jim crow in rejecting a voting rights challenge to arizona election laws. this is a very important ruling that has reverberating effects for the voting rights movement. were activists like stacy abrams and latasha brown, are working tirelessly to protect voting rights. the supreme court further diluted section 2 of the voting rights act, ensuring that discriminatory and re space law that the state level will continue to determine who can vote. and who can't. well, congress step up and save democracy, core element, or continue the sins of the past and allows things to restrict voting based on race . it's time we start watching the hawks. if you want to know what's going on a city and you want to rush, well let me show you what we always the roy gross, right? math grade the late they make the steps manipulate, so math, put these weapons. so hope we know you're welcome. everybody to watching the hawks. i'm myisha cross. joining me now is voting rights expert attorney and political strategist, chris bruce. glad to have you again, chris, chris. happy to be me sh

but the aftermath of today's supreme court decision in upholding arizona's voting law. it's sending shock waves across the country. civil rights leaders, activists, attorneys, and advocates like yourself are no stranger to voters oppression, laws in the fight, the ongoing fight to up in them. how does today's decision affect your work and what does it mean for voting rights for people of color? well, like you said in your opening, it hurts all of us altogether. it doesn't matter if you're black or white or any other. you're an american, this is going to make it harder for you to vote altogether. so this is one of the times that throughout history, when black people had laws put against them, they stepped up. and they found ways around it to make sure that their voices were heard and to make sure that they can actually make it to the ballot box. so this type of situation altogether will overcome it. but it really decries into what's next. what can we do? what can congress do, and what state of america will be left and chris, to that point, president biden released the st

but the aftermath of today's supreme court decision in upholding arizona's boating law. it sending shock waves across the country. civil rights leaders, activists, attorneys, and advocates like yourself are no stranger to voters oppression, laws in the fight, the ongoing fight to up in them. how does today's decision affect your work and what does it mean for voting rights for people of color? well, like you said in your opening, it hurts all of us altogether. it doesn't matter if you're black or white or any other, you're an american. this is going to make it harder for you to vote altogether. so this is one of the times that throughout history, when black people had laws put against them, they stepped up. and they found ways around it to make sure that their voices were heard. and to make sure that they can actually make it to the ballot box. so this type of situation altogether will overcome it. but it really decries into what's next. what can we do? what can congress do? and what shape of america will be left? in chris to that point, president biden released the stat

assumption that fake ones had been sent from south korea all pretty desperate, and it's not just in arizona. it now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in fulton county, georgia last november. that is not a conspiracy theory. it's true and there's another e re parallel in how the loses took it in 2016 and last year, showing that even arch enemies are alike. i've been telling candidates who have come to see me. you can run the best campaign. you can even become the nominee. and you can have the election stolen from you if you count the legal votes by easily when. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. the democrats, really enjoying, of course, looking down from their high horse, now at the in denial trump as it's as if they've never spent 4 years trying to find that on from supposed ties with russia, never flushed tens of millions of dollars down that drain never attempted to peach trump twice, none of which undid their defeat and got rid of trump. if only america could have 2 presidents. and finally, it's the annual showcase of everything e

what about the fact the viral evolution expert at oxford university, arizona category saying we have 92 percent of the bodies in this country. we now have the possibility of immune escape in terms of mutation at its highest level in britain here. obviously, scientists around the world criticizing the british government in a way, sage by inference, is now the time that we are most going to be able to expect a new british variant because of the high levels of explanation here in britain, they don't quite work that way. if you've got, if you've got very high levels of explanation in most of your population, you stop the virus and evolving in these areas because it's got less opportunity. the worst case scenario when you get partial vaccination in your community, your mailbox nation. and that's why we do need to push forward and get as much the populations actually said, i'm not sure that i quite agree with his argument and many others that don't agree with his argument. the, the concern for me is here is that the pediatric population. we probably only got about 25 percent of the populat

but it, the consequences will also not spare the region because they will be spell over of arizona spent over radicalism and extremism. and also, you know, the consequence that the region will not be able to achieve the common vision that the reason i know the find, the regional credibility trade in terms of trade. and, you know, increase prosperity when i get to the prosperity because obviously the, the predictable pessimism about afghanistan in the nature nation. mainstream media repeats itself, specially after the withdrawal of us troops. how can i get this done? go without us occupation troops anecdotally, any person that i talk to from afghanistan to say there's been massive chinese investment going on in afghanistan of infrastructure, project of mass strategic projects that hopefully will benefit the africa and people. he give us some optimism and positivity about that huge foreign investment right now. going into afghanistan. i think this is a historic turning point for not just the region because it's not just china that have outlined that spectrum initiative and it's 4 in hundre

