Summary
The families of gun violence victims and survivors testify before Congress. On the eve of the much-anticipated first public hearing of the January 6 Committee, Sandra Garza, whose longtime partner, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died in the aftermath of the MAGA attack on the Capitol, speaks out. Senator Elizabeth Warren discusses the likely overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Texas congressional candidate Jasmine Crockett discusses gun reform. What`s the message for Democrats after yesterday`s California primary?
Transcript
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on THE REIDOUT:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIMBERLY RUBIO, MOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: I left my daughter at that school. And that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Soon after, we received the news that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers that died as a result of gun violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Heart-wrenching testimony today from the families who suffered unimaginable losses to gun violence.
Plus, on the eve of the much-anticipated first public hearing of the January 6 Committee, I will be joined by Sandra Garza, whose longtime partner, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died in the aftermath of the MAGA attack on the Capitol.
And Elizabeth Warren will be sitting right here with me to tell us what we need to do when we lose our reproductive rights. And she has some strong suggestions for President Biden.
But we begin with more of those powerful, heartbreaking calls to action on gun violence, with survivors and family members of victims from recent mass shootings testifying before Congress today. We heard from Zeneta Everhart, the mother of 21-year-old Zaire Goodman, who was wounded, but survived the mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store last month, which was motivated by racist hate.
She described her son as pure joy, while calling the person who shot him a domestic terrorist, saying domestic terrorism occurs because America is inherently violent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZENETA EVERHART, MOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back, and another on his left leg caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15.
If after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today does not move you to act on gun laws, I invite you to my home to help me clean Zaire`s wounds, so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and to my community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: We then heard from Dr. Roy Guerrero, the only pediatrician in Uvalde, who described the horror that he witnessed two weeks ago in the city`s emergency room.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROY GUERRERO, UVALDE PEDIATRICIAN: Two children whose bodies had been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart, that the only clue as to their identities was blood- splattered cartoon clothes to clean to them, clinging for life and finding none.
I could only hope these two bodies were a tragic exception to the list of survivors. But as I waited there with my fellow Uvalde doctors, nurses, first responders and hospital staff for other casualties we hoped to save, they never arrived.
All that remained was the bodies of 17 more children and the two teachers who cared for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Dr. Guerrero knew these children. He knew their parents too.
The first one to child he saw was Miah Cerrillo, the 11-year-old student who had smeared a dead classmate`s blood on herself to trick the shooter into thinking she was dead. During his testimony, the doctor called her sweet Miah.
Miah, who saw her classmates killed that day, also testified via video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIAH CERRILLO, 11-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR OF UVALDE MASS SHOOTING: Shot my teacher and told my teacher, "Good night," then shot her in the head.
And then he shot some of my classmates and the whiteboard. I thought he was going to come back to the room, so I grabbed her blood and I put it all over me. And...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you do then, when you put the blood on yourself?
CERRILLO: Just stayed quiet. And then I got my teacher`s phone and called 911.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: And, finally, we heard from the mother of Alexandria "Lexi" Rubio, a fourth grader who was among the 19 children killed in Uvalde.
In video testimony, sitting next to her husband, Felix, Kimberly Rubio made this tearful plea days before she will lay her precious daughter to rest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: I left my daughter at that school. And that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life.
We understand that, for some reason, to some people, to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns, that guns are more important than children.
So, at this moment, we ask for progress.
Somewhere out there, there`s a mom listening to our testimony, thinking, I can`t even imagine their pain, not knowing that our reality will one day be hers, unless we act now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Today, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department will review the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting and will make its findings public.
As for the response in Texas, well, that`s less clear. Texas Senate Democrats are calling on Governor Greg Abbott to convene a special legislative session to raise the age to purchase long guns to 21 and to require a universal background check.
The governor is the only one who can call a special session and set its agenda. Instead, Governor Abbott wants the Texas legislature to form special committees to make legislative recommendations in response to the shooting, which critics say is too little and far too late.
[19:05:07]
But check out the special sessions called by Governor Abbott before to enact restrictions on abortion and transgender student athletes, banning vaccine mandates, limiting fake Critical Race Theory in schools. It`s essentially a bingo card of Republican boilerplate.
But, when it comes to guns, children and their safety, nothing.
Joining me now is Texas state Representative Jasmine Crockett, who is running for U.S. Congress, and Brandon Wolf, press secretary for Equality Florida and a Pulse nightclub shooting survivor.
