then came this challenge to arizona's supreme court. the law requires election officials to throw away ballots cast at the wrong precinct. you have two voting areas, two places to vote, you go to the wrong one, vote there, woops, it gets thrown out. it makes it a crime for anyone to collect and deliver ballots to polling places other than family members. we know this had a disparate impact. they found tossing ballots cast in the wrong precinct has the effect of undercounting minority votes by a factor of 2 to 1. allowing someone else to drop off a ballot is particularly important for indigenous communities in arizona. today the supreme court's conservative majority said all of that stuff is fine. i could give you the legal reasoning but here's the real reasoning. they and all other parts of the right are working in tandem against america's multi-racial democracy. now donald trump's version of that is more vulgar, cringe inducing whipping up a mob to go beat up cops and chant hang mike pence and storm the capitol and go marauding to find

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

the expected something like what we saw in the case in arizona. first, your reaction to the actual holding here by the court. >> i would be lying if i said that i was surprised by the outcome. i will say however i was surprised by the audacity. i think justice kagan got it right when she said that the majority re-wrote a statute that has been a monument to american greatness. i was listening to your opening chris, you really cannot begin to talk about this country as a true democracy until 1965. true democracies do not keep citizens, eligible citizens, from participating in a political process. until the voting rights act is passed in 1965 are not even a true democracy, that makes us 56 years old as a democracy. we have seen the steady dismantling by the supreme court of the voting rights act. now the dismantling of section two, when i say the audacity i mean the actual rewriting of the history and of the standards used in these cases for decades. i began my career in 1988 as a voting rights lawyer and the first thing i was given was the senate re

this was a week ago today 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 ♪ ♪ can't take it no more ♪ ♪ we're fired up ♪

the arizona audit has been going on for 68 days. what are they doing? they would have known by now if something was amiss. at the end of the day, it c it down to the core by which we elect our leaders. it's precisely the fight that republicans are so dead set against, it's why it's so central to what this moment is for the democratic party and for our democracy as a whole. congressman clyburn, a democrat from south carolina, is the house majority whip. the senate needs to get rid of the filibuster, to pass the sweeping votes rights bill. he joins me now. where are things to your mind on this core question before congress about national democratic access and democratic standards? >> thank you very much for having me, chris. i think we're at a crossroads on that. i have been arguing for some time that our democracy is at peril. all you got to do is look at the vote today, only two republicans voted to get to the bottom of what happened on january 6 and why it happened. only two republicans. that just cannot be. we need to know why there was this insurrect

not only that, you are going to lose places like georgia and arizona that were hard, hard fought and barely won. >> final question for you on some late-breaking news today. a federal district judge in your state of texas, appointee of george w. bush, has essentially ruled that the daca protections issued by the obama administration, all the way back i believe in 2012, are essentially unlawful. he has not suspended daca per se, but he has issued, i understand, an injunction for any further applications. this is for people who are brought to the united states as children, as minors, who can apply for sort of protected status. it is not full citizenship, but it does give them a sort of path to citizenship. i have to imagine it is brutal for all of the folks subject to this because it just creates more tension, pressure and uncertainty. your reaction to that ruling? >> it is a gut punch. it just creates that uncertainty, that feeling in the stomach for so many families who have somebody on daca. as you said, it doesn't affect people currently on daca but it does put a pause on new applic

justice alito is frightening, not only for the results of the particular things that they upheld in arizona, those two provisions but the language that is in that majority opinion is truly frightening. and i am really concerned about what we see coming out of our supreme court. it's one of the reasons why i think democrats, progressives, people who care about this country have to focus on state and local elections. these legislatures are the ones that are producing these laws at the supreme court is upholding, not only with elections, reproductive rights, and a whole range of other things. we need to be focused on state and local elections. we need to be involved in making sure that we use the state courts whenever we can as opposed to the federal ones. i don't think that, you know, when it comes to election reform that we're going to find a friend or friends on the united states supreme court. they are idealogically against voter protection. >> former attorney general eric holder, thank you so much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >>> still to come,

