at this hour, a president on the picket line. joe biden's unprecedented show of support for labor ahead of donald trump's visit to michigan tomorrow. the major blow to senator bob menendez. long time friend and senator, cory booker, now among a growing group of democrats calling on him to resign. plus, the stage is set for the next republican debate. who made the cut? and the new poll showing momentum for one candidate in a key, early battleground state. and crisis at the border. nbc news cameras are rolling as hundreds of migrants, including children, cross the rio grande into texas. first, to michigan. gabe gutierrez is at the nearby plant. gabe, the uaw president called this an historic moment. tell us more about it. >> hi there, chris. yes. the president sean feign calling it an historic moment and standing shoulder to shoulder with president biden who seemed somewhat removed. that changed today. president biden using literally a presidential bull horn to give his full throated support of the uaw. of course, the union demanding among other things a 40% pay increase. president biden at a gm plant not far from here standing shoulder to shoulder with those workers. take a listen at some of what he had to say. >> save the automobile industry back in 2008 and before. made a lot of sacrifices. gave up a lot. and companies were in trouble. but now they're doing incredibly well. and guess what. you should be doing incredibly well, too. >> yeah! >> that is something we've been hearing from the white house the last several days. this idea that the u.s. auto industry, these union members sacrificed during the tough economic times in 2008 and 2009. i was actually covering the uaw at this time. i worked at a local station in flint and those were very dark times in the u.s. auto industry around gm's bankruptcy. well, now, the white house and uaw leadership to kind of shake up the status quo, president biden saying that these workers now deserve a share of those profits and again, as you just hear the support from those cars driving by here, honking in solidarity with these workers, president biden throwing his full throated support today behind the uaw. something no president has done to this extent before. chris? >> gabe gutierrez, thank you for that. the calls for senator menendez are growing today within his own party as senators return to washington. sahil, has anyone seen him on the hill and what are his fellow democrats saying now? >> not yet. we have not seen senator menendez on the hill today, chris, but the dam is certainly breaking among senate democrats when it comes to his future. we can now count that 18 democratic senators who are calling on menendez to resign after these jarring allegations in the indictment. you see the names on the screen. the most notable is cory booker. the other democratic senator from new jersey who said the allegations have shaken the faith and trust of the people of new jersey. he says quote, stepping down is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment that holding public office often demands tremendous sacrifices at great personal costs. the senator has made these sacrifices to serve in the past. in this case, he must do it again. again, that's cory booker calling on his fellow new jersey senators to resign. among that, we have other democratic senators including those up for re-election in red states calling on menendez to resign. sherrod brown in ohio. jon tester in montana, saying that he does not have the right to continue to be a senator if he is not trusted. you need allies. you need people to co-sponsor your bills. people to vote with you. if democratic senators no longer believe that, it calls into question. one other person calling on me nen menendez to step aside is nancy pelosi. >> right now, sadly, because of the challenges we face, is skepticism about governance, the republican party that doesn't believe in governance, doesn't believe in science. wants to take down everything in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest. we've got to stay focused on that and for that reason, it would probably be a good idea if he did resign. >> now, look, pelosi understands the power of this issue. she ran for the first time in 2006 against what she calls a republican culture of corruption. it also has a connection to 2024. a lot of democrats want to run and present themselves as the party of good government, clean government, contrasted with what they will call donald trump's culture of corruption and criminality with the allegations that he is facing. having someone like menendez out there with these accusations of bribery is not consistent. >> is that speaker mccarthy behind you now? so, if you want to go, if there's some new information and you want to come back to us, please let us know and we will go back to you. thank you for that. the stage is set for tomorrow night when the republican candidates for president will debate in california. just as new polling shows some actual movement in the race. nbc's dasha burns joins us now. tell us who made the stage and where this race, at least as we know it, stands right now. >> well, chris, you're going to have a very similar lineup to the first republican debate. the one person who did not make the cut is former governor asa hutchison. he didn't make it this time. he says he is going to stay in the race though, but look. this is a date this is important because we