When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. On january 6th of this year, shortly after noon, news leaks that Merrick Garland would be getting a huge new job. Two sources familiar tell my colleague mike memoli and me says President Biden selected Merrick Garland to serve as his attorney general. He is widely viewed that can be a Unifying Force within the department of justice trying to restore public faith in that institution and restoring morale within it. Garland, of course everyone knew, went through a historic snubbing in 2016 after then president obama nominated him to fill antonin scalias seat on the supreme court. They refused to meet with garland, not to hold hearings or a vote on his nomination. On january 6 the redemption story began. He was going to be joe bidens choice for attorney general. Then an hour or two later, the rest of that days awful events unfolded, overshadowing the new potential a. G. And now here we are, nearly two months later, garland is still the nominee, still not confirmed, like deja vu, as the department of justice remandalay bay casino remains in shambles desecrated with every chance it got. The reason Merrick Garland is not yet the attorney general, the reason republicans understand they have no real power right now except to delay and to troll and to make things difficult for the Biden Administration. There is no republican governing agenda. They have no affirmative goals to accomplish. They just want to hurt the new democratic president and the democratic majority in congress in any way they can, so enter senator tom cotton of arkansas, on laterally holding up Merrick Garlands nomination because he didnt like garlands answers to his fox newsstyle questions about immigration and guns and racial equality. That leaves Merrick Garland stone walled for the second time in five years by truculent republicans who are not interested in the business of governing. Unless you think this is the first time tom cotton has pulled this kind of stunt, he has a history of this, including one of the most shameful episodes of republican obstruction in the entire Obama Administration, which is really, really saying something. You see, back in 2015, tom cotton blocked the nomination of Cassandra Butts as adviser to the bahamas. I knew cassandra as well. Cottons hold on Cassandra Butts nomination, it had nothing to do with her, absolutely nothing. Literally zero. He even admitted as much, telling butts herself that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president. And, well, tom cotton got his wish. He blocked Cassandra Butts until she died, thats right. She died. After a brief illness in maye of 2016. She succumbed to acute leukemia while still waiting to be confirmed more than two years two years after her nomination. So, congratulations, tom cotton, you did it, you did hurt president obama. I think that probably hurt when his friend and associate and nominee died before she could take over as ambassador to the bahamas. That was a win, i guess, for tom cotton. Hes tried it before. Thats the model of governing we are seeing from republicans, temper tantrums, obstruction, and nonsense, focusing on priorities like mr. Potato head and dr. Seuss, attacking joe biden for referring to lifting mask mandates as neanderthal thinking. Were seeing a perfect example of that model on display tonight right now as i speak to you as the senate moves towards a vote on the 1. 9 trillion pandemic relief bill. And republican senator ron johnson of wisconsin is making good on his promise to slow down that relief, getting to americans by whatever ridiculous means necessary. I dont want to sound like a leftist, but im going to resist. The first way im going to resist is im going to go down and object to the waiving of the reading of the bill. I will make them read their 600, 700page bill. Good for you, senator. Thats right. In the midst of a pandemic thats killed 520,000 americans thousands every day, every day, were just numb to it now, but every day it continues. And its put millions out of work. Ron johnson wants to delay help getting out to the American People by forcing the senate clerk to read aloud all 728 pages of the bill. They have been at it for nearly five hours already. Near expected to go into the wee hours of the morning. Remember the last time we had a democratic president in office, remember ha . Mitch mcconnell said the single most important thing we want to achieve is for president obama to be a oneterm president. It is the overriding impulse of the republicans throughout the Obama Administration and we are almost surely in for another round of that. Democratic senator advice van hollen of Maryland Joins me now. Senator, you know, i always feel like when im talking to a member of the u. S. Senate you have to describe your strange culture, sydney, australia alien culture to me. Lets start on the reading of the bill thing. Whats the deal there . Well, the deal is under our rules, a senator can object to proceeding and demand the reading of a bill. And so thats why you have this pure obstruction going on as a result, and thats why at 2 00 a. M. In the morning youll see me sitting in that chair