now, arizona of course is the one state that's actually tried to prove donald trump's false and ridiculous claims. that's in the audit of maricopa county's 2. 1 million ballots. which has, not surprisingly, been an absolute clown show. it's still going on apparently. get this, there was one at least nominally legitimate face to that recount which was former arizona secretary ken bennett republican who said today he's been shut out of the audit as a third count of the ballots total is still ongoing. they're just counting and counting because they're trying to reach the conclusion they want obviously. the ballots themselves, by the way, just by the way almost got rained on the other day when the roof of the building that the audit is taking place started leaking. workers scrambled i guess to cover boxes of ballots with tarps to protect them. i don't know, it seems like a pretty professional operation. it's the level of competency would expect from a donald trump projects and the level of confidence and good faith we've come to expect from the republican party at large. but, as oafish as it a

now, arizona, of course, is the one state that has actually tried to prove donald trump's false and ridiculous claims. that's in the audit of maricopa county's 2.1 million ballots, which has, not surprisingly, been just an absolute clownshow. i mean, it's still going on, apparently. get this. there was a -- there -- there was one at least nominally legitimate face of that recount who is former arizona secretary of state, ken bennett. who said today he's been shut out of the audit. they are just counting and counting because they are trying to reach the conclusion they want, obviously. the ballots, themselves, by the way, just, oh, by the way, almost got rained on the other day when the roof of the building where the audit is taking place started leaking. workers scrambled, i guess, to cover boxes of ballots with tarps to protect them. all in all, seems like a pretty professional operation. it's the level of competence you would expect from a donald-trump project and the level of confidence and good faith we have come to expect from the republican party, writ large. but as ofish as it all is, i

today, arizona republicans who are doing there, so called, audit, in arizona, they gave a briefing on the progress. only two republican senators were there but they try to call it a hearing. this audit that they're doing in arizona, they launched it in april, this it will take three weeks. it's of course mid july under still going strong. they make clear today that they're definitely finding all the fraud they've been fantasizing about. but it's definitely gonna take a lot of more investigation, lots more materials, probably lots more donations from trump supporters nationwide. it looks like they will subpoena more stuff from the county america where they got all the ballots from. the way they're talking about it today it sounds like they have weeks to go, maybe months still to go. it's such a big and complex investigation. there is no sign that there was anything wrong with the presidential vote in arizona. nothing. there is no sign that there was anything wrong with it, at all. and i'm saying that because i can observe it, because i can observe that the vote in arizona was subjected

pennsylvanian arizona, including congressman jim jordan of ohio. according to a new book by washington post reporter's, was called out by a potential committee colic. as the guy who did this. the guy responsible for the january 6th attack on the capitol, and now that guy is going to possibly sit on the committee to investigate what happened. these are reportedly the five that mccarthy is chosen. there are a couple things we do not know when. speaker of the house nancy pelosi first announced this select committee, one of the things she said was that she would have veto power over the appointments. so right now it's unclear whether or not she will use or give these members the okay. people who actively voted against democracy and the day of the capitol riot. that's something to watch. we'll talk more about that with congress and james clyburn just a little bit later in the show. generally if you feel a sense of dÉjÀ vu, as you survey the landscape of american democracy, the politics in this moment, you are not alone. i feel it to. we have very much

billion, with a "b," dollars to build 135 miles' worth of federal wall sections near yuma and nogales in arizona and in texas. at the time we pointed out the program one of the contracts raised questions because as "the washington post" reported trump repeatedly pushed for fisher to get a wall-building contract, urging officials with the army corps of engineers to pick the firm only to be told that fisher's bid did not meet standards. trump then kept pushing until the company was added to a pool of competitors, and lo and behold finally awarded the massive multi-billion dollar contracts. now, unfortunately for tommy fisher, one of the first things joe biden did as president was halt all construction of walls at the borden, basically cancelling out that mega wall contract. so now tommy fisher is looking for someone to purchase, to buy his three-mile $30 million stretch of texas border wall where a hurricane caused significant erosion of the banks, up to and under the concrete foundation. so not in 100% shape, just fyi. it is a little dinged up, but if you got a cool $30 million, looking for a thr

