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

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

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

it's still in full swing in arizona. we're 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 anyway by almost 30 points but they're also must of been democratic fraud. and his remarks today, president biden turned toward voting rights advocates have been getting desperate to hear from him. a full-throated call to acts and 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 not pursuing all across the country. watch. >> last month, republicans opposed even debating, even considering the for the peoples act. they stand united to protect the sanctity of the vote. we must pass before the people act. it's a national imperative. we must also fight the john lewis voting rights advancement act to restore and expand. restore and expand voting and prevent voter suppre

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

the degree to which there are a few courageous republicans of her november 3rd in arizona, in georgia -- they're all being attacked, and getting very little support from other republicans around the country. so the problem with -- some of the republicans, i don't know how many i believe the big lie, but others are ready to sign up to. it >> robert how will -- republicans casually believe that there is some voter fraud in the country that needs to be dealt with but the don't share the view that joe biden didn't win the election. what's a way to make this a more partisan left hurt? because at the state level, and this is getting out of control. >> i think you're going to have to see this happen really at the dnc level, at the political level. i think you saw this happen earlier in the week with vice president harris. we announcing a renewed effort at a democratic national committee to take this on as an issue, to think about how to eventually register more voters, how to fight voter suppression, how to get back into the court system. i think the challenge that you heard from bill and ot

a similar criminal investigation might be underway tonight in arizona. if only lifelong republican had decided to answer his phone. the arizona republican reports then president donald trump try to speak directly with the chair of the maricopa county board of supervisors in the weeks after the november 2020 election as his allies sought to change the election results in a state he narrowly lost to democrat joe biden. donald trump called lifelong republican clinic man twice, they're a white house operator. it's reported his phone rang 8:30 pm on new year's eve, while he was on a date with his wife and friends in north central phoenix. he didn't recognize the number of carrying washington d.c.'s area code and let me go to voice mail. hickman quickly listen to the message. white house switchboard wanted him to call back so he could talk to the president, he recalled in an interview with the arizona republic. hickman did not return the call and later deleted that voice mail, he said. three days later, news broke of trump's january 2nd phone call with georgia

joining me is arizona congressman ruben. congressman, donald trump praising the arizona state senate for its audit of the election in maricopa county. >> i think the result will be so outrageous. you have already seen some of them come that they will go many steps further. is every one here fully understands the 2020 election was a total disgrace. it was the most corrupt. >> i'm curious what surprises you more. that is he is still singing his same old tired song or that the crowd is cheering so much? what kind of message is it all sending? >> the message is number one, donald trump is a loser. he's a sore loser. you have to be a pretty bad politician in order for you to lose as an incumbent president and he's not accepting that. unfortunately, i think his cult following is still dealing with that. secondly, it tells you this republican party is not a party of ideas. it's now a person, a cult of personality. they are just going to follow his lies all the way until the end. it's not working. last night, if anything, he lost mo

when he lost arizona. but, you know, we're pretty hard-nosed scrupulous reporters and we're not won over that easily. we will see what he thinks of this book. he doesn't seem to like it so far. >> yeah, i don't doubt that. i want to play some sound of the president talking about the 2020 election. >> there's tremendous proof, there's tremendous proof. statistically it wasn't even possible that he won. i mean, things such as if you win florida and ohio and iowa, there's never been a loss. >> there was a loss. >> and did you need better lawyers because they took it to court but they didn't give enough evidence to convince the judges. >> no, i needed better judges. i needed better judges. the supreme court was aggrade to take it. >> and it is -- he brings up the supreme court, right, having so many of his own appointees on the supreme court. >> yes. >> he actually thinks these supreme court judges are his judges, right, his attorney general, they advocate for him, when, in fact, that is not their job. >> that

