[ cheers and applause ] i grew up coming to this place so many times. And, this, tonight, is special. I thought about, when i was coming in backstage, ive been on this stage with Godfather Of Soul, james brown, who was like a father to me, and michael jackson, the list goes on. But, tonight, you will have Something Special at the apollo, because you will have two icons that are going to talk about their work, and talk about what they do in this country that is so needed at this time today could not be a better night at the apollo. This is not just a great show, tonight, this is history. So [ cheers and applause ] so, it is my honor and my pleasure that, i cant bring you tonight the Godfather Of Soul [ laughter ] but i bring you the godmother of woke [ cheers and applause ] Rachel Maddow. [ cheers and applause ] i got you on that one. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ] wow, how are you doing . We love you, rachel. [ cheers and applause ] i am so nervous [ laugh
lot of us tried to do that. they calculated another calendar and they went forward. here we are. let s be clear and fair to joe biden. lyndon johnson who signed the voting rights act in 65 was not one championed in the beginning. martin luther king jr. had to push. we can t do 65 civil rights act. biden is not an outlier here in terms of taking the time to get here. there are those who have to make a moral calculus what is good for the enfranchise of people being denied that s why some of us are saying late or on time we need to be there and get it done so the people have democracy
diminish our democracy. we have a duty to defend it. this bill is a disaster. why change what has worked for 240 years? we knew the john lewis bill will stop with racial discrimination from rolling back voting rights in the future. this bill is an assault on democracy. this is a power grab. it s cynical and wrong. you may not want to respond to ted cruz. a power grab and assault on our democracy, what do you say to that? i just say that the math is off. if you say this has worked for 240 years, yeah, but only for 57 years have we had full enfranchise. meant of the population. that s the point. full democracy since the outset of this country. we re talking about last election saying the last election was rigged and there is no evidence that it was but what was rigged? every election we had prior to 1965 where we had entire swaths