providing presiding over the senate because ron johnson has just decided to drag this process out and further delay relief to the American People. It does strike me, however, as unlike the cotton hold on Merrick Garland which im going to get to in a second. This is essentially an impotent stunt. No doubt about it. This is just stomping his foot. This is taking advantage of a rule that is available. Its not used very much, but its an example of the lengths to which people like ron johnson will go simply to throw this big hissy fit. We will prevail. Its just a matter of eating up the clock, but it is an example of republicans, you know, kicking around in the sand box. I should note i think that senator johnson is in the chamber, at least, listening to the bill being read aloud. In the broader sense of obstruction here, mike lee is talking about theyre going to go through this voteerama. It seems the caucus is united. There is an understanding that you need every member of the caucus with the tie breaking vote, vicepresident harris, and youre going to get this done in the next few days, is that right . Thats right. You just saw the vicepresident cast the tiebreaking vote on whats called the motion to proceed to the bill. So now were on the bill, then well go to voterama, chris. The president said he would prefer to have republican partners in this effort, but the imperative is to get this done for the country. So, on the tom cotton hold, im always confused about what you can and cant do in the senate, what you can and cant get away with in the senate. At some level everything goes by unanimous consent. If people want to be real pains, they can make the whole senate body do that. Most people arent, but then it allows people to pickup that and wield it when they want to as cotton did with Merrick Garland. Why can he do this . Well, he can do it, chris, because under our rules, if youre talking about an executive appointment at the cabinet level, that the senator can delay this up to 30 hours. So, again, Merrick Garland will be confirmed as our attorney general. In fact, i believe were going to get to this nomination next week, but what tom cotton can do and is drag out the time and, of course, theres all sorts of other important business that we want to get to the United States senate. So this is a delaying tactic. My view is when it comes to the fundamental rules that allow senators to delay, which is the filibuster, we need to eliminate it or radically reform it, or at the very least for now, put the burden on the obstructionist rather than on those who want to move the process forward. We were joking this morning. We were thinking, is ron johnson going to make them read this thing and not actually show up and go on fox news . I think this is a ridiculous stunt, but at least hes sitting there. If youre going to do this, then you have to go sit there and listen to this thing. You have to waste your own time. A filibuster that did that would be a wholly different thing from what you have now which is just a pro forma invocation of a 60vote threshold. Go sit there in the chamber. Well, thats exactly right. As i say, i think we should scrap the filibuster rule altogether. But in the very least, you should have to go down to the senate floor and do what most americans remember is an oldfashioned filibuster rather than just threaten to filibuster and then put the burden on the majority that wants to move forward to first file a cloture petition and move forward in that way. If you want to be the obstructionist, you should have to have your 40 votes, not just senator johnson on the floor. You should have to have your 40 votes. Right. There present on the senate floor to have to block it rather than just do it from, you know, the back corner. Lets talk about the substantive stakes here. I havent actually heard, to be honest, a ton of arguments from republicans on this bill. Theyve been talking about other things. To the extent theyve argued about it, they say well, only some of it is really covid related and a lot of other democratic priorities in there, and also we spent a lot of money so far. What are you counting on for this bill to deliver for the people that you represent in maryland . Well, were counting on a number of things. Number one, this is essential to the continued production and distribution of the vaccines. Number two, its essential to provide help to our schools and educators. We all want our kids back in school as soon as possible and as safe as possible. Its one thing just to say it, but we want to be able to do it. This bill will help with that. And, of course, it provides important relief to people who are still unemployed through no fault of their own. It provides rental assistance so we dont have a tsunami of evictions when the moratorium ends. Food assistance and, of course, the individual payments and other very important provisions. And finally, chris, we know from the Congressional Budget Office and other economists if we dont do Something Big like this, were going to live with these higher levels of unemployment into the year 2025. Thats just unacceptable. That to me is the big lesson of the last time a