. >> recount continues in arizona, remarkable thing. pennsylvania trying to do something similar. texas legislature looking at everything that worked in last election and deciding to make it illegal. there are state leaders, civil rights leaders went to the white house to plead with the president and vice president for leadership on the federal level. appears on tuesday in philadelphia joe biden is going to say something about voting rights in america. what can he say, what can he do? >> he can do is say things. essentially all the power he has. that's exactly what those civil rights leaders said to him yesterday. wanted to hear him use his bully pulpit more than he has. tasked vice president kamala harris -- she asked to lead on voting rights, but when it comes to legislation, it's over and dead. that's what happened with not allowing debate, republican blocking debate on the for the people act, democracy reform. john lewis advancement act hasn't even really been written in the house or senate. so there's not a lot of legislative push. civil rights leaders spoke with him for hour

republican congressman paul gosar of arizona, a member of congress who should be far more famous than he is. he writes, it is unjust to sweep ashli's death under the rug. her life mattered. we do not allow the execution of citizens by street justice in our country. babbitt is the 35-year-old woman who attempted to charge into the speaker's lobby where members of congress were present at that moment on january 6th with a violent mob breaking down windows, braying for blood at her back. when rioters broke the windows of these doors right there leading to the lobby, which is right outside the house chamber, ashli babbitt and her alone vaulted through, the first one to go through, though there was a gun drawn and a warning, and she was shot and killed by a capitol officer that you see there on the other side. her death is obviously a horrible tragedy. it never should have happened. she never should have been there. she never should have been in that position. the key question is not who killed her but who is truly culpable for her death and the deaths of three other trump supporters that

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

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

what is happening in arizona, the fake audit is mad, it's ridiculous, local election officials in arizona have slammed it. are republicans in pennsylvania really going to copy arizona and do the same? >> they're trying to do that here in pennsylvania. and my colleagues in the senate democratic caucus are taking every step that we can to prevent them from continuing to put on this charade. we're fighting hard to make certain that our colleague, senator mastriano, doesn't get the opportunity to do audits. we're working closely with the attorney general and the governor's administration to prevent him from being able to conduct one of these audits. he doesn't have the authority because of a chairmanship of a seldom-used committee, certainly not used for this purpose, to conduct audits along these lines. we think it's the wrong thing to do, obviously, and we're going to continue to fight it. >> is joe biden, is the democratic president of the united states, your party leader, is the federal government, doing enough to help democrats like yourself in swing states like pennsylvania where republ

aywhat's happening in arizona were the fixed audit is taking place? officials and arizona slammed. it are republicans in pennsylvania going to copy arizona and do the same? >> they're trying to do that in pennsylvania and my colleagues in the caucus are taking every step we can to prevent them from continuing to put on this charade. we are fighting hard, to make certain our colleagues, senator mastery on who's the leader of this group doesn't get the opportunity to do audits and we are working closely with our department and state as well as our attorney general, the governor's administration to prevent it from being able to conduct one of these audits. it doesn't have the authority. they sell the news committee, was not used for this purpose. to conduct audits along those lines. we simply think it's the wrong thing to do and we will continue to fight it. >> is joe biden, is a democratic president of the united states, your party leader, the federal government doing enough to help democrats like yourself in swing states like pennsylvania where republicans are in the majority in the

here we are in arizona. we know that right now they're seeing daily case totals that they haven't seen since february. in maricopa county, the most populous county in arizona, they're seeing a seven day average that they haven't seen since february. the positivity rate recently was around 5%. now it's around 11%. icu beds are filling up again. the governor is imploring residents to get the vaccine. he said he got it himself. but he is also taking a slew of executive actions here that some say is kind of an opposition to what they're trying to do to curb the pandemic here including preventing k-12 schools from -- rather recinding an order an executive order that required k-12 schools to require masks. preventing state colleges and universities from requiring vaccines. preventing states and municipalities from requiring vaccines. it is frustrating for the doctors. an e.r. physician i spoke to here says we have this tool in our tool kit. yet there is a plateau of vaccinations. he said everybody anecdotally that

it's not even popular amongst republicans in arizona. however, there's something nefarious here but they are asking for ballots and equipment to be handed over audit style. that's what caused the department to say you are endangering the sanctity of the process. once you start handing ballots around to other people, particularly nongovernmental people and ballot machines, you've now tainted the process. so you've thrown doubt into the system and then you've mucked up the machines. now no one will ever get a real answer. that audit in maricopa county will never, ever end because they just keep shuffling the same ballots around. >> sure. thankfully in pennsylvania that's never going to happen because the counties in question have already said no. our department of state here in pennsylvania has already shut that down. there's no path for this audit to continue. this is just carnival barking at its lowest, and they're going to continue to try to do this because that's all they have to run on. but i just want people to understand, like i sai

