own charm offense. and so, again, democrats must recalibrate and ask themselves what voting bills can they get passed, while republican lawmakers at all levels continue to resist and ask themselves what voter restrictions they can get away with. watching all of this are black voters and civil rights leaders like myself, exhausted with the process and ready to demand executive orders. we'll unpack the domestic week that was, and shortly i'll ask the chair of the foreign relations committee about the escalating tension between the united states and russia over the country's brinkmanship on ukraine. is confrontation inevitable? all that tonight on "politicsnation." let's get started. joining me now, senator bob menendez, democrat of new jersey and chair of the foreign relation committee. senator, thank you for joining us tonight. i know it was a bruising week for democrats and certainly president biden who opened up the second year of his presidency with thundering accommodations of republican obstruction. but watched as the senate was unable to pass voting rights legislation due in no small part to its own party. critics on both sides say the administration needs a reset after national weariness over the economy has pulled its poll numbers down. where can the president stand to reverse course and where should he stay on the one he's on now? >> reverend sharpton, good to be with you. look, the vote the other night in the senate on voting rights was a tough disappointment. as someone who advocated for the legislation, spoke for it, i was extremely disappointed to see that 16 of our fellow republicans who in 2006 led by leader mcconnell at the time voted to extend the voting rights act somehow a few years later found no reason to join us. had those 16 joined us, we would have passed the bill without changing any rules, and we would be on our way to ensuring the franchise for every citizen in this country. so we're going to continue that fight. several of our republican colleagues during the course of that debate said that they looked for this element or that element of voting rights. well, i think it's time to test them on that. at the same time we need to use the justice department to ensure the voting rights of people. as it relates to the broader question about, you know, what the president needs to do, i think, you know, he needs to build upon the successes he had in the first year. we forget that he entered into a raging pandemic and now 200 million americans are vaccinated. we forget that he created 6.4 million jobs in the first year of his administration. we forget we passed the american rescue plan that really helped families in tough times and saved literally thousands of businesses, small and mid-sized businesses across the country. he's got to build on that, particularly on the economic equations where families are hurting, particularly with rising costs, deal with the supply chain, and make sure that we can educate our children in the midst of a pandemic. those are some of the critical issues i hope he'll pursue as he unpacks maybe the build back better program. >> and clearly a lot of what you said has not been given the proper attention, a lot of solid achievements. and one of the things that i know when you talk about voting rights and issues of civil rights in general, you've been consistent. i know you well. we worked together and talked down through the years since you're a senator from my bordering home state. but one senator today, the arizona democratic party formally censured kyrsten sinema for her refusal to support filibuster reform, and with that impeding passage of the voting rights legislation. i see that and i keep coming back to raw politics, senator, because i don't see how the party expects to hold onto its majority with so-called moderates clinging to rules that make voter protections impossible. and to be clear, we're talking about the voters of color that the party needs. at what point do senate democrats start holding their colleagues accountable in some way, as apparently the arizona state party is doing now? >> well, you know, every senator, reverend sharpton, had an opportunity to cast their vote, and of course senator sinema cast her vote different than mine. i wish she had cast a vote to change the rules. she did cast a vote for the legislation, which got no republican votes, therefore, couldn't break our 60-vote filibuster, but it was unwilling to change the rules of the senate for a narrow exception on voting rights. as i said that night, you know, of the debate, as dr. king, you know, so clearly pointed out was voting rights was essential. without it you couldn't have a voice into who governs you, what the economy will be, what health care and education will be like. so we're going to go back tower colleagues and press them on these issues. but here's the challenge. when you have a divided 50/50 senate, 50 democrats and 50 republicans, if you lose a democrat and somehow they go to the other party, you're no longer in the majority and not able to do absolutely anything with them. so that is a challenge we have. it's not one that our communities want to hear, but it's the reality of what we face. >> now, senator, before we run out of time, i have to ask you as senate foreign relations chair, are you in favor of military action if russia ultimately