Democratic Administration along with a Democratic House and Democratic Senate had to dig out of the catastrophe, generational catastrophe that the previous Republican Administration had turned over to them, which was just 12 years ago, that that was the big lesson. The floodgates didnt open enough and we under shot, we under shot on the recovery. Too many people were out of work for too long. There was too much austerity. We were too tight with the reins. Has that lesson sunk through at least the president of the United States and the democrats and the Senate Caucus . Thats exactly right. And that is the lesson to be learned. I remember being in the house of representatives at the time. I was screaming because the Senate Democrats were negotiating with the senate republicans, which was fine to start with. But then it went on and on and the overall amount of the relief got chipped away, got chipped away at. And then when it finally came to the house, not a single republican voted for it even after all of that. And then, chris, as you just mentioned, republicans spent the next five, six years talking about why the recovery was too slow. Yes. And its largely because they refused to provide that relief and that we allowed it to get negotiated down. Thats not going to happen again. This is one of these places, i think i see this in hearing speaking to members of both houses as we do on this Program Every night. The politics and the substance are aligned. Lets get money into this economy. Lets support a rocket ship recovery. And its good for everybody, its good for the democrats, and its good for the American People if things are, to quote jared kushner, rocking in this economy five, six months from now. Look, people are going to measure this by how it impacts their lives and thats why you see majorities around the country, you dont have republican senators voting for it rather than be obstructionists representing their constituents back home. Thank you for making time with us tonight. Good to be with you. Thanks, chris. One of the most famous insurrectionists, you recognize him, this guy, infamous instantly, right . Seen kicking back with his feet up on the desk in Nancy Pelosis office. Today he was dragged kicking ask screaming out of court very unhappy about how hes going to be spending the next few months. Thats next. Ths. Thats next. Give you a sort of white smile. Try new crest whitening emulsions for 100 whiter teeth. Its highly active peroxide droplets swipe on in seconds. Better. Faster. 100 whiter teeth. Crestwhitesmile. Com so youre a small business, or a big one. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. How did you get it . I didnt steal it. I plan on it [ bleep ] i couldnt [ bleep ] see. I figure, well, im in her office. I got blood in her office. I put a corner on her desk even though [ bleep ]. And i left her a note on her desk that says, nancy [ bleep ]. After he stormed the capitol, richard barnett, that man, boasted on camera that he had taken an envelope from speaker pelosis office and left her a note. This is him infamously inside pelosis office that day with his feet up on the desk and some kind of stun gun strapped to his hip. Two days later, barnett surrendered to the fbi in northwestern arkansas. Hes been in jail ever since and faces several federal charges including obstructing an official proceeding, Disorderly Conduct in an official building and theft of property. In a Virtual Court hearing today, barnett found out he would remain in jail until his next court date in may and he lost it. Yelling at the judge and his own lawyers that it wasnt fair that he was still in jail, shouting, theyre letting everybody else out. Barnett is one of the roughly 250 people who have been charged in connection with the capitol riot. There are reverberations whether the threats still persist. This was the scene in washington, d. C. Today where two months after the attempted i think recollection the area around the capitol is still on lockdown because of worries of postings on qanon forums about a plot for another attack today, march 4. Thankfully nothing happened. Here to explain the significance of the date and where the movement stands, brandy and ben who cover the Qanon Movement and online extremism for nbc news. Great to have you both. Brandy, maybe you can start with what the concerns were about march 4th and why that date had any significance. Yeah, well, apparently there were two tiers of concerns. One was that there was some vague threat that the Capitol Police had seen or found from qanon forums. And the second one, and this was from the federal law enforcement, found that there were some aspirational threat based on qanon forums. So doesnt that sound like a great idea, we should do Something Like this on march 4th. Now, march 4th is a weird one, so hang on with me. But and i will say that Media Coverage of how silly this all is made it seemingly less palatable for qanon people over the last week. But basically, qanon believers and some general Trump Supporters believed that this was the day that donald trump would be sworn back into office. This new date was on sort of loan from a different antigovernment