Morning Joe - Morning Joe 4/17/23

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

President Biden concludes Ireland trip with Ballina speech 

Another community is grieving this morning following another deadly mass shooting. This time, it was at a birthday party in small-town Alabama. We'll have the latest in the investigation and the reaction to more gun violence in America, a daily occurrence almost. It comes as the NRA held its annual convention this weekend in Indianapolis with Donald Trump as one of its top speakers. We'll show you the mixed reception the crowd gave to a possible challenger to Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential race. Also ahead, new reporting on the wealthy donors who are now backing away from Ron DeSantis

and why they are ditching the Florida governor before he even launches a presidential campaign. Plus, the legal fight over abortion medication will go before the Supreme Court this week. We'll break down the new developments in that case. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Monday, April 17th. With us, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan LeMire. I think I just saw you on television. I was just.

Yeah, did a great job. Former aide to the George W. Bush White House and State Department's Elise Jordan is here with us. The host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, president of the National Action Network, Reverend Al Sharpton, here with us as well. And the founder of the conservative website, The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes, joins us along with co-founder of Axios, Mike Allen. And of course, President Biden is back in the U.S. this week after wrapping up his trip to Ireland on Friday.

That's where Joe is right now. And before he left, he spoke outside a cathedral in Balina to a crowd of thousands. He talked about the relationship between the U.S. and Ireland and about his own personal ties to the area, saying Ireland isn't just a part of his family history, but also a part of his soul. And as I said, Joe is still in Ireland this morning in Belfast now, having spent the weekend interviewing key architects of the Good Friday Agreement, including, well, President Biden, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the former Sinn Féin President Jerry Adams. So, Joe, what have you been hearing 25 years later after this historic peace accord? Well, of course, President Biden timed his trip over here to line up with the Good Friday

agreement. It's something obviously 25 years ago, the whole world was shocked that that these sides that had hated each other, that had spent over 30, 40 years killing each other, actually decided to lay down their arms and begin functioning together as a group, as a government. So this meeting in Belfast is part celebration. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern also, the Irish prime minister, also said his part reunion 25 years later. They can't believe they're back and it's already 25 years. But it's also a bit of a working trip because because even with the peace agreement 25 years

later, there's still problems in Northern Ireland, political problems. The sides are fraying a bit. Brexit has caused considerable problems here. And so they're back together and everybody's talking about how to keep this peace process moving forward. And so they'll be doing that over the next couple of days at Queens University, where Hillary Clinton is the first woman chancellor there. So I talked to her, talked to Bill Clinton. Tony Blair just got finished talking to him. Bernie Ahern, the leader of Ireland, and of course, Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, who were all part of this extraordinary process. We'll be airing some of those interviews throughout the day and on our special next week. But it's it's been a remarkable, remarkable weekend.

Yes. And on later on the show this morning, we'll be hearing from your interviews, a little bit of them from President Biden, also former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also talking about the news of the day as well. So let's get to that. Another American community is in mourning this morning following a deadly mass shooting. It's a daily occurrence. It's normality now. Four people were killed and 28, 28 others were injured during a 16th birthday party in Alabama. It happened Saturday night at a dance studio in downtown Dadeville. Among those killed was a high school senior who planned to play college football and was celebrating his sister's birthday. Police remained very tight-lipped at this point

about the shooting and are asking residents to come forward with information. It is not known right now if a suspect is in custody or what led up to the attack. President Biden released a statement expressing his sympathies and frustrations, writing in part, quote, This is outrageous and unacceptable. Americans agree and want lawmakers to act on common sense gun safety reforms. Instead, this past week, Americans saw national Republican elected leaders stand alongside the NRA in a race to the bottom on dangerous laws that further erode gun safety. Most members of the Republican Party have refused to take on the issue of guns.

But Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina is criticizing her own party's inaction. Here's what she had to say yesterday on Fox News Sunday. Publicans can no longer be silent on this issue. And it's not about the Second Amendment. There are plenty of things that we can be doing besides offering prayers and silence. Some sort of Amber Alert, for example, to let the community know there's been a shooting. Strengthening our background checks is something that the vast majority of Americans support. Hardening our schools, churches, and synagogues so that there is deterrence so that when a shooter, potential mass shooter, enters a place that they know that maybe they're not going to make it through because there's

bulletproof doors, bulletproof windows. Those kinds of common sense things are all things that every American on either side of the aisle can get behind. But yet every time there's a mass shooting and they're increasing every year, every week, we just, we don't say anything, want to bury our heads in the sand and hope that it goes away. But guess what? It's not going away. Joe, the congresswoman is seeing the big picture here, what most Americans are feeling. And yet Republicans stay very focused on on the base. They do, and it's a shrinking base, even in the Republican Party. We've said it for years now,

the overwhelming majority of NRA members, the overwhelming majority of Republicans, the overwhelming majority of Americans, almost 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks, almost 80 percent of Americans, I think maybe over 80 percent of Americans support national red flag laws. There's one gun safety measure after another that if you put it up for for a vote in any state like Colorado did, as Bill Clinton was saying earlier, Colorado in 2000 had a referendum on I believe it was universal background checks. The year that George Bush easily won that state, it passed overwhelmingly. I dare say, Charlie Sykes, the last thing that any extremist on gun issue wants would be for states like Florida, states like Wisconsin, to have a voters referendum on universal background check. Because if there were a voters referendum on universal background check, because if there were a voters referendum on

universal background checks, it would pass in all 50 states, which shows you why Republicans on abortion, on guns, on all these other issues that they've taken such extreme positions on. And we're not just talking about the Second Amendment. You and I support the Second Amendment. We always have supported the Second Amendment. We supported the decision in Heller. We support Americans being able to protect their family and own guns. But they've taken such an extreme position. They are so out of step with the overwhelming majority of Americans. You know, this is exactly right. We're not talking about the Republican base here. We're talking about a faction within the base, both on abortion and on guns. You know, it is interesting. I remember back in Wisconsin when I used to have a radio show, the NRA back then was pushing for a concealed carry without any permits, without any background checks. And this was a crazy idea. And I remember opening up the phones and to your point, the overwhelming majority of gun owners, Republicans said, yes, you know, this is crazy.

We don't have to go along with these extreme steps. And I think you're seeing that on the abortion issue as well, that the Republican Party is allowing itself to be held hostage by a faction within a faction, the loudest, most extreme versions of all of these issues. And I think that they're they they're they're trapped because what they've done is over the years they've given a veto power to the folks like the NRA when it comes to guns. By the way, you know, the juxtaposition of this shooting and the pictures coming out of the NRA convention where you have small children handling guns. I mean, are we so numb that we do not think how absolutely outrageous this is? These are the Reuters photographer who has these small children holding guns in their hands, including one young boy who's actually pointing it directly at her. You know, and you listen to the politicians at the NRA.

There was not one Republican who suggested any sort of moderation or compromise on this issue. None. It is absolutely frightening. I saw those pictures. I just couldn't believe my eyes. As we mentioned, Joe spoke with former President Bill Clinton about these issues. And here is what he had to say. You were president when Columbine happened.

And at the time, obviously, we were all horrified, but almost thought of that as a one-off. That's now become a regular occurrence. You and I grew up in a culture where everybody, we went to church with everybody that was in our neighborhood they all went out hunting you've you've talked about yeah shotguns growing up same here but it's gotten so extreme what do we do well one thing's pretty clear is whatever we do we need to do it more together and i think we need to start talking across this divide. I remember when Jack Brooks,

who was a congressman from Texas, had enjoyed the support of the NRA in every election he was ever in, and Tom Foley, the Speaker of the House from Washington, they both told me that when the Senate put in the assault weapons ban into the crime bill, which I warned, that if I signed it, we would lose the House. And we did.

And they lost their seats because of the ability of the NRA to terrify people, but also because we were beginning to lose touch with each other across cultural divides that had always existed but hadn't been barriers you couldn't breach. It is not rational that we should have a dramatically higher death rate among school-aged children because of gun violence than any other country in the world. And, you know, a lot of people get mad about this thoughts and prayers, but if you believe that you have to, if you believe you are compelled to let kids die in order to keep your freedoms. That's sort of the way this debate is.

Reverend Al, it's easy for a podcaster to talk about guns and take an extreme position or other people publicly. And they may have listeners that follow. But what we've seen not only in the gun debate, but also in the abortion debate is what happens when these issues suddenly become personal. When lifelong Republicans start talking to me and crying the day of a school shooting and talking about the madness, the insanity that they're afraid to drop their five year old children off at school. Then suddenly this political scuffling becomes very personal. It's the same we talked about with abortion. Republicans talking to me.