invades ukraine as the united states and our nato allies are concerned that it will do so? >> well, no, i'm not in favor of u.s. military action in ukraine. i am in favor of giving the ukrainians all of the withdrawal as president biden is doing. as a matter of fact, the $200 million of the critical defensive equipment, including javelin missiles that can stop russian tanks, arrived in an expedited fashion. there's more of that to come. i have offered a bill which we're trying to get republican support for along with some of their ideas on what i call the mother of all sanctions to send a clear message to putin before he makes a decision. this would be a huge mistake for not only you, but for the russian people. so i think that is the way to go in terms of trying to ensure both ukrainians' ability to defend themselves and a global community that says to putin there will be devastating economic sanctions beyond those that we've seen in the past, and it would be a real consequence to the russian. >> i do you think sanctions will get putin's attention? do you think that that will give him cause to pause? >> reverend, i think there's a couple things that will get his attention. number one is all of this equipment that is flowing into ukraine and already prior to this was flowing into ukraine and all the training, he has to think about how many of russia's sons will be lost in an invasion of ukraine. and how many of those coffins is the russian people willing to accept for an invasion of ukraine, which was not instigated by ukraine. secondly, you know, the sanctions we're talking about aren't the typical sanctions. our sanctions would go not only directly to putin and oligarchs and military leaders, it would also go to the russian economy and its primary engine of rouses. it would sanction russian sovereignty and it would unplug russia from the international is them financial transactions called the swiss system just to mention a few. these are the types of sanctions that originally brought iran to the negotiating table. it's the type of sanctions that could get putin's attention in addition to all the incredible material and supplies we are providing the ukrainians, which would change the calculus. maybe he can succeed in a military venture, but at the cost of how many russian lives? >> senator menendez, thank you for being with us tonight. joining now, my political panel. republican strategist shermichael singleton a contributor to "the boston globe," and former chair of the maryland democratic party, maya rookie moore cummings. am iia, let me start with you. as i mentioned at the top of the show, so many of us are right influence frustrated that in the same week we celebrated martin luther king holiday and marked the president's first year in office, we saw efforts to pass voting rights legislation all but collapse in the senate. nbc news polling shows black support for biden has fallen 19 points since april 2020 to just 64%. the white house is now considering executive orders to protect minority communities' access to the ballot as well as to reforming policing. another issue of great importance to black americans, can biden fix these problems with the power of the presidential pen, maya? >> well, i think that he has some options there. you're absolutely right that african-americans are very frustrated. they didn't get police reform, they haven't gotten voting rights reform, and we're facing existential threats in terms of being able to participate in our democracy. but biden has the power of the pen. he does have, you know, these executive order options. i'm not so sure that he's willing to actually execute on police reform with regards to the executive order, but certainly on voting rights he's already done it. he did it last year where he issued an executive order seeking to, you know, beef up the national voting website, to expand voting access for military members, and some other minor issues. he can do it again, but this time no more commissions, no more studying this or that. this is about actually having an executive order with some staying power that would actually make an immediate difference in the election of the 2022 and 2024. so things that he can possibly look at is, like, for example, in section 5 of nvra, national voter registration act that passed in 1993, there was a requirement that there be a simultaneous registration of anybody that comes into the dmv to get a license. and yet we've created an opt-in system in many states around the country. make it opt-out, meaning the simultaneous component of that law actually becomes real. make it an opt-out system where everybody is automatically registered as soon as they come into the dmv. if they want to opt out later, they can. another thing that they can do, we have all these federal aid programs that are administered through the states like medicare and medicaid and various other programs. use the administrative data from those programs and release them to the states so they can automatically register those people to vote as well. that's the only one -- within the purview of the president. he can order states not to limit access to absentee ballots, not to limit access to early voting. certainly we are in unprecedented times. we are still in the midst of a global pandemic. >> right. >> there are things they can do