00:00Lawmakers in Florida approved a new congressional map that would, in theory, net Republicans four
00:04additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The vote passed Florida's House 83 to 28 along
00:10party lines. Mere hours later, the state's Senate passed it, sending the map back to Governor
00:14DeSantis for signature on the map which he proposed. Once DeSantis signs off, Florida will
00:19become the latest state to alter their map in a kind of tit-for-tat gerrymandering war between
00:24Republicans and Democrats jockeying for advantage in this November's midterm elections. Virginia
00:29passed a Democrat-favored map last week, but that one is still winding its way through
00:33the courts. Texas changed theirs, and after litigation, the Supreme Court ruled it could
00:39be used this year. California, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio all tweaked their maps as
00:45well. The map in Utah has been updated due to litigation on the issue. Down in Georgia, a
00:50new map was also created, but that one still winding its way through the courts. And Louisiana
00:54Republicans got a big win on Wednesday when the Supreme Court ruled that their current
00:58map with two deep blue districts is unconstitutional. Not to put too fine a point on this, but it
01:05looks to me like lawmakers on both sides here are trying to rewrite the rules rather than,
01:10I don't know, campaigning on the issues, but maybe that's me.
01:14The Supreme Court handed down an extremely consequential decision that will almost certainly
01:19impact November's midterms in favor of Republicans. It struck down Louisiana's congressional map, which
01:25had two majority Black districts. The court concluded that the inclusion of that second
01:29district, as ordered by a federal judge in 2024, was unconstitutional. That decision by the highest
01:34court effectively weakens the Voting Rights Act, which, in a 6-3 ruling, the justices said
01:39Louisiana's map violated. Section 2 of that law prohibits voting discrimination based on race.
01:45The court's ruling didn't exactly strike down that provision entirely, but it makes it more
01:50difficult for states, especially in the South, to draw districts with predominantly Black voters.
01:55So what does this ruling mean going forward, and could it impact November's midterms? I asked the
02:00White House reporter Ellie Gooden for her thoughts on what the impact of this decision means.
02:05Republicans see a lot of hope and opportunity here because they do believe in the redistricting
02:11process they will have a chance to get rid of some of these minority-majority districts.
02:16And these are the districts that are drawn to favor Black voters, Latino voters, some of the
02:22underrepresented groups. And the Supreme Court basically cast doubt on the ability to do that.
02:28So in the long run, remember, districts are traditionally redrawn after every census.
02:34Republicans really see that they can build something here to keep control of the House.
02:40For this year's midterm election, it's a big question mark because time is running out.
02:45A lot of the southern states where this would really affect the congressional maps have already
02:51set their primaries. The filing deadlines are gone. The ballots are being printed. Some states are voting
02:58this month and next month. Now, Louisiana will probably have to redraw its map since it was the actual
03:04state that had its map thrown out. But Republicans see opportunities in Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi,
03:11South Carolina. But like Mississippi and South Carolina, those filing deadlines are gone.
03:16Like the ballots are set. So the ability to do something in time for November is really being
03:24called into question. But I think you could see some people try. There's some Republicans who are
03:30encouraging states to go to court, to get aggressive on this, to try to redraw everything.
03:35Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is being blasted by the House Intel Committee chairman as being a threat
03:40to national security. So why does Congressman Rick Crawford of Arkansas think the Democratic
03:45Socialist from Vermont is a threat? Here he is on Fox Business.
03:48Back during the Cold War, when Americans typically didn't go to the Soviet Union, but that was a vacation
03:53destination for him. He embraces Chinese communism. And all I can say is, if it quacks like a duck,
04:00walks like a duck, it's a duck. Senator Sanders is a communist. How he ever got elected,
04:05it is beyond me. And he is a threat to national security.
04:07This all came about because Sanders convened an AI panel on Capitol Hill Wednesday as part of his
04:12crusade to pump the brakes on the continued development of the tech, owing to fears that
04:17policymakers just haven't kept up with it. The event included multiple Chinese nationals linked to the
04:22Chinese Communist Party, and that raised some eyebrows. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson also lashed
04:27out at Sanders on social media, quote, instead of harnessing American innovation, Senator Sanders is
04:32inviting foreign nationals to tell the United States how to regulate AI.
04:37For more on these stories and everything else you could possibly want to know, check out the
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