And, Brandon -- thank you both for being here, first of all.
But, Brandon, I want to start with you, because I watched the testimony live this morning and cried through the whole thing, I will unashamedly admit. And I, myself, couldn`t imagine how anyone could watch that and walk away from it completely moved and inspired to act to prevent this happening again.
But not everyone had the same reaction. I want to play for you Representative Andy Biggs of Texas, who has whimsically spoken about lynching, and not in a negative way, and who has a certain history in his politics.
But this is what he said. This is how he reacted to watching that testimony. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ANDY BIGGS (R-AZ): I got to tell you, the most egregious thing that the Democrats did today is, they took a person, a young person, little Miah, who was traumatized two weeks ago, still suffering under obvious PTSD as she testified in that video, and bringing that poor little girl to relive this.
If we`re talking about PTSD, you just prolonged the agony of that little child. For what? For your own political gain, your own political purpose. That is despicable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: I guess he`s implicating her parents, who wanted her to testify. And she did by video. That was his reaction, Brandon.
You, as a survivor yourself, have had to relive it. And I am -- will apologize in advance for having you on so much over the years, and you have become one of my favorite people, dearest people. But you have had to relive it to help other people. What do you make of his take?
BRANDON WOLF, EQUALITY FLORIDA: Well, first of all, Congressman Biggs is what is despicable and disgraceful.
What he just said is appalling and atrocious and a disrespect to that young girl. What I saw today from Miah and from those families was courage. I saw courage from fourth grade students, from kids, who just two weeks ago were hidden at school disguising themselves with the blood of their own classmates to avoid being shot to death.
I saw courage from families who dropped their 10-year-old children off at school, only to watch them come out in body bags. I saw more courage today from those families than we have ever seen from Congressman Biggs or the scores of Republicans and Republican-adjacent Democrats who have sat on their hands for decades.
I think this is a gut-check moment for these politicians and for political leaders across this country. Can you really look in the eyes of those families and tell them nothing can be done? Can you really sit across from those children, from Miah, those traumatized children, and tell them that keeping them safe just isn`t a priority for you?
Can you really assure us the your obsession with easy access to guns, guns on every corner, that experiment we have been trying forever, is the only answer? Can you continue to tell this country full of communities like mine that have been ripped apart by gun violence that the most urgent crises you were elected to solve are teachers with they/them pronouns, drag queens reading "Red Fish, Blue Fish," and history lessons that, God forbid, tell young people this country was built on the backs of enslaved black people?
If the answer to those questions is yes, if you can sit there like Congressman Biggs and leave that hearing room, head back to your office and phone a gun lobbyist friend for that next fat paycheck, then I have news for. You are morally bankrupt, you are utterly corrupt and you are a disgrace to the position you hold.
We need action. We don`t need political bluster and grandstanding like that. We need political courage. These families deserve it. Children like Miah deserve it. Our entire nation deserves it. They need to get something done.
REID: You know, and it`s -- amen.
I mean, these families and this little girl were so brave, because they`re not speaking out because they enjoy speaking out, Representative Crockett. They`re speaking out because they`re desperate. People are desperate at this point to have something change. And it`s also ahistorical for people like Andy Biggs and the other leaders of your state to pretend that gun reform is alien even to Texas.
We found this from "The Texas Tribune." This is why 18-year-olds can buy an AR-15 in Texas, but not a handgun: "The disparate rules date back to the post-Civil War era, when the state, counter to its modern-day reputation, adopted some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Handguns were targeted for gun reform in Texas in the 19th century, as weapons that they equated with crime. Rifles and shotguns were excluded because they were used for hunting and participating in a militia."
[19:10:16]
So they saw rifles as the good gun, handguns as the bad guys` gun. But here`s the thing. An AR-15 is a rifle. So, technically, it gets to be legislated like a shotgun, like a gun you would go out to hunt birds with. But it ain`t a bird hunting gun.
Is there any logical explanation why your governor will not simply convene a special session to make that one small change back to Texas` history of gun reform?
JASMINE CROCKETT (D), TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Listen, I think where you`re going wrong is you`re looking for some logic to come up out of Greg Abbott.
We have seen over and over and over -- I mean, in your intro, what did you talk about? You talked about the things that they called special sessions for. You talked about their priorities. And, listen, let me be clear. I don`t want anybody to have any questions. The blood of these children is on the hands of the Republicans in the state of Texas, period, no question about it.