with teeth and put it under the department of justice civil rights division elections department. >> and all of that is in the purview of the president, all that you named. a quick follow-up. as we mentioned, today the arizona democratic party voted to censure senator kyrsten sinema for blocking voting rights legislation. in a statement, they said, and i'm quoting, while we take no pleasure in this announcement, the adp executive board has decided to formally censure senator sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy. you've served as head of your state party. is this an effective strategy when dealing with senator sinema? briefly, please. >> well, let me tell you, it certainly is unprecedented, but it also is, i got to tell you, serious, because i can guarantee you the party did not do that without the agreement of the entire delegation from that state. so that means that the democrats in congress actually agreed. and senator sinema should take this as a very serious warning. >> let me move on to the gop because after all their not just two democratic senators that opposed voting rights right now, but also every single republican, every one of them, including lawmakers who supported the exact same policies in the past. take a listen to minority leader mitch mcconnell talking about the issue this week. >> well, the concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, african-american voters are voting in just as high percentage as americans. >> just as high percentage as americans. shermichael, what's your reaction to senator mcconnell's comments? >> senate minority leader mcconnell was one of the 17 republicans that senator menendez mentioned back in 2006 during the george w. bush years that voted to renew the 165 voting rights bill. you see a switch within the party, including many of those republicans who are still in the senate. i can't tell you why. i really can't tell you why, rev, but from my perspective as a conservative, this is what i think should occur. i do think republicans should work with democrats to extend voting times. i do think that republicans should work with democrats to have more voting precincts available, particularly in heavily populated areas. as i told a friend a week ago, i wouldn't wait in line for 15 hours. i know someone that's been working all day wouldn't wait in line for ten hours. there has to be steps we can take in a bipartisan fashion that are not republicans, that are not democratic, but that really strengthens and sort of provides a healthy balance, if you will, to the voting process. that is critical because, as we saw throughout the pandemic and as i hope we'll see going forward, people are interested in being able to participate in the voting process if given the proper access. i'm not saying that we should make it easy or we shouldn't have voter laws. you want voter laws, that's fine, make sure getting an i.d. is easily available. so there are steps we can take to strengthen the process as far as the security is concerned, but while also making it easy for people to be engaged in the civic process, which is very healthy for the country. i'll just add quickly, rev, when i was younger, i used to vote with my grandparents. that's one of the ways i fell in love with politics. i think i've been able to continue that tradition of having people bringing their kids and grandkids and just watch how critical this process is, whether they're republican or democrat is really, really key and critical to continuing the tradition of keeping our democratic republic alive. >> when i was young, my grandparents couldn't vote. but maybe the reason they changed the votes is as the senator said, he sees african-americans as not regular americans or other americans. but let me ask you this, shermichael. while senator mcconnell was assuring black voters they have nothing to worry about this week, florida governor ron desantis was proposing a special police force to monitor elections, something that does not currently exist anywhere in the country. desantis hasn't ruled out a run for the white house in 2024, much to the chagrin of president trump. is this what it takes to rocket to the top of the republican party right now? >> i certainly don't support any type of measures or steps that could be perceived as intimidating to voters. now, it's one thing to say, hey, let's have a nonpartisan commission in states across the country to make sure that the process is done fairly and legally. that's one thing to say we'll have an equal number of democrats and republicans making sure that everything is working the way that it should. but to have people at precincts potentially intimidating people, i don't think that's a good thing. he know a lot of people have played a lot of politics with this particular issue, and i don't think we should. again, it's important for us as the beacon of freedom across the world, the beacon of democracy across the world to showcase what a good and fair election process and safe election process can look like. and we have to get away from the extremes, rev, and be willing to work together collaboratively in order to do that. and unfortunately i just don't think we're seeing enough of that. >> maya rockeymoore cummings and shermichael singleton without his tie or his piano tonight, thank you so much. just ahead, we have