Conspiracy Theory movement called the sovereign citizens movement, and its thats full of people who believe laws dont apply to them, they dont have to have Social Security cards or pay taxes or whatever. Qanon said a law passed in the 1800s allegedly made the United States a corporation instead of the government. The thinking went no laws had been real since that time, so the president ial election wasnt real. So trump could come and this was the day he could save us all and become the 19th president. Oh, and while he was at it, execute a bunch of democrats and movie stars while he was at it. This one also invoked the pope and the queen of england and biden as a body double. Its a lot, chris. It always is with this people. Luckily they stay behind the computer. Heres my question, ben, as we zoom out. There are two ways i can imagine the trajectory of a lot of sort of right wing extremism post trump. One is that there is an intensification of the tenancy in opposition. I remember under bill clinton thats when you had this very powerful Militia Movement. You had Oklahoma City bombing. There was a way in which this democrat in power made people feel, certain people, drove them to more extremism and they radicalized against it. The other was donald trump himself was this kind of stoker and messianic figure who was pumping this up the whole time. And in his absence while hes silently golfing, the thing kind of deflates a little. Im curious, which of those two were seeing so far, ben. Yeah, chris, its both. I think they are less inclined to talk about this publicly because a lot of these qanon followers really thought they were going to be met basically i dont want to say this, but as liberators of the capitol. They thought they were going to go in there and donald trump would bring his military and they would be the first wave of an in surgence. They really did believe that. And they dont believe that any more. They do believe that the military is not on their side now. They do understand that a lot of these people do understand that the Biden Administration does not want these people around. The military and the police are not with them. They are fighting against them. They are insurgency again. It doesnt just go away. It doesnt end because donald trump isnt there any more. It morphs, it evolves. The Qanon Movement for the last few weeks has taken the branding off itself and embedded itself into different kinds of american culture. A big part of that is american churches. Weve seen this over and over again throughout the country. People saying, my church group is going through this. My church group succumb to this. My entire church succumb to this. I didnt even know it was qanon until i went looking up these names. General flynn was secretly in control of all this stuff. It will evolve. It will sort of sink its talons into parts of culture that will allow for that to happen. There is also an aspect to this, brandy, which i think goes along with the theme that ive seen on the right, weve been discussing, which is like a certain level thats almost become something more, for lack of a better word, like religious than political in any recognizable sense. You know, i mean, compared to the tea party, right . When the tea party happened in 2010, it was like we must kill this bill. The aca is bad. Were having rallies and like, that was i thought they were wrong, i thought they were unhinged. I thought it was extremist, but it was recognizably political. This becomes harder and harder for me to read in a recognizably ostensibly political fashion. What do you think . I think that thats definitely true. You have literal messiah complex with a lot of these people who are literally theyre saying that trump is their god, and thats not just the qanon and not just the church, and not just farright christian extremists. Just your regular maga people now rebranding themselves as the Patriot Party even though trump said he didnt want that. I think what we saw in the last year has been sort of a cross fertilization of just the craziest conspiracy theories mixed together with violent extremists. Thats qanon, white supremacists, proud boys, boogaloo, et cetera, et cetera. I think what were expecting like you said, ive been talking to extremist researchers a lot. What we say, and i hate to be so glib about it, im a parent and i know youre a parent. The times we really worry is when everything gets quiet. Thats when the unsettling feeling comes in and thats what the people that i talk to have now, you know. Theyre expecting we can go back to 2020 and were going to see what we saw in 2020, which is, you know, attacks, kidnappings, killings, planned in private spaces as well as facebook and terrorism planned and executed on smaller scales. All eyes were on the capitol today really, but thats not the big worry from here on out. Yeah, that worry, ben and i think there are distinctions here in the categories of folks were talking about. That worry, i lived through Oklahoma City bombing and the Militia Movement and like actual concerted attacks by right wing violent extremists in america. That seems to me the real penetrating concern that youre seeing among various