saw from the last time that things did shuffle a little bit after that first debate. you saw nikki haley pop. she is now polling second in that critical first primary state and we're looking to see how much heat she gets on the debate stage tomorrow night because she is now gaining that momentum. and because this is sort of a moment where these candidates are able to have their time without trump on the stage taking up that oxygen and there are few people watching who are in these states that really do matter. where voters are paying attention. this is something that can move the needle. i'm really looking forward to what ron desantis is going to do because he's had the most slide in the polls and so he really needs to have a moment here. we saw in a memo sent around to donors and supporters that was shared with nbc news that was sort of the campaign critical of former president trump on abortion, on his strategy in states like iowa and was talking about how others, other candidates might throw some false attacks around but that the governor is going to be focused on the mission. so kind of giving a preview of what we might see from the florida governor. again, candidates are prepping right now for something that could potentially move the needle. we haven't seen it cut into former president trump's lead, but we have seen debates sort of shake up for the candidates that are on that stage, chris. >> we'll see what happens. dasha burns, thank you. now to the new video captured by nbc news showing the crisis at the southern border up close. julia ainslie just got back from the border. we're coming off a record breaking month in migration. tell us what you saw there. >> that's right. i just got back from seeing those scenes there yesterday. overall in august, there were 300,000 migrants who crossed both northern and southern borders. that is a record high that is even topping the record set back in december. and so now what we're looking at as we're getting back to really the same highs we saw before title 42 lifted. where those covid-19 restrictions. after they lifted, there were other policies put in place thought to be more restrictive. we saw a dip from 11,000 a day to as many as 3 to 4,000 ill crossings a day. now they're up to about 11,000 overall. that includes some who might make an appointment to come in for an asylum claim. by and large, we're seeing a humanitarian crisis. we stood there throughout the day as we saw more and more migrants come through. as many as 100 migrants came through carrying children over their heads then border patrol agents were faced with a life or death decision. they had to see hundreds of migrants wading in the water behind layers and layers of this wire that the texas governor has put up and decide are they going to let them in. eventually, they did. they cut the wires so no one would be hurt or drown in the water or pass out from heat exhaustion. still 100 degrees down there. we see people who were exhausted, cheering, crying. every level of emotion. then they're quickly processed and taken to a processing center where they'll either be released with a court date or removed. motive are released with court dates. it's really a matter of time as these numbers continue to build to see what might happen next. i'm told that as these months go on in the fall, we should be looking at more and more migrants starting to cross the border. >> i couldn't stop watching your coverage. it was exceptional. thank you so much. kevin mccarthy stuck between the speakership and the hard place. we're back in 60 seconds with the tough decisions ahead as the clock ticks toward a government shutdown. d as the clock ticks toward a government shutdown ♪♪ with fastsigns, brew signature flavor into every sip and sign. ♪♪ fastsigns. make your statement. [bones cracking] ♪ (tense music) ♪ one aleve works all day so i can keep working my magic. just one aleve. 12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief. aleve. who do you take it for? house speaker kevin mccarthy faces what could be a career altering decision this week. keep his job as speaker or team up with democrats to keep the government open. with just four days left before a government shutdown, he's still battling gop hard liners who are being cheered on by former president trump. i want to bring in colorado republican congressman, ken buck, a member of the house freedom caucus. four days left. i don't have to tell you that. we have a clock going. four days, nine hours, 47 minutes. at this point in time, do you believe that a shutdown can be averted or is that unlikely? >> i think a shutdown can be averted. i think there are a number of possible paths to avoid a shutdown and i certainly hope as does everyone that i know that we avoid a shutdown. >> "the new york times" dubbed that group of republicans the wrecking ball caucus. i wonder what you're saying to your constituents back in colorado about what's happening? i looked it up. your state has i think close to 37,000 federal workers. just for starters. some of them will be out of a paycheck. a lot of them. what are you hearing from back home? >> i hear a lot of things. i hear one that my constituents are very concerned about government spending. they realize we cannot continue to go down the path we're going down. this is the 27th year in a row that we will fail to pass appropriations bills in congress. that's democrat leadership, republican