so they planted the seed and, you know, i thought, you know, just maybe, maybe that, you know, now that looking back on it, it may be that also is an inspiration for writing my first book at age 55. >> i want to ask you both a question about, it's sort of an impact question or a question about something that may have happened while you were doing your work, patrick, in "empire of pain", you take on three generations of the powerful sackler family and i'm wondering, because i'd have experiences in my own writing and report, did you ever feel threatened or intimidate

it could be a toni morrison or virginia woolf. that's what it is. that's how we're constituted as human beings. >> mm-hmm. >> we'd rather take the easy way out -- status, money, wealth, and so forth. and, yet, the real spiritual and moral wealth that really does provide a deep joy, not just a superficial pleasure, is something that we provide as a door opening for young folk who want to enter this love of truth, beauty, goodness, and then, as christians, even love of god, you see? but that's always the critical minority, but that's alright. >> in our classes, cornel will often tell our students that, "you may not understand it, you might not even believe it, but let me tell you the real reason that you have come to princeton" or harvard or whatever university it is. "the real reason you have come is to learn how to die, because if you don't learn how to die, you're not gonna be able to know how to live. we learn how to die in order to learn how to live." and it's only in the perspective against the horizon of our own death that we can really get our

that tony morrison ad was too much of a blunt hammer.verything he did up until then, i totally agree with you. he's found a way to launder a pretty racist trope. this idea that we cannot talk about america's history, because it hurts my feelings. he's turned that into a campaign. and i think what democrats have to worry about is if he succeeds, and he wins, that is going to be the campaign model for every single republican that's running in 2020. >> well, i think, even if youngkin comes close and doesn't win, it still will be. >> correct. >> to have the fox news channel, our friends at the fox news channel building their programming, particularly the prime-time programming around this for months, they're building a campaign platform for conservative candidates to run on it everywhere. even though it's not actually taught anywhere. even though it's not a real thing. there's nothing you could pay for in any campaign that would equal the kind of free help you'd get from that kind of conservative media, just fire hose on the issue. >> and it

and when he left to go to howard university to work on the press, he left several books in which toni morrison, who was just arriving. i loved the continuity in publishing. one person turning over to another. charles went to the press and then decided he was going to start amistad books. he launched the imprint with a collection of essays, which was an anthology of some of the great thinkers and people who were legends today and of those were people who were not often published back in the 1980s. to me, 85 years ago in the 1980s doesn't seem that long ago, and it's amazing what a short history black publishing has come about what a powerful history that we have. and so then i will stop and talk about something else later. [laughter] >> yes, you will talk about something else. i do have a question, sort of how amistad fits into the world, you had third world press, the press started by paul coates. but amistad first was an independent press, then it went to harbor. how does it operate differently than, say, some of these independent presses? >> so, amistad was an independent press, and it was s

that was over a debate over a book by toni morrison called be loved. department of justice effort to be proactive in dealing with threats and intimidation's the school boards from parents who were frustrated about covid restrictions and curriculum issues. during this pandemic when all of the kids are on zoom, parents can see for the first time with her kids are learning in a more thorough way. that all gave them more insight and more motivation to get out there and follow up the department of justice. the fbi is going to be sent out to our school board meetings and they are going to try to force us into silence or submission. and i think, there's no evidence that that was the directive. it was more that see how we can support school boards. part of the democratic efforts to shut down viewpoints about what should be taught in schools and how much authority parents should have and the parents response ability for a child's education, upbringing. host: let's define who these parents are that lawmakers are talking about because parents is such a general te

go to howard university to work on the howard university press, he left several books in which toni morrison, who was just arriving at the random house family, and took them over, such as muhammed ali's "the greatest." and i love that continuity in publishing, it's almost one person turning over the baton to another. charles went to howard university press and decided he was going tot start amistad books. he launchedd the imprint with a collection of essays which was anay anthology of some of the great thinkers and people who are legends today. and thoseho are people who were not often published back in the 1980s. to me, 35 years ago, the 1980s, doesn't seem that long ago. it's amazing what a short history black publishing has but what a powerful history that we have. and so -- and then i'll stop and i'll talk about something else later, iss that a good idea? okay. >> yes, if you want to talk about something else later, but i do have a a question, sort of howw amistad sort of sits in th world, right? so you had broadside press, you had third world press, you had thee press started by paul co

