Facing three weeks awe from the election as he tries to directly appeal to voters who support he is losing. Suburban women, will you politician like me . Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, okay . Reporter the president standing with seniors has also slipped away at a historic rate. I will not rest and i will not relent until all americans seniors are safe. That is my sacred obligation. I love our seniors. Reporter that affectionate message only hours after the president tweeted a mean mocking biden as elderly and disabled. The white house approach to the pandemic is raising concerns also after officials appeared receptive to an idea pushed by some scientists to let the virus spread among younger populations while protecting the vulnerable and elderly and that approach would rely on herd immunity by infections and a vaccines which other scientists have said is dangerous. Herd immunity is another word for mass murder. Reporter we got breaking news from the first lady who just posted a lengthy statement on her twitter account announcing that baron trump had tested positive for coronavirus when she did and the president did. He has since tested negative but she is talking about all three of them to go through covid19 at the same time including the symptoms she had which satisfy says were mild but having all at once talking about she said it was a roller corvetaster in thes after her diagnosis. Body aches and cough and she went with vitamins and healthy food so no word if she received the treatment that the president got. We are learning another member of the first family had coronavirus though judging by this statement and what she said, its pretty long, she says her son was since tested negative for coronavirus. That is great news that baron is no longer positive and he survived this. Barons father should stop hosting super spreader events. Thank you. Sanjay gupta is joining me now. Barren trump has tested negative. What do you make of this . This is, obviously, a very contagious virus. We have known that for months now. I think it raises a question, i think, jake, if you are regardless of whether youre the the president or first lady and youre testing positive and spending time with your family what is the likelihood youll express this virus to them . It turns out its not that high. Some studies have said 60 of the time you dont spread the virus to other family members. I think the case that they make is that its typically, as you point out, its when you bring people closely clustered together sitting for long durations of time that is when you can potentially have these super spreader events. Its not to say you shouldnt isolate within your own home as much as possible. Youre putting a lot of virus in the air and likely to spread. Glass he is doing well. He is 14, i believe. Statistics, odds very much on his side for having a good recovery. Yeah. The first lady says, quote, luckily he is a stronger teenage and exhibited no symptoms. Good news. Talk about the super spreader events the president continues to hold. Look a these images from pennsylvania last night. He traveled to florida, pennsylvania this week and iowa and wisconsin, North Carolina. He is not contagious his doctor says but the states are seeing rise case numbers and rising hospitalizations some High Percentage of the virus, its downing. Is there any to safely hold these rallies . No. Its a simple answer. A lot of people are saying, well, the president because hes had this he shouldnt have been holding the rallies even before we were told he wasnt contagious any more. That is true. This is not normal, jake, to hold rallies like this in the middle of a pandemic. Its interesting. You and i have been talking about for so many months. I remember back in march youd see people getting together on the embarcadero in San Francisco and you say we are in the middle of a pandemic, that shouldnt be happening people that closely clustered. We look at a rally and say how do you do this safely . You dont. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Ill get an email what about the protests . Add that to the list. People together for long periods of time the virus is happy and how it spreads. Regardless of whether the president is contagious or not as you point out, the rallies are a bad idea. You cant do those safe and they shouldnt be happening and its worsening the problems. We said that during the protests that people should noting congregating together. This is the president of the United States who has sworn in oath to protect and defend the American People and his behavior is putting his own supporters and the American People who live in those communities at risk. He knows this and he has known it for a long time. That is the part that is really, really disturbing, frankly. February 7th going back and saying we know this is airborne. The rest of the Scientific Community didnt catch up to that for sometime. He was, obviously, getting information from other sources. We know it can, obviously, be deadly in people. We know there was a super spreader event at the rose garden and we are hearing more about these numbers of people who have been infected as a result of the rallies. Jake, its so hard in this country to even trace because if you got 50,000 people becoming newly infected every day it would be an entire sector of our society devoted to Contact Tracing to be able to figure it out. Its clearly that its happening. Its a contagious virus. That hasnt changed. You bring people together like that outside better than inside for sure. Maybe 20fold better if you look at some of the data which we have been studying. But its still a problem. Aggregated together without masks and longer than 15 minutes is a ingredients for a super spreader event. We dont know where herman cain got the virus but the time line comelt matches up with him