and by the way, the supreme court said that the arizona law that was passed is constitutional. they're all constitutional. so even if they were to pass this in the us senate and it was signed by the president, that bill would be unconstitutional. you can take voting away from the states and give it to the better government jan. i will give you the last word on this. you know, governor abbot is threatening to arrest these legislatures legislators when they return, as he stated, you know, whatever bad p r a damage that has been done by this. if abbot does arrest them, does that not make them martyrs in this situation? obviously they can, they can definitely game gain ground with that. well, as i mentioned at the start of this show, there's a lot of there's a lot of, you know, theater here and everybody's kind of jockeying for position of, i don't know who's going to be the winner and who's going to be the loser. but if in fact they try to arrest 50 democratic legislators from texas, i suspect they might be perceived not as martyrs in the joan of arc, you know, methods are certain

there are more independence than democrats or republicans in arizona. so they have some leverage. this is horse trading one on one, and she's doing a very, very well, you know, steve, a wise, one of my former bosses' wise man, actually to tell me we don't want congress to get along. that is their job. when they get along the people get in trouble. so do, is that still true today? would it be better to have them a little bit more peace or this contention actually been to benefiting american people? you know, i think it's, it's time for everybody up there to have a little bit of a time out. i can't imagine any of us parents not bringing out the paddles even if it's not woke your kids anymore. there are some serious paddling that needs to go on. you know, i don't mind when they're fighting over policy, but i think the kind of the petulant, the pettiness is what really makes the american people disgusted with all of them. and there we forget petrol as policy. nancy pelosi when she dramatically ripped president trump state of the union speech. it's not something new, but i think the am

which by the way, we're finding really interesting things coming out of maricopa county in arizona, fulton county in georgia. there are still serious questions about how the elections were actually held in 2020, where they actually free and fair elections. these people had real questions, were some people do, but absolutely, i want to get to the bottom of again, donald trump, want to have more national guard. why wasn't that follow through with why did nancy pelosi not have more security? what was the f b? i rolled, if any, in january 6 and it is an attempt to frame donald trump and his support is the somehow extremist, when in fact i think there were some stupid people. but most people, honest, hardworking americans who have serious questions about how the elections were actually conducted in 2020. and it's attempt to silence them. and i have to tell you, this is shameful. what is taking place at the force of a committee? and what they're doing to what i call political prisoners right now in dc who are being held on on the finish, the pretenses on trust passing other things. i think it's

he does seem to be taking pages right out of the arizona playbook. in arizona, the republican state senate leader used her subpoena power to force the board of elections to turn over ballots. this pennsylvania state senator also runs a committee that theoretically has subpoena power. in arizona, the state senate fronted $150,000 to pay for their so-called audit. the rest of the funding for it is coming from sources that nobody involved will disclose. this pennsylvania state senator is also trying to secure funding for an audit and has sought advice from a law firm about how to go about using money from a private non-profit organization to pay for vendors, consultants and anyone else. in arizona, all the republicans involved in the so-called audit have been claiming that it's not about overturning the 2020 election. it's about restoring integrity to the state's elections. right on cue in pennsylvania, a law firm tapped by the republican state senator said in a letter that the purpose of such an audit would be to -- hope you are sitting down -- develop

it's very dangerous. >> it's not just arizona. yesterday i spoke with michigan attorney general about the impact of the big lie on her state. let's take a listen to what she had to say about that. >> i don't know how we're ever going to get back on course after what we seen in our state. i don't know how we'll get to a point where the average voter in the state of michigan will ever believe what we know to be true, which is our elections are safe, secure and accurate. >> that's pretty stunning. how concerned are you for the same affect in arizona? >> it is vr stunning. i do have concerns but the fact of the majority of arizona voters across the board, not necessarily in one particular party but most voters do have faith in the election systems and the security and fairness of our elections and they also don't support what's going on here with this fake audit. they see it for the sham that it is and they honestly tired of this partisan games. that is a big part of the reason i'm running for governor to get to work on real issues fo