this week's gotcha, a wake-up call for democrats. what the party must focus on this year to stop the steal in 2024. and the roe v. wade verdict been handed down for years today. i'll ask an active whether the landmark decision will make it to 50 years. but first, richard lui with today's top news stories. >> good saturday to you. the first american shipment of what is being called lethal aid to ukraine touched down in the capital of kiev. tensions with russia continue to escalate. secretary of state antony blinken and his russian counterpart meeting in geneva yesterday. there were no significant breakthroughs in diplomacy talks. covid cases in the united states topped 70 million. the number of deaths due to covid now stands at more than 868,000 as cases appear to have peaked. nearly 500 residents about 150 miles south of san francisco had to evacuate due to a wildfire. officials say the unusual winter blaze is 10% contained. the big sur fire moved unusually fast for this season. more "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton right after a break. reverend al sharpton right after a break. when i break a long run, i'm talking long, long. that's why i use old spice triple protection sweat defense. [announcer] there he goes. old spice works harder for longer. hey derrick man, you gonna be much longer? it's gonna be a minute, minute. hey derrick, quit playin'. derrick! i know there's conflicting information about dupuytren's contracture. i thought i couldn't get treatment yet? well, people may think that their contracture has to be severe to be treated, but it doesn't. if you can't lay your hand flat on the table, talk to a hand specialist. but what if i don't want surgery? well, then you should find a hand specialist certified to offer nonsurgical treatments. what's the next step? visit findahandspecialist.com today to get started. . for this week's gotcha, i want to give democrats a friendly but firm reminder that all politics are local. a lot of the attention on voting rights now is understandably focused on the u.s. senate. well, legislation to protect the vote is floundering. and on the 19 states where republicans have passed 34 new suppression laws. but let me warn you tonight the fight to stop the steal in 2024 will be on the midterm ballot this year. let me explain. just this week the district attorney in atlanta asked for a special grand jury to help investigate president trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in georgia. including his call to the secretary of state brad raffensperger asking him find 11,780 votes. which fortunately he refused to do. but here's the thing. even as criminal probes are getting under way, republicans are fighting to make sure trump's next perfect phone call gets a friendlier reception all over the country. the gop is moving aggressively to get right-wing partisans elected as secretaries of state. according to "the hill," the republican state leadership committee which handles secretary of state races, raised a total of $33 million in 2021. meanwhile, the democratic association of secretaries of state raised just $1 million during the first six months of last year. nationwide, 26 secretary of state position will be on the ballot this year, 14 of which are currently held by republicans and 12 by democrats. and it only takes a few races to massively change the balance of an electoral college, electoral power because in many states, secretaries of state play a decisive role in determining how election results get certified. one way to stop all this would be comprehensively voter protections like those senate democrats could pass right now if they united by eliminating the filibuster reforms to our electoral counting system would also be useful. but one of the easiest solutions would be to beat republicans at their own game. right-wing figures like steve bannon have been encouraging followers to run for state and local offices for a while, and it's been having a major impact. democrats need to start doing the same thing. republicans think their efforts to co-opt local politics from school board to the state house will be able to fly under the radar until it's too late for anyone to do anything about it. but some of us have been paying attention to their schemes, and now we're getting the word out. i gotcha. i gotcha [bacon sizzles] ♪ [electronic music plays] ♪ woo! ♪ ♪making your way in the world today♪ ♪takes everything you've got♪ ♪ ♪taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ we have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. psoriasis really messes with you. try. hope. fail. no one should suffer like that. i started cosentyx®. five years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infection, some serious and a lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reaction may occur. best move i've ever made. ask your dermatologist about cosentyx®. [copy machine printing] ♪ ♪ who would've thought printing... could lead to growing trees. ♪ 49 years ago today, history was made in the supreme court by a ruling that changed many women's lives for generations. on this day in 1973, a decision in the case of roe v. wade ruled that the constitution of the united states protects a woman's right to an abortion without government interference. but now many women's rights activists such as my next guest