levels of government right now. Yeah, look, i dont want to say we were it was easier to do this job over the last few years because there was a direct funnel from the president. Talking points came from a central node, they found their way up from there. The president had centralized talking points, so did fox news, like the caravan. That was a way to create primary drivers of agitation in those spaces. Right now theyre regrouping. Theyre trying to find new spaces. Theyre trying to find the new talking points that work, and theyre not frankly these extremist spaces, theyre not talking about the dr. Seuss stuff youre hearing on fox news. Theyre not getting riled up about that sort of thing. They need these big existential threats. And when the next one comes along, theyll rally behind that message. Theyll rally behind that next caravan and thats when we start to get worried. Brandy, ben, as always, doing great reporting on this. Huge, wonderful colleagues and resources for us here at nbc. Thank you both. Ahead as more people who want to get the vaccine are able to get it, the next battle that comes. How to message the people who will refuse. Dr. Peter hotez and what needs to be done coming up. To be done coming up dont settle for products that give you a sort of white smile. Try new crest whitening emulsions for 100 whiter teeth. Its highly active peroxide droplets swipe on in seconds. Better. Faster. 100 whiter teeth. Crestwhitesmile. Com overspending on a retinol cream . Just one jar of olay retinol24 hydrates better than the 100 retinol cream. For smooth, bright skin or your money back. Olay. Face anything. And try new retinol24 max. By the end of last april covid19 had already ravaged the new york metropolitan area. The virus had still only been in the United States a few months and there were a lot of experts there was a lot experts did not know. Cdc director robert red fern told the washington post, there is a possibility the assault on our nation next winter will be more difficult than the one we just went through. Were going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time. It was a totally reasonable concern at the time. For months after that there were no experts publicly disagreeing with him. The cdc estimated the flu season that was just ending had been associated with, quote, 38 million illnesses, 18 million medical visits, 405,000 hospitalizations and 22,000 deaths. The idea that a flu season like that would combine with the devastation seen in a place like new york to create unimaginable misery was a real threat. Redfield was right, this was a nightmare across the country, the worst and deadliest in our lifetimes. But the flu had nothing to do with it because there was no flu in the u. S. This winter basically. By this point last year there were over 174,000 confirmed cases of flu. This flu season look at that has only 1,499 confirmed cases. That is less than 1 of the total this time last year. The number of flu associated pediatric deaths, usually ranges between about 150 to 200 deaths per flu season. This year that number is 1. There has been one confirmed pediatric death due to the flu this flu season. Wild, right . I mean, think to yourself, how often have you gotten sick . Covid aside. You got a cold, got the flu, got bugs over the last year. Not a lot of it, right . It seems like there are at least two things we can learn from this. One is that definitively, and we know this already, coronavirus is not the flu. No matter what certain people have said. You got ebola, that was it. This one is different, much different. This is a flu. This is like a flu. No, no, no, no, no. Covid is not like the flu. It is much more transmissible, much more insidious. The lack of flu season proves that. I mean, with social distancing and masks and other measures, we were collectively able to almost completely suppress the flu. No flu. Not the coronavirus, though. Coronavirus kicked our butts. The second thing we can learn is that all these common sense Public Health practices that we can all recite by memory now weve been told by responsible leaders to follow that they really do reduce the spread of infectious diseases. I mean, despite the pact people like the former president and right wing cranks have been lying to people for a year, they dont. Here it is in black and white. This is the evidence. Weve known this for like over a century. Germs travel in predictable ways. When you take steps to make it harder for them to travel person to person, guess what . You suppress infectious diseases. And yet these folks have been lying to people about that for a year and contributing directly to getting more people sick in the process. Heres what you need know and what theyre not going to tell you. There is as of tonight, precisely no evidence that the lockdowns in america saved lives anywhere. In fact, its possible that mass quarantines killed people. I mean, nonsense. You could say the tradeoffs were worth it because if people stop interacting with each other, they cant spread their germs to each other, and that reduces the vectors of infection as we have seen with the flu. So maybe the way to respond to this is possible those measures saved countless lives. It basically allowed us to skip an entire flu season during the pandemic. Keeping virus from spreading can we agree on that now . Can we reach consensus on the germ theory of disease here in 2021 . Okay. So, another thing we have learned and again, all this is provisional, but the covid vaccines work. The big challenge is getting as many shots into as many arms as possible. Including the people fed lies by the right. How to manage that next. Anage t. Because i can still make my own insulin. And trulicity activates my body to release it. Onceweekly trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. Most people taking it reached an a1c under 7 . 