in phoenix, arizona. this is thursday last week, it was 112 degrees in phoenix that day. ♪ can't take it no more ♪ ♪ we're fired up ♪ ♪ we're fired up ♪ ♪ can't take it no more ♪ >> fired up, can't take it no more. 112 degrees that day in phoenix. not counting the radiant heat off the tarmac there. that was outside the office of arizona's republican attorney general, mark burn avich. those folks were protesting outside his office because of his role in promoting and defending new voting rights restrictions in arizona, including all the way up to the united states supreme court. also, arizona's new rules about how the state's elections will be conducted in the future, new rules explicitly designed to make sure officials from the democratic party can't play a top role in election administration in arizona anymore, only republicans will be allowed to do that from here on out. of those folks protesting outside attorney general's office in arizona, nine were arrested. it wasn't -- they weren't

today, arizona republicans who are doing their so-called audit in arizona, they gave a briefing on their progress. only two republican senators were there, but they tried to call it a hearing. this was -- this audit that they're doing in arizona, they launched it in april. they said it would take three weeks. it's, of course, now mid-july, and they're still going strong. they made clear today that they're definitely finding all of the fraud they have been fantasizing about, but it's definitely going to take lots more investigation, lots more materials, probably lots more donations from trump supporters nationwide. it looks like they will subpoena more stuff from the county, maricopa county, where they got all these ballots from. the way they were talking about it today, it sounds like they think they have weeks to go, maybe months still to go. it's such a big complex investigation. there's no sign actually that there was anything wrong with the presidential vote in arizona. nothing. there's no sign that there was anything wrong with it. at all. and i'm saying that not just like, because

i think a lot of people were very excited to see that arizona helped push joe biden over, but arizona is not a blue state. it is won by the thinnest of margins and some recent polling i have seen shows that many republicans there, and many voters in arizona, they would vote for joe biden again if he was running against trump, but if he was running against another republican, he would be in a tight race. talk about some of the voter suppression laws that have been passed by republicans in the state that they're hoping will play into being able to send that state back to the republican column in 2024. >> well, i think what we have seen since the election by folks who are not happy about the outcome is an orchestrated effort to continue to undermine the integrity of elections, continue to sow doubt in confidence and to make it harder for those voters to vote. and simply because they don't like the outcome of the election. and so, you know, this is really unfortunate. it's why i have continued to stand up for the process that we oversaw in 2020, which was free and fair, and the results we

so, this is damaging in many ways to arizona. and it is unfortunate that the folks running the show continue to try to drag it out for their political goals. >> well would you advise the house oversight committee in washington in their investigation of this, what you call me fraudit? what should they be looking for and asking about? >> i think all the things that they highlighted in their letter it all of the right points. and the points that we have been making for months about all the problems associated with this exercise. i welcome their voices and their intervention into this fight. quite frankly, our offices here concerns from voters every single day over this exercise. and they are tired of these partisan games. that is why i am running for governor to get to work on real issues and problems that we have here in arizona. not rehashing the 2020 election. and folks can join me in that katie hobbs.org. >> let me ask you about that. your secretary of state, now. you are directly involved in elections election security. wouldn'

arizona has changed. we've gone from a deep red state to a now more blue state. some people call it purple. i'm optimistic. i see it blue. and we're not going to do anything different. we're going to continue to engage the voters and know -- and have them know their rights. because at the end of the day that's what it's going to be about. them knowing their rights and making sure they come out and vote. >> i mean, going door to door is not easy when it's 110 there in phoenix. but let's talk on the federal level here, i mean, a lot of people are saying the only thing that can happen now is getting the john lewis voting rights advancement act passed. that can really only happen if there's a filibuster. is that something you support? >> well, look, here in arizona we are sending a message that we need every single option on the table because this is the fight of our lifetime. the for the people act and the john lewis act are extremely important to protect democracy as we know it. so we're asking our senators to make sure to keep every single option on the table. and

the arizona republic reports tonight that one of the republican state senators in arizona who's been promoting the audit thing in arizona all along, he's now selling t-shirts promoting his cause. the cost of his t-shirts, it's a sliding scale by size. they're $35 to $45 for a t-shirt. wow, order yours today. it's $35 for a small or $45 for a double extra large, which frankly just seems rude. "the washington post" reports tonight former president trump seems to have found a tidy path through the wreckage to pay his living expenses via this nonsense he continues to stoke. the headline in "the post" tonight, quote trump's pac collected $75 million this year, but so far the group has not put money into pushing the ballot he touts. it raised about $75 million the first half of this year as he trumpeted the false notion the 2020 election was stolen from him. but the pac has not devoted funds to help finance or push for similar endeavors in other states according to people familiar with the finances. instead the save america leadership pac, which has few limits on how it can spend its money

