good morning, everyone, and welcome to your new day. i m amara walker. and i m phil mattingly. and today all eyes are on capitol hill after days of deal-making. democrats get ready to vote on a critical part of president biden s economic agenagenda. we ll tell you what s in the bill and what it means for millions of americans. plus it was a week of twists and turns in the courtroom. now a jury has ordered conspiracy theorist alex jones to pay up to the parents of a sandy hook shooting victim. and war of words. tensions heat up between the u.s. and china after nancy pelosi s trip to taiwan. antony blinken s warning it could have major consequences. good morning and welcome to your new day. it s august 6th. amara, we did it last hour. i ll do it again because we re not sitting next to each other. what s the status? three of the four kids are awake. we re on track to an early start. i have access to all the cameras, and i am doing my best not to check because i don t
good morning and welcome to your new day. it s august 6th. amara, we did it last hour. i ll do it again because we re not sitting next to each other. what s the status? three of the four kids are awake. we re on track to an early start. i have access to all the cameras, and i am doing my best not to check because i don t want to get involved, you know? i don t want to get involved. i don t know. that s the answer. they ll be there when you get home. your husband s got it until you get home. exactly. he s holding it down. a lot of news to get to. up first, the biden agenda facing a crucial test on capitol hill. the vote progress says is set to begin on the senate economic and climate bill. the bill has the support of democratic senator kyrsten sinema who demanded several changes to the tax provisions. sinema s support is essential as they passed the bill under a
transfer of power, obviously, when it is certified and verified. we have two former democratic elected officials from red states. senator kerry when you ran for re-election in nebraska was this ever something you worried about, election rigging except from the other side of the aisle? no. never did. the big thing you always worry about whether people will register and get out the vote. never worried about rigging of any election. what about you no. i think the most amazing thing and donald trump has said a lot of rhetoric which is very dangerous but this is the most dangerous rhetoric he has because it undercuts the very foundation of our democracy, going through the vote progress sees. to the governor s points, donald trump has never stated there will be a peaceful transfer of power. that was never a concern of mine this hold thing it was rigged. my largest concern of voter suppression.
election with respect to voting rights and people could keep coming up with new schemes each election, even if ultimately they were ruled to violate the voting rights act. it would be hard for us to catch those things up front to make sure that elections are done in an equitable way. he seems to be saying that election schemes are much more prevalent than in just the 16 states that are part of this aspect of the law. do you think it should actually be expand pd. i think that s a legitimate question, more legitimate than whether we should be eradicating the act. think of it this way, alex. who are the people who most have to wait on lines and who waited the longest times to vote in this past election? that was poorer folk, people of color. when he s talking about new schemes he s talking about things that republican legislatures or any kind of legislature can put in place to impact the vote progress says. so it seems to me that, yes,
contributor. with a big welcome to the both of you, patricia ann, what would the impact be if this part of the law is overturned? i think it will deliver substantial blow to the efforts to increase equality in voting and access to the vote progress says, efforts to eliminate discrimination in voting restrictions, everything from voter i.d. laws to voter registration measures. lit really it will eliminate a proactive check that you have on the governments that are covered by this statute now and leave parties to nothing other than lawsuits, which are hard to bring and slow to bring to try and check and stop these measures when they re adopted. james, is there evidence that this specific aspect of the voting rights law is still necessary? i think there s tremendous evidence, and i think patricia is right. we wonant to acknowledge the fa that, yes, we ve made progress since the voting rights act have