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Coventry direct, redefining insurance. All right. We are now averaging 2 million vaccinations a day, okay. Thats a big deal. Thats double the amount of doses from a month and a half ago, right, when joe biden was sworn in. It puts us to the point where 75 of the shots delivered to states are getting into peoples arms which again, thats incredible. Thats the first part of the story. Its been the first part. Supply and logistics. Getting manufacturers to make enough vaccine, shipping it throughout the country, getting it to distribution sites. Because thats gotten really quite good really fast particularly in say a metro area like new york, we are going to interphase two. We are going to see a supply demand tipping point. The problem is going to switch from demand, more people want the vaccine than can get it, we have vaccine sitting around and no one to give it to. That problem in a lot of ways is a trickier one to solve. Its not a logistics or manufacturing problem, its a human problem. Its about human beings, trust and society and knowledge and belief. The hardest people to reach just might be supporters of the former president. Axios published a poll this week showing nearly 60 of white republicans are unsure if theyll get vaccinated. Trump getting vaccinated in public could have gone a huge, huge long way and dispel doubts. Instead they got their shots in secret last month while still at the white house. A lot of expertise and experts, dr. Hotez, dean of prop cal medicine at baylor college, author of the brandnew book preventing the next pandemic, vaccine diplomacy at a time of antiscience. Lets start, doctor, with the idea were coming up on this tipping point. I want to stress this is very different in different parts of the country. I know people who cant get an appointment for three weeks, meanwhile this is a tweet from a new york city vaccination bot saying hundreds of slots are available. This was i think just yesterday. Do you agree that were going to get to that point fairly soon . Well, not soon enough, chris, because we still have this u. K. Variant, the b. 1. 1. 7. Accelerating. We still dont have enough vaccine supply. But the president assured us a couple of days ago that we may reach that point starting in june where we will have sufficient vaccine so that any american who wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated. So thats exciting and its especially exciting because theres new data coming out of israel now that was published in new england journal of medicine last week showing that two doses of the Pfizer Biontech vaccine, i think the others will do it as well, is actually dramatically reducing asymptomatic transmission. Remember we were talking about it stopped symptomatic transmission, now we know it stops asymptomatic transmission. We could vaccinate our way out of the pandemic this summer. Thats why it is important to get everybody vaccinated. Were seeing in the data, im seeing anecdotally a mismatch, which is that people with high levels of social capital, high levels of sort of connections and facility with booking appointments, very driven to get the vaccine which is a certain population, are getting the vaccine though in some places like 40, 50 of the population might be eligible. You look at the comorbidities. My question is, before you get to people that are antivaxx or the chunk of folks who think its too much hassle, what do we do about that . I think its tens of millions of americans. One of the problems a few problems. One, were just now expanding our vaccination sites. Remember, the way it was initially constructed it was going to rely exclusively on the pharmacy chains and hospital chains and its not that the pharmacy chains are doing a bad job. Its just they dont have the bandwidth needed, same with the hospital chains. So a big part of the first weeks of the Biden Administration were to dramatically expand vaccination hubs and we did that here in houston with mayor turner and the county judge, lena hidalgo, especially in the low income neighborhoods which are pharmacy deserts. The other thing that had to happen, i personally felt some of the guidelines, the 1a, 1b, 1c guidelines, they were complicated given we learned in 20 our Health System cant tolerate a lot of complexity. We have to keep it simple. And i think sometimes that confused a lot of people as well. So, i saw this example the other day, an epidemiologist tweeting about in