Youre watching the fimt farewell for officer brian sicknick, the hearse poised to leave the capitol for the last time. The capitol he had served and defended and died in defending the capitol in the assault on january 6th. That is the east front of the capitol. The leaders have escorted him down to the plaza. The remains were brought down with military precision. There was the mournful playing of the bagpipes of Amazing Grace and those final steps by the pall bearers carrying a flag, as well, that had been flown by nancy pelosi over the capitol on january 7th, the day after the assault, when congress was again showing resilience and showing that they were returning to order. The Motorcycle Escort now for the final trip to arlington for his burial. As we see the cortege moving outside of the capitol, it will go across the bridge to arlington cemetery, across memorial bridge, this after a rare tribute. Only five times in American History have we seen this tribute for a civilian lying in
legislation or two democrats to change their minds on the filibuster. there is also a lot of debate or pressure coming from outside the chamber as well. the president of the naacp, derek johnson, wrote a letter to all senators arguing, our democracy may be standing in its final hour. the bedrock of freedom in america lies in our sacred right to vote. without it, everything else crumbles. meanwhile, outside on the capitol steps, a group of protesters already on a hunger strike stood defiant with multiple warnings from police to stand down. some of those protesters were zip tied and arrested. joining me now from capitol hill is nbc news national political reporter sahil kapur, washington correspondent phil rucker and the president and ceo of the national coalition on black civic participation, melanie campbell. she marched for voting rights with martin luther king 3, mlk
their opposition. republicans are not going to be shamed to backing off these two goals. although it s still likely senator schumer could call a rules change to that vote. it s not clear what he s going to do. phil rucker, what is the president doing right now? is he paying attention? how does he feel about what s happening on the senate floor? katy, the president and his team at the white house are clearly paying attention to what s happening over in the senate. he put a lot of his political capital on the line in the last week. president biden traveled down to atlanta. he gave that very forceful and impassioned speech about voting rights and about the sort of historical legacy of oppression and disenfranchisement and tried to apply pressure directly on joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. it appears that effort may have
history to show you protected this democracy by protecting the right to vote. this is not just an african-american issue, it is a democracy issue, it is a freedom issue, it is a justice issue. we want to see where these republicans and democrats all stand. we know that senator sinema and manchin have not moved in the direction we had hoped they would move, so we wouldn t be having this conversation. but we re here. resolute and all the actors i know that are out here, we re going to keep fighting. we re going to keep pressure the white house, keep pushing, find other ways to address some of these concerns. if this bill doesn t get passed soon, we re going to keep fighting until we win. sahil kapur, phil rucker and melanie campbell, everybody, thank you for starting us off today. we also have some breaking news, this from both verizon and at&t after loud warnings from airlines that 5g cell service could interfere with critical
right. those are very big and very good questions and unanswered questions. how in the world does congress move forward on voting rights? a crucial issue, i think, for the nation and certainly for the democratic party and how in the world do we deal with the texas abortion law which is going to be copied in other states or is it allowed to go into effect by the supreme court? it certainly bodes well for the future of roe v. wade, and so on the federal level there is going to be a need to do something about abortion yet not much ability to get that done. getting the infrastructure bill passed and whether it s 3.5 trillion in the reconciliation or some lesser number and jim and phil are rid. this is incredibly difficult.