Because let`s talk about who`s been in control in the state of Texas for a least the last 30 years. It`s been Republicans and their failed policies. And just this session, they decided, in the wake of what we saw in El Paso, that what they wanted to do is, they wanted to give more access to firearms.
Now, this is the same legislature that says 18-year-olds are not mature enough to go ahead and buy a cigarette. So, two sessions ago, they raised the age from 18 to 21. But an AR-15, which we know you`re not doing any real hunting -- if you`re a real hunter, let me be clear, for those who don`t understand, you`re not hunting. It will destroy your meat, OK?
There is no reason for this. And so, honestly, just like what we saw over the summer, where we had to go to the federal level to seek some protection as it relates to how rogue the Republicans were acting in the state of Texas, it`s the same thing. We need protections. We need an assault ban, period, on the federal level.
That is the only thing that`s going to put -- going to put a check on Texas, because Texas doesn`t see this as a priority. They could care less about those children. And let me be clear about one other thing.
We talk about Buffalo and we talk about the racial component. But nobody is bringing up the fact that this was a school full of brown children. And so I have some questions as it relates to that as well. Would it be different? Because that`s the same thing that we saw in El Paso, right? It was brown folk that were targeted.
Would it be different if those were not little brown children? Would they care a little more. And the reality is that the state of Texas is a majority-minority state. And we need to start looking out for all Texans, no matter what color they are. And we need to start coming up with policies that will bring about some healing and actually resolve some issues, instead of continually falling down this rabbit hole of failed policies.
They have decided that the solution is to make sure that our teachers are going to be packing, the same teachers that they don`t trust to pick their books for the children. Which one do you think makes more sense, to have our teachers decide what children should be reading or decide to have our teachers carrying guns to protect them in the wake of, say, an AR-15 being shot up in their classroom, when we have law enforcement that`s too afraid to go in?
REID: Yes, indeed.
And let`s take that to a national level, Brandon, because it`s not just in the state of Texas. Mitch McConnell today -- and I will note the attorney general says they`re going to investigate. We will see how that goes.
Mitch McConnell today, in response to the fact that a man showed up armed to Justice Kavanaugh`s house, which should not happen, let`s just be clear -- no one should be threatened with gun violence, including Justice Kavanaugh.
Here was Mitch McConnell`s response about the urgency he feels in protecting the precious, his Supreme Court majority, which is the whole point, apparently, of his career, was to have this right-wing majority. Here`s Mitch McConnell today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): This is exactly, exactly why the Senate passed legislation very shortly after the leak to enhance the police protection for justices and their families.
House Democrats must pass this bill, and they need to do it today. No more fiddling around with this. They need to pass it today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Brandon, as a survivor of a mass shooting yourself, I just want to let you comment on the fact that Mitch McConnell, Addison Mitch McConnell, has said that the action to protect Supreme Court justices, his precious, must take place today, no more fiddling around, today.
But when it comes to fourth graders, I guess they`re on their own.
WOLF: Well, listen, I mean, they`re not hiding their priorities at all. We know exactly who they`re protecting.
They`re protecting rich people. They`re protecting powerful people. And they have no interest in protecting the lives of 10-year-old children, whether it`s in Uvalde or elsewhere.
[19:15:09]
I also think we need to talk about this police response a bit more and what it tells us that we have a problem around. First of all, it was a catastrophic failure of law enforcement that got children killed in Uvalde. And, by the way, I`m no stranger to that. A catastrophic failure of law enforcement also got people killed at Pulse nightclub.
It was their own investigation that said that Orlando Police Department, who refused to confront the shooter at Pulse for three hours, got 13 people killed in the bathrooms; 13 people bled out on the bathroom floors, also majority queer people of color.
We have a serious problem that can`t be solved by individual police departments, and that they have no interest to solve on a national level because they`re too busy protecting their own assets.
And it also indicates that we have another problem. If we continue to double down on this idea of just one more good guy with a gun, of just reinvesting in the idea of police officers saving us from an active shooter, if only there were a 20th good guy with a gun in the hallway outside a classroom in Uvalde, then we have resigned ourselves to the fact that gun violence is inevitable.
It is not. It does not have to be this way. Unfortunately, it doesn`t look like people like Mitch McConnell or Congressman Biggs or any of the Republican leadership in this country have any interest in solving it.
REID: I`m going to end on a hopeful note.
