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PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton - Season 15 - Episode 15
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00:02good evening and welcome to politics nation from chicago illinois tonight's lead conflicting
00:23messages tonight i come to you after the funeral of a dear friend and mentor the reverend jesse
00:31jackson whose life and message was appraised yesterday by hundreds of mourners here in chicago
00:37including several former american presidents i joined them in remembering him as a man of peace
00:45whose message contrasts with our current political climate more on that later in the show because i
00:53also join you tonight in watching the president's war in iran escalate after hundreds have died in a
01:01week that includes six american service members in the region their remains brought home earlier today
01:08and as the war enters its second week the american people still don't have a coherent explanation
01:15from the trump administration and we just watched congress yields its war powers to the president
01:22who reportedly wants to expand the operation in iran with boots on the ground joining me now is
01:30congresswoman jennifer mckellen democrat of virginia and parliamentarian of the congressional black
01:37caucus thank you for being with us congresswoman uh starting with the president's war in iran
01:44and and and republicans in both chambers of congress voting down war powers resolutions that would require
01:52trump to seek congressional approval before escalating his war uh in the middle east uh eastern country
02:00which has led to six u.s troops along with thousands of civilians killed in the region congresswoman if our
02:09lawmakers won't restrain the president and reclaim the authority over war powers what's left
02:18that's a great question rev and that's why i not only voted for but co-sponsored the house version of
02:25the war powers
02:26resolution uh look the constitution is clear that the founders wanted congress to declare war we do give
02:34the president the authority to act when there is an imminent threat to uh the united states uh when we're
02:40under
02:40attack um when there's a threat to our national interest but we have seen no evidence that there was an
02:46imminent
02:46threat we have seen no plan for what comes next um for how we are going to uh uh prosecute
02:55this war in a way that leads to
02:58a decisive victory that uh has the least casualties but more importantly that will put iran and the middle
03:06east on the path to long-term peace i think there's no disagreement that iran cannot have a nuclear weapon
03:13which
03:13is one of the rationales that we were given and yet the pentagon's own analysis showed that the strikes
03:20that the president did last year uh put any effort to get a nuclear weapon behind at least two years
03:26so
03:27that's not the real message the president has said that it was regime change and yet we have seen regime
03:33change from external forces without a strategy in place on the ground usually does not end well so i think
03:40um he cannot act after 60 days without congressional approval i think you are starting to see members
03:46of congress at least ask the right questions and classify briefings um but i am hoping that the
03:53congressional majority takes back its job you know does its job and takes back authority in approving any
04:00further offensive action now now just a quick follow-up do you really think uh that president trump's inner
04:08circle is telling him that a large-scale war will oust iran's regime after a short or extended u.s
04:17military
04:18campaign or does he have other motives here i don't know reverend we had a classified briefing i can't
04:26tell you what we heard there but i didn't hear a coherent rationale for why this attack happened last week
04:34what changed what was the imminent threat we didn't hear anything about it we've heard the president
04:39himself say that the individuals they thought could take over are now dead so i don't know what the
04:47rationale is i don't know what the goal is i don't know what the exit strategy is and that's the
04:52point he
04:52also did not make any kind of case to the american people about what are our goals are and what
05:00success
05:00looks like and so i don't know what he's doing there um but we need to have answers pretty quickly
05:08now pivoting to homeland security which is no longer under the command of christy noem
05:15who was fired as dhs secretary this week by president trump democrats had been calling for
05:23removal for months over her handling of the president's immigration operations and the
05:29violent tactics employed by ice and border patrol assuming a senate confirmation her successor will
05:37be republican senator mark wayne mullen who many republicans expect and some democrats hope
05:44will be a steadier hand in leading dhs what do you expect congresswoman well i certainly hope he will
05:52at least know what he's doing and how to run the agency but what i don't want to see is
05:56more of the