believe we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of roe. joining me now is cecile richards of planned parenthood. thanks for being with us. on thursday the supreme court declined to challenge the texas abortion law which instills precedent for the abortion ban to take place and allows the ban to stay in effect for now. in a nah strongly worded dissent, justice sotomayor called the texas law, quote, a disaster and a grave disservice to women in texas. this week we also saw arizona become the sixth state to introduce this texas-style abortion ban as this push is happening in conservative states throughout the country. cecile, do you think there is any hope left for roe v. wade, or is this the end? >> well, reverend, obviously the supreme court has yet to make a decision in the mississippi case. if they decide in favor of the mississippi abortion ban, that essential does mean that roe is no longer the law of the land. so they could still do the right thing. you mentioned the texas abortion ban, and it's really important because not only they refused this last week, the supreme court, to make a ruling or to intervene in a clearly unconstitutional ban that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which is, of course, before many people know they're even pregnant. this is the third time the supreme court has refused to intervene in texas. for folks down there, it's been almost five months that access to safe and legal abortion is practically nonexistent. you could definitely say that roe is no longer the law of the land in texas, and as you say, not only arizona, but we estimate that probably 26 states are poised to either completely or largely ban access to safe and legal abortion. >> that's over half the country. now, this is a highly contested partisan issue, and the republican party has been focused on for years trying to curtail abortion rights. a new poll shows that more than two-thirds of americans are against overturning roe, and if it were overturned, 59% of americans say they want more permissive abortion laws. will we see this issue as an energizer for both bases ahead of the 2022 midterms? >> i think it will be a motivator. this is a right that people have had for nearly 50 years, and i think it's important what you point out, reverend. this did not happen, this abortion ban in texas or in mississippi didn't happen because the voters of those states or the people in those states rose up and said we need to ban abortion. this happened because the republican party in an effort to excite their extreme right base has done everything they can to ban abortion. so it is going to be a motivating issue, i believe, but you were talking earlier about voting rights. it is not a mistake or an accident that the same states that are banning abortion are trying to prevent people from going to the polls. they're trying to prevent expansion of access to affordable health care. this is the republican party agenda, and so this is, i hope, a wake-up call for anyone who has thought this couldn't happen. it can with the supreme court that was appointed largely by donald trump, and this november we have the opportunity to send a message to the republican party that this country is not going to go back to a day when people couldn't make their own decisions about pregnancy. the republican party wants those decisions made by government and politicians, not by women, and that's not what the american people want. >> now, research has repeatedly shown that abortion rates are higher among black and brown women, so reduction in access to those services affects these communities disproportionately. can you talk to us about that and what alternatives exist for these women. >> sure. i mean, look, i think the interesting thing is, you know, looking at what happened in the 50 years since roe, it has greatly expanded the opportunities for all women to finish school, get a job, pursue a career. and most importantly, plan their families. it's had huge economic benefits, health care benefits, and disproportionately has benefited black women who had the least access to health care in many of these states. and that, of course, reverend is the problem. i mean, one of the cruel parts about what the republican agenda is, if abortion is banned and women have to somehow get to some other state, that falls of course disproportionately on women with low incomes, young women, teenagers, people what that live in rural areas, and black and brown women. and that is -- if you're working at a job, at a minimum wage job or perhaps you're working at a place where you can't get time off, there's a lot of folks who can't leave their kids with someone else and leave for several days, travel hundreds of miles to get access to safe and legal abortion. it's one of the cruellest parts of this law. it's not an accident that republicans have not cared about the well-being of women in this country and these abortion bans are a classic example. >> cecile richards, thank you for being with us this evening. coming up, the haitian migrant crisis last fall caught our attention then. but the plight of the black immigrant in america remains an issue now. our next guest explains. did you know that you can hear the latest news and updates from all of your favorite msnbc hosts, including me, anytime, anywhere on any device? with