These horror stories that we're hearing out of Georgia, out of Florida, out of Virginia, out of all across the country, not California, but out of these states that have the most restrictive, restrictive abortion laws in America. It's becoming very personal to them, Rev. And I think that's what's causing this crisis in the Republican Party. It's why Kansas was a political earthquake, why Wisconsin was a political earthquake and why they're so concerned about 2024. At the end of the day, Joe, it becomes personal because it is personal. When when I saw the shooting over the weekend in Alabama, my mother is from Alabama. She's buried there. I have relatives there. I'm the first generation born in the north

of our family. This is personal. And many of them own guns, have guns. But when a sweet 16 party turns into a mass killing, it's beyond the politics of where you are. And one of the things that must happen to sit and watch you and former President Clinton, who were politically opposite, sit there and talk about how we have to come across the divide, I think is significant within itself. We have got to show that we're above our particular personal politics, biases and culture and show that we're for the whole. And I think you and Bill Clinton during that interview shows that. And I hope that people understand with personal issues in their families, the only way we're going to get by this is we're going to have to do it together,

whether we come together embracing or whether we back into each other. We're going to have to come together. The former president alluding to just how far apart Democrats and Republicans are and also where Americans stand on not just guns, but abortion. Two key issues. When we talk about abortion, we're talking about women's health. We're talking about women who are miscarrying and need help. Women who may die and need help. Women who may need a medication that causes a

termination. Or yes, yes, Republicans, you can use the word abortion. It's not a bad word. It's a word that pertains to women's health. And yet they are so afraid to talk about it so far apart. When it comes to this issue, Republican Senator and potential 2024 hopeful Tim Scott of South Carolina said Friday that as president, he would support and sign the, quote, most conservative pro-life legislation that could pass. Here's what he told NBC's Ali Vitale on Friday. Every time a state, of course, adopts a decision, states have the ability to have the most conservative bills that they can get passed in their legislature. I support the culture of life, without question. But is six weeks the right mile marker? Well, the people have decided that their elected leaders have the opportunity to do so. So I say absolutely. As the culture of life is being protected, we should celebrate that.

States will have different varying views on that. But yes, if I were president of the United States, I would literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress. Even if it was six weeks? I'm not going to talk about six or five or seven or ten. Oh my God. I mean, and Florida already has six weeks, Jonathan Lemire. And this is threatening the lives of women and torturing women. There are women in Florida who are being forced to carry to full term babies that will not live. Governor Sanders signed that legislation in the dead of night just last week. And Tim, Senator Scott, widely expected run for president, has said the signal that he would do the same on a national level.

And at least we've talked a lot about how 2022 was abortion front and center because of the Supreme Court decision. And a lot of Americans deciding that what the Republicans were saying was simply out of step. This isn't what they wanted. Remember, Senator Graham talked about a national abortion ban and Democrats saw how unpopular that was with even some Republican voters. And it seems like 2024 abortion is going to be a defining issue again. Well, it's even poised now. Look at what's going to happen with the Supreme Court and the abortion pill. That's huge. That is going to be seismic because most Americans, and when it comes to women's health, they are way more supportive of a pill that terminates pregnancy before 10 weeks than other measures.

And, you know, you talk about extremism. But the pill is used for a lot of things pertaining to women's health. At six weeks, you barely, you usually don't know that you're pregnant. It's, you know, like you've sneezed and you're pregnant suddenly. I mean, it's just no, women don't know. And the fact, I can't believe that the GOP has just become so infiltrated by big government control radicals at this point that they want to tell you what medical procedure you can have to preserve your life. Right. And the party that wants government to stay out of it is suddenly having government intervene. And we should note on that pill, Justice Alito giving a state just to Wednesday, the fate of it very much unclear.

And this later this week. Well, I mean, we've got to talk more about we have to talk more explicitly about what these drugs do and what abortion is used for, because clearly the Republican Party and a lot of men in it don't understand a woman's body, as former Vice President Kamala Harris says, and they literally don't. I'm not joking. This is serious in terms of how stupid can you be? Because your wives, your sisters, your aunts, your daughters may need health care and you're going to deny it because of something you don't know anything about. You just want to go ahead. And they don't care about it. I mean, there is some real deep misogyny here where they just discount women and you do what I'm told. You know, I raised the question a few days ago at our conference.