05:57same we have dhs agents and ice and border patrol who are out of control who have created a public
06:03safety crisis in our communities that have left people dead including over 20 people in one year
06:11who died in their custody and we have seen american citizens who have been snatched and deported but we
06:18aren't getting answers on just how many who and where they are too many people have disappeared off the
06:23streets and it has created a culture of fear in our streets and we can't continue to have that have
06:29these masked agents uh essentially kidnap people with no due process and if we get that under the new
06:39secretary then nothing really will have changed except the face of this public safety crisis
06:47the world commemorated my late mentor the reverend jesse jackson today and yesterday i joined hundreds of
06:55people friday in chicago for his funeral and as did former presidents bill clinton barack obama joe biden
07:03and former vice president kamala harris all of us who spoke in the remembrance take a listen to president obama
07:13jesse jesse didn't just speak to black folks he spoke to white folks and latinos and asian americans
07:19and the first americans he spoke to family farmers and environmentalists he spoke to gay rights activists
07:27when nobody was talking to gay rights activists and blue collar workers and he gave them the same message
07:36that they mattered congresswoman hearing barack obama's assessment of reverend jackson's message
07:46where are we as a nation in his absence you know first of all my condolences to you on the
07:54loss of a
07:55friend and a mentor and it is a huge loss to our country as uh one of the last remaining
08:00leaders of
08:01the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s is not with us anymore and i think it's critically important
08:07that today as more people um are alive now who weren't alive then and don't fully understand the
08:16history of what the civil rights movement was fighting and that is the over 300 years of the
08:22impact of slavery and jim crow jesse jackson was fighting his entire life to ensure that the promises
08:29upon which this country were founded are true for everybody regardless of your race your religion
08:34where you were born how you work how you love um how you how you worship and we made progress
08:42because
08:43of leaders like him and you and yet we are in the midst of one of the worst backlashes to
08:48that progress
08:49under the trump administration dismantling the progress that we have made not just over the past
08:5540 years or 50 years in some cases 100 years and the danger now is we have fewer and fewer
09:02people
09:03who were alive during jim crow who can be first-hand witnesses at the same time that we have an
09:09administration that is trying to whitewash this history take it out of our schools take it out of
09:15our public spaces in our museums and you cannot know where you are if you don't know where you've been
09:21you don't know how to move forward if you don't know how we've gotten this far and so i am
09:27worried
09:28that that if we continue to lose our leaders and not continue to tell the stories of the progress that
09:37they made and what they had to overcome to do it that history is not only doomed to repeat itself
09:43but this backlash will take us back um you know 50 to 100 years in many ways
09:50now now your state virginia is in the midst of its early primary season that that election is uh about
09:59in about five months early voting uh just started and uh uh we are in the midst of seeing what
10:08will
10:08happen in uh virginia in terms of the voting process uh uh the uh voters are taking up an amendment
10:18in
10:18fact that just cleared a state supreme court challenge to redraw the state's congressional map
10:24heavily in favor of democrats ahead of november it comes in the midst of a wave of partisan redistricting
10:32largely at president trump's insistence or for democrat led states in uh uh in counter to it
10:41what what are your thoughts on this you're exactly right what this amendment is for in virginia is to
10:49level the playing field after donald trump bullied republican states like texas and missouri into doing
10:55mid-district redistricting to in his words find him more seats now redistricting is not new
11:02last uh last cycle in 2024 the democrats were four seats away from taking the majority north carolina
11:10redistricted and took three seats alone uh through redistricting and as a result even though more
11:17republican incumbents lost in the 2024 election than democratic incumbents we came up short in the majority
11:25that tight margin was the difference between the big ugly law passing and the largest cuts to medicaid
11:32in american history the largest cuts to snap benefits in american history um and all of the
11:37chaos that we have seen that congress has failed to stand up and do its job as a check on
11:42this
11:42president all because north carolina redistricted uh and leveled and and and and changed the rules in
11:49the name of the game in the middle of the game now donald trump is doing it again virginia is
11:54giving its