tune in scan, the qr code to hear now. be right back. be right back.with tune in scan to hear now. be right back. scan, the qr code. be right back. scan, the qr code to hear now. be right back. scan, the qr code to hear now. be right back. ? scan, the qr code to hear now. be right back. code to hear now. be right back. the qr code to h. be right back. ? scan, the qr code to hear now. be right back. the qr code to hw be right back. ns with walgreens and save. ♪ ♪ i may be close to retirement, but i'm as busy as ever. and thanks to voya, i'm confident about my future. voya provides guidance for the right investments. they make me feel like i've got it all under control. voya. be confident to and through retirement. it's still the eat fresh refresh™ and subway's refreshing everything like the new honey mustard rotisserie-style chicken. it's sweet, it's tangy, it's tender, it never misses. you could say it's the steph curry of footlongs. you could, but i'm not gonna. subway keeps refreshing and refreshing and re... despite having one of the largest haitian immigrant populations in the country, the state of florida just watched the first haitian american member of its congressional delegation be sworn in this week. as democrat sheila mccormick became only the second haitian american ever to serve in the u.s. house, entering the chamber as house democrats try to hold on to their thin majority in 2022 and many of those democrats in the house of color are just trying to hold onto their districts. joining me now, congresswoman sheila mccormick, democrat of florida. congresswoman, thank you for joining us tonight and congratulations on this momentous occasion. according to a new study from the pew research group this week about 4.6 million black americans are immigrants. that's about 1 in 4. but pew expects that even that may double if nearly 10 million -- maybe up to 10 million by 2060. but most of that immigration present coming from jamaica or haiti. of course most of the media framing around this issue of who didn't mention -- immigration focuses on on latin america and east asia. but many americans were troubled as they watched, as we all did, those confrontations between border agents and hasting refugees at the texas border. i even went down there. and another debilitating earthquake and political instability that drove many hastings to seek asylum. is our immigration system sensitive enough to the black immigrant experience? and are we ready for the explosive growth this pew study suggests? >> thank you so much for having me. our country is definitely not ready. we see that what happened at the border was still happening at the border, it's inhumane for us to have an immigration policy but it's not being applied equitably to black immigrants. when you see so many haitian people being expelled back to haiti, some of whom have been living in south america and didn't articulate their fear. we have a history of the united states in treating black immigrants very differently. until we start righting the wrongs of black immigrants and black america and address the social justice issue we have in our country, we're going to see this continue into all black affairs, especially when it comes to black immigrants. >> and i think you said it right. there's a social justice issue. when i went down and saw the haitians under that bridge, it was deplorable. and i was heckled by some for going. i saw your official swear-in on the house floor. and then the photo session with you, your family, various members of the congressional black caucus there in front of rosa park's statue our capitol, which was why i'm profoundly curious as to what your morale looks like come into office this week after senate democrats' failure to pass voting rights legislation, due in part to democrats refusing to let go of the filibuster. where is your mind right now at the end of your first official week? and what do those internal black caucus conversations sound like right now? >> it's very strong. our morale is strong because the fight is far from over. we need everything that we have because when we look at the cumulus effect of what's going on with voting rights, the rise of white supremacists coming into black areas and trying to intimidate, when we look at the cumulus of even the states that are putting forth voter suppression laws, we realize this fight really is not over. it's far from over, in fact. so we're dedicating more to fighting harder. demoralized is not an option for us. that's your on our freedom for not just us, but our children. we will not stand for anyone to intimidate us nor to treat us less than. and the comments about african-americans voting just as much as americans is an indicator of where we are today and what we have to push. >> you congresswoman, before we lose you, i'd love to hear your reaction to this bill pushed by your governor, ron desantis, in his race for the gop presidential nomination effectively banning public schools and private businesses from teaching anything that would make white people feel discomfort or guilt over race. i know it may pass your state's education committee this week. do you think it will ultimately pass, though? >> i'm hoping that it doesn't pass. if anything, it's more than disheartening. the fact that he's trying to erase the history of america in which