Would we have the same vote from these men if we were talking about outlawing the blue pill? Exactly. I mean, you know, women can't get pregnant by themselves. Right. So if you want to outlaw pills, why don't we outlaw both sides of this sex equation? And I think you'd get a different answer. The fact they don't even care about what it does to women health issues wise and not even

in terms of pregnancy shows that it's all you stay in the kitchen and you do what i say so interesting how this plays into presidential politics by the way despite not even jumping into the 2024 presidential race yet florida governor ron desantis is already losing support from key Republican donors over his extreme positions just days after the governor signed a six-week abortion ban into law. A key backer tells the Financial Times, quote, because of his stance on abortion and book banning, myself and a bunch of friends are holding our powder dry. The businessman who donated nearly $8 million to Republicans

last year previously said he was, quote, looking forward to supporting a DeSantis presidential run. Joe, this, I think, is one sign of perhaps some Republicans seeing where America is. Well, and again, Mike Allen, we had two completely different political worlds. We had the world pre-Dobbs, the world that we all lived in for 49 years under Roe v. Wade, and then the post-Roe world, where I must say, even I was surprised by the extent of the backlash. Kansas, I think it was a 19 point victory for pro-choice forces in Kansas. That was predicted to be a 50 50 vote. Of course, Wisconsin last week, 11 points. You talk to I talk to Republicans off the record, especially in the

Senate. They're very, very concerned that they're now battling the extremism that voters see that that independents and swing voters see in Trump and guns. But especially because this hits home with so many of them because they hear about it at home. This issue of abortion. Talk about the challenges it poses, not just Ron DeSantis, but other Republicans over the next year. Yeah, Joe, you stack that exactly right. Republicans are so concerned about how this is going to play. And Joe, this is a great illustration of why both parties are losing what Jim VandeHeide calls normal America. Axios is up this morning with some new data from Gallup showing that the most Americans in all the time that they've been polling now say they're

independent. Forty nine percent of Americans say they're independent. Each of the parties has 25%. Why is that? Because for more and more Americans, on the issues that we've talked about, the parties are not acting and doing what they wanted. And Gallup explained to me that what's driving this is young people used to be independent and they picked a party. Now, more and more, we're seeing those people as they get older, they're staying independent. So the parties are losing market share. And Republicans in particular know that this abortion issue is a long term problem. It's no accident that Governor DeSantis signed that bill, tweeted the picture of himself signing it at 1106 p.m. just before midnight as opposed to doing an event about it. Sure, it could help him in some Republican primaries, but not in New Hampshire. They're very concerned

about it there. And the DeSantis team well knows what an issue that could be in a general election if he gets there. And Charlie Sykes, I love that. I love that framing by Jim Vande Hei, quote, normal America. That reminds me when I was in Congress, there were so many times I would just look around at everybody there that was screaming. I say, you know what, guys, nobody outside of this chamber cares about what we're talking about right now. Like that's the abnormal America. And these political extremes also so abnormal. What's strange, though, Charlie, is just think about it. A year ago, Republicans were attacking Democrats for obsessing over cultural issues and not focusing on inflation, the southern border, gas prices. Now, here we are a year later and it's the Republicans obsessing on extreme gun issues, on abortion, on these social issues, which used to help them overwhelmingly with their base and

even with some independent voters. But it's having the opposite impact. And this has happened all very quickly, hasn't it, as far as a political backlash? Yeah, I mean, and you left out, of course, the obsession with Drag Queen Story Hour, you know, and banning books. You know, really the remarkable thing about this abortion question, you know, listening to Senator Scott, is the pro-life movement in the Republican Party have had 50 years to prepare for this moment. They have had 50 years to create a narrative to figure out what are we going to do if we actually catch this car? How can we make ourselves look like we actually care about life? How do we finesse this? What is our position on abortion pills? What is our

position on having a national ban? What should it be? They they're caught so unprepared. And you can see that with the way that Rhonda Sanders is behaving about this bill and Senator Tim Scott, who you would have thought would have given some consideration to these questions before he got into the race for president. But you're absolutely right. It's going to be all culture war all the time from from the Republican Party. And in terms of the normies, you know, I we've talked about this before. I am constantly being assured, as you are, you know, Joe, that, you know, that, you know, the normies constitute the majority of the Republican Party. You know, people in the legislature and Congress will say, well, most of us are normies. The problem is the normies, you know, continue to empower the crazies. They continue to look the other way and let the most

