cessation. more democrats in congress incleesingly are backing a cease-fire, including the first jewish member. she will be with us in minutes. today, their moral case for a cease-fire and the splintering of a democratic party on the war. plus dexter wade was killed by an off-duty police officer and buried and his family had no idea. they have been victimized again. wade's mother will join us live. and thanksgiving is a time for scelebration, but it's also tied to our painful reminders of our colonial past. indigenous leader has an idea about reframe ing the holiday wh truthsgiving. i'm victor blackwell. let's start the show. it's a hard look at the headlines coming out of gaza and not be overwhelmed by the silence and suffering. yet it may still only get worse. israel is signaling their offensive could expand into the south. and the idf say it is will chase down hamas fighters wherever they are. the palestinian health ministry says the majority of gaza's hospitals and clinishes have shut down. they are out of fuel and doctors say the patients who were on ventilators that they have now died at the hospital. this week congresswoman introduced a resolution. her office says that would block weapons and two dozen democrats wrote a new letter to president biden calling for a cease-fire. and signed the impact on children. more than close to 9,000 injured according to the u.n. the political pressure on capitol hill follows the activist pressure on the street. we saw new proe palestinian d demonstrations in major cities last night. more expected today. one member of congress defending a cease-fire is becca, the first jewish member of congress to do so. she explains this. like me, there are thousands of jews that share a deep emotional connection to israel because of what it meant in face of extermination. the congresswoman joins us live from vermont. thank you so much for being with us. let's start here. i want to play what you said in late october when you asked during a podcast what you thought about a cease-fire and you said this. >> there's no easy answer here. if i thought that calling for that right now would help this situation, would help the intricacies on the ground, i would do it. >> so congresswoman, what c changed? >> really appreciate that. i do see this op-ed that i wrote as ab extension of what i have been saying for over a month now. so many of us agree on so much, which is that the bombing needs to stops, the deaths of civilians needs to stop, hamas can no longer be in control of gaza. we need to be releasing all of the hostages, and we need to be moving towards a long-term peace this this region to give a homeland to the palestinian people and to secure israelis and that hasn't changed. what became clear to me in talking with my constituents, and the op-ed was really geared specifically at those who are struggling with this as well s that we need to be able to hold all the complexity. i heard an interview with former president obama, and that really changed my thinking about this in terms of urging all of us to hold the complexity. that is what ufs trying to do through this op-ed. >> 17 democratic coupon source, will you join them? >> i will not. the cease-fire resolution does not say what i feel in the way that i would say it. i feel like it is not inclusive enough of all of the parts of a cease-fire that are required. and i understand it resinates for many people. i needed to find my own way to say similar things. and i think we're getting so bogged down in words and trying to say things exactly the right way. there is no exact right way. so i have to find my truth and express to people that so many of us in congress, we want the same things. and this obsession with trying to get it right is not helping the situation. and it's the not helping us all come together to get the things that we want, which is peace in this area. >> let me read from your op-ed. you said killing civilians and killing children is a categorically unacceptable, no matter who they are and no matter who the children are. the u.n. high commission er on human rights says that hamas and israel have committed war crimes. do you believe that they have committed war crime? >> i believe that is something that that is going to have to be sorted out when the dust clears. and i believe that civilians have are died in gaza and in israel and that we as americans must hold both hamas responsible and israel responsible. >> i know that you write in here that you don't have all the answers. i think most people understand how complex this is. you also write even with hamas operations intentionally embedding themselves among civilians, israel cannot bomb targets in densely populated areas. the united states must demand it. the u.s. and the idf says that in these areas, the refugee camps, there are tunnels. there are hamas leadership and operatives there. the idf do if the goal is to root out those? >> i think that the important piece for me here is that you have a huge swath of americans right now that are forcing us into not hold ing both truths. so it is not acceptable for hamas to be embedded among civilians. and we know they are doing that. they are a terrorist organization. they are not freedom fighters. and israel must do everything it can to minimize civilian deaths. so i think that is what is h holding so many people up, is that there's a denial that hamas is doing these things, which is essentially putting its own people in harm's way. but even with that, israel must take all steps not to bomb areas where there are heavy cont concentrations of civilians. so i'm not a military strategist, but what i know is we all want the same things. for the violence to end, for the hostages to be released, for hamas to no longer be in power, and for both these peoples, who have suffered