getting it at the tulsa event and he died. Iowa has a positive rate close to 20 and fauci said it should be close to 3 and if they rise it could mean more deaths. President trump head to go a state with 20 . Is there anything that can be done at this point to mitigate that . The rallies bringing people together, its not a small problem when youre having that type of event and people are not masked and it sends a message that its okay and this is over and when you have a positive iterate of 20 . That means youre not testing nearly enough to catch how much viral spread is out there so you dont have really eyes on the problem. When you look at iowa and you see what is happening. Therapy building. The numbers have been going up but they are starting to go up at a faster pace. This is like, again, metaphor we were using back in march and april. You and i having the same conversation several months ago. Its a steam liner. When it Gains Momentum and speed as you see in iowa, more and more cases and increase in hospitalizations and higher positive rate. You could slam on the brakes and that steam liner will keep moving and the problem. Thats why you want to stop that exponential growth from happening. One of the things that came outline from the cdc the past couple of days is the real focus on indoor residential gatherings. We saw this in california in may during a lockdown numbers went up for a few weeks. Why . Because a lot of those indoor parties that were happening, people started clustering indoors more. Is the concern. Going into the colder months over the holidays and things like that this here might be one to sit it out in terms of getting together with extended family because of that very reason. That could create a lot of smaller clusters. The Trump White House pushing this herd immunity idea which some people, including President Trump earlier this year, said could lead to 2 million american deaths. Dr. Hazeltine said its a mass murderer. What is your take on herd immunity . I cant believe we keep having to reinvent the wheel on this discussion. So many important things to do with the vaccines and antibodies. Herd immunity is a terrible figure. Everybody i talked to agrees. The barington project says they have 36,000 signatories but its 38. Everybody says after this is adopted will public endorse it and means they are not willing to put their names on it. Show you the numbers. Dot math. 10 of the country roughly infected now. 210,000 deaths. To get to 60 which is a rough estimate of what it would require people, the infection rate to get herd immunity you would be at 1. 2 Million Deaths roughly in this country alone. Tens of millions i think 15 million or so around the world. Hospitals would become overwhelmed. Youre already in situations in so many states where icu bed capacity is over 70 in the country and we havent gotten into the bulk of flu season. Can you imagine the same conversations we were talking about in new york and italy . I got to bring my loved one to the hospital. We are sorry. We dont have any beds here right now. I dont want to unnecessarily frighten people but that could be a real concern over the next couple of months. Sanjay gupta, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Warning from the cdc that could have a major impact on your holiday celebrations. Plus breaking news on a secret investigation involving the president s campaign and foreign money. Stay with us. If your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, inflammation in your eye might be to blame. Looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes overthecounter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. Ha these drops probably wont touch me. 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Including the only plans with the aarp name. Get medicare with more. Including the only plans with the aarp name. But a resilient business you cacan be ready for it. Re. A Digital Foundation from vmware helps you redefine whats possible. Now. From the hospital shifting to remote patient care in just 48 hours. To the university moving hundreds of apps quickly to the cloud. Or the City GovernmentGoing Digital to keep Critical Services running. You are creating the future on the fly. And we are helping you do it. Vmware. Realize whats possible. Wisconsin is shattering records as coronavirus rages across the state. The number of people hospitalized with covid has nearly tripled since the beginning of september according to the governor and Health Officials are opening a Field Hospital there to help treat the massive spike in patients. Lets go to site of the new Field Hospital in wisconsin and adrian joins us live. Give us a sense of what youre seeing there. Reporter jake, i can tell you we havent seen any patients here today and in the last hour, we learned from the executive there arent any patients here because the staff at the Field Hospital is communicating with hospital representatives throughout the state throughout the day to determine the need. They are trying to figure out who will be transferred here to this Field Hospital. The executive doctor who says she came out of retirement to help with this cause says this Field Hospital will treat people between the ages of 18 and 70. We are talking about people who are near the end of their hospitalization. For example, folks she says who may need oxygen therapy, rest, or extra medication. The facility can hold more than 500 530 beds to be exact. The director said wisconsin is in a crisis. This after the state saw those record breaking numbers. Yesterday, 3,000, more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases and 34 people died in 24 hours. Jake . Thank you. Joining me now, is dr. William shaftner. When you look at the map of cases today, there is no green meaning no state in the United States trending in the right direction. Why . Well, its because lots of people are out there being casual instead of being careful. We see so many people going about without masks, going into large groups and not social distancing. As sanjay said in the previous segment, we have not even seen the flu yet. Wisconsin is the pointer of the sphere. We will be seeing more cases of covid all the time. This virus is not going to disappear. We really have to get together. Masks are very important. Social distancing, very important. Do not go, please, to large group events. The virus statistically will be in that group and spreading among you and then youll take it home and spread it to other people in your neighborhood and in your own family. Nobody wants to be a dreaded spreader. The World Health Organization says that most covid transmission is happening in households. With these colder months approaching, is it safe to have a small number of friends and family come to your home for thanksgiving or christmas . Well, lets have a conversation before then. What are the ground rules . Have we all been very safe for the last two weeks . Have people gotten tested . When we get together, are we going to wear masks indoors or are we going to separate . When we eat, will we crowd around a table in the traditional way or will we spread ourselves out . Maybe we will invite fewer people . Maybe we will stay for shorter periods of time. Who is going to be there . Older people . Aunt sally with her diabetes . Uncle tom who is older and is frail because he has chronic lung disease . Maybe those folks shouldnt attend even though we would love to have them there. We have to think about this in a new way. We cant just revert to the old normal. Thats gone. Doctor, when you see president holding rallies all over the country and thousands of people packed into a small space and no masks and no social distancing. He has them in florida and pennsylvania and one in iowa. Remove the politics from it. I dont care what you think about him politically. What do you think about him holding these rallies . My heart weeps because at those rallies, as ive said, the virus is there. These are people who on their own at home are not Wearing Masks and not baying social distancing. Some of those people who go to those rallies will bring the virus with them because the virus can be trons mited even though you dont have symptoms or only have mild symptoms. I know some of them are outdoors but that is not an freebie. You can still transmit the virus and many of them are indoors, prolonged periods of time. People yelling and getting xoite excited. For a go on them but what the virus likes to spread so these are accelerator events, all of them. Spreading the virus and spreading it more widely in the communities from which these individuals came. A new natural poll fines tio that africanamericans are fewer likely to take the vaccine if one is available. Explain why getting everyone on board with the vaccine is important to minimize the spread and get control of this pandemic. Of course, we want everyone to take advantage of the vaccine when and if it does come and it is effective. We are going to have to transmit our reassurance own our sense of conviction that this vaccine is not only worthwhile, that is effective and exactly how effective it is, and that its safe. This will take some work. We particularly want to reach those populations, people of color, people of lower economic status who have been disp disproportionately affected by this virus. If we all get ourselves vaccinated, this virus will find it harder to be transmitted among us and we can indeed flatten that curve. Lastly. A Yale University study found that child care closures during the pandemic have had little effect on slowing the spread of the virus. Do you i think its safe for Child Care Centers to reopen . Safe is a word i dont use. Its one of those dangerous fourletter words. Lisa talk about reducing the risks. I think if we do it carefully and have fewer children and try to spread them apart, everybody who can wear the mask, wearing the mask, then i think we can do it with lower risk. Lots of good hand hygiene, surface disinfection and doing all of the things together carefully. They all contribute to im going to say it safer environment. Dr. William schaffner, thank you. It turns out one of the obama gates was not a gate at all according to the department of justice. Why the investigation pushed by the president reportedly ended in a whimper. Stay with us. We made usaa insurance for members like martin. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa push the button the time has come to galvanize i only see one price on my phone bill. Galvanize youre on tmobile, taxes and fees are included. Why cant all my bills be like this . I dont know mama. Umph at tmobile, taxes and fees are included. Get 4 free 5g Samsung Galaxy s20 fes with 4 new lines. This is cnn breaking news in the politics lead. Cnn has learned that federal prosecutors, included special Counsel Robert Mueller, spent three years investigating whether money flowing through an egyptian Stateowned Bank could have backed millions of dollars that donald trump donated for his own campaign in 2016. We should point out ultimately the mueller team was not able to obtain all of the information it needed for the investigation, nor could the u. S. Attorneys in d. C. Who continue the investigation until this year and decided ultimately to not pursue charges. Lets bring in cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez who is breaking this story. This is not something that was publicly known before today. Thats right. This investigation was conducted with utmost secrecy given to sensitivity and it started soon after trump won the presidency in 2016 and continued until this summer and never described publicly. We spoke to more a done sources familiar with the effort in