leadership, democrats in white house. republicans in the white house. it doesn't matter. this place is broken and we need to stop spending the way we are. we need to get spending under control and it should be the top priority. the constitution gives congress the power of the purse. this should be the top priority for congress. not running investigations. not running all these bills that are messaging bills we send to the senate to die. but doing our job and getting spending under control. >> does the buck stop at the top? does kevin mccarthy still have the ability to govern? >> i want to respectfully disagree with your -- i think that in some ways, kevin mccarthy could have done a better job and he will be judged on that. we know when september 30th is. we've known it for months. it comes after september 29th and after september 28th and we have not passed bills we needed to pass long before the august recess. the other important thing to note, when we have a problem with the debt ceiling, it goes fll the last day. now we're facing the same situation. it's really crisis management. it's a problem with the way we govern and it should stop. we should be arguing in may and june and not wait until the last week of september to have our disagreements aired in public. >> if i can, congressman, go back to my first question. if a shutdown is to be avoided, realistically, what does that look like? >> i think tonight we will pass a rule. i hope we will pass a rule. i'll certainly support the rule for four different bills. late tonight, about 11:00 eastern time, we will vote on and i believe pass amendments to those four appropriations bills then tomorrow morning, we will pass those four appropriations bills. that's the first step. the second step is to actually look at the cr. debate the cr. and do our very best to pass this continuing resolution so we don't shut down government. that's going to happen on wednesday, thursday of this week. >> many millions of americans watching and hoping you're right in your optimism. congressman ken buck. thank you. appreciate you coming on. >> thank you. hunter biden is suing former trump attorney rudy giuliani, accusing him of hacking, sharing, and tampering with data from his infamous laptop in what the suit claims was a total annihilation of biden's privacy. tom winter is looking into this. what else is he alleging here. >> well, basically saying, one of the members of his legal team has told me there's this idea of the original sip of this laptop. they're not confirming here in this filing that in fact the story that has been out there that has been well reported on including by this news organization that a copy of hunter biden's laptop. a hard drive copy was sent to the attorney for giuliani and from there, giuliani disseminated to various news organizations or through his representatives. one of those organizations is us that it was reported on. but in that process, they didn't protect his privacy. they accessed this information. they say there's violations of federal and california state law in filing this lawsuit in california. and that they manipulated or accessed or altered the types of things that were on this hard drive. so that's their main focus. basically what they're saying and they filed a number of lawsuits now including against darren zeigler who's published through a website that he has pretty much the entirety of this hard drive that had been turned over. they filed a separate lawsuit involving the irs. a real effort by biden's legal team to basically go after the folks that have put out so much of the private information of hunter biden. that's on one side. the other side is what we've reported is that robert costello, the attorney for rudy giuliani, was contacted by mick isaac. said look, if you've legally obtained this and he said look, after a certain amount of time when hunter biden didn't show up for his stuff, it became my possession. that's how they said they had it and disseminated that information. they're not sure how that's not anything that's protected by current law. it will be interesting to see how this case plays out. biden, as you can imagine, clearly upset about the invasion into his privacy. >> but the question is also raised. do you want to keep yourself in the news at this point. this is something that they thought was all going to more or less go away. >> i think there's a two handed -- if you're hunter biden and his attorneys, it's not going away because congress is going to continue to bring us into it, publish my stuff, continue to talk about it. case in point, the discussion we're having now. on the other hand is perhaps the view our white house team and our reporters and full team that covers this have looked at it from a political calculus. we're having this conversation. we're not talking about, you talked about what the president was doing with the auto workers earlier, but this is now reporting back on another side of this in another side of the biden family. i think that's a political calculation and outside of my lane for sure but it is something in a discussion that i think is very occurring. >> tom winter, always great to have you. thank you. up next, a make or break moment for republicans. former trump aide talks about why this is a pivotal moment for the country in an exclusive interview with rachel maddow. and she's fought for decades to abolish the death penalty. i'll talk to