There`s a headline today that a conservative Wyoming senator, Cynthia Lummis, she says she`s now rethinking doing some legislating, because she originally came out with the NRA position, saying, oh, no, no, no, no, my constituents don`t want that. And then she got the calls.
The people started calling her and calling her and calling her. And now she`s considering changing her mind, because you know what politicians -- and our wonderful representative here can attest to it. When you call them, they hear that. Call your senators. Call them.
Thank you, state Representative Jasmine Crockett, Brandon Wolf. Thank you both.
Up next: It is quite possibly the most important congressional hearing of our lifetimes. And we`re learning more about what the January 6 Select Committee has planned.
THE REIDOUT continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:52]
REID: In just over 24 hours, the House January 6 Committee will begin its series of public hearings.
It`s expected to feature riveting new testimony about the attack on the Capitol. In addition to British filmmaker Nick Quested, who recorded members of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys group before and after the attack, the American people will hear from Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer who sustained traumatic brain injury after being assaulted that day.
Edwards told "The New York Times" she suffered speech problems and fainting spells for months after the attack. And last fall, she spoke with NBC`s Garrett Haake about what she experienced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT HAAKE, NBC SENIOR NEWS CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: What is it for you that sticks in your head?
CAROLINE EDWARDS, CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: The screaming.
I -- when somebody shows me footage of the 6th, I have to have them turn off the sound, because that sound, that screaming, that just constant -- I -- I can`t hear it. It takes me back to a very bad place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: And just tonight, the committee announced a date to hold a third public hearing for Wednesday, June 15, at 10:00 a.m.
With me now, Sandra Garza, longtime partner of fallen Officer Brian Sicknick, and Glenn Kirschner, former federal prosecutor.
Thank you both for being here.
Sandra, I want to start with you first.
I can imagine this is not going to be easy for you to watch at all.
SANDRA GARZA, GIRLFRIEND OF BRIAN SICKNICK: No.
REID: Do you plan to watch the hearings?
GARZA: Yes, I actually will be attending the hearings.
REID: You will be attending.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: And what do you -- what do you hope comes out of it?
GARZA: Well, confirmation of everything that I think that we, especially the officers, the family members who have suffered these terrible tragedies, have pretty much known in our hearts all along...
REID: Yes.
GARZA: ... that Trump is the responsible person behind instigating this event.
REID: You know, I spoke with -- I`m going to bring Glenn in, in a moment, but I want to just to stay with you for just a moment.
And just to let my producer know, I want to go to -- this is five I want to play.
There is a sense among some of the current and former Capitol Police officers that I have just been chatting with recently, that one of the things that`s the most enraging is the kind of gaslighting and trying to convince folks that it didn`t happen...
GARZA: Yes.
REID: ... that it`s a lie that there was this violent insurrection.
I mean, these are people who were bloodied, beaten, brutalized by people who ostensibly were supposed to be pro-police.
GARZA: Right.
REID: And even to have some Republicans sort of downplay it, say, no, it wasn`t so bad.
I want to play for you Kevin McCarthy. This is new audio that`s come out, because there`s a book that`s published that`s got lots of his info. Here`s what he said about what should happen to Donald Trump.
This is -- this is in the moment of what he said should happen to Donald Trump after January 6. Take a listen.
GARZA: OK.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The first option that some people have talked about is a censure resolution against the president. Both Republicans and Democrats are drafting these. And one can be introduced or co-sponsored.
Another item that we can discuss as a bipartisan commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack. We need to know and have the facts exactly what happened and when. This needs to be done in a targeted way that doesn`t need to distract from keeping the Capitol safe over the coming weeks.
[19:25:15]
But what we learned is that people can get in. We learned that people planned. We need to have all the facts, especially for all of us. And we should do it in a bipartisan manner.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
REID: So that`s Kevin McCarthy in real time.
Here`s one more sound bite from Kevin McCarthy. And here is what he was calling on Donald Trump to do that day. Take a look.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MCCARTHY: I made a phone call to the president, telling him what was going on, asking him to tell these people to stop, to make a video and go out. And I was very intense and very loud about it.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
REID: He knows it`s real.
GARZA: Yes.
REID: What do you think of the fact that he is now fighting this committee and planning to counterprogram, rather than accept its findings?
GARZA: I think it`s appalling, because he knows the truth.
He was saying right after the insurrection that he was responsible for what happened. And then after he saw that there was still a tremendous amount of support for Trump, then he was doing all of this backpedaling. It`s appalling, because what he and others are doing is destructive to the American people.