addition to what we learned in newly released documents and hints in public records. Two of the sources told cnn that fbi investigators first became interested in the case after intelligence including from an informant suggested that trumps lastminute 10 million injection in his campaign less than two weeks before the 2016 election could have been backed by money that came from overseas through an egyptian Stateowned Bank. The probe was confirmed to us justice this week when we asked the Justice Department to respond to our reporting. Its not clear that investigators ever had concrete evidence of a relevant Bank Transfer but multiple sources told us that there was sufficient information to justify seeking a subpoena in court and to keep the investigation open even after the Mueller Probe ended. Now, the investigation of a potential Campaign FinanceLaw Violation began with the fbi and the u. S. Attorneys office in washington before special Counsel Robert Mueller took it op. It was largely conducted by his team of investigators who went to great length to keep its existence hidden and the only one was a Court Proceeding that muellers team issued for a unnamed Foreign Company for records. Neither the company nor the details of what exactly prosecutors were looking for was ever publicly discussed. But cnn is told that it was a fight with a stateowned Egyptian Bank. When mueller was done, the investigation continued. It was handed back to the u. S. Attorney here in washington who soon afterwards told a court that it was still a robust probe. Now it was just this summer that the case was closed with no charges filed. The case styled after the Egyptian Bank turned over what federal investigations thought were insufficient records in response that their subpoena. Among the chief questions the prosecutors were trying to answer but never did was whether donald trump was supported by or indebted to a foreign power. As for the Justice Department here is what a senior justice official told cnn in response to this report. Quote. Now, special Counsel Robert Mueller had no comment and a Senior Adviser to the trump 2020 campaign jason miller told cnn, quote, the president has never received a penny from egypt. Was there ever discussion of trying to get to the bottom of this by subpoenaing the president s financial records . Well, multiple sources tell us that last year, federal prosecutors in washington proposed pushing for the president s financial records. The decision went to then u. S. Attorney jesse lu who after weeks pouring over the investigative records decided to reject the subpoena request. Sources say li decided not enough to meet the standard for the subpoena and according to the sources told people in her office if there were enough evidence mueller, himself, would have gone after them. Interestingly she doesnt close the case. That was done by the new acting u. S. Attorney general Michael Sherwin this summer. They are known for keeping their investigative threads under wraps but there were never any leaks about this, as i can recall, even after the case closed. How did they go about keeping this so secret . Right. You know, the jepgs investigation was never mentioned overtly in the Mueller Report but listed among 11 cases that mueller transferred to other prosecutors when his investigation ended. But that entry was redacted. As i mentioned, that court fight was done in a highly secretive manner and filings never publicly mentioned the names or significant details. At one point muellers team had the court locked down an entire floor of a federal courthouse allowing attorneys to enter and exit without being seen. A spokesman Egyptian Government said they didnt have any comment. This investigation extended and bill barrs look. Does they plain . They say the investigation was a very much a live issue. We know about the consideration of a subpoena under jessie li and about it until it was closed this past month. The Justice Department unredacted a list of cases that mueller transferred for further investigation, including the roger stone matter, for instance. One case listed simply described as, quote, a Foreign Campaign contribution. Now sources tell us that that was the egyptian probe. The fact the matter is the case was closed without investigators really getting an answer to their ultimate question and that is was donald trump supported by or indebted to a foreign power . Evan perez, thank you. In our politics lead President Trump and republicans hyped an investigation into the Obama Administration for months alleging without any evidence that there was wrongdoing surroundsing the 2016 election involving a process called unmasking. But today the Washington Post reports attorney general bill barr will not bring any charges. President trump is now responding and refusing to commit to let the attorney general keep his job if the president is reelected. Reporter an investigation President Trump touted as a scandal has now quietly ended 2in a whimper. It was ordered by bill barr into the unfounded allegations against the Obama Administration in its final days have come up empty. There is a big thing going on right now which is spying and you can call it anything you want. The unmasking and the spying. To me that is the big story right now. The president s repeated accusations that his campaign was spied on by the Obama White House led to the investigation launched this spring and led by a senior u. S. Attorney general. The goal . Look into the Obama Administrations question for the revealing of american names or unmasking in intelligence reports. One name that was revealed was trump adviser Michael Flint who before the election was speaking to an Russian Ambassador under surveillance. Republican senators released long unclassified list of obama officials former Vice President joe boiden requested the unmasking saying