her about how she's shining renewed light on her cause. you're watching chris jansing report only on msnbc. watching report only on msnbc i'm kareem abdul jabbar. i was diagnosed with afib. the first inkling that something was wrong was i started to notice that i couldn't do things without losing my breath. i couldn't make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. every physical exertion seemed to exhaust me. and finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib. when i first noticed symptoms, which kept coming and going, i should have gone to the doctor and told them what was happening. instead, i tried to let it pass. if you experience irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or light-headedness, you should talk to your doctor. afib increases the risk of stroke about 5 times i want my experience to help others understand the symptoms of atrial fibrillation. when it comes to your health, this is no time to wait. (man) mm, hey, honey. looks like my to-do list grew. "paint the bathroom, give baxter a bath, get life insurance," hm. i have a few minutes. i can do that now. oh, that fast? remember that colonial penn ad? i called and i got information. they sent the simple form i need to apply. all i do is fill it out and send it back. well, that sounds too easy! (man) give a little information, check a few boxes, sign my name, done. they don't ask about your health? (man) no health questions. -physical exam? -don't need one. it's colonial penn guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance. if you're between the ages of 50 and 85, your acceptance is guaranteed in most states, even if you're not in the best health. options start at $9.95 a month, 35 cents a day. once insured, your rate will never increase. a lifetime rate lock guarantees it. keep in mind, this is lifetime protection. as long as you pay your premiums, it's yours to keep. call for more information and the simple form you need to apply today. there's no obligation, and you'll receive a free beneficiary planner just for calling. this is american infrastructure, a prime target for cyberattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends these services for everyone who lives here. ♪ theo's nose was cause for alarm, so dad brought puffs plus lotion to save it from harm. puffs has 50% more lotion and brings soothing relief. don't get burned by winter nose. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue. new details from cassidy hus hutchison. she tells rachel that mark meadows raced to the justice department in a last second effort and did it just 15 minutes before joe biden was sworn in. she also gave a blunt warning to fellow republicans about trump and the threat to american democracy. >> why do you think your fellow republicans want him more than they want anybody else as their next candidate for the white house? >> want speak to the psyche of my, i wouldn't say my fellow republicans because i do not think we are part of the same republican party. i do not believe that mr. trump is a strong republican, but in this next election cycle, in my opinion, it's the make or make moment for the republican party. now is the time if these politicians, these men and some women that are currently in congress, want to make the break and want to take the stand, they have to do it now. we can't wait any longer for them to do it. >> after the boo and before the interview, a spokesman for meadows provided a statent which reads in part, much of her claims in this book about mr. meadows or otherwise are filled with half truths, falsehoods and purposefully omitted context to sell books. ryan nobles joins us from washington. it was quite an interview last night, ryan. she also described classified documents just being casually carried in a shopping bag then that race by meadows to declassify other documents. tell us more. >> this is going to be an important part of the special counsel issue of trying to remove classified documents from the safe spaces in the white house then the accusations of his careless protection of them at mar-a-lago. she could be a key player. she said she's had conversations with the special counsel and this is what she talked about with rachel about the way mark meadows took care of these documents in the closing days of the white house. >> you then describe mr. meadows at 11:45 a.m. on inauguration day asking the secret service how quickly they can get to the justice department because he wants to try to declassify something literally in the last 15 minutes when donald trump is president. >> joe biden was about to be sworn in. >> what was that about? what was he trying to do? >> that specific binder was pertinent to cross fire hurricane. bringing it back to next year's election, these people very well could be in power again. and do we want people who have already shown they're willing and want to overthrow an election. >> and so of course republicans have obvious believed that she is not a credible witness when it comes to issues like these. that she has a vendetta against the former president but her testimony is compelling. she was one of the sfar witnesses and if she is in contact with the special counsel, she is someone in the proverbal room where it happens. she said in the interview with rachel last night that she has been in contact with the special counsel and if called to testify that she would be willing to do that and do so