philly. This was Public Health workers. Said today philly vaccinated a thousand people in my moms apartment building. Teams went door to door giving shots. Folks sat outside in the hall to wait. Do you envision taking more proactive steps than now as we get further into this . We have this terrible problem some people call Vaccine Hesitancy or vaccine refusal. As you pointed out in what you just said, theres two major groups that we have identified and we did a study im not a social scientist, im a vaccine scientists. We partner with a group of scientists at a m led by callahan. The findings were almost identical to what the Kaiser Foundation found in their stud using different methods. The two most hesitant vaccine refusing groups are the africanamerican community, africanamerican populations, and number one was what we call trump voters, what they called republicans. You might say, well, gee, thats two very diametrically different types of groups. And they come for two very Different Reasons which we can discuss the origins of that. Well, i guess theres been a lot of talk about penetrating africanamerican community, and i know there is a lot being done on that. Less has been spoken about the other group which when you look at the polling, africanamerican hesitancy has gone down over time, where as white republicans has not. What is being are there strategies being devised for getting that group on board . Well, you know, ive been reaching out to conservative news outlets in the last few weeks, ive reached out to a number of conservative groups to hear their concerns. This actually was predicted and predictable because, chris, what happened was the antivaccine moved, vaccines cause autism, thats never gone away. I wrote this book, vaccines didnt cause my daughters autism. That put me they called me out on the instagram o. G. Villain. I dont know what that meant. Youre talking to the o. G. Villain tonight. But then what happened in 2014, 2015 it took a pivot. It took a pivot to the political extremism on the farright linked with the tea party, and they formed Political Action committees. Farright Political Action committees like texans for vaccine choice, oklahomans for vaccine choice. Thats what were seeing. They started in 2020 protesting against masks and social distancing. So its a fullon Antiscience Movement coming out of the political right. Dr. Peter hotez, as always, its great to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you. Thank you. Next, while the democrats have a slim majority in the house and the slimmest possible majority in the senate, republicans have been hard at work trying to stack the deck so it will be easier for them to win again. The voting reform passed to stop that from happening, after this. Overspending on a retinol cream . Just one jar of olay retinol24 hydrates better than the 100 retinol cream. For smooth, bright skin or your money back. Olay. Face anything. And try new retinol24 max. So youre a small business, or a big one. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. Republicans have been spending a lot of time talking about dr. Seuss and mr. Potato head instead of legislating. But they are laser focused on defeating the bill that House Democrats passed last night. Hr1, the for the people act, because it would basically set National Standards for democracy. Nothing threatens republicans quite like that. You can see the reaction, just the sheer number of statewide bills that would restrict voting access. 253 restrictive bills as of late last month according to the brennan center. Hr1 is such a threat donald trump who is not in the weeds of legislative action painted a target on it when he went before cpac and got a huge rockus response. House whip Steve Scalise tried to overturn it tweeted about the bill just after it passed. Republicans understand the stakes here and democrats also understand whats at stake, preserving a level Playing Field in free and fair elections. Here to explain these stakes, janai nelson, associate director council, naacp defense fund, and the founder of the new south super pac and c. E. O. Of the georgia project which works to register voters. Janai, i wonder, last night i had adam chiffon and we talked about the gerrymandering aspect of this hr 1 would require these independent nonpartisan gerrymandering commissions. What are the other parts of this bill that matter, that have stakes for voter access . Yes, this is an incredibly comprehensive law. In addition to reining in partisanship and redistricting practices as you mention, it increases the Campaign Finance system, it sets stricter standards for lobbyists. Perhaps most important it provides a wide range of uniform measures in federal elections that will increase access to the ballot box. That includes expanded Voter Registration opportunities like automatic Voter Registration, sameday registration, online registration, and critically important, the restoration of Voting Rights to formally incarcerated persons who we know are disproportionately black and latinx. It provides for expanded mailin voting and two weeks of early voting. It also has expanded Election Security measures like voter verified paper