This man is dangerous. He`s dangerous. And some of the things that I heard former Congressman Denver Riggleman talk about during an interview he gave, giving us a sneak peek at some of the text messages that he had gone through is terrifying, absolutely terrifying.
And these weren`t text messages that -- or, I should say, conversations that were being had to appease some Trump followers, to pacify them and to these QAnon conspiracies just to kind of keep the Trump train momentum going.
I mean, these were private personal text messages. That`s terrifying.
REID: Yes.
GARZA: These are people that are within our nation`s government that are making policies.
And I don`t understand for the life of me how these people can go on and continue to defend this garbage. I don`t know if there is any requirement for people that are in Congress or working for members of Congress, if there is any kind of requirement for them to have any kind of mental health evaluation, but, if there isn`t, there should be.
REID: Yes.
GARZA: And that`s coming from me as a mental health provider.
REID: Yes.
GARZA: I`m terrified about this. And I am definitely terrified about Trump running for president again and potentially winning.
REID: Yes.
And, Glenn, I mean, there`s good reason for that. I mean, it wasn`t just the violent -- the violence that took place on the ground. It was the planning. There`s all of this new information. So you have John Eastman, who was sort of -- one of the sort of intellectuals behind the plan that was quite well-thought-out.
He`s now been ordered to provide more documents, 150 new documents to the committee. A federal judge has said he has to do it. Judge David Carter, he had this filing about a potential crime that was committed here, in addition to the violence dated December 22, 2020.
"An attorney goes beyond strategizing litigation outcomes. This e-mail considers whether to bring a case that would decide the interpretation of the Electoral Count Act and potentially risk a court finding that the act binds Vice President Pence, because the attorney concluded that a negative court ruling would tank the January 6 strategy. He encouraged the legal team to avoid the courts. This e-mail cemented the direction of the January 6 plan."
In other words, there was a plan that, in theory, could be used again, it could be rolled out again in which they`re trying to create a legal theory that is legal to overturn the results of an election.
Your thoughts?
GLENN KIRSCHNER, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Joy, Judge David Carter, a federal judge from the Middle District of California, has been virtually screaming from the rooftops in his legal rulings litigating the question of whether John -- John Eastman is required to give over e-mails because of the crime-fraud exception, because they were discussing committing crimes to try to overturn the results of a presidential election, committing crimes to, in a very real sense, bring an end to our democracy.
Judge David Carter has been telling us repeatedly, based on the evidence he`s seen, that Donald Trump and John Eastman together have committed two federal felony crimes, a conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official proceeding, that being the certification of Joe Biden`s win.
[19:30:15]
And he made these findings, Joy, repeatedly, by the legal standard preponderance of the evidence, 51 percent of the evidence, more likely than not.
And what people need to realize is to indict someone for those precise crimes, you need less evidence than 51 percent. You only need probable cause. And I think the Department of Justice is about to play catchup with where some of these federal judges already are, having evaluated the evidence of crime by Donald Trump and his co-conspirators.
And I think the J6 public hearings are going to be the catalyst that we need. Once we see the evidence with our own eyes of these crimes, DOJ will have nowhere to go but to indict these men for what they did.
REID: Because this is not about the past, as Sandra Garza has said. It`s about the future. It`s about what could happen to us, not just what did. And what did was horrible.
Sandra Garza, Glenn Kirschner, thank you both. Really appreciate you.
And still ahead: With the Supreme Court poised to gut to Roe v. Wade, a group of Democratic senators are urging President Biden to take immediate action to protect reproductive rights.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is leading that effort. And she joins me next.
We`re back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDITH ARCANA, JANE COLLECTIVE MEMBER: We were very aware of the fact that women were suffering in a variety of ways because of abortion and being against the law. Women did awful things out of fear and desperation.
We knew that some would be injured, some would die. Many people around them, including children that they already had, would suffer. So we thought we can be of use. You need an abortion, we will help you. Call this number and ask for Jane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: That was a clip from a new documentary about the Janes, an underground abortion network created out of necessity in the 1960s.
And while it`s an inspiring portrait of a group of women fighting their subjugation, it`s also a look back into a dark time of our country`s past. And, unfortunately, it`s newly relevant again, with the looming Supreme Court decision that almost certainly will overturn Roe v. Wade.
Congress could act to codify Roe into law. But there`s no chance of that happening right now. In fact, Senate Republicans have previewed their plans to enact a national abortion ban if they take over after the November elections.