truthfully. chris? >> ryan nobles, thank you so much. voters, tired of the same old story on capitol hill. the caricatures that are capturing growing concerns over the country's aging leaders. you're watching chris jansing reports only on msnbc. s jansing reports only on msnbc. subject 1: who's that? who's that? cole: this is my fluffy. charlie: cancer. it's different in a child because your child is still growing. i had 14 rounds of chemo. there's thousands and thousands of kids all over the world who need help. subject 2: it is my first time having cancer. and it's the very worst. crew: this september, you can join the battle to save lives during childhood cancer awareness month by supporting saint jude children's research hospital. subject 3: it's scary to watch your kid battle and fight for their lives. crew: one in five children diagnosed with cancer in the us will not survive. subject 4: childhood cancer is hard. it's a long road. you just have to give. you have to give someone that hope and especially with them being so young. crew: please call, go online, or scan the qr code for only $19 a month. families never receive a bill from saint jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 5: she grew up in this. so when we go to st. jude, she's happy because that's her home. every time i take her to the doctor, she's excited because she gets to play. and that's all because of saint jude. crew: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this saint jude t-shirt you can wear to show your support to help saint jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: [speaking spanish] crew: let's cure childhood cancer together. if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start... and move toward relief after the first dose... with injections every two months. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. feel unstoppable. ask your doctor how lasting remission can start with stelara®. janssen can help you explore cost support options. how old is too old to run the country? the cover of the latest new yorker magazine is getting a lot of attention. it shows caratures of mitch mcconnell, nancy pelosi, joe biden, all competing in a ma ung walkers. it raises an issue that overhanging 2024. quote, the prospect of a presidential election as a contest of ancients is not a heartening one and the anxieties it provokes cannot be dismissed as age ism. what are younger people to make of a political culture in which incumbents cling so tenaciously to their seats? joining us now, john kasich of ohio and msnbc political analyst. they make a little fun of it but it's a serious issue. we've seen it in poll after poll. so let me re-ask that question that they raised. what are young people or any voter for that matter to make of 77 and 80-year-old presidential candidates, a house where the median age is 58 and senate where the median age is 65? >> chris, first of all, you're running for president. sometimes people got to get a little older. not in all cases. kennedy was i think 43 years old. churchill was i think 77. the second time he was elected. left at 81. meier, the great prime minister of israel was i think in her 80s. with age can come wisdom. but i think, chris, that age has to reflect some other things. what are your ideas? have you been exercising? are you fit? are you getting enough sleep? what about your clothes? who do you hang out with? just because you have a number doesn't mean you have to quote, be old. we're saying all the time. i saw the white house press secretary said biden's 80. that's the new 40. i don't think we can quite say that. but look, if you are with it, if you're fit, if you have ideas, if you have enthusiasm, you can belie your age. i've got a warning to everybody out there and that is you should hope you're, that you're going to be lucky enough or fortunate enough to get old. right? >> yeah. >> let's just not throw them away because they're older but with age does come wisdom. >> my dad used to say any day he wakes up and he didn't see his name in the obituaries was a good day. when people got daily newspapers, i have to say. i want to go back to your first point. one of the most iconic moments in debate history was in 1984 when a 73-year-old reagan was asked about his age. >> i want you to know that also, i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience. >> mondale laughed there. diffused what had seemed like a threat to him. so why is it so different now? >> well, i think part of it is because we're not seeing really whole ideas. say what you want. bernie sanders sanders still attracts a lot of young people. why? because he kind of goes with it. he's kind of hip. he's out there. got these ideas. it catches people's attention. the real key for biden to be able to avoid the criticism of his age is not just the way he looks but also what are the ideas that he has? what is he excited about? enthusiastic about? sometimes you wonder does somebody else have them? i wouldn't say that. but i think if he can project enthusiasm, he can project new ideas then he can begin to work against that issue of age. i really believe that. just because you're older doesn't mean you're not with it. it doesn't mean you don't have judgment. that you have certain amounts of energy. you're not going to be like somebody 40 years younger but it doesn't mean you ought to just be put out to pasture. i just don't agree with that. >> there's a new "washington post" absolutely poll that shows voters are a lot more concerned about biden's age that trump's. 74 to 50% but just yesterday, trump confused the bush he ran against, jeb, with the former president. george w. let's listen to that. >> you know the beauty was when i came here, everyone thought bush was going to win then they took a poll and found out trump was up by about 50 points. everyone said what's beginning on. bush supposedly was a military person. he got us into the middle east. how did that work out, right? >> he also said, often says things that aren't true, that windmills are causing whales to die. so why -- >> it's our eyes, chris. it's our eyes. look, we look at people and we look at the way they move and we decide you know, it kind of clicks inside our brain who looks older and who doesn't. you know, for some reason, there's other reasons why i guess if you really drilled down, trump just doesn't, we don't think of him as old. some people do. i was in the gym today. i asked the question to some of the people what they thought and some people said oh, no, there's no difference between the two of them but the poll indicates that people are not seeing age as a factor as much they do with biden. that's just where we are right now. again, i think that biden can begin to mitigate the age idea if he can show some real passion and some real things he really cares about and projects. look, you think about churchill. look at what he was able to do. he projected. that's really the key i think for being able to mitigate the issue of age and again, tom friedman had a column in "the new york times" about how biden used his age and experience to really teach netanyahu about what needed to be done for developments in the middle east. that was friedman, who can be critical of biden came out and said in that case, wisdom won the day. >> former governor kasich, love having you on the show as you know. thank you so much. appreciate it. from the big screen to the big stage, oscar winning movie, dead man walking is about to debut at the metropolitan opera just as the supreme court and states across the country are once again debating capital punishment. up next, sister helen to talk about her decades long fight to abolish the death penalty. you're watching chris jansing reports only on msnbc. watching reports onlyn omsnbc. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80, what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate starting at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. as americans, there's one thing we can all agree on. the promise of our constitution and the hope that liberty and justice is for all people. but here's the truth. attacks on our constitutional rights, yours and mine are greater than they've ever been. the right for all to vote. reproductive rights. the rights of immigrant families. the right to equal justice for black, brown and lgbtq+ folks. the time to act to protect our rights is now. that's why i'm hoping you'll join me today in supporting the american civil liberties union. it's easy to make a difference. just call or go online now and become an aclu guardian of liberty. all it takes is just $19 a month. only $0.63 a day. your monthly support will make you part of the movement to protect the rights of all people, including the fundamental right to vote. states are passing laws that would suppress the right to vote. we are going backwards. but the aclu can't do this important work without the support of people like you. you can help ensure liberty and justice for all and make sure that every vote is counted. so please call the aclu now or go to my aclu.org and join us. when you use your credit card, you'll receive this special we the people t-shirt and much more. to show you're a part of the movement to protect the rights guaranteed to all of us by the us constitution. we protect everyone's rights, the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression, racial justice, lgbtq rights, the rights of the disabled. we are here for everyone. it is more important than ever to take a stand. so please join us today. because we the people means all the people, including you. so call now or go online to my aclu.org to become a guardian of liberty. today, the u.s. supreme court will consider whether to take up the case of a texas death row inmate whose conviction on charges of killing his young child is based on the widely disputed medical theory. it could be his last shot before the state sets an excuse date at a time of renewed debate over the death penalty. researchers call 2022 the year of the botched execution. leaving alabama to consider a new method using nitrogen gas, essentially asphyxiation, that has never been used for sanctioned killing. other states are turning to death by firing squad. now to the met. the nation's opera company, brings it to the stage about the life of sister helen prejean and her friendship with a death row inmate in louisiana who was ultimately executed. sister prejean joins me along with civil rights attorney and msnbc legal analyst, charles coleman. good to have both of you here. you're a teacher. when you became one of the leading voices for this issue in the country if not the world, you said it happened after you learned about the other america. what was the other america that you found, sister? >> yeah, well when i read the gospel of jesus more closely and he talked about justice for the poor, i moved out of the suburbs and into the inner city of new orleans and that's where american people became my teachers. i knew nothing but white privilege. i was never scared when a policeman stopped me but black people, everything was different. all the rules were different. and it opened my heart. it woke me up. that's how i awakened to justice. then one day, i got an invitation, hey, sister, you want to write to a man on death row? i want, yeah, i could write some letters. and that's how the whole thing started. >> well, it went pretty far because you developed a close friendship and ultimately he was put to death. this is notn unusual story. 