that's apparently unique to arizona. and so they're asking now the people running it are saying, oh, we don't have enough time to finish, we need more time, and we need more information. they were handed all of the ballots. what more information could they possibly want? >> well, i think they're trying to make it look like maricopa county has not been cooperative with them, which is absolutely not the case. they're trying to make it look like there are potentially incomplete results because of this. but the bottom line is they're just continuing to try to drag this out so that they can continue to sow doubts all the way into the 2022 and 2024 elections. >> arizona secretary of state katie hobbs, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >>> we're joined now by colorado's secretary of state, jena griswold, the chair of the democratic association of secretaries of state. secretary griswold, this case in your state in colorado, federal judges handling saying not one iota of evidence of any kind of election f

maricopa county, arizona. the one being run by the cyber ninjas' guy, who is a qanon stop the steal conspiracy theorist. where they have been running through ballots. they have been taking the the ballots and running them under ultra violet light looking for bamboo fibers because maybe the ballots were secretly sent to america from east asia. today, the guy who's been overseeing the audit for the arizona republicans quit. after being locked out. i'm -- that's not a -- i mean, he was actually, physically, locked out of the building where the audit has been taking place. well, that was this morning. he quit. and then, later today, he unquit. so, that's going well. the whole arizona audit circus was supposed to last a few weeks. we are now four months in. the arizona senate republicans, just this week, sent a whole new batch of subpoenas to maricopa county for more stuff that they want to look at. they are just going to keep on looking. this thing is going to go on forever, so that donald trump and his allies can

did you see any of bearing on that outside of arizona? >> sure but there are two ways to attack these voting lieus. one is the statute, which is the voting rights act. the second is the constitutional treatment, equal treatment, equal process, not discriminating. if you look at, for example, the justice department's recent lawsuit in georgia it makes both statutory and constitutional claims. there are still parts of section two. of course, a lot of these will be fact-bound questions in these state laws. so, you know, it certainly is not good news for the people who are challenging these statute, but it's not the end of the road. >> natasha, your reaction this morning? >> it's very disturbing, disappointing. the bottom line is we're seeing the voting rights act that was passed because people had to actually force it to get passed in 1965. so the two provisions that give teeth to the voting rights act were section 5 and section 2. section 2 is the premise in which in what we're seeing right now that the doj is going to sue georgia. what is

voters in arizona are tired of this. they want real leadership. and they want folks that are going to tackle real problems. rehashing the 2020 election is not one of them. >> secretary hobbs, it's easy for people to watch what is happening in arizona or watch what is happening in texas or watch what is happening in georgia and say, that's just arizona, that's just texas, that's just georgia. i don't live in any of these three states. can you talk to me a little bit about how all of these threats weave together and the way in which they challenge not just democracy in the state of arizona, but democracy writ large. >> absolutely. we've been having conversations secretaries of state and other election officials across the country who are concerned about this fake audit in maricopa county. we've seen legislators from other states come and tour and try to bring this kind of thing to their state, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, georgia. there's a lot of concern about this. the goal here is not to validate the 2020 election results, to continue to so

it is in full swing in arizona. we are expecting them to announce their supposedly scandalous results sometime soon. republicans even now are moving to also do it in wisconsin, also in pennsylvania, also in georgia. even also in oklahoma where trump won by more than 30 points, but still there must have been democratic fraud. in his remarks today, president biden then turned to what voting rights advocates are desperate to hear from him. a full-throated unreserved call to act, to protect voting rights nationally in washington, which is the only way to stop the state-by-state devastating attacks on voting rights that republicans are now pursuing across the country. watch. >> last month republicans opposed even dab debating, even considering the people's act. senate democrats stood united it to protect our democracy and the sanctity of the vote. we must pass the for the people act. it's a national imperative. we must also fight for the john lewis voting rights advancement act to restore and expand -- [ cheers and appla