that trump was allegedly spying on President Trump. If we werent involved in the covid19 crisis this would be the biggest thing since wat watergate. Reporter doj found everything was done legally and resulting in no criminal charges and no public report. Unmasking is a standard part of intelligence gathering and if foreign intelligence reports contain the name of citizens thoes are always redacted but certain u. S. Government officials have the ability to unredact or unmask those names to better understand the report. And unmasking has actually gone up under trump. People who understand unmasking and what it is understood from the start that this was a complete nothing burger and so it was trotted out as something that sounded sinister or could be made to sound peculiar and change. Reporter President Trump is not happy with bill barr and asked today by news max whether barr would have a role in a possible second term. Trump replied its too early to know and called the lack of indictments after this investigation a disgrace and not exactly someone is letting go of this idea that he was illegal spied on. President trump giving oxygen to a wildly unhinged Conspiracy Theory that the raid to bikill bin laden was not a success. Hey neal with 3 cash back at drugstores from chase freedom unlimited, you can now earn even more. I got this great shampoo you should try. Yeah you look good. Of course i do neal, im kevin hart. Now earn 3 at drugstores and so much more. Chase. Make more of whats yours. Joe biden was raised with middle class values. Joe doesnt need to be the center of attention. Or see himself on tv. He has always focused on getting the job done. Joe led us out of the 2008 recession, and increased Health Coverage for millions. As president , joe will focus on getting us out of our crises. Hell listen to experts, work across the aisle. And put the American People first. Ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad. Did you try it yet . Comparing plans . Oh yeah. They sure can change year to year. I found lower premiums and lower prescription costs. And those new insulin savings hundreds of plans, 35 a month. Thatll save you money. So uh, mark . On medicare. Gov now. Open enrollment ends dec 7th. Comparing plans. Really pays. Paid for by the u. S. Department of health human services. Hmms and ahhs heard incall. In our politics lead. President trump momenting yet another baseless Conspiracy Theory. A new one that alleges Obama Administration killed Osama Bin Laden body double and not the terrorist leader in the 2011 raid. The president retweeting the heinous false allegations too deranged to go into here. That promoting this nonsense has now been suspended by twitter. There is no dispute that terrorist master mind Osama Bin Laden was killed that night by navy s. E. A. L. S. One of his wives identified his body and facial recognition and dna test was done and robert oneill, the trump supporter and s. E. A. L. Veteran who wrote a book how he pulled the trigger to kill Osama Bin Laden he said the following. Joining me now, is a man repeatedly warned of conspiracy theories working their was into the fabric of the United States and the Republican Party. Republican congressman Denver Riggleman of virginia. Thank you so much for joining us. We should note you wrote and passed a House Resolution condemning key wa non. Why do they pose a threat . I think the trust we have and be able to talk to each other in government circles and have a dialogue that is not based on this. When you see what is going on right now its exploding and the reason that im so worried about because i worked this so long. You know . I worked radicalization and counterterrorism two decades. Can you imagine, jake, somebody getting that job offer to be Osama Bin Ladens body double . I dont know if id take that offer. How do we stop the type of insanity on the internet right now . What is your response to President Trump promoting this baseless theory that s. E. A. L. Team 6 didnt kill Osama Bin Laden . You say how do we get it off the internet. Help if trump didnt amplify it. Its a dangerous tweet and things we cannot do. You go one degree separation of the Youtube Video attached to this tweet you have an individual youre talking president obama and leon panetta and Vice President biden and hillary clinton, she said they should be hanged. Over a million watching this news channel. She said they should be hanged. She qualified by saying im a christian but she should be hanged right now. 1. 8 million subscribing to this new channel and people watching that is the language of radicalizati radicalization. People go down these rabbit holes and i think the people that believe this and i think she is one of them are the same people that believe lord of the rings was a documentary and how crazy this is. There is technical terms. Lets use the technical term here that is going on is bad crazy. She attacks you on twitter for attacking this and she is likely going to win a congressional seat representing georgia to be in the next congress. She has been embraced by the republican paerted leadership and she attended the Republic National convention at the white house. Obviously having someone like her as a Congress Person is concerning. Its very concerning to me. The reason its concerning is we are not dealing in truth or facts. I think that is the one thing you have to do if youre a public official or public servant. You have to make sure the facts are there before you tweet. You make certain decisions, right . Or you put out social media type of things and make certain decisions. Is it factual . Is it timing . Or contextual or part of your messaging platform . Before you put anything on twitter the bottom line should be is it insane . Right . So if its insane, you probably shouldnt tweet it or you probably shouldnt talk about it. Other issues i have