trail systems, and it addresses the issue of disinformation in our elections. It prohibits the provision of false information about election processes that might discourage voting and other deceptive voting processes. So its incredibly comprehensive. It addresses many of the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in our democracy that weve seen revealed over the past decade or more through Voter Suppression efforts. And this is something that is sorely needed in light of the attack that we see happening at the state level on Voting Rights with the 253 pending bills that threaten to shrink our access to the ballot. You know, the elections in america are so federalized that it didnt even occur to me, i think, to think about how weird it is, right. So in other countries, france has an election, its not like one region down the south of france gets to start voting on this day and a few days later they start its like the election is basically playing by the same rules. I mean, so just the basic thing that janai said, these minimum standards, right, things on early voting, we would set a minimum floor for states that you have to do this. How would that affect your work in georgia where youve been working on, you know, these sort of push and pull fights about voting access . I think it would have a fundamental shift on how we do our work. The reason that the new georgia project has registered half a Million People of color to vote in all 159 of georgias counties is because we dont have measures like automatic Voter Registration, right. The reason that we do such intense Voter Education is because theres a lot of misinformation and disinformation based on the partisan makeup of the people who run our elections from county to county, right. Georgia, surprisingly enough, had no fault absentee balloting. Theyve been voting this way weve been voting this way for 15 years, and now we are seeing these attacks on it because the republicans were embarrassed by the outcomes of the november general election, and by the january runoffs. And so the idea is to take the partisan politics out of it, that participation in our democracy is so important that we should have federal standards for how people should have access to the franchise, and how people should participate. And so i think it would allow us to shift those resources because shift resources to Voter Education and tons of other things as opposed to just the basics of getting people registered and making sure they stay on the voter rolls. Janai, there are articles about federalism here which are less pressing than the tangible stakes of democracy. Have people pointed out, look, the weird bulca nized, individual rules and bodies he they luckily stood up against the president s attempt to essentially overturn the election. Do you have concerns about this sort of federalizing things this way . I think theres im not concerned. I found that our most important moments of safeguarding our democracy have occurred when theres been federal legislation, like the Voting Rights act of 1965 which were celebrating with the anniversary of bloody sunday coming up this weekend. And the passage of the national Voter Registration act and the help america vote act. It has often taken federal legislation to rein in the excesses and efforts to suppress the vote that happens at the state level. This is a regulation that congress has Pure Authority to engage in through the time, place and manners cause of the constitution and it allows congress to set standards for the time, place and manner of elections of federal elections. Of course, we expect that states would in all likelihood adopt many of these democracy expanding measures because theyre good, because theyre good for our democracy and they are healthy, and they invite a more inclusive electorate. And that is exactly what this federal legislation is pushing for and what we hope states will eventually come around to accepting and embracing. But federal it has no violation of state rights and it is critically constitutional given the broad Congressional Authority that exists in the constitution to regulate federal elections. Janai nelson and nse, thank you. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Rachel. Thank you, my friend. Thanks for joining us this hour. Happy to have you here. By rules of the court, were not allowed to record what happens, let alone broadcast a recording of it on tv. Federal courts dont cameras in the courtroom. Now, reporters and members. Public are allowed to be there, themselves, in person to watch or cover for the press most Court Proceedings, but thats it, all right . You can sit in the courtroom and take notes and report on what you saw and what you heard while you were there, but no cameras. No still cameras, no video cameras, no tape recording of the Court Proceedings. And thats been true forever in federal courts. I mean, you have to allow reporters in and members of the public in because its a key value in our constitutional system that the administration of justice is its a public thing, its open to the public, its transparent. We can see what Court Proceedings are like. We can see what federal trials