joining us is arizona secretary of state katie hobbs, also a candidate for governor in arizona. madam secretary, first, is there no recourse to regain possession of these ballots so that they're not moved again and potentially tampered with? >> well, the recourse would be between the maricopa county and the senate, who has ordered this audit. but, really, you know, this is exactly why we have been fighting against this from the get-go. these are not experts. they're making this up as they go along. it is not a real audit. they don't know what they're doing and they're not taking their role right now as custodian of these ballots and equipment seriously. that's very clear from everything we've seen. >> and, in fact, your ability to do your job is being hampered by -- i want to read from the npr reporting on this. arizona republicans stripped some election power from democratic secretary of state, arizona republicans have stripped the secretary of state's office, currently held by a democrat, of the right to defend the state's election laws in court or choose not to. the change en

arizona's electoral votes. that's because we've seen a big surge in latino voters, mefrm voters and native american voters for the first time in a long time, not just registering but turning out to vote. they've made it harder for folks because they lost the last election. instead of playing by the rules which they lost by, they're trying to make it harder for communities of color. the decision by the u.s. supreme court was disappointing but not surprising because what we see with the conservative majority in the supreme court is an attempt to slowly make it harder for communities of color, rural americans, rural arizonaans to have access to the ballot box. it is disappointing but not surprising. we have heard next year that the republican colleagues in the legislature will be introducing some of the more onerous restrictions and ways to make it harder for people to access the ballot box. it will be a full-on war not just this year but next year when we go back to legislative session in january. >> you saw demo

he found rental listings in arizona. brett schrauben was moving out of the state, would be gone before the wiretap ruling took effect. and in arizona, a california warrant was worthless. >> this completely took all that work, and we're talking probably six months of work, and just threw it out the window. >> reporter: the killers had slipped the trap. game over. >>> but the detective was not giving up. his team built a new and better mousetrap. and guess who took the bait? coming up -- >> hey, dude, it's me. you need to [ bleep ] call me asap. . >> when "dateline" continues. >>> continues >> what can i du with less asthma? with dupixent, i can du more....beginners' yoga. namaste... ...surprise parties. aww, you guys. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... ...for 3!... ...so i can du more of the things i love. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce

this is not new in arizona, either. i mean, we have seen accusations, false accusations in a lot of different places for a while. the reality is that, as we continue to improve our systems and protect the voters of arizona, and expand the way that people vote, the access they have, some people will be afraid of what's happen. it's the fear in the far right, the fear in some extremists, that fear is manifesting into this willingness to believe just about anything for comfort. it's too bad, because americans, particularly arizonaarizonaens, not a fearful bunch. most of what has been spouted out is just not true, and it's unfortunate. >> you used your twitter feed to stay away from the rally yesterday, but as you are campaigning around the state, you're talking to people who still choose to follow trump. do you discover they have genuine concerns? or are they more part of this trumpian fan base? >> there's genuine concerns. donald trump was the president of the united states for a kermit. >> a lot of the interactions i've

in arizona -- this mess in arizona has been one county. this inquisition in arizona and the cyber ninjas, it was supposed to be done in may. now it's june. now it's july. it was going to be done last thursday. now we think we'll take it to august. we've been enjoying ourselves. in arizona that was one county and it's been going on since april. in pennsylvania they are starting with these demands to three counties, including zo philadelphia. and then say after that initial response, they'll make the same demands of more counties. maybe they'll be able to keep theirs going on for years. there is no split screen. there are two different worlds. there is a party that is trying to use electoral politics and the democratic process to make policy about problems that the country faces. there is another party that is trying to end the use of electoral politics as an objective way of deciding who has power and how questions get resolved in our country. the two parties are engaged right now in fundamentally different projects. one of them is engaged

let me put up some of the arizona's great reporting from over the holiday. arizona republican chair kelly ward's pressure campaign with hickman, the gop official who refused to pick up trump's call, began in earnest on november 7th as votes were still being counted. ward complained election observers were unable to see. after hickman pressed for specifics ward responded, quote, we need you to stop the counting. days later on november 13th, she wrote, we want you guys to do the right thing, prove to millions of arizona voters that the maricopa vote is legit. don't try to simply tell us that the recorder and elections department say it's fine. prove it to arizona and to america. you have all the power you need to make it happen. the pressure campaign is clearly coming from the ex-president. i think he bragged about it. i think he flew some of the officials from michigan in, and it really does sort of undergird the point that save for a handful of local election officials, a lot of them republicans, we could have had a very different outcome in november. >> yea