three of the five members that he chose voted to overturn the election results in pennsylvania and arizona, including congressman jim jordan of ohio. who, according to a new book by "washington post" reporters, carol leonnig, and philip rucker, was called out by a potential committee colleague. congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming as the guy who did this. the guy responsible for the january-6th attack on the capitol. and now, that guy is going to possibly sit on the committee to investigate what happened. these are reportedly the five that mccarthy has chosen. there are a couple things we do not know. when speaker of the house nancy pelosi first announced this select committee, one of the things she said was that she would have veto power over the appointments. so right now, it's unclear whether or not she will give these members the okay. i mean, people who actively voted against democracy, on the day of the capitol riot. something to watch. we will talk more about that with congressman james clyburn just a little bit later in the show. but generally, if you feel a sense of dÉjÀ vu as yo

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

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

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

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

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

the whole arizona audit circus was meant to last a few weeks, we are now four months. in the senators say that the new batch of subpoenas that -- they're just gonna keep on looking. this thing is gonna go on forever so that donald trump and his allies can keep pointing to it and say proof of all the fraud is coming, it's just around the corner. and it's spreading. in wisconsin, the republican chair of the assembly elections committee is gathering up for her own arizona audit. she doesn't just won a forensic audit, she wants a cyber forensic audit. we don't know what that is but i'm sure that it is much fancier than the regular audit. this is how a wisconsin we republican made a pilgrimage -- this is on top of the investigation initiated by the republican speaker of the wisconsin assembly who wired some ex cops to dig into the 2020 election results for him under the watchful supervision of a republican former wisconsin supreme court justice who became a stop the steal activist after the election. and there's also the audit of ballots in, wisconsin being carried out by a

this is the headline from the arizona republic today. quote, arizona representatives andy biggs and paul gosar votes to abandon afghan allies. what follows is a scathing editorial indicting these two congressman for being part of a small group of 16 republicans who voted against an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill to try to expedite the process and forgetting afghan translator to help u.s. forces day safety as america ends its longest war. quote, when the u.s. pulled out of vietnam, there were unfortunate, sometimes tragic repercussions for some of the vietnamese who assisted our troops. the idea of the house bill was to not let that happen again. to appreciate loyalty to. demonstrate empathy. to emphasize humanity. the bill before the most unmistakably and indisputably good. in voting, no, congressman gosar and biggs prove themselves to be unmistakably and indisputably the opposite. gosar and biggs are not the only republicans facing bash slash for voting against helping the translators. the veterans group released this ad targeting two d

as their safe harbor, they regionally planned on setting up camp in arizona, where west virginia. why those two places? because those are the home states of two conservative democratic senators, kirsten sinema and joe manchin who's in who's hands the fate of a national voting rights bill, effectively sits. texas democrats hoped that might pressure those two u.s. senators to change their mind about to passing voting rights at the federal level, because without federal protections, texas republicans are going to do what they are going to do here. ultimately, the texas democrats felt that would be too risky going to arizona or west virginia, given that both those states have republican governors. they were those red state governors might somehow tell -- help republicans in reestablish the quorum. that's the kind of drama we are dealing with here. more than 50 democrats from the texas house are now in washington d.c. tonight. the flights from austin to d.c. carrying those democrats just have landed in the past hour. there are not only trying to throw a wrench in the works, trying to s

frankly, could put the final nail in the coffin of the already gutted voting rights act based on an arizona voting case. both of those decisions are expected from the supreme court tomorrow. election reform and voting rights advocates bracing for what's expected to not be great news on either of those fronts, but we shall see. the court has been full of surprises this year. the substance being the last day of the term matters. but tomorrow also matters because it is the last day of the term. and if justice steven briar or any of the other 80-something-year-old justices on the court are going to retire from the court, past precedent would suggest that tomorrow could be the day which we will get that announcement. in the vast majority of modern supreme court retirements, they are announced to either take effect at the end of a supreme court term or they are announced at the close of a supreme court term. so if you are planning on this being the summer in which we get a supreme court vacancy and a senate fight over who to put on the court, we will likely tomorrow is the day we will most likely