extreme voices in the party set the agenda. So the Republican Party is never going to look normie until the normals actually assert themselves. And on this issue so far, we haven't seen that. You see that by just the confusion and the inability to articulate what they stand for. And you can look in the polls, it's really costing them. And what a great point that Republicans have had 49 years to prepare for this post-Roe world that they were hoping to get to. And they didn't do anything to prepare for it, are completely flat footed and losing independence. Of course, losing women, losing educated voters, losing all of the swing voters they need to win in 2024. You could say the same thing about health care. They wanted to get rid of Obamacare and replace it with something else. Oh, my God. That was in 2009. They've done absolutely nothing. Here we are in 2023.

They have no solution. Just say no. So, hey, by the way, Jonathan O'Meara, well, I have this shot of Northern Ireland. Of course, you know what everybody here yesterday, other than the peace treaty, the peace agreement, 25 year anniversary. You know what everybody here had to be talking about, right? Oh, of course. I mean, it's hard to top that sort of international news, but we do know what they were talking about, Joe. It was the it was the it was the Brazier Brazier striking out Otani to end the game. I mean, you have you have the two best players in baseball. And who do you take out? Of course, you send Brazier to the mound. And so

seriously, just a collective roar went up when Otani popped it to the left field. Red Sox, three-game winning streak. I know it's early, but get your World Series tickets now. Warm up the duck boats, Joe, because we're going to need a championship parade here. Three in a row against the Angels. Ryan Brazier, journeyman reliever, summoned with our closer sideline to face Trout. No, Tani somehow gets them both out. Dream the impossible dream. We'll just say, Mika, today is Patriots Day in Boston, the best day of the year there, which is the Boston Marathon,

as well as the 11 a.m. Red Sox game. So today's a fun one. Thank you very much. Charlie Sykes and Mike Allen, thank you both for being on this Monday morning. Thirty three past the hour before President Biden left Ireland on Friday, he toured the Roman Catholic pilgrimage site, the Knox Shrine in County Mayo. There he met with the chaplain who delivered the last rites for his son, Bo, who died of cancer in 2015. Joe asked the president what that moment meant to him. You went to the hospice center that was dedicated to Beau. I'm wondering what did that mean to you to go back and be there? Well you know Beau and Hunter and I talked about, after I stopped being vice president, about,

excuse me, before I became vice president, about we're going to go to Ireland one day. And I always, I always wanted Beau to be there. And we started off at the shrine down in Knock, the Blessed Mother. And we're with the priest showing us around. He said, by the way, the priest who gave, the military chaplain who gave your son last rites, which is the Catholic version, is here somewhere. And sure enough, about 15 minutes later, the priest shows up, who Hunter Biden had spent probably a number of days with because he'd bring the priest in to talk to Bo. And he showed up.

And he reminded us of talking to Bo and how proud he was of Bo. And it just, I know it sounds stupid. I should probably hesitate to say it. But I felt like Bo was with me. It just felt like he completed the circle, Joe. I know that sounds stupid, maybe, but it just, I felt like my sister Valerie and my son Hunter, it just felt like Bo was with us. Wow.

Must have been an incredible moment, Joe. Tell us more. That is so moving, and it was a chance meeting. It was a chance meeting. Again, they were visiting the hospice center that there was a plaque dedicated to the memory of Beau Biden. And yes, somebody said the priest that gave him the last rites is here. And it was an extraordinarily emotional moment, not only for the president, but also the family. A few of them recounting it with tears in their eyes. But the entire trip was was really something for for the president.

I think I think every president should come to Ireland to be revived, as we said on Friday. It was John Kennedy's favorite trip. Reagan absolutely loved it. Bill Clinton has been here five, six, seven times. Of course, a lot of that working for the peace process. The same with Hillary Clinton has been here time and time again. But it really does really does seem to revive them. Let's let's bring in with us a former Treasury official and Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Ratner. And Steve, I've got I've got a lot I want to talk to you about. We've been talking about it the past few days about Northern Ireland and some of the

economic challenges. But first, we need to talk about what Warren Buffett said on Friday. He said expect more banks to collapse. There still seems to be a deep unease on Wall Street and really with investors in local regional banks. What do you what do you make of Buffett's comments, his production prediction and how rocky is the ride going to be? Well, interestingly, Buffett also said that he had sold almost all of his bank stocks and Buffett doesn't usually. That's not good. You know, he talks. Yeah. And you know, exactly. Buffett also said that he had sold almost all of his bank stocks and Buffett doesn't usually. That's not good. You know, when he talks. Yeah.