11:55voters the opportunity to respond and say we want to level the playing field but unlike texas and
12:01missouri it only happens if the voters say it happens we've shown them the map and they get to
12:06decide are we going to move forward and level the playing field and bring fairness back to the 2026
12:11midterms are we just going to let donald trump bully republican states into finding him more seats
12:18now i'm out of time but one last question your state's democrat-led general assembly just voted to
12:26require public schools to teach the facts about uh january 6 and and and what happened there uh and really
12:35deal with it from a factual basis uh that uh many see as as uh something that could be uh
12:43uh done or
12:44duplicated uh around the uh the country uh they they feel uh that the the kind of messaging uh that
12:53has
12:54been uh in the public square is something that uh must be dealt with fairly do you agree with them
13:01that
13:01such a measure was necessary i think we have seen uh efforts by the trump administration and his allies
13:10to to again whitewash our history and try to repaint what happened on january 6th as just a peaceful
13:18protest but when you have uh capital police beaten um in some cases nearly fatally when you see a noose
13:27and people going through the capitol looking for mike pence uh and with with violent intent when you
13:34see a mob storm the capitol it is the height of of a lie to say well that was a
13:40peaceful protest so what
13:41this bill does is say we're going to present the facts of what happened on january 6th and not
13:47misinformation in our schools all right thank you for being with us congresswoman jennifer mckellen uh of
13:56virginia let's continue our political discussion with our political panel republican strategist susan del
14:03persio democratic strategist wanita talibor both are ms now political analysts susan uh let's start with
14:13the war in iran now entering its second week peter baker's in the new york times writes that donald trump
14:19is the first president in modern times to take the united states to war without the public uh the the
14:28backing of the public baker points to polling showing that support for war with iran range from
14:3641 percent approval down to just 27 percent far lower than presidents usually have at the beginning of
14:45a war well what are the political implications for the president and his party heading into the midterms
14:53well and let's not forget rev those numbers can still go down they're not going up so we may see
14:58them even go further down this was something that the president did not clearly think through a political
15:06lens which is really surprising frankly because that's typically how he sees everything his base is
15:12not for foreign wars he they're against it they don't like this now add that that's on top of the
15:19epstein files which his base is upset with him and most of all the issue of affordability we're heading
15:26into the midterm elections with gas prices rising we still are seeing the effects of tariffs on goods
15:33prices tend not to necessarily go down if there's a supply chain issue so we're going to see prices stay
15:39flat there's talk of stagnation this is a horrible place for the president to go but then again as we've
15:47discussed many many times the president really doesn't care what happens to anybody else he's only
15:51focused on what he what can help him
15:57juanita uh last week we saw the house and senate block measures that would have reigned in president
16:04trump's ability to wage war without congress are you concerned that a dangerous political precedent is
16:11being said here absolutely rev and every time that congress does not step up to take back their power
16:20whether it's on the use of force abroad whether it's around tariff deployment uh on a range of
16:26countries it it shows up when people say they don't see a value or trust or have faith in congress's
16:32ability to do his job or be a check on the president i appreciate representative mcclellan emphasizing that in
16:38one of her responses to you earlier because that is critical for people continuing to show up and
16:44see value in casting their votes every election and so the the more congress shows it has this inability
16:51to rein trump in it begs the question of what are we all doing here now and and i think
16:56the flip side
16:57of that is that anybody on a ballot running for one of these seats in congress needs to come forward
17:02with
17:02actionable feasible plans to deliver something for the american public at a moment when they reject the
17:09policies of donald trump whether that's the invasive inhumane deathly uh immigration policy that he's
17:17been implementing or tariffs or anything else impacting their day-to-day lives now susan dhs secretary christy
17:26noem is the first cabinet member to be fired in trump's second term how do you think her short tenure
17:33will
17:33be remembered and do you think anything will be different from senator mullen in charge of dhs now
17:43well when it comes to secretary noem i think um the the the when she released the book about her