for so long, to have safe and secure homelands. >> i can hear the people who are listening to you and disagree with you saying if you're not a military strategist, what then supports the call for cessation of military hos tutilities. but thank you for your first interview on cnn call ing for a cease-fire. a group of 900 black christian leaders is making the moral case for a cease-fire in gaza. this week the national african-american clergy network took out a full-page ad in the "new york times." we see the deaths and hear the cries of both our palestinian and israeli siblings whom all deserve to live safe from harm. with must do what we can to stop the killing and respond to the growing humanitarian crisis in gaza. joining me now is reverend mcbride, lead pastor in okayland. he helped coordinate that letter. thank you for joining me. i want to play this and want to get your response. let's play it. >> israeli defense forces acknowledge they have an obligation to use as much caution as they can in going after their targets. it's not like they are rushing in the hospital and knocking down doors and pulling people aside and shooting people indiscriminately. but hamas, as i said, think plan on attacking israelis again. this is a terrible dilemma. so what do you do? >> so reverend, that's the question. if this is to prevent another attack, and we stipulate that you condemn what happened on october 7th, then what should the idf do, if not go after hamas? >> thank you for having us on today. we believe 900 clergy and that number grown to over a thousand, that there's a humanitarian crisis happening in gaza that a number of noncombatants, palestinian civilians are being targeted at the number of over 10,000 and over 4,000 of these love d ones are children. we do not believe the way forward is to continue to kill palestinian civilians, particularly children. there must be another way trd. a cease-fire, we believe, is the most moral way forward to figure out a peaceful long-term solution that includes the returning of hostages hailed by hamas, as well as some of of those palestinians being held by israeli government in other parts of the west bank. a cease-fire is the only moral way forward. and we believe the president ought to listen to the growing number of his own party members, state department officials and the country who are calling for a new way forward. >> when they are being targeted, that suggests that the idf is targeting civilians. is that what you sought here? that would be in line with what some have accused the government of and they have denied this makings of genocide. when you say target, is that what you mean? >> no, what i'm saying is that there are too many civilians in harm's way. and the collateral impact and damage is two monosstrosities f us to continue on in this way. a cease-fire would allow us to reassess and figure out a way forward that does not continue to cause the number of palestinian civilians or particularly children to be lost. this, to us, is unconscionable. it's a tragedy what happened, and it's a continuing tragedy. we cannot prevent october 7th, but we can stop this current tragedy and ensure security can be restored to both israelis and palestinians a as we move forward. >> let me ask you about the political angle of this. your group endorsed biden-harris in 2020. is this enough to withhold an endorsement in 2024? >> i think it's really important for us to appreciate that right now, there is an erosion of confidence. we see the striking images, we hear the cries of our loved ones, both on the palestinian and israeli side. so we do believe it's incumbent upon the president to hear that the base of their party, people who have supported them, moral leaders, leaders, organizers are ins distress about this way forward. and there are those who want to push the president to understand that the leadership we want at the top of our government must also hold a deep humanitarian commitment to the palestinian and other folks across the world who are dealing with these. >> is that a yes that this might be enough to withhold an endorsement president bush you know who is on the other side of the ballot. i have little time. but is that potentially a yes to withhold your endorsement if there's no call for a cease-fire? >> i think many of us areing to compel the president to please do not put any of us in a situation to feel this way. we want a cease-fire. we think it is great governance to do so, given the calls from so many who voted for this president and who support his leadership over the last four years. >> reverend, thank you so much for being with us. a mississippi man hit by a cop car and killed, buried and his family only found out almost six months later. officials in jackson call it a miscommunication. the family call it is a cover-up. dexter wade's mother joins us live. plus a settlement is reached by cassie and sean combs one day after she publicly accused him of rape and years of abuse. and spacex launch ed its starship rocket. here's the moment. on monday dexter wade will be laid to rest in mississippi. that will be his second burial. the first time his family didn't even know he died. hthis was on march 14th, so she called police in jackson, mississippi, to report him missing. but police did not tell her that nine days earlier, her son had been hit and killed by an off-duty police officer in jackson. they say it was an accident, and they were not able to identify him until i days after the crash. they also say that they were not able to get in touch with his family because dexter's contact informations was, quote, outdated. dexter's mother says she was final ily notified on august 24, nearly 6 months later. by then the family's attorney says dexter had been buried in a field. his grave marked by a pole and a number. now