So a group of Senate Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Patty Murray are asking President Biden to act now. In a letter released today, they wrote: "Americans across the country are at risk of losing their fundamental rights, including their constitutional right to abortion protected for generations. They deserve no less than a whole-of-government response."
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joins me now.
It`s always great to see.
You were nodding during that -- the clip?
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Yes.
REID: That`s a past that is not the distant past.
WARREN: That is exactly right. That is the past of the world I grew up in...
REID: Yes.
WARREN: ... when I was a little girl, when I was a teenager.
And the idea that five extremists on the United States Supreme Court want to take us back to that world...
REID: Yes.
WARREN: ... want to treat women as second-class citizens, I see this is a moment that it has got to be all hands on deck...
REID: Yes.
WARREN: ... a whole-of-government response.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: I get it. Congress could act, but we just don`t have the votes right now.
So we need the president of the United States to act.
REID: Executive action.
What do you want him to do?
WARREN: So, we put a list. You know, you got to have a plan.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: So Patty Murray and I and nearly two dozen other senators, all Democrats, of course, said here`s a list of things you can do...
REID: Yes.
WARREN: ... Mr. President.
And it starts with making sure that there`s more access to medication abortions. Right now, there are restrictions on the availability of that drug that are not medically necessary. They`re politically necessary. OK, let`s get rid of those. Let`s do only what`s medically necessarily.
REID: And that can be done by executive action?
WARREN: That can be done.
REID: OK.
WARREN: That can be done through the FDA. We have got -- it`s lots of agencies. I say executive action.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: It`s really the agencies. It`s every part, but its whole of government is our response.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: Another part that we can make sure is that people who receive Medicaid for their medical care get the full range of services that, by law, are supposed to be available to them, including choice of provider.
And that means enough of these states deciding Planned Parenthood can`t operate within their borders.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: So it`s being aggressive and pushing back on that.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: Another piece is, we want the administration to explore, what can be done with federal property within the states that are hostile? How about if the federal government looks into the possibility? Can they have clinics there? Can we give advice there? How can we be helpful?
The federal government is a huge employer. So is the federal government stepping up and saying that if a federal employee lives in a state that is restricting access to abortion, that, as an employer, the federal government will make sure that not only will that woman`s health care be covered, but her transportation will be covered...
[19:40:04]
REID: Right.
WARREN: ... and she gets a longer period of leave from work?
REID: Or, if it`s illegal to leave the state, such as in some of these states where they`re saying, well, it`s illegal to leave the state, or if somebody is on a military base.
WARREN: Exactly.
In fact -- and I will give you one more. And that is, as you know, there are now apps, for example, that track a woman`s period.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: Well, instead of those being something that`s just available to the woman, the federal government can remind the sites and clarify under HIPAA and other laws that those data have to be held private...
REID: Right.
WARREN: ... cannot be sold to others, cannot be made accessible to others who may want to interfere with that one`s individual health decisions and want to be able to monitor her.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: So, there`s -- the whole point of this is to say, there are a lot of different directions where the government could go. We want to see this administration all hands on deck.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: This is a five-alarm fire.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: We need to be fight, fight, fighting,
REID: And what has been the response from the administration?
WARREN: Well, we just got the letter to them.
REID: OK.
WARREN: So I want to be fair.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: We have just gotten it over there.
But I`m very hopeful, because I feel a real sense of Democrats united here.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: Look at it this way.
The Republicans -- how did we get in this mess? And part of the answer is because the Republicans have fought for this for a long time.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: They have had a long-term strategy to get one extremist after another onto the Supreme Court, and, ultimately, of course, stealing a Supreme Court seat, rushing through another Supreme Court nominee, and having Supreme Court nominees, as I recall, who all said Roe vs. Wade was settled law and they weren`t going to interfere in settled law.
REID: That`s right. They lied.
WARREN: Yes. So we got all that done.
But the point is, they have been after this aggressively, hard, fighting it for years and years and years. We have counted on the other side on the Supreme Court to protect our individual rights. Well, it`s pretty clear we better stop doing that.
REID: Yes.
WARREN: And it`s pretty clear right now we better be willing to fight back twice as hard as the Republicans fought to get here...
REID: Yes.
WARREN: ... because this is about protecting all of us.
REID: Yes, indeed.
And we don`t want to go back to a future where women are having to essentially be in an abortion underground...