17:51shooting her dog that will end up being the the best thing you can say about her um in in
17:57this uh
17:58circumstance her tenure over dhs was just deplorable we know everything that she's done on immigration we
18:06know how she has um lied about the two americans who were shot being domestic terrorists but there is
18:14also something worth noting all of the other places that she has destroyed within the agency
18:20especially fema we're not prepared as a country and that affects people at home as well and that
18:27message of scott forbid there's an emergency natural or otherwise like fema's not ready which um is of
18:35concern now looking forward um senator mullen probably will see some of the same rhetoric but i suspect he'll
18:43be more on a tom holman uh plane and not that people will be very happy with that but i
18:51don't think
18:51he's going to look for the big splashy um increase in in ice agents and and do this shock and
19:00awe campaign
19:00if you will well wanita let's talk about tuesday's elections according to the washington post the results put
19:10incumbents on notice quote for democrats age may become a liability this cycle for republicans trouble
19:19may arise without a trump endorsement wanita what are your takeaways on those observations
19:28i think on the democratic side there is absolutely a new wave of voices coming in paired with the
19:34unfortunate reality that some of the gop redistricting efforts have resulted in incumbent democrats having
19:40to face each other that's what we saw down in texas specifically in uh representative al green's
19:45district right i i do think that um on the republican side though trump seems to only be aligned with
19:51candidates whose background mirror his own i'm talking about um attorney general ken paxton who has been
19:59impeached who has been facing federal investigations in the past who has had to pay after a fraud investigation
20:07i mean doesn't that sound an awful lot like donald trump's own legal history but senator cornyn his
20:15opponent is absolutely fighting tooth and nail to hold his seat and going into a runoff so i do think
20:20that um
20:21donald trump weighing in does have an impact especially in a against a candidate who has been critical of him
20:28in the
20:29the past like we saw with representative dan crenshaw losing his seat
20:34all right susan del presio and wanita toliver thank you both for being with us
20:39late on politics nation former secretary of transportation and army veteran pique buddichez
20:46joins me tonight to discuss trump's latest attack on iran and what it means for americans
21:00tomorrow i will be in selma alabama for the march marking the 61st anniversary of the civil rights
21:08demonstration known as bloody sunday last year i was there with my mentor reverend jesse jackson
21:15who once told me there were no retirement plans for civil rights leaders and so tomorrow i will march
21:22hand in hand with all of those who still hope for civil rights and voting rights and then be right
21:29here on politics nation to tell you about it from selma coming up the state of civil rights on this
21:36women's history month with the one and only andrea waters king daughter-in-law dr martin luther king
21:43we'll be right back
21:53welcome back to politics nation on ms now with funeral services for the reverend jesse jackson now over
22:01those of us who were fortunate to learn from his example are left thinking about how we continue to be
22:09the bridge between generations of activists that he was joining me now is andrea waters king president of
22:18the drum major institute daughter-in-law of martin and coretta scott king starting tonight with reverend
22:25jackson andrea we've been mourning his loss for several days but his legacy also has been reappraised and
22:33one thing that comes up repeatedly over the course of his services was the emphasis on the
22:39future i i i challenged people not to just mourn but worry about what is going on that would mock
22:46with dr king and others uh that we've lost uh this week uh fought for and i think about your
22:54daughter
22:54yolanda who's a teenage activist as i was what would you say will be the distinct fights of her future
23:02and how can we prepare her generation for their battles oh well it's always good to be with you rev
23:11um
23:12i would say for yolanda's generation she is just a couple of months shy of her 18th birthday and
23:19you've heard me say this before but i it we can't say it enough her generation um they have
23:26progressively lost rights they have fewer rights today than the day that they were born um and that
23:32really has not happened since the end of reconstruction and the beginning of the passage of black codes in
23:37this country but the thing that always gives me hope is i have no doubt within every fiber of my
23:44being
23:44that they were they will go down as one of the greatest generations in history um they are um bold
23:52um unapologetic they are dedicated and i really believe and see the way in which they're organizing