1576 women have been gassed, shot, elect row cuted and lethally injected since the 1970s. we've seen the failures of lethal injection. we see this debate in arkansas now about killing inmates with only nitrogen. what goes through your mind and what did you learn about people who were on death row? >> first of all, i learned they're human beings and this is the recent evolution and the teaching the catholic church. no matter how terrible a crime a human being does, he's still a human being that has dignity. most of the people i met have had terrible childhoods. they had experienced violence as children and later they worked that violence on somebody else and then the state is going to execute them. i also learned that this system of death, only poor people are chosen. overwhelmingly, it's when you kill white people. everything about it i started learning. it makes a huge amount of difference what lawyer you have by your side when you go to your trial for your life. and none of it works. for every eight people we've executed in this country, that total you just gave, one has had to be freed because we made another mistake. there have been 193 wrong decisions because the truth doesn't come out at trial. if you don't get all the facts out to that jury, the fact finder, then they make a decision according to what they have and you make mistakes all the time. we can't handle this thing. >> and the vast majority are black. >> yes. >> almost always for killing someone who was white. not when a black person dies. >> the key thing to keep your eye on, who cares about the victim that was killed and 80% or 75% all people on death row. it's because they killed a white person that has status in society. >> it is a natural human reaction, right? >> right. >> people hurt us, hurt people we love, we want to hurt them. so what do you say to the families? >> yeah, well i don't say much to the families other than is there any way i can help you because i haven't experienced their pain and they need a lot of help. their marriages break up. they lose their jobs. they need a lot of assistance, a lot of support. what the state offers them is an average wait is 17 years. you wait, we're going to sit you on the front row. kill the one that killed your loved one. you get to watch it and that's going to heal you and give you justice. look how morally bankrupt that is. >> the support for the death penalty in this country right before dead man walking was 80%. since you started to shine a light on this, it's 55%. so significantly lower. is it your hope that this metropolitan opera production that we're going to see tonight and that will continue. i think we have some video of it. there you see it. will bring this back in the way we've also been seeing headlines that people will start talking about this? >> yeah, like the movie of dead man walking did that. yeah, you know what i'm happy about? opera is the fullness of art because people are going to see live drama and it opens with everybody's going to see the murder. and maybe you'll know who did it so you're not using any moral energy. you know he did it, you don't like him and he's not remorseful and you want to see him die. that's the audience's journey and that's the irony of my character. i thought tim robins was running the movie, the nun is in over her head. i was. i come from teaching religion to being on death row. it's going to be shown in times square. it's going to go to 20 countries in movie theatres in october so it's going to get the story out. because you know what, chris? the death penalty is pretty much a secret ritual. only a few choice witnesses go behind those prison walls and there's a saying from latin america. what the eye doesn't see, the heart can't feel and that's my job. i've been witness, accompanied six people to excuse. i've been the families and seeing their struggle toward healing and we're going to pull the curtain back through art in every way and the opera does it in a very full way. >> charles, you've been deeply involved in these issues of racial disparity and civil rights for a very long time. do you see a way forward in this? and when you see the death penalty, when you hear about the death penalty, what do you see? >> i think the biggest thing that serves as an impediment to understanding is information. people don't necessarily understand how the system works and there are a number of different holes and gaps that we were just talking about that people are generally unaware of. for example, there is no requirement for a prosecutor to have dna evidence to convict someone of a capital punishment crime. when you couple that with the notion that cross racial identification has been proven to be consistently unreliable, you now create a situation where