this past monday, a new miscommunication and new trauma. the family wanted to witness his body being exhumed so they could have an autopsy and bury properly. when the family arrived, dexter had already been exhumed. >> this how the system works? is this what our liberty and i have been living in mississippi, and this is what i have to deal with. that i don't even matter. >> joining us now is dexter's mother and the family's attorney ben crump. welcome to you both. let me start with what you know about the circumstances surrounding your son's death. what have you been told that happened that night back in march? >> yes, back in march, i was told, i filed a missing report. and then in august, they told me my son was deceased. so i look here trying to find out what was going on with them. so i i got his death certificate. i start trying to find out where he was located. so finally someone came through to let me know what grave site is. >> jackson police say they tried to contact you. do you have any record for a call from authorities during that period to tell you about your son? >> no. >> no record at all. >> no, i don't. >> did they have his contact information? >> certainly, they did. they found medication on him that had his doctors office and they notified them that his mother was his next of kin. after we exhumed him, we found out he had his wallet in his front pocket that had his state-issued drivers permit with his address, where he lived with m his mother. it they wanted to contact his next of kin, it would have been easy for them to do so, especially since his mother was sue ing the jackson police department for killing his brother a couple years earlier. >> what do you know about what happened that night, march 5, the night that he was hit and killed? >>. >> our preliminary reports say he was hit, his body was compl completely ran over. his leg was amputated. and so this was just tragic mississippi manslaughter, but it seems that the aftermath and cover-up was worse. that's what i was told from day one. >> tell me about those months where you first submitted that missing persons report until late august, where you found out where your son was. what were you feeling, what was happening during that time? >> during that time, i was so angry that i couldn't find it. i was upset. i didn't know whether somebody had kidnapped him or somebody was trying to torture him or whether he got caught up in trafficking. i was on my knees praying, please let him come home. please f you're out there, you the to know where you are. just call and say, hey, i'm okay. you don't have to come home. let just let me know you're okay. i was doing everything i could. to try to hp me find my son, try to put him on civil alert. i cried. i got up every morning searching. i get up early trying to see if i see anybody that know anything. nobody. i was so hurt. i didn't know what to do. i just cried and cried. >> when you got that information, you were called on august 24th. they said that your son had already been buried. what did you feel? what went through your mind there? >> when they first called me and said we found dexter, i said, lord, let him be okay. so i said, where's he at? what's going on? she said, i'll let the officer come out there and talk to you. and right then, when she said that, my heart dropped. i knew. i just knew he was deceased. and i felt so bad that could not find him. it just made me feel bad. when they came and told me, it just hurt so bad. but then what really spiked everything, when they said a cruiser ran over him, and the first thing i said, you mean to tell me y'all couldn't take his hand print to know he belong to us. >> ben, let me play for you the county miner and the police chief what they say happen, did not happen, and the changes that are going to be made. >> it's very unfortunate. >> you would think we would have a death notification policy, but we do not. but we will as of today. we understand what the state statute says about the coroner and notifications. but we want to make sure we're giving the best police service to our citizens. so we have a death notification policy that is signed as of today and we'll roll out today. >> your reaction to what you heard there, ben? >> it's hard to take anything they say with a leap of faith considering that they knew who she was and they certainly knew from day one, they knew who dexter wade was. all they had to do was come knock on her door and say we regret to tell you your son was killed in an accident with one of our police cruisers, but they did not. so we had to exhume his body just like in mississippi, they had to exhume emmett till to get some justice. then they had to exhume megan evers to get some justice. now in 2023, we had to exhume dexter wade to get some justice. we need the department of justice to investigate because they killed her brother, they killed her son, and ms. wade and her family believes in both situations they are trying to cover them up. the officer was convicted fireffor killing her brother, and they have been fighting her ever since. she doesn't trust any of the mississippi local officials. >> ms. wade, we are so sorry that you have lost your son, especially to have lost him in this way. i'll be thinking of you. thank you so much for your time and, ben crump, thank you as well. critics in texas warn it could lead to state sanctioned racism. when you need to know about a border bill that the governor is set to sign and concerns it could put la tee knows in the state at risk. the governor of texas is expected to sign a new bill makes entering texas illegal as a state crime. it also gives cops in texas the power to arrest migrants. state judges would have the ability to deport to mexico. more than 40% of the population is la know. some expressed fear about