black people were treated so terribly, it allows them to do it again and to live a lifestyle that isn't true. we can't allow anyone to erase history because that puts us in jeopardy of it happening all over again. so i do believe it's all part of a cumulus scheme so that certain groups, especially the proud boys feel incentivized and motivated and that trump's base feels motivated and that they'll go through this election cycle to get every seat out in any way they choose to do because they feel like they're covered. we have to stop this process we're doing because they're hitting us on every single side, even during my election we found proud boys throwing up the white supremacist sign in black communities, at the african-american library. we've never seen that activity before. and i strongly believe this is a precursor. as anyone who has an alliance that believe in freedom and equity for everyone, we have to work harder right now. >> all right. new representative sheila mccormick, thank you for coming on. up next, on "politicsnation," my final thoughts. stay with us. thoughts thoughts stay with us was a bit of a buzz kill, right? so she ordered sunglasses with prime, one day delivery. ♪♪ clever girl. people realized she's actually hilarious once you get to know her. eugh. as if. ♪♪ well, he was asking for it. prime changes everything. - [female narrator] they line up by the thousands. each one with a story that breaks your heart. well, he was asking for it. like ravette... every step, brought her pain. their only hope: mercy ships. the largest floating civilian hospital in the world. bringing free surgeries to people who have no other hope. $19 a month will help provide urgently needed surgery for so many still suffering. so don't wait, call the number on your screen. or donate at mercyships.org. this week i joined millions around the globe in mourning the passing of my friend andre leon talley, an icon in the fashion industry and a trailblazer in our culture and a committed activist and a friend of this show. i also give condolences to the one and only regina king who lost her son. i also want to condemn the shooting in new york, in harlem, ten blocks from the headquarters of national action network of two policemen last evening. one died, one laying in critical condition. i was very proud when our youth department, the huddle at national action network, e-mailed me in the middle of the night saying they wanted on their own to do a vigil in front of the hospital and pray for the families of those fallen officers because it is just as wrong to brutalize police as it is when we stand up and fight police brutality. and i was proud as the huddle team led by my daughters, dominique and ashley, and reverend steven marshall and others stood out in the bitter cold to say if we can march and have victim ills when police are wrong -- vigils when police are wrong we must condemn in the community when they're done wrong, and this is wrong. and it is wrong. we must be morally consistent, and that is the thing that i've tried to emphasize all through my being a public figure. that is why this book i have out now, "righteous trouble makers" that came out this week, talks about people that were unknown, that were not household names but were morally consistent and did the right thing. they were making good trouble, and they were righteous about it, and you can't be righteous if you're inconsistent. we'll be right back. you're inct we'll be right back. 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(vo) adventure has a new look. discover more in the all-new subaru forester wilderness. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru. nothing like a weekend in the woods. it's a good choice all around, like screening for colon cancer... when caught in early stages it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive... and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers... even in early stages. early stages. yep. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. we're in. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern for another live hour of "politics nation." alicia menendez picks up our news coverage now. thank you so much, reverend sharpton. hello, everyone, i'm alicia menendez. we begin this saturday with new developments in the 1/6 investigation and new revelations that the former president was willing to seize voting machines after losing the 2020 election. this found in a draft of an executive order obtained by "politico." the never-issued order from trump instructs the military to collect voting machines and deliver them to the director of national intelligence for, quote, assessment. "politico" reports the document is among 700 pages from the trump white house turned over to the 1/6 committee by the national archives, including a draft speech titled "remarks on national healing." also emerging this week, new details of a plot by the trump re-election campaign to install fake electors in seven states. trump attorney and adviser boris epstein admitting it on msnbc. >> yes, i was part of the process to make sure there were alternate electors for when as we hoped the challenges to the seated electors would be heard and would be successful, under the constitution and electoral count act. everything was done legally by the trump legal team according to