a jury maybe gives a decision about someone's life based off a firsthand account by someone who did not necessarily have the strongest identification skills. that is a problem. the standard for convicting someone is beyond a reasonable doubt. it's not beyond any doubt. the significance of that is when you're making decisions with irreversible consequences, you can't afford to be wrong. now when you couple an additional societal issues around race, socioeconomic class, the access that people have to actually have qualified representation, all of these things play a role into why the death penalty is so controversial in addition to the fact that in many respects, it has become a political issue, chris. where people are using that as a response to crime as opposed to investing in data driven proven solutions to address crime and where it occurs. >> charles coleman, sister prejean, who will be on the red carpet tonight with a very serious message, we thank you so much. up next, primed for a fight. the ftc suing amazon, setting the stage for the biggest tech monopoly fight in decades. you're watching chris jansing reports only on msnbc. g chris j reports only on msnbc. i was diagnosed with afib. the first inkling that something was wrong was i started to notice that i couldn't do things without losing my breath. i couldn't make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. every physical exertion seemed to exhaust me. and finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib. when i first noticed symptoms, which kept coming and going, i should have gone to the doctor and told them what was happening. instead, i tried to let it pass. if you experience irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or light-headedness, you should talk to your doctor. afib increases the risk of stroke about 5 times i want my experience to help others understand the symptoms of atrial fibrillation. when it comes to your health, this is no time to wait. subject 1: who's that? who's that? cole: this is my fluffy. charlie: cancer. it's different in a child because your child is still growing. i had 14 rounds of chemo. there's thousands and thousands of kids all over the world who need help. subject 2: it is my first time having cancer. and it's the very worst. crew: this september, you can join the battle to save lives during childhood cancer awareness month by supporting saint jude children's research hospital. subject 3: it's scary to watch your kid battle and fight for their lives. crew: one in five children diagnosed with cancer in the us will not survive. subject 4: childhood cancer is hard. it's a long road. you just have to give. you have to give someone that hope and especially with them being so young. crew: please call, go online, or scan the qr code for only $19 a month. families never receive a bill from saint jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 5: she grew up in this. so when we go to st. jude, she's happy because that's her home. every time i take her to the doctor, she's excited because she gets to play. and that's all because of saint jude. crew: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this saint jude t-shirt you can wear to show your support to help saint jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: [speaking spanish] crew: let's cure childhood cancer together. is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. (aidyl) hi, i'm aidyl, and i lost 90 pounds on golo. i struggled with weight loss and weight gain my entire life. with all the yo-yo dieting i did in the past, i would lose 20, 30, 50 pounds just to gain them over and over again. in one year, i've lost five sizes, and i'm on my way to lose another three. with golo, i can do it. (announcer) change your life at golo.com. that's golo.com. amazon is facing a new challenge after the federal government and 17 states filed a lawsuit today accusing the e commerce giant of illegally maintaining a monopoly. morgan brennan joins us. tell us a little bit about what's in this suit, the stakes for the company and consumers? >> yeah, this is a landmark case. long anticipated from an ftc whose chair had risen to prominence for an academic paper calling for amazon's break up. it accuses amazon of quote wielding monopoly power, stifle competition. the agency and the attorneys general laid out a two prong strategy citing anti discount measures that keep prices high and to use amazon's fulfillment services. its response, regulators are quote wrong on the fact of the law, the company has helped spur competition in retail with the ceo saying quote if the ftc gets its way, the results would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers and reduced options for small businesses. the opposite of what anti trust law is to do. the ftc didn't call for a break up or divestitures but it did raise the notion of structural relief which tends to refer to those types of actions. this will be up for a judge to decide though there are going to be many steps to the process. stock's down 4% today. >> morgan, thank you so much for that. and that is going to do it for us this hour. make sure to join us every weekday 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. our coverage continues with katy tur reports right now. good to be with you. we just saw something we have never seen before in all of american history. a sitting president joining a strike. joe biden, union joe, as he