the risk of racial profight. >> are they going to look of the her skin color and make a determination, surely, she needs to be investigated for crossing? >> well. >> i think clearly the officers are going to -- >> this is not funny because my wife is hispanic. there's a difference when i'm driving a car, i see an officer and i wave. there's a difference for people. the chairman said it. we don't live in their skin. >> the aclu is threatening to sue if he signs the bill. they call it on wall funding, some of the most radical antiimmigrant bills ever passed by any state. so ahead, as we get ready to reflect on the things we are thankful for, should we also reflect on the truth about thanksgiving? plus andre 3000 dropped a new album last night. we're going to play a bit of it for you. spoiler alert, it sounds nothing like this. ♪ rap legend andre 3000 released his first solo album. he's known as one-half of the iconic duo outkast. it won grammy for album of the year. it's been 20 years since it was released. it was certified diamond, but this new album, new blue sun, has no lyrics, it's entirely instrumental and centered around woodwind instruments. so the first track on this album is 12 minutes long and it's called "i swear i really wanted to make a rap album but this is literally the way the wind blew me this time." listen to it. ♪ >> joining me now is the host and staff writer at npr music. it's good to have you in studio. we first got to talk about the settlement now between cassie and diddy on this $30 million lawsuit accusing rape, assault abuse. that was fast. >> it was very fast. i mean, i think it just really boils down to money and power. that's the reason that the settlement happened to fast. and it's really the reason why hip hop has failed to have a me too reckoning a after all these high-profile allegations. >> but does that happen now? the lawsuits aside, diddy's lawyer says it was settled amicably. he wishes her well. is this it for him? do we continue to talk about this now? >> it's going to be interesting to see. we have been here before. hip hop has been here before. russell simmons faced some high profile allegations. i don't think they faced any legal proceedings, but then kind of reckoning that's happened in hollywood and other parts of culture just has not come to hip hop. i think a lot of it has to do with how engrained misogyny in this case is in some of the music is just something we have come to accept in a lot of ways. and i mean, it's a part of american culture, but it's definitely part of what's going on in hip hop as well. >> we'll see where that goes. let's talk about this album. when i heard it, i thought i want to take a bath. not because it made me feel dirty, but this sounds like what i want to listen to while i'm taking a bath. what do you think? >> it's that cleansing. i think he's cleansing our ear lobes a little bit. it's amazing to me. i think it's incredible that here we are, like you say, 20 years after that album. he has a flute album out and he's in love with the woodwinds. he says it's the closest thing to the human voice to him. and he's always been about elevating and pushing his audience to come along with him. so i think that's what he's doing. >> you interviewed. i him. he says how he got here. let's play it. >> i would love to be out here rapping because it's fun and being on the playground. but it's just not happening for me. this is the realest thing that's coming right now. not to say that i would never do it again, but those are the not the things that are coming right now. i have to present what's given to me. >> we should not expect another love below. he has evolved. he's grown. >> he's always been about that, too. any outkast fan will will the tell you from one album to the next, they always took these creative leaps and risks and their sound changed. so if you fast forward 17 years into the future, you almost got to expect the unexpected. i don't think anybody necessarily expected this, but it tracks with who andre 3000 is. >> i want to play one more snippet here. this is a portion of "93 to infinity and beyonce." ♪ >> rodney carmichael, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ahead of thanksgiving next week, is it time to rethink how we frame the holiday? i'll to one activist who says it's now time for truths gi givengiviving. in a few days, a lot of us will celebrate thanksgiving. others maybe debating how to mark the day or whether to mark it at all. we all grew up hearing about how the pilgrims and the native americans came together with their celebration of the first thanksgiving. that's not the whole story. it left out the history of violence against indigenous people. but for decades, activists have tried to tell the truth about the holiday only to be shot down. in 2019 i traveled to the site of the first thanksgiving, where some native americans celebrate a national day of mourning instead. >> it's the one day out of the year when all of america bows their head and gives thanks for everything that was taken from us. >> 83-year-old is an archive of native american history. amongst the books and pictures is a copy of a 19 70 speech written by his late friend. he was invited to a celebration. >> when he had to give the speech, he put it all together and when he presented it to them, they said that we can't allow you to read that because 90% of the people would walk out. >> we welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing it was the beginning of the end. >> he said he wasn't going to change it. so he withdrew from that. >> tall oak and other activists of the american indian movement create their own event is. >> we decided that we would declare it a national day of mourning for native people. >> and every fourth thursday of november since, native americans have