23:58the way in which they organize during the fire drill um fridays the way that they organize for march for
24:05our lives the way that they are walking out of schools for ice out the way in which you know
24:10they
24:10are organizing on college campuses all over this country we are really witnessing a generation that
24:17um is fully awake dr king in his very last sermon at the um national cathedral the sunday before
24:24he was assassinated he talked about the importance of not sleeping through a revolution and to remain
24:29awake this generation is certainly very much awake now we are talking about tomorrow i'll be in selma
24:39alabama for the annual crossing of the edmund pettus bridge uh uh we just lost yes two days ago
24:47bernard lafayette who was a major organizer there so we're commemorating bloody sunday where the
24:54bernard lafayette's the john lewis's and others led and voting rights march that caused the voting
25:00rights act to come into being but what remains of the voting rights act hangs in the balance the supreme
25:07court is yet to issue his ruling on the legality of section two while we have a redistricting
25:13arms race at the president's initiation on top of the ongoing court fights of racially gerrymandered maps
25:22in some red states and republicans are pushing federal voter restriction where are we right now andrea
25:32we certainly added we are certainly at a very um dismal um and dark state as it relates to so
25:40many
25:40issues certainly voting rights being foundational to the civil rights movement foundational to democracy
25:47but the thing that i continue to turn back to rev is that no matter how dark it is is
25:54that god does
25:55some of its greatest work is done in the darkness and we of all people know um what happens when
26:02we
26:02don't give up our faith when we organize when we become stronger and more activated than ever before
26:08and now is that time for all of us to no longer stand on the sidelines of democracy but to
26:13be full
26:14participants um in democracy now you're an influential woman who's been around influential women and is
26:24raising an influential woman we're in women's history month and we're also in the midst of a global moment
26:31of reflection around the epstein files and a national one about the extent to which donald trump
26:38was close to jeff epstein uh beyond that the president has made several comments over the years
26:45denigrating women for various reasons i wonder how does a society effectually institutionalize
26:53respect for women when you have a sitting president with these kinds of associations
27:00and we also are literally just i think a few years past women um having the right to vote
27:08in this country well you know anybody that is around any type of strong woman of women of which you
27:16are um you know i you know your daughters both um dominique and ashley are phenomenal women you know
27:22people think it's probably cute just to be al sharpton's daughters they don't know how much
27:27um they're on the front lines you know i remember talking to eric garner's um daughter once and she
27:34was talking about how your daughters organized eight minute marches with me that you weren't even at
27:38um and then you also have jennifer jones austin on your board and ebony riley who i feel is one
27:44of the
27:44greatest unsung heroines um of our generation so you are very smart unlike our president um to surround
27:53yourself with very strong and capable and um very determined women i think that anybody that has been
28:02around a strong woman knows that the roar of the divine feminine can no longer be ignored so you can
28:09drop bombs you can you can release all kind of files except for the epstein files you cannot acknowledge the
28:16the victims but that this um will continue to um manifest until these women and that all of this
28:25is dealt with strongly and direct directly and effectively i'm out of time but i must raise you have
28:34uh raised and uh i've really put uh martin the third your husband and i on alert about we are
28:42really
28:42facing some critical governmental actions that could uh threaten people's uh civil and human rights uh
28:50coretta scott king also was one that was out uh pushing dr king around the war in vietnam what are
28:56the most in in 30 seconds critical things that you are telling us we better convene on right now
29:02well you know we've already been talking about voting rights um and the federalization potentially of
29:08our upcoming elections so that's something that's critical that we are working on behind the scenes
29:13and i know we'll be announcing something um very soon i think that there are so many things going
29:18on right now if you're talking about ice ice um in our communities as you're talking about um voting
29:24rights being attacked women's rights being attacked diversity equity inclusion but again i go back to the
29:29fact that god's um best work is done in the darkness whether we're talking about in wounds whether
29:36we're talking about when the seeds that are being planted and we're talking about tombs and so we're
29:40at that moment in time where we we don't blink we don't turn away we face the darkness and we