WARREN: Yes.
REID: ... when there`s a crisis pregnancy, to have to risk your doctor turning you in or some religious extremist that knows you`re pregnant or people tracking your periods.
It truly is not what America is supposed to be in a modern era.
WARREN: No, Joy, we are not going back.
REID: That`s right.
WARREN: Not now.
REID: That`s right.
WARREN: Not ever.
REID: Amen. Amen, sister. Appreciate you.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you.
WARREN: Thank you.
REID: It`s always a pleasure.
WARREN: Always good.
REID: And coming up next: What`s the message for Democrats after yesterday`s California primary?
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:28]
REID: Tuesday`s primary elections in seven states will set up contest in dozens of races, as Democrats look to protect their congressional majority in a deeply troubling time.
Meanwhile, in the Los Angeles mayor`s race, billionaire Rick Caruso, a newcomer to the Democratic Party after years as a registered Republican, will face off against six-term progressive Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass. Voters in that city say that homelessness, crime, public safety and housing affordability are their top concerns.
Translation? That means rich folks want the homeless encampments gone and middle-class folks want more affordable housing, which is currently unaffordable because of gentrification and income inequality.
In a plot twist, Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva, dubbed by critics as the Donald Trump of L.A., will face a run-off in November. He campaigned on hiring more police, cracking down on homelessness, and opposing woke reform efforts. He`s also been investigated for allowing his officers to engage in habitual violence and misconduct without consequence and rejecting oversight. He calls that a false narrative.
Further north, San Francisco voters recalled reformist district attorney Chesa Boudin and anger over his -- amid anger over his progressive policies at a time of increased anxiety over crime and perceptions that Boudin`s policies were making it worse.
Mayor London Breed is expected to announce Boudin`s replacement in the upcoming weeks, but that person is expected to be a progressive prosecutor too.
With me now. Christine Pelosi, Democratic strategist and a DNC member of -- DNC member in California, and Don Calloway, Democratic strategist and founder of the National Voter Protection Action Fund.
Thank you both for being here.
Let me play what President Biden said about last night`s results.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the voters sent a clear message last night. Both parties have to step up and do something about crime, as well as gun violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Was that the message, Christine Pelosi, of last night`s results? Because they seem to be a little bit kind of not consistently the message.
What do you think?
CHRISTINE PELOSI, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE MEMBER: Well, in San Francisco, where, of course, we had Speaker Nancy Pelosi when overwhelmingly for another term in Congress, and we had -- the voters are in a mood.
It started a year ago, when we had the recall, leading up to the governor`s recall, where people were mad about lockdown. They were mad about COVID. They were mad about schools being out. And they really wanted to get some control back. And we said then, in the Democratic Party, look, you have to lead with empathy first and party affiliation second.
Then we recalled the members of the school board because they were renaming, rather than reopening the schools. And then, last night, we recalled the DA, not because he`s a bad guy. Actually, he`s a wonderful defense attorney.
[19:50:06]
But the victims of crime were looking for a little bit more empathy. If you`re some of our moms who lost their kids to gun violence who were concerned about the lack of prosecution, or the AAPI community who is telling us, look, my grandma can`t even go shopping, she`s afraid of the violence, you know the DA can`t solve all those problems, but you want a little bit more empathy.
And that will be true for his successor as well.
REID: You know, Don -- and, also, Don always has a great shirt on, so I think it says "Respect the Locals." I think that`s what your shirt says. We always have to read your shirt.
But, I mean, what do you think? Because it`s kind of easy, in the Eric Adams era, for -- and, of course, Joe Biden`s history with the crime bill, et cetera -- this is sort of his sweet spot -- to sort of easy -- it`s easy to say, oh, this is the message, that Democrats need to be tougher on crime.
But it`s not clear that that`s the whole message. Do you think there`s a risk of overreaching what`s happening? Because these are very California- specific, community-specific, and also America kind of feels kind of crappy over all issues.
DON CALLOWAY, FOUNDER, NATIONAL VOTER PROTECTION ACTION FUND: Yes.
Yes, these are very, very California-, L.A.-, San Francisco-specific issues. But if you track what`s happening with progressive reform-based prosecutors throughout the country, you have to remember a couple of things.
First of all, there is zero evidence -- and this is perhaps burying the lede here -- there is zero evidence that criminal reform policies have led to a spike in crime. As a matter of fact, there`s evidence that it`s gone the other way.