what are these new revelations from arizona contributed i think about that? >> thank you be with you. happy anniversary, i guess we would say. this is just a crazy moment in american history. we've gone through a storming of the capital. we've gone through an attempt to overturn the results of an election led by the president, and yet we have one political party that is not only in denial but there's also in a position that in order to show fidelity to the parties leader, donald trump, you have to mimic the lie that the election was stolen and you have to push legislation and other rules that are going to make it easier to mess with votes next time. i'm really concerned. and it's really hard to explain. this is different from the concerns about gerrymandering that we talk about all the time. this is worse than voter suppression. where states pass laws that they can't give voters water. this is really about something so basic to a democracy that the vote is going to be fairly counted. you put together what happened in arizona with what happened in georgia, wit

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

no votes in arizona were counted twice. yet republicans in other states are pushing for similar ninja-style propaganda audits. it's not about fraud. it's about democratic votes. let's look at texas. republican state representative steve toath has been calling for an audit of larger counties that went for biden. asked if he was going for smaller counties? he said what's the point? all the small counties are red. all the small counties are red. not even hiding the agenda behind this anti-democratic push. it's an attempt at suppressing votes purely because those are not republican votes and because a lot of them are cast by people who are not white. just because you live in a democratic district or state doesn't mean this doesn't affect you, if this affects one of us in this nation, it affects all of us. if you have never had a problem like i never had a problem, that's great. that should be the way it is for all americans. that's what democracy is about. as long as there are barriers preventing people from voting with ease, w

cal perry is live at the arizona/nevada state line at the nation's largest reservoir. this reservoir provides water and power to the entire region. you're at lake meade. it is at the lowest levels since the 1930s. >> reporter: this is a climate change story that i can visually show you, put it to you another way, about 20 years ago i would be 100 feet under water. they call it the bathtub rings and i'll show you what we've lost in 20 years. 140 feet. that is 5 trillion gallons of water that would be headed to arizona, into nevada, into california. we're talking about ranchers, we're talking about the way that we live. it is obviously a climate change story, but it's an allocation story. this lake is, quote, over-allocated. take a look at what the state's climate coordinator had to say. >> climate change has upset the supply and demand balance that otherwise would keep the lake full. the way this is happening is when the atmosphere warms, it holds more water. so you're essentially sucking the -- the air is essentially sucking the landscape dry, it's drying out our plant

the arizona county election officials have identified fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud. this isn't exactly voter fraud. this is out of three million ballots. some were republican cast votes. what can the federal government do at this point? >> every avenue we have within the court system is being systemically taken away from us. everything that we could have done legislatively is being taken away from us. now we're having to depend on the federal government, at this point in time, for states like arizona, texas, wisconsin, georgia, all of these places where these republican legislatures are passing some draconian election laws. we're having to depend on congress to come by and say let's take a look at what's really going on here. i hope our attorney general investigates because donald trump was calling our senate leaders just before this thing happened. >> greg abbott is trying to usher through conservative pipe dream with not om banning 24 hour voting but trying to expand or limit abortion rights and anti-trans laws. it's really scary here. it cast a wide dark shadow ov

"an audit of nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in arizona in the 2020 election. we are concerned about your company's role in this highly unusual effort given cyber ninjas' apparent lack of experience in conducting audis, reports the company engaged in sloppy and insecure practices that compromised the integrity of ballots and voting equipment and were questioned by the u.s. justice department. and evidence that you and aol individuals funding the audit have sought to advance the big lie of debunked voter fraud allegations about the 2020 presidential election. americans' right to vote is aootected by the constitution. it is the cornerstone of our democratic system of government. the committee seeks to determine whether the privately funded audit conducted by your company in arizona protects the right t vote or is instead an effort to promote baseless conspiracy theories, undermine confidence i in america's elections, and reverse the results of a free and fair election for partisan gain." what do you really mean? the so-called audit in arizona in which the republi