a story of a mother upset that her son was assigned tony morrison's "belove."ol and in advanced placement. it's mortifying for your mom to say the book gave you nightmares. the most recent iteration is playing out in virginia. two parents went before the school board monday to race concerns about some of the books not being read in class, just available through a high school's digital library. books like "call me by your name" "and "33 snow fish" about three homeless teens trying to escape prostitution and drug addiction. they voted to remove books with sexually explicit material. two wanted to go further. >> i would like to make a motion to do a library audit on all the schools from k through 12. >> i would like to make a friendly amendment to that motion, if you will accept it, that we keep those books so that we can have them in the back so that the parents can see that we are doing something about this. do you accept that? >> here is the thing. i think those books -- i don't want to even see them. i think they should be thrown in a fire. as a christian who

history but they can't run on barring teachers from teaching american history, and ban books by toni morrison, that would turn off any virginia voter that wasn't a straight white supremacist voter. there are more of those in the country, but there's a reason why they're lying about what should be scaring parents in schools. democrats need to be able to say that strongly over and over again, before this takes root. >> what we know from this, what we know from the polling, education was a top issue, not just for those who voted for le, one in the basement, teaching them for a year and are disappointed with how education has been run in their homes, in their districts, so how much of that top issue of education is not only what you discussed the critical race theory element, but also the failure of local school districts to do the basic elements of education and the fear that their children are behind? >> yeah, there is no question that parents have been through absolute hell in the last year and a half, trying to make sure their kids were well schooled. it's the democratic party that has been t

. >> he meant parents shouldn't be coming into schools and ripping toni morrison pulitzer prize-winning books off the shelf. >> the bill he was talking about that he vetoed was supported by many democrats in the state house. i think that's also been misrepresented from the democrats, and the trump thing, i think, has backfired. >> i don't know. we'll find out. we will find out. >> talking to voters, a lot of them will say they don't want to go back to that time. >> exactly, and youngkin had to walk this tightrope. we'll see if he walked it successfully. he could not alienate trump to the point where he killed his candidacy and the way he guaranteed two democratic senators. he couldn't alienate him but he couldn't embrace him. >> not only did he not have trump here, he did this on his own. it will be a victory of his own, it's not people. he brought a coalition together, people like me who didn't support trump. a lot of my friends, professionals, as well as keeping whatever base, but i think it's a new and different coalition, and for me it's a focus on the future where, as terry has tri

were a member of the public, you need to be just as loud as the people who want to burn books by tony morrisondom of information and the freedom to read and the first amendment and that you will be there at school-board meetings and sending letters to the editor, and you will stand up and you support their efforts to diversify their clak collections and reflect the true diversity of your community and the world. so you need -- if you oppose this, you need to be just as loud and now is the time to do it, not when they come start talking about books that say transgender people are corrupting children. >> angie, you are doing good work. thank you. appreciate it. that wraps up the hour for me, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. i will be back next saturday and sunday the at 3:00 p.m. earn eastern. i am going to turn it over now reverend al sharpton and "politicsnation." >>> good evening and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lead as goes wisconsin, so goes the nation. the midwestern state once known for cheese heads and happy days has come to perfectly encapsulate our politically polarized nat

talked about toni morrison and the book "beloved." all of this fell under the education banner. by the way, i should say, too, woke. education and wokeness. this idea that democrats want to teach kids things that shouldn't be taught. they think all of this is fine. parents may not all think it is fine. it fell under a broad banner. it is weird that education was the issue that a republican in virginia ran and won on. i think you will see a lot of anti-woke rhetoric coming out of campaigns. and a lot of republicans try to walk that line between you trumpy enough for the trump base to stay with you. not too trumpy for independent and suburban voters. given credit, he ran an excellent campaign. republicans would have been doing this and winning. we obviously saw they were not. it's not as easy as it looks. but at least a blueprint does exist out there in the post-trump era. and how they can win in a state leaning blue. brianna. >> if donald trump lets them do it -- >> that's exactly right. remember, donald trump put out a few statements supporting glenn youngkin. he did not put his