29:45will
29:45continue to get through this all right my little sister andrea waters king thank you for being with us
29:54up next former secretary of transportation and army veteran pete butichez joins me to discuss trump's
30:02latest attack on iran and what it means for americans we'll be right back
30:12welcome back to politics nation let's head to alabama where people attending the annual edmund pettus
30:20bridge crossing jubilee in commemoration of the 65th 61st anniversary of bloody sunday
30:27that i'll be with them tomorrow joining me now is one of those attendees former department of
30:33transportation secretary under the biden administration pete butichez uh let me start with
30:40this we're now in week two of the u.s and israel's war with iran and today on a social
30:48media uh platform
30:50president trump has threatened to escalate the conflict saying that iran will be hit quote very
30:58hard this as americans are feeling the consequences of the war at home according to uh or triple a gas
31:07prices have surged more than 10 percent in the last week due to up ended uh global energy supply
31:15as you are both a former transportation secretary and a former veterans what's been your reaction
31:22to the trump administration what it has done in the middle east well whether we think about it from
31:29the perspective of the american economy or from the perspective of the service members whose lives are
31:33on the line as they're being sent to war we see reminder after reminder of why this is the gravest
31:39decision that a president can make why there should be a high the highest bar for the use of force
31:46why
31:46it is something that you only do if you have no alternative and that's clearly just not the case here
31:52the president has not even tried to convince the american people or the congress that he had no choice
31:59but to go to war and the result is we are in a war where it's not even clear what
32:04the mission is
32:05uh some days it's about nuclear weapons which iran did not have some days it is about regime change
32:12although it's not clear what that would even mean to the satisfaction of this president it is almost
32:17as if he decided to go to war because he wanted to go to war and the cost of that
32:23will come down on
32:24the shoulders of people like the men and women that i served with we have already lost american lives and
32:30we don't
32:31know how much blood and treasure will go into this war but also as you pointed out yeah we're already
32:37paying the price here at home now in the first firing of trump's second term on thursday trump ousted
32:48christy uh norm from opposed to secretary of the department of homeland security her legacy has been
32:54riddled with public backlash to trump's aggressive mass deportation agenda as it killed two americans
33:03in indianapolis her firing was reportedly due to this 220 million dollar ad campaign featuring gnome on a
33:12horse and drone video along with the administration has called many other leadership failures as a former
33:21secretary in the biden white house what's been your take on the rise and fall of christy noem
33:27should her firing have happened sooner absolutely it should have happened as soon as last year when
33:35search and rescue teams did not go out to help the victims of texas flooding because she refused to
33:41sign off on them quickly enough as texans were dying and that's just one example obviously more egregious
33:47examples this year including the killing of americans and the unlawful arrest of so many people
33:52including american citizens in in minneapolis i cannot even begin to imagine what would have happened
33:58if any of those scandalous behaviors let alone uh that that video uh had happened on our watch and of
34:06course the most important thing is she failed in the mission of making america a more stable peaceful
34:11and safe country we have seen chaos in the streets and the waste of taxpayer money and this is what
34:18we keep coming back to whether we're talking about money being diverted to the war on iran or money being
34:24spent on her ad campaign remember we have been told that this country cannot afford to continue
34:31supporting americans health care we've been told that we have to accept the trump cuts to medicaid we
34:36have been told to accept cuts to food stamps and just a few days ago reporters revealed that the va
34:42the veterans administration has been cutting positions for doctors and nurses it's the first time in
34:48years democrat or republican that the number of doctors and nurses have been going down at a time when
34:54there is a shortage of doctors and nurses so how can it be that we do not have funding for
34:58those critical
34:59needs including not having funding to take care of our veterans and yet there is funding for an
35:05enormous uh increase in something like ice more money than they know what to do with funding for ad
35:11campaigns and and luxury jets for the secretary of homeland security and funding to go into a reckless
35:18war of choice that the president is pursuing in iran the 2020 since midterm elections are officially underway