from arizona to missouri to nebraska to georgia. i mean we could tell -- to texas. we see this happening. it is a concerted effort. it is an all-out effort on the part of the republican party. i think what you have been saying over the course of these many weeks, nikole, you have been sounding the alarm, you have been trying to tell folk that we are in serious danger, that democracy is in serious danger. i think it is time for president biden to go on the offensive. i think he needs to give a speech about not the state of the union but the state of american democracy from the oval office, to set the terms of the debate, to bring the fight to these people, because the stakes are that high. we keep seeing democrats on their heels while republicans are attacking at every front, on every front. it seems to me, given what we have described, what you have described, what we know, democrats have to go aggressive, and if they don't we need to start asking questions why. >> okay. i want to throw out everything i was going to ask you guys. let's talk about this. what does tha

states are gaining momentum following the recent supreme court ruling that upheld new election laws in arizona and the success of senate republicans in blocking federal voting rights legislation. now leaders of national civil rights groups are stepping up pressure on the white house. late today, they met president biden and vice president harris in a private session to lay out what they plan to do to safeguard the right to vote. >> democracy is under vigorous, vicious, and sinister attack, beginning with the events of january 6th at the capitol and cascading like a tsunami through state legislatures across the nation. >> we are going to build a movement around this country to resist that, what is clearly a move to try to disenfranchise people of color from voting, the methodical way this has been laid out in the state legislatures and at their state legislation is geared toward robbing us of the vote. the movement from the ground up is starting to be the only way that we can preserve our right to vote. we informed them that this is going to come not from the white house down, but from our hous

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. 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 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 in the political cogitation around solving problems. the other one is engaged in cogitation about ending democra

arizona call and just say he won. to step into the east room and deliver a victory speech. never mind that meadows had earlier snapped at giuliani and said the president couldn't just declare himself the winner. just go declare victory right now, giuliani told trump. you've got to go declare victory now. giuliani's interjections of his just say you won strategy infuriated trump's campaign advisers. it's hard to be the responsible parent when there is a cool uncle around taking the kid to the movies, and driving him around in a corvette. one of these advisers were called, that's sort of a metaphor there and carol lenig and phil rucker will be our guests about this week next week. willie, though, my god, i mean, i really was actually quite moved by joe biden's speech because that's where we are because of moments like that, and millions of americans, according to liz cheney and many others, have been misled about what happened. >> and you can see again in carol and phil's book which we can't wait to read and talk to the

just last week, it was a legal challenge to arizona voting restrictions. the supreme court seemed to credit the idea that there was a true threat of voter fraud that needed to be addressed by the states and that could take steps through more restrictive laws to address claims of voter fraud. even at the highest echelons of the courts, we are seeing this big lie is in fact becoming embedded as a big fact. that's fueling more and more legislation, and more restrictive legislation that will make it harder for voters to go to the polls and vote. >> jonathan, let's talk about border rights and the civil rights group that met with the president today and the vice president. they're making it clear, you heard reverend al say they are starting a movement from the ground up to stop the erosion of voting rights. p to stop the erosio of voting rights what impact does not have? the fact a civil rights leaders, most of whom are allied with the white house in the first place, what difference does it make that they went there and sat with the president and the vice presi

and arizona, this mess in arizona has been one county. this inquisition in arizona and the cyber ninjas and the stuff that started in april was supposed to be done in may announced june, july, and supposed to be done last thursday but now it might be august and we're just enjoying ourselves. it's been one county, and it's been going on since april. and pennsylvania, they are starting with these demands to three counties including philadelphia. and then they say, after that initial response, they will make the same demands of more counties. so hey, maybe they'll be able to keep their is 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 the problems of the country faces. there is another party that is trying to and 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 politics.

the so-called, audit, and arizona in which republicans in the state legislature labeled the script cyber ninjas, which appears to be this guy dug, -- we it's lived for months now at this intersection of clown show ridiculousness, and actual consequential threat to american democracy. because the whole thing is aimed at, essentially, undoing the presidential u.s. result in the state. they are, thereby, undermining americans faith and the credibility in the finality of our election results. but now, based on this letter released by the oversight committee tonight sent to that ups store in florida, we know this fake audit is the subject of a new congressional investigation. the oversight committee wants to know about all the weird stuff that doug logan has been doing to the arizona ballots, like shining ultraviolet light on them, or searching for a bamboo content in the ballots, because there's a conspiracy theory that the ballots were mailed in from asia. and they were overseen by joe gun and his own social media posts about it being rigged against donald trump and trump must have gotten 2