What criminal reform policies do give the opportunity for is for more conservative-on-crime-minded politicians to make real political marks out of these people. You can beat them on these messages.
What we`re also not leading with -- outside of the evidence against saying that criminal justice reform leads to a spike in crime, what we`re also not really talking about is the fundamental idea that Chesa Boudin and a lot of these reform-minded prosecutors have governed through the pandemic.
There has been an infinitesimal spike in property crime, in break-ins. And this is the type of stuff that San Franciscans and their Teslas don`t like. Sorry, Alexandra (ph).
But they don`t like that. These are liberal people. They want women`s rights. They want LGBTQIA rights, and so on and so forth. But they don`t really like homelessness. They don`t like tripping over people of color in the street. But homelessness is not necessarily attached to criminal justice reform.
By the way, it is not a crime to be poor. And it is not a crime to be homeless, particularly in a time of spiking rents. So you have got to recognize, as a progressive reform-minded prosecutor that this does make you a political mark.
But the American people should understand that there`s no evidence between reform prosecution and a rise in crime.
REID: Let me start with you, and then go back to Christine, because this brings me right to the L.A. mayor`s race, because homelessness and crime are also big issues in that race.
So you have this gentleman, Caruso, who was a Republican, but who has gotten some celebrity endorsements. So has Karen Bass. Let me just be fair. They have both gotten celebrity endorsements, because it`s become the battle of, what, Kim Kardashian and them vs. the -- it`s just -- it`s different.
But what do you think that that -- the fact that Caruso is ahead at this point, what does that mean? And how do we read that? So, this is going to a run-off.
CALLOWAY: I think it means that there`s a -- there`s a lot of moneyed interests in Los Angeles, as well as San Francisco.
And you have to remember that it`s not cool for people to live out in the exurbs as much, like I do right now. When people come back into the city -- we have seen that movement over the last 20 years in American cities. And there are a lot of white upper-middle-class voters who are coming back into the city and want to see people who are going to protect their tax rates.
They want to see people who are going to protect their personal property and talk about being very tough on crime. And I think that`s what you`re seeing with Rick Caruso. I don`t think that, by any means, this is a rebuff of Karen Bass. But she should be very happy that she has the opportunity to survive into November and really gin up that Latinx and African-American women voter base.
She`s got a lot of work to do.
REID: You know -- and, Christine, California is an interesting state, because it is a majority-minority state, but the majority are Latino.
African-Americans are only about 6, 7, 8 percent of the population -- I think about 9 maybe percent of the population. There`s a large Asian American population. It`s a complex state. And it`s sort of a state that looks like our future in this country.
What do you make of this mayor`s race and what each of these candidates is going to need to do to win?
PELOSI: Well, Karen Bass, first of all, she`s not going to have $40 million to spend, like Rick Caruso. So how did he make the run-off with 41 percent? Almost a million dollars a point. That`s how. That`s number one.
But she is the author of the George Floyd Policing Act, which passed the House and is the basis for the president`s executive order that shows a model of how she would govern L.A. She`s a consensus-builder. She`s started three or four nonprofits and lifted a lot of people up.
So people love Karen Bass. She`s very, very popular. She will do well. And his consultants need to stop with the Willie Horton Jr. effect of darkening her face in ads and things like that and trying to scare people, because I just think that it`s racist, it`s sexist, it`s wrong, and it`s going to backfire on him.
[19:55:00]
So I think that we have a lot to do. And it`s important to remember that you have to speak to people`s hearts. If people are upset, if people are anguished, you got to lean into that, but, at the same time, not let that be an excuse to say we`re going to criminalize poverty, we`re going to criminalize homelessness.
In fact, you have to get to the root causes of what`s going on if you`re going to have a solution.
REID: Yes.
PELOSI: And I think Karen Bass will do that well. I think the Democrats will do that well, which is why I think they will win in November.
REID: All right, we shall see.
Great panel. Want to have you guys back to talk more politics. We love Cali politics too.
Christine Pelosi and Don Calloway, thank you very much.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: Be sure to join me and my sister colleague friends Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace tomorrow for live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the first public hearing of the January 6 Select Committee.
We will be joined by Congressman Adam Schiff, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, Claire McCaskill, Ari Melber, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O`Donnell.
Our coverage of this historic hearing begins tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern here on MSNBC. Do not miss it.
That is tonight`s REIDOUT.
Stay tuned for a special edition right now of "ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES," right now.