changes to the system to bring justice to more people in the country, they say, "oh, my god, tony morrison's'is in school, i don't to vote for that." amy: what do you think will happen if there are t guilty verdicts? >> people will be angry for a while and black people will protest and why people will tell us we are protesting the runway and hurting our own color. sorry. it is frustrating. what will happen is there will be protest and anger and we will be told we are doing it wrong. no laws will change. nothing will change. nothing will happen. later down the line, somebody after democrats get stumped in a mature election, someone will say, "well, it is just those black lives matter protest" and the cycle will continue. amy: let's remember in the case of kyle rittenhouse, he was there and killed the entire police brutality protesters who were protesting the police shooting of jacob blake. this final response ,elie, if you could talk about what has happened to the police officer who shot jacob blake in the fact seven times? >> absolutely nothing has happened. he was not disciplined by his dep

runaround thinking the reason why their daughters are embarrassed for them on tiktok is because of a t toni morrisonhere are a couple pieces, i'm curious which of these pieces of legislation you like. there is a john roberts voting rights act and hr 1 which never got passed. there is the freedom to vote act. all of these efforts to save voting rights and i also want to point out with lisa murkowski, the john lewis voting rights act would impact the indigenous community so obviously lisa murkowski would lend support to it but doesn't erase the fact there are other pieces of legislation that can't seem to get life into it. are we kind of screwing ourselves voting against ourselves, negotiating against ourselves to watered down versions of the bill? >> let's start with this. i'll use a chris rock joke. if i'm starving and you give me a cracker, i'm like that's the best cracker i had. the freedom voting rights act that's a cracker. i'll talk whatever substance the democrats will put forward to protect and empower black people. however, the real issue here is not the legislation, it's the supreme court b

the ad of the white mother who is the fact that he was upset that being taught tony morrison 's beloved. but he did will not be alienating the -- trended toward democrats in the trump era, i think the appeal is best symbolized by this picture, of this person attending a glenn room can rally with a confederate flag. that nose would youngkin needs for him to hear when he talks about education. in the fact that youngkin can win well sort of half embracing donald trump, and also keeping an arms length. that clearly has the former president panicked about his own influence over the republican party. because, here's the thing, last night's results proof, then in large parts of the country, and maybe everywhere, the republican party does not need trump anymore. the maga, base white voters will show up for elections in vote for republicans without trump's name on the ballot, which is why we are seeing this increased sense of desperation from the ex president. trump released a statement in the run up to the election, endorsing youngkin, and talking about how much the two men like one another, an

i'm in on tony morrison. i'm in on acknowledging racism persists.ry books, right? by the way terry mcauliffe is a rich guy. he sent all of his kids to private schools. he never in his life tell him we'll tell your 8-year-old something you don't want her to know. we'll keep here for hours and hours, teachers over and over again, he had no control over it. >> terry mcauliffe is, looking to implement this woke agenda, just today, he talked about how we needed to increase the percentage of minority teachers to equal the percentage of minority students. for him it is all about math and equity in our schools and -- elizabeth: pollses show minority parents don't want it. minority, blacks and hispanic parents are stepping up saying knock it off. stop racializing our children, congressman. they're upset about it. watch this mom in loudon county. she is tooking to what you're talking about, congressman. i would like your reaction to this. watch senator ted cruz. watch this. >> so if critical race theory is taught in more schools does your son-in-law make more

he wants to ban toni morrison's book "be loved." he's going after someone who twon nobel prize, presidential medal of freedom. he wants her books banned. in all the hundreds of books you could look at, why the one black female aukt thor. he's ending the campaign on a racist dog whistle. chuck, dorothy and i have raised our five children -- of course parents are involved in it. the question should be should an extreme republican bill that would allow parents to take books off of shelves, should that be left in the hands of the parents or the school boards and others who do this every day. everybody clapped when i said it. >> they would say this is not about banning a book, this is about informing parents that a book may have some material that not all parents should be crazy about. we should let you know your kids will be dealing with this material. is that out of bounds? >> that's not out of bounds. if you look at what the bill would be, it would lead to books being removed from our classrooms. we're the fourth best school education

but it turns out it was a toni morrison book now, people are always trying to get her books banned from. and i'm always like, "what?" stories about the effects of slavery make you feel uncomfortable? bitch, try living them then, something utterly unbelievable happened. [ laughter and applause hundreds of qanon believers showed up in dallas, becuase -- and this is real i did not believe, like, the first, like, four articles i read about it. but it's true. they were expecting to see jfk jr now, i read this, and was like, "what? you were expecting to see jfk jr.? what why did you expect him to show up, and what were you expecting? a man who has not aged an old man a zombie what do you have a sixth sense? what about senses one through five, what [ laughter ] who was he rolling with? santa, the tooth fairy, gehghis khan what are the rules then i found out that they thought jfk jr. was coming back to be trump's running mate and i was like, "what? [ laughter ] you think the famous democrat came back from the dead to be the republican vice president? [ laughter ] a position, by the way, which a