35:26with primaries in texas north carolina and arkansas that took place on tuesday some of these races gained
35:34national attention with texas state representative james tallarico winning the democratic nomination
35:41for u.s senate and his popularity putting pressure on the democrats to potentially have a shot at flipping
35:49the senate this year what's been your takeaway from tuesday's results and what message does it reflect
35:57back to us as we inch closer and closer to november well the thing that is really striking to me
36:05is the
36:05off the charts turnout that we saw for democrats and people voting in democratic primaries in so many
36:11places across the country and when you combine that with the conversations that uh that i've been having
36:16traveling the country was recently in pennsylvania uh in a couple of districts that i believe will swing
36:22from red to blue uh what you see is that people are fed up with the leadership that they have
36:27i think
36:28that across the country we are going to see evidence this year that there is no such thing as a
36:33permanently red state or a permanently red district in a few days i will be in the the district that
36:39was
36:39held by marjorie taylor green where there is a candidate an excellent democratic candidate uh who i'm
36:44backing sean harris uh will be campaigning with him uh in northwest georgia uh who is a retired general uh
36:52was served both in the marines and in the u.s army and really speaks to the concerns that are
36:57on people's minds they want leaders who are going to make everyday life more affordable who are going to
37:02focus on who the government should be taking care of and right now you got a government that's not taking
37:07care of most people it's taking care of the kinds of people who can afford a one million
37:11dollar entry fee into mar-a-lago it is not taking care of teachers or troops veterans or firefighters
37:18or any of the regular people struggling to get through everyday life in this country today i think
37:23because of that we have a chance even for people who usually vote republican matter of fact just on
37:28the plane to alabama somebody came up to me said uh i'm right this happens all the time i'm a
37:33republican
37:33but this has to change and uh expects and and wants there to be change starting with the u.s
37:39congress
37:39yeah starting with the need for balanced government and for better leadership
37:44now turning back to selma you're in alabama i'm on my way attending the edmund pettus bridge crossing
37:51and also speaking at several events this weekend why was this anniversary important for you to attend and
37:59and are you reaching out to the black vote for a potential run for national office perhaps in 2028
38:07well this would be my my third time participating in uh that commemoration that memorial uh in selma i
38:13think uh one thing that's on a lot of our minds right now is how many of the heroes of
38:18the civil rights
38:19movement are passing from living memory uh as we have this week and weekend been marking the passing of the
38:25reverend jesse jackson uh and uh what what is on my mind going into this and has been every time
38:31i've gone is how we can
38:32summon the kind of moral courage that these leaders who face down jim crow who face down the long arm
38:39of
38:39the confederacy uh can inspire us for this moment that we're in right now because obviously the
38:44struggle continues the voting rights act is on the chopping block and so many other things that uh that
38:50were at stake then are at stake in a new way right now i'm looking forward to being among both
38:55the new
38:55generation and that heroic generation all right uh who inspired the country with their courage
39:01all right pete buddhich uh thank you for joining us tonight up next my final thoughts we'll be right back
39:14yesterday i joined three former presidents and one former vice president as we spoke at the national
39:26funeral services for reverend jesse jackson who mentored me i've known since i was 12 years old
39:32and one of the things that i wanted to stress in my remarks was that it's not enough to mourn
39:39reverend
39:39jackson and then mock what he stood for and what i mean by that is that he fought all his
39:46life around
39:46voting rights and civil rights and human rights and health care and if we are really inspired by jesse
39:55jackson really inspired by those civil rights giants from the 60s till now we ought to be standing up and
40:04making sure we protect voting rights that we protect people's health care that is now in limbo with the
40:11affordable care act still being debated in terms of it not being renewed we must stand up for our giants
40:19for what they stood up for what they stood up for us it's not enough to mourn them that's mocking
40:25them
40:25if we don't have action behind it that does it for me thanks for watching i'll see you back here
40:30tomorrow
40:30at 5 p.m eastern the weekend prime time starts right at the top of the hour
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