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

in arizona and florida they'll be kicking people off the absentee voting list, in arizona, iowa, florida kentucky utah they'll be expanding voter purges, kicking people off the voter rolls entirely. in florida, arkansas, new hampshire in wyoming there is harsher, stricter narrow voter i.d. requirements. and yes, in florida and georgia they're banning water or any food or snacks for anyone in line no matter how long the line gets, no matter how hot it is that the, no matter how old the waiting voter is. 18 different states, 30 different voter restrictions law and counting, those are past, those are laws. and the effort to find a way to stop it, to try to put a floor under voting rights nationwide so no state can restrict voting rights below that nationwide floor to hold them up, that fight still hinges on the for the people act, which has passed the house and it's stuck in the senate, is still stuck in the senate because of uniform republican opposition to it and the hope the republicans are getting in that effort from democratic senator joe manchin. as we've been reporting for the past c

most notably, the preposterous brought it going on in arizona. all of that propaganda has had the intended effect on his target populous. 86% of republicans see by mail increases voter fraud. 79% are not confident in the national vote count. perhaps most alarming is the number at the bottom. 46% of republicans that think state legislatures should override their states popular vote. today, we have an actual example in the news of a colossal election administration screw up in the bluest of blue areas. in the democratic primary in the very democratic city of new york city, involving the mayoral race. you should know, the board of elections in new york city which oversees elections, is one of the most notoriously incompetent election administration units in the country. in 2013, the city's department of investigation released a 72-page report on the board of elections detailing incompetence and misconduct. in 2016, in the midst of the democratic presidential primary between hillary clinton and bernie sanders, a member of the board mistakenly removed

and if you read the voting rights opinion about the arizona case which was after the fact under section 2, maybe there are some small changes that are not driven by animus. but the entire point of having that bureaucracy in place to check it was so that we don't have to have these fights. now that's gone, we do have to have these fights and i don't think republicans want us to stop having them. >> one important thing to remember about the arizona voting restriction laws that were upheld by the supreme court is that arizona admitted that the reason why they were doing this was to influence the election. they admitted that these restrictions disproportionately affected people of color. the supreme court admitted that these restrictions disproportionately affected people of color, and they all said that's fine. and why did they say, that's fine? because they can't win if they let everybody vote. this is the -- the thing that people have to get about voting rights is that this is actually an existential crisis for the republican party because if everybody votes, the republicans can't win. t

i've been talking about arizona and pennsylvania. but you know this well. this kind of nonsense is actually going on in michigan as well. >> it most unfortunately is. our legislature has been considering legislation for the last few months. there's been efforts to have similar activities to what's going on in arizona. they have not been successful to date. those efforts have been unsuccessful. there has been no evidence of any kind of conspiracy or falsehood. there are definitively just by many of the other states trying to make it harder in this state. i fear that they may be successful before it ends. >> i get the motivations are sinister, the problem i'm seeing is i'm talking to republicans, mainstream normal republicans who i don't think are subject to conspiracy theories who say the goal here is to make voting safer and more accessible. it's the language the arizona republicans are using, it's the language that the law firm representing pennsylvania republicans are using, that this is men to improve and make voting more robust. in michigan, you have a

manchin and sinema, our reporting here at nbc news is that some of the lawmakers considered going to arizona and west virginia to put pressure specifically on the senators but chose not to do that, given the leadership the gubernatorial leadership in the states, they were concerned they might be hauled back to texas. reverend, thank you so much, and mike memoli and sahil kapur as well. we'll be all over this throughout the morning. we have a lawmaker live from texas who will be joining us a little bit later on in the show, we're also going to be watching that news conference, bring you headlines as we get them. >>> elsewhere on the hill, you have democrats revealing this new nearly $4 billion package to strengthen security there in the wake of the january 6th attack. senator patrick leahy, the lawmaker behind that and chair of the appropriations committee is joining us live coming up. >>> and the fda out with a new warning connected to the j&j vaccine. next what you need to know. ice. business was steady, until... gogo-foodco. go check it out. whaatt?! overnight, users tripled. which meant h