gathered at the statue to tell the truth that he could not. >> a piece published, two discuss ed whether we should continue celebrating thanksgiving. one says the holiday should be decolonized. the other writer is my next guest, who says we shouldn't be celebrating thanksgiving. we should move on to truthsgiving and tell the whole story of what happened between native americans and european settlers. chase is a member of the tribe and an american indian activist. let me hear it from you. >> good morning. is and thank you for having me on. every year, we go through these rituals. these are rituals. these holidays, these concepts, they are part of our collective cultural mythology. and in america, there is a settler, a european foreigner, settler cultural mythology, from my eyes. bef within here for a lot longer than the settler institutions are telling us or teaching our children. so when we hijack the truth and put in its place something that is more palettable i, something that eases our guilty settler con, it set ises us up for conflict later on. because truth proceeds justice and justice proceeds peace. so when we look at these holidays, we have native american heritage month. that's going on now. we are deconstructing euro christian programming. but that's the truth when you into it, i'm a lawyer. and i have studied the sources of these cultural mythologies. the mythologies were one demographic there's not only the settler, but the brave explorer, the pioneer, the cowboys that tamed the wild west and brought under their control and their sub jet indication all the beasts of the wild, not only the animals, but they are talking about us. they are talking about the merciless indian savages. that is in the united states constitution. so when we talk about the myths of a people, they provide a purpose, a meaning, and a place to the people. i was going to imagine myself. >> you suggest that this should not be thanksgiving, but truthsgiving. what does that look like? instead of what we're used to, turkey and football and all that's going to happen on thursday, what would that day look like if you were to design what it looks like forward? >> we would tell the truth. because that is also what will lead us to reconciling to a state of reconciliation. we tell the truth about the first thanksgiving. there's many it rations of a first thanksgiving. in 1620 talking about the mayflower landing at plymouth rock and the story of the english, who were met by the tribe. we tell the story that the natives welcomed in the europeans and scelebrated the first harvest with the cornucopia. we tell that story because it's more palettable. it's something that is not full of conflict, it's not full of the violence, it's not full of the untruths and the fact that native people took pity. now we're on the other side of philanthropy and wealth, but on in the beginning, we nursed this incapable child, the new people coming to the new world, they didn't know how to live here. we taught them how to live here. we brought them in peace and said, look, younger brother, younger sister, you can live here in this land, but we didn't -- we have a story this if you find a wounded snake and nurse it back to health and it ends up bielting you, then you can't blame the snake. we didn't know that most of these foreigners were that way. when we nursed them back to health, but that's happened. that's why whoe're on indian reservations today. so another group of european american settlers went out and massacred 400 to 700 of our people. since this time, they have been police ing indian. they were trying to create a new identity and a new sense of place. >> let me get in here. i want to read just this from sean sherman. by reclaiming authentic practice, decoltization searches to identity and thoj. this approach is one of constructive evolution and decolonizing thanksgiving. we acknowledge this painful past while imaging our lives on a more truthful matter. you two agree. i have to wrap it there, but it's been a great conversation. thank you so much for your time. still ahead, the big boost hbcu students got from a church in nashville. first, we want to take you back to texas. spacex just launched hits itself rocket. what happened? >> reporter: spacex is going to view this as a big success. this rocket performed much better than it did during its first launch attempt back in april. all 33 of these massive engines on the starship rocket ignited and worked successfully. we had a somewhat successful stage separation, when the top part of the spacecraft separates from the booster. but then that's when things started to go wrong. the boost exploded shortly after that separation, but the starship rocket, which some day can carry up to 100 people to news mars or before that return american astronauts to the moon, it did successfully continue on within a few will notes later they lost contact. so part success, part failure, but spacex very happy that some of their improvements from that first launch attempt held and did well today. >> the word of the day is progress. they are making some. kristin fisher, thank you so much. it is week three of the new show. i'm launching a new segment you'll see on a regular basis. it's simple. i see you. we cover so much that is wrong in the world that we have to highlight what is right. i'm starting with one of my loves. we know paying for colleges and universities have been und underfunded. so in nashville, the mount zion church is helping students at hbcus, they gave away more than half a million dollars in skips. a lot of that money is going to students from tennessee state and both historically black universities. the church is the setting up a grant program, and they hope to give away a million dollars annually. so mount zion baptist church and the students at ts