in areas with low vaccination rates. i m joshua johnson. welcome to the week. let us begin tonight with two stories that say a lot about who we are as a country and where we might be going. in charlottesville, virginia, crews removed three statues today. among them were monuments to confederate generals robert e. lee and stonewall jackson. charlottesville had planned to remove them nearly four years ago. white supremacists and neo-nazis marched in protest and that led to violent clashes that turned deadly. it was one of america s first looks at extremism during donald trump s presidency. meanwhile in austin, texas, we re monitoring a special session of the state legislature that began this morning and continues into the night. it s happening right now. it is the next phase in the republican party s push for new rules on voting. texas has become a battleground state in the fight for voting rights. according to the brennan center for justice, nearly every state has introduc
to violent clashes that turned deadly. it was one of america s first looks at extremism during donald trump s presidency. meanwhile in austin, texas, we re monitoring a special session of the state legislature that began this morning and continues into the night. it s happening right now. it is the next phase in the republican party s push for new rules on voting. texas has become a battleground state in the fight for voting rights. according to the brennan center for justice, nearly every state has introduced restrictive bills. more than 380 bills in all across the country. this is largely driven by the former president s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. those claims led to another outburst of extremist violence at the capitol on january 6th. the bills under consideration tonight in texas are house bill 3 and senate bill 1. they re similar to legislation that got blocked in may. democrats staged a late-night walkout forcing the legislature to adjourn before the bil