with qanon. We have to stop the spread of it and the only way to do that is fight speech with speech and use Blunt Force Trauma and to show people how ridiculous this is. I grew up during the reagan years when it was morning in america, right . That was sort of the republican creed. People can agree or disagree with the president but he wanted morning in america. Members of congress coming in i think its almost qanon after dark and ridiculous and has to be stomped out using facts and logic and not this ridiculous things we knee on the internet. Youre thesh leadership of t House Republicans and the president about qanon in august and prime opportunity to condemn them. Listen to what he said instead. During the pandemic the Qanon Movement appears to be getting a lot of followers. Can you tell us what you think about that and what you have to say to people following this movement right now . I dont know about the movement but i understand they like me very much. Which i appreciate. Has is a signal that qanon you have a friend in the white house. Youre a conservative republican. Are you at home in the Republican Party any more . They are embracing this insanity that you condemn. My loyalty isnt to a party. My loyalty is to the people who elected me and my family. A lot of people say you have bosses. I have no boss. My only boss is my wife but i have no boss. You know . The president is not my boss. Article one of the constitution im an elected official of facts and truth and you know what im going through and its awful for me the two years. Im a pretty independent minded guy but its harder to find a home in the gop because i dont know if its about conservatism but i think a cult of personality. If it gets to that point you have to be very responsible what you put out there if the person that is the centerpiece of that cult of personality. Its really getting difficult for me because of my independent sort of thinking the way that i am. Really to stay on this course and i think at some point we are going to have some kind of reconfiguration of the gop and say, we have to go back to policies, principles, and ideas and not just cults of personalities and if people dont like it, as far as im concerned they can pound sand. Congressman Dennis Riggleman of virginia, thank you for your candor and for your service. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me. Senator harris is questioning Amy Coney Barrett on capitol hill. Lets listen in. You know the Voting Rights act was not inevitable triumph so i think its important for us to acknowledge some of its history. This year, our nation has mourned the loss of a Great American hero congressman john lewis. He was one of our countrys greatest leaders because he inspired us to fight for a perfect union. Every year, john lewis would invite a bunch of us, members of congress, faith leaders, others to join him in selma, alabama, for a walk across the Edmund Pettis bridge. It was there that he would remind everyone of americas history and the history of the fact that for generations, black americans were denied their constitutional right to vote. He also reminded us of the brutality that so Many Americans faced when inviting for the Voting Rights of black people and all people. And history reminds us that some states as a condition of voting require black americans to answer impossible questions like take a look at that jar of jelly beans and if youre going to vote, you need to tell us how many jelly beans are in the jar. There were questions asked of folks in order for them to vote they would have to tell the official how many bubbles are in a bar of soap. Impossible questions, obviously. Some states required black people who had been systematically and denied access to equal Education Opportunities to answer questions like how often is the federal census taken . When is Inauguration Day . And when one of these malicious questions was asked they were challenged as you can imagine and many were struck down. But when that happened, those states and municipalities would just put up new restrictions and new obstacles for folks to vote. In other cases, black americans were beaten when they tried to vote or register to vote, including congressman lewis and others who shed blood on the Edmund Pettis bridge. Why after so much pressure and marching and Peaceful Protesters from Civil Rights Congress passed the Voting Rights act to end the those practices. It requires states and county who had a history, very important, who had a history of denying black americans and other minorities the right to vote to get approval from the federal government before they changed the voting laws. And for almost 50 years, the Voting Rights act did what congress intended, it allowed the federal government to monitor and guard against Racial Discrimination in states with a long history of Voter Suppression. But as we all know in 2023 in shelby v holder, a county in alabama sued to strike down section five of the Voting Rights act that required alabama to seek approval from the federal government before a state could change its voting laws and, of course, section five required that of a number of states that had a documented history of Voter Suppression. Now judge barrett, i know many of my colleagues have asked you about this case but i think its important we revisit it. By 54 vote the court gutted the Voting Rights act and that they get federal approval before changing their voting laws. What the mantle of the Supreme Court justices failed to understand is that the success in combating Voter Suppression directly was a function of our ability to enforce section 5 of the Voting Rights act. So the success was due to the brilliance of section 5 of the Voting Rights act which gave us enforcement capabilities and monitoring capabilities. As has been mentioned, just two months after the court gutted