as said in the california or the arizona case, she said the voting rights act is the best of america, but in some respects, the need for the voting rights act is the worst in america. and we have no option but to keep fighting. that's what john lewis said. keep your eye on the prize. the prize is an america that lives out the promise of equality, which of course is most important in terms of access to the ballot. the access to having a voice in our democracy. and we're going to keep fighting. and you know, i have said publicly over and over again, we need to get rid of the filibuster. the filibuster is undemocratic. it thwarts the will of the majority of the people in the united states of america. it is a rule that the founders did not contemplate. not as if the founders didn't contemplate in some instances having a necessity for an overwhelming vote, a extraordinary majority. they did so with a veto override. they did so with treaties. they did so with a conviction of the president on impeachment, and they did so for many of the constitution. they knew there were certain times when t

audits, recounts that were conducted in arizona, wisconsin, georgia it was recounted three times. it is clear, for those who challenge the results and questioned the integrity of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny, such high standards. the big lie is just that, a big lie. [applause] >> >> the president repeatedly focus on what he called elections subversion. the most dangerous threat to the integrity of our elections in our history. >> it's not about who gets to vote, or making it easier for voters to vote. it's about who gets to count the vote. who gets to count whether or not your vote counted at all. it is about moving from independent election administrators, who work for the people, to polarize state legislatures and partisan actors who work for political parties. to me, this is simple. this is election subversion. it is the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history. >> leading off our discussion tonight are texas state legislature alex dominguez and julie johnson, both attended the meeting w

can it be stopped or are you the next arizona? >> will be stopped. examine my track record of stopping efforts to try and disenfranchise our black and brown communities in pennsylvania. one insurrectionist state senator enabled by modern day republican party beholden to donald trump who is demanding the private voting information of 997,000 pennsylvanians. if he were able to pull off the audit would cost the taxpayers of those counties over $30 million. taking advantage of the taxpayers to the tune of $30 million and compromising their personal information. he will not get away with it. >> what scares a lot of us out here in the world is each of the states where republican insurrectionists are trying to mess with the faith in the last election and essentially put in place the tools to steal the next election, it all depends on everybody having enough people in the state willing to fight and in position to fight. in arizona they've disempowered the top elections official to make it harder for her to fight it. governor there was a kissup to trump as we

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

then our conservative supreme court ruled this week that arizona's voter restriction laws do not violate section two of the voting rights act, a nasty precedent at a crucial time. it is why i as president of national action network will be marching in washington next month with martin luther king iii and others, but it is also why the justice department is now suing georgia and vice president harris is leading the white house response on voting rights, because if neither congress or our supreme court can help, it seems the executive response is all that's left, at least for now. your response to what cards that the democrats have left to play on this issue, congressman? >> well, reverend, you and i have both walked across the edmond pettis bridge with john lewis, commemorating bloody sunday, march 7th, 1965, and the subsequent signing just months later of the voting rights act. as kagan said in her dissent in the california case, i believe, or the arizona case, she said the voting rights act is the best of america, but in some respects the need for the voting rights act is the worst in a

his appearance comes as arizona presses ahead with his republican-led audit of maricopa county ballots from the 2020 election. >>> on capitol hill the january 6th house select committee is getting set to hold its first hearing on tuesday. it comes after house speaker nancy pelosi fired back at minority leader kevin mccarthy, for pulling his five appointments, a move he made in response to pelosi blocking two of the picks. now the speaker is deciding whether to administrator am kinzinger. and joining me, sahil from the capitol. what are you hearing on the hill and do democrats want more republicans on this committee? >> reporter: alex, some democrats appear intrigued by the prospect of one republican in particular, adam kinzinger, the congressman from illinois, apart from liz cheney, who is already on the committee. he is the only other republican who voted to create it. benny thompson, the chair of the committee, called mr. kinzinger a fine representative and the type of person who would be good for this committee. speaker pelosi a couple of days ago joked that everyone else seems to t