so could we finally see prison reform? support for a bipartisan prison reform bill called the first step act. it makes a major overhaul for sentencing laws. listen to the president. we re all better off when former inmates can receive and re-enter society as law-abiding, productive citizens, and thanks to our booming economy, they now have a chance at more opportunities than they have ever had before. so this legislation namely would focus on rehabilitation and opportunity for current inmates. it will eliminate the staffing provisions that lead to consecutive sentence. it would shorten some mandatory minimum sentences including those convicted under the three strikes conviction, and also reduce the number of nonviolence drug offenders receiving mandatory minimums. van jones is also the co-founder
someone who is working on this and has been for quite some time is the president s son, jared kushner. he has worked closely with democratic and republican lawmakers and has won warm reviews. kushner has worked for months to shepherd through a legislative package that reforms federal prison policy and potentially mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. he is getting bipartisan support. if the democrats flip the house you re going to see a lot of democrats in the middle, and potentially republicans, try to push this thing through. yeah. you have to give some credit here to jared kushner. he has some personal family history with the criminal justice system and i think it s personal to him how this has changed and addressed. if democrats do take the house there will not be a lot of areas where the white house, president and the democrats can come
sentencing laws. so what we have seen is a jeff sessions that had been quite effective, an early supporter and a regular someone who has regularly been defensive of donald trump s administration. and remember in october 2017 when jeff sessions appeared in this oversight hearing before congress and he was asked several questions and given several opportunities to support the mueller investigation and he wouldn t. this is the man that donald trump wants to fire. and i don t think that s going to change, and i think part of what we re hearing is some senators actually just acknowledging that. yeah. david frum, bob corker saying the fix is in, it couldn t be clearer to him. lindsey graham in one of the most stunning reversals since the invention of video recording. it s as if he does not know that we have recordings of what he said about this last year. but lindsey graham personifies what looks like a collapse of republican support in the senate for jeff sessions.
around affirmative action, but the stuff around tougher sentencing laws with regard to drug offenses. there is a general consensus in this country, just as there is a general consensus with regards to climate change, that the justice system in the united states is deeply, deeply racist, profoundly racist. and there were efforts to address it and what we re seeing is what they re rolling that back and that will have devastating implications for communities across this country. thank you both for shedding a spotlight on the policies today instead of just the rhetoric. we appreciate it. and it looks like vice president mike pence has just announced donald trump. again he s signing a defense authorization bill that was named after john mccain. quite a bit of hypocrisy there considering that the president has trashed john mccain repeatedly and said a man who spent years in a prison as a
district attorney s office, i m grateful to your commitment to justice. people don t have that luxury and i plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues. what can he do specifically is this he can speak up for others in the position he is in. as jay z spoke up for him. bankers can lobby state legislatures to change the sentencing laws, to do bail reform as a matter of fact. uh these things they can do. they have a very powerful platform to do that as musicians. mark thompson, i love your tie today. thank you. it s bright, springy and putting a smile on my face. thank you for saying that. i got the gray memo. thing about gray you don t have to worry about lint. it doesn t show. i don t have the precedent to wipe lint off my shoulder. that right there is going to