my challenge today is not about the good people of arizona. >> stay in recess until the call of the chair. >> we will pause. thank you. >> stand in recess, you can see jon ernst and tom cotton both military veterans looking around, recognizing something is going on. you can see the commotion, people start moving around him. you hear senator leahy presiding at that moment to hit the gavel. he doesn't know why. somebody from his office comes up and says there in the building. holds of his papers, walks away. what's senator lankford was arguing on january 6th after 2 pm that day because the election shouldn't be certified congress shouldn't certified, the state should take another ten days, a commission, a study, audit the results, take another ten days which would basically get as right up against inauguration day itself before the electors would actually be sent up to capitol hill and count it. as he's making that argument, he's getting right to the apex of his argument and then, sorry, sir, here they come! you've got to stop what you're doing and we've got to get out of here, here they co

ultimately apparently the texas democrats felt like that might be too risky going to arizona or west virginia, given that both of those states have republican governors. they worried those red state governors might somehow help texas republicans force the democrats back into texas to reestablish the quorum. that is the drama we're dealing with and why the texas democrats are in washington tonight. the planes have just landed in the past hour. they're not only trying to throw a wrench in the works on trying to stop this voter suppression bill from passing in texas but picked d.c. ultimately not as a purely symbolic thing but because they r begging for a federal response here. they are begging for a federal back stop to voting rights that would stop a state like texas or any other republican controlled state from being able to pass voting right restrictions like the ones these texas democrats are staring down the barrel at right now. joining us now on face time from a bus with his democratic colleagues in a parking lot at dulles airport just outside of d.c. and way outside the great st

my challenge today is not about the good people of arizona. >> will stand in recess until the call of the chair. >> we'll pause. thank you. >> stand in recess. you can see aerns and cotton looking around recognizing something is going on. see the commotion and people start moving around him. senator leahy presiding hit the gavel. he doesn't know why. someone from the office comes up and says they're in the building. folds up the papers. walks away. what senator lankford was arguing there on january 6 just after 2:00 p.m. that day was that the election shouldn't be certified. congress shouldn't certify. the states should take another ten days. a study. a commission. study the result. basically get up against inauguration day itself before the electors would be sent to capitol hill and counted. he is getting the apex of the argument and then oops. sorry, sir. here they come. you got to stop what you are doing and we got to get out of here. here they come. who's to say they're not coming for you? hunting the speaker of the house, hunting the vice president, pawing through senators' desks

arizona senator kirsten sinema who was credited by the bipartisan group for bringing the deal together, anchored some in her party when she said that the three point million dollar price tag being floated for the larger reconciliation bill of -- which united a strong support from them, alexandra ocasio-cortez quoted good luck thanking your own party's investment on trial care, climate action and infrastructure while presuming you'll survive a three-vote house margin especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations and calling that bipartisan accomplishment. joining us is -- of the caucus she will have a big role in deciding what kind of infrastructure deal can pass the house. thank you for joining us this evening. >> great to see you, ali. let's talk about your hesitation on this bill. has got to do with anything that's on the bill we don't know exactly what's in the bipartisan bill or is it all about not trimming staff off of the other bill you are more focused on. >> we don't know what's in the bipartisan bill so, we have to see it. we have to make sure we agre

arizona senator kyrsten sinema, who was credited by the bipartisan group for bringing the deal together, angered some in her party when she said that the $3.5 trillion pricetag being floated for that larger reconciliation deal is too high. she doesn't support it. which ignited a strong response from house progressives. democratic representative alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeted "good luck tanking your own party's investment in child care, climate action, and infrastructure while presuming you'll survive a 3-vote house margin especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations and calling that a bipartisan accomplishment.” pramila jayapal also let it be known she and her colleagues are not going to vote for the bipartisan deal unless their priorities are sufficiently funded in the reconciliation deal. joining us is washington congress qom pramila jayapal chairman of the progressive caucus, which will have a big role in deciding what kind of deal can pass the house. thank you for seeing you this evening. >> great to see you. >> let's talk about your hesitation about t