the Voting Rights act, North Carolina passed laws that made it so much more difficult for black americans to vote that a federal court of appeals mentioned that it, quote, targeted africanamericans with almost as you recasurgical prec. Texas has a long history of was once covered by the Voting Rights act. After section 56 was gutt was gs returned to some of its voting practices. Of the more than 1600 polling places closed after the courts decision, at least 750 were in texas. Texas also restricted interpretation assistance for English Limited voters. And this year, the governor of texas issued an order that limited the number of drop boxes for completed mailin ballots to just one per county. Before the order, harris county, texas, which includes houston, and had 11 ballot dropoff locations in a county of over 4 million residents, and a county that covers about 2,000 square miles, many people would say that it is just common sense that going from 11 drop boxes to what is did which was reduce it to one single drop box has made it more difficult for people to vote. Supreme court has long recognized our right to vote is fundamental because it preserves and protects all of the rights and that is more precious in our democracy and any nominee to Supreme Court must understand the effect and fact of long effort to discriminate nate against black, latinos and other communities of color. Since the Supreme Courts decision in shelby 16 states have passed restrictive voting laws and have attempted to also close polling places, stop early voting and take peoples names off the voter rolls that should not have been removed. Judge barrett, in Shelby County, chief Justice Roberts quote voting discrimination still exists, no one doubts that and my question to you is do you agree with Justice Roberts statement . Senator harris, i want to just make sure that i understand that my understanding of what remains of the Voting Rights act would happen in Shelby County is consistent to what youre describing. The preclearance requirement as i understand Shelby County remains in place and what the Supreme Court hand on constitutional is the coverage formula so some states which in 1965 had a history of discrimination had to get preclearance whenever they changed anything having to do with their voting procedures and other states didnt. And i think Shelby County said that congress can still pass a new coverage formula now, articulating the criteria for for preclearance. Judge barrett, my question, however, is do you agree with chief Justice Roberts who said voting discrimination still exists, no one doubts that. Do you agree with that statement . Senator harris, i will not excellent on what any justice say an opinion whether an opinion is right or wrong or endorse that proposition. Im asking you. Do you call it a proposition or a fact . Are you saying you does not agree with the fact . Senator, im not going to make a comment. Im not going to say that i endorse either the majority or the dissent in the case of Shelby County. I just want to understand are you saying you will you refuse to dispute a known fact or that you refuse to agree with a known fact . Senator, im not exactly sure what youre getting at with asking me to endorse the fact or whether any particular practice constitutes voter discrimination. Im very happy to say that i think Racial Discrimination still exists in the United States and i think we have seen evidence of that this summer. But as as to discrimination exists in america in any form . Senator harris, there have been cases, we have talked in this hearing about the wisconsin case that went up to the court involving voting. I think anything, any opinion that i would express i dont mean to signal that i disagree with the statement either what i mean to say is im not guilty going to express an opinion because these are very charged issues and they have been litigated in the courts so i will not engage on that question. During his confirmation hearing in 2005, chief Justice Roberts was asked about the constitutionality of section 2 of the Voting Rights act. He testified, quote, i have no basis for viewing section 2 as constitutionally suspect and i dont. Judge barrett, do you agree that section two of the Voting Rights act is constitutional . I think that chief Justice Roberts statement, i have no basis for viewing it as constitutionally suspect. That would be the same as mine. Im not aware of any constitutional law existing that would create a question about it. Thank you. As senator hirona mentioned yesterday. They could only raise disputes and arbitration. Arbitration is private unlike a Court Proceeding. The process is hidden from the public and generally cannot be reviewed for fairness by a court and in many cases people are forced to agree to arbitration if they want to get a job. In 2018, because of a forced arbitration clause, the workers could not go to a court to fight for overtime and instead were forced to fight for overtime pay behind closed doors and a private arbitration. Justice ginsburg in dissent noted the workers faced a choice except arbitration or on their employers terms or give up their jobs and went to splaexpl quote to match their employers clout and setting terms and conditions of employment. She urged the court to consider, quote, the extreme imbalance, unquote, of power in our nations work places and avoid further undermining congress passionage of labor laws to protect workers and place them on equal footing. Do you recognize Justice Ginsburgs point there is, quote, extreme i am balance of power between large corporations and individual workers . Senator harris, im going to give you the same answer that i gave you with respect to the sentence that you quoted me from chief Justice Roberts opinion in Shelby County. Im not going to engage in critiquing or embracing portions of opinions, especially