. >> desjardins: this mother is talking about toni morrison's book" beloved," saying she wanted a warningviolent and sexual passages. the book, about slavery, was part of a college-level course. soon after the ad ran, mcauliffe's campaign started handing out “beloved” at his rallies. >> he has been endorsed by trump nine times. >> desjardins: mcauliffe also is trying to tie youngkin to former president donald trump, paint him as too extreme. trump has endorsed, but not campaigned with, the g.o.p. nominee. farida jalalzai is a political science professor at virginia tech. >> that's a lesson that the republican party has learned and taken to heart is trying to soften the stance, soften the image that some really started to associate with the republican party by the very fact that trump had been in office for four years. because virginia is trending democric. this should have been a race really that was perhaps more easily in favor of mcauliffe. >> desjardins: at stake is not just the state's political landscape but national momentum. that's why mcauliffe has campaigned with big names, like

funny the books they're always offended by or consider ek plis it are books like "beloved" from toni morrison, always seems to be books from black authors or black, historical things. funny, that. >> well, that and also if you look at the list of 800 books texas is reviewing to determine whether or not those books should be taught because they cause discomfort, those books are all about social injustices even all the way down, you know, to a book by ruby bridges who integrated a white school when she was 6 years old. they don't want to teach those books. nobody has to find the actual definition of critical race theory. this is the talk you have. these are the histories that are ours. this is what is motivating the racial justice movement. don't let them take away what we want to pass on to the next generation. the ability to read our history and to know where the fight has to be. >> we have to leave it there. thank you so much for being with me tonight and breaking it down so well. appreciate it. >>> still ahead, democrats are finally, finally passed the infrastructure bill in the house. can

children about the history of racism in american society no offense but kids should be able to read toni morrisoning a babadook in their pants. [ laughter ] again, elections are cyclical and a lot can change but, there's no getting around the fact that things are bad for democrats right now. and they lost badly last night some of the reasons are out of their control. but one thing they very much can control is doing concrete things to improve people's lives, which would give voters a reason to keep them in power otherwise, we're going to see a lot more of this on election night in 2022. ♪ this has been "a closer look." ♪ [ cheers and applause we'll be right back with keri russell [ cheers and applause ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the ride of your life is closer than you think. for the first time ever, buy your new car, entierly from home with nissan at home. delivered direct from dealer to driveway. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ got this gorgeous italian leather bag from marshalls. it was such a deal! ♪♪ are you ready to meet the new class of subway's eat fresh refresh™? the new baja steak & jack, new all-american club™, the new ital

what do you make of the fact that there are now people who oppose things like toni morrison books andctually burning books. >> well, i will say i don't usually get into too many literary conversations with the folks at trump rallies. doesn't appear as if those books are important to these folks. not big book club groups. most of them are holding constitutions on the their body. a lot of them reference the bible. although if you push on some of the tenets of the bible you realize still probably not big book club books. so this smacks of racism and trying to control the knowledge base of their -- of our students in america. at its worst and what it probably is and what it seems to me is just the politics game over and over again. it feels like people are consistently engaged in trolling and it just doesn't stop. >> and where are you going next? >> well, we have a little piece. i can't spoil it yet. but there's some place in america where people are misinformed and they're gathering and boy, when that happens i tend to find myself there. >> you just -- you're like batman. there may be li

you've heard a republican was elected tuesday night for vowing to banish african american author toni morrison classrooms. a gop victory that didn't stop tucker carlson from fuming over critical race theory, whatever that is. >> you could say technically, tucker, it's not being taught in the sense that volumes have been written on critical race theory and it's not being handed out as a textbook, but its influence and its tenets are in those schools. >> i've never figured out what a critical race theory is, to be totally honest about it after you're talking about it. >> of course you don't, tuckums. getting high on virginia royal, rolling out their latest can't call it racist card in newly elected black lieutenant governor of black americans to reelect trump. it's the latest version of the right's tried and tired look at that black person. you see him standing right there, right? they're black, that they deployed when trump's soon to be chief of staff mark meadows physically displayed a silent black woman to prove that trump was not a racist, back when he was a congresswoman. and now this ar-15