And you know what he talks. Yeah, exactly. And so he's clearly down on the banking industry. I'm not sure he expects so much more bank failures as the instability of the industry. As you said, the small regional banks are losing deposits to the big banks. But what he also said that was interesting was the incentive problem was wrong, that bank CEOs don't really they have an incentive to take risk. Like what happened with Silicon Valley Bank, a little bit like what happened in 08. And that's sort of an asymmetry where the worst that happens is they lose their jobs. The best that happens is the banks do really well.

And so he's kind of down on banking as a business and thinks it's thinks we need to do some stuff to fix it. I guess the question is, why would anybody invest in regional banks right now with the problems with Silicon Valley Bank, with with problems with First Republic? Why would anybody not be concerned about having their money in regional banks as an investor or as well as an investor and as a depositor? Well, as a depositor, you're effectively insured. You're certainly insured up to $250,000. And effectively, you're completely insured. We sort of said that after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. As an investor, the problem is that the money is going to the big banks.

You had the big banks all report their earnings last Friday. And they were off the charts great because that's where the money is headed. Let's talk about Northern Ireland. There's obviously right now over the past year and a half, this 25 year celebration has got to deal with the past year and a half of a dysfunctional government. In fact, they haven't had a government. Brexit has really made things complicated here. What's the problem and are they going to fix it? Well, it's very ironic that in all the negotiations over Brexit with 26 different countries and all the issues they had to deal with, the hardest one they had to deal with was Northern Ireland, because there is no real border anymore, as you know, between Northern

Ireland and the Republic. And since the UK was staying in, getting out of Brexit, the Northern Ireland presumably was going to get out with it, which would have required what they call a hard border between the North and the South, which nobody in Ireland really wanted. So they anyway went on for a long time and they finally reached an agreement for a kind of soft border between the UK and Northern Ireland, which some goods would be checked. The local goods would not be checked and so on and so forth. But the consequence of that was that the DUP, the Protestant Party, which was not happy with it, essentially refused to participate in the government. So there has been no government, as you said. And so that is still a work in progress.

And finally, let's just talk about Britain in general, their economy. Boy, it's really struggling right now. Why? For a bunch of reasons. First of all, Britain's economy was struggling before Brexit. Britain has had a problem of low productivity, low investment that goes back quite a number of years. And it's something of a recession now that does have a bit to do with Brexit.

But, you know, I was a reporter in Britain in the early 1980s when Thatcher was there. And you covered the troubles. And I also was here in Northern Ireland. That's why you're here right now. Yes, in fact, the famous Europa Hotel where the Clintons were staying was the most bombed out place in Europe then and was surrounded by barbed wire.

If you go see it, as I did yesterday, it's amazing. But just back to Britain for a quick second. And so the problems of Britain are structural, exacerbated by Brexit. And it does remind me a little bit in a smaller way of what I saw in the early 80s. Strikes, labor unrest, people unhappy, general disgruntlement and really a need for somebody to pull the country together. As you know, they've had a number of governments in a very short period of time and they need to they need some stability. They really do. All right. Steve Ratner, thank you so much. Greatly appreciate it. Forty five past the hour. So much news to get to this morning. The defamation trial

between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News has been delayed by at least one day. The judge in the case announced last night that jury selection and opening statements will begin tomorrow instead of today. The judge didn't provide a reason for this, but is expected to make an announcement about the change later this morning. Two sources tell The Washington Post the delay is to allow both parties time to hold conversations about the possibility of a settlement. If a settlement is not reached, opening statements begin tomorrow in the case around whether Fox News talent and executives knowingly misled their audience about the integrity of the 2020 election and Dominion's role in it. We will continue to follow the case as it happens. Now, the annual State of Black America report from the National Urban

League uses data and analytics to lay out issues within the country to black citizens. The report details a wide variety of threats from law enforcement to legislatures and newly passed laws to education restrictions and the growth of book bans. The report also talks about the rise in hate crimes in the country. According to a preliminary report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino, hate crimes increased by 44 percent in 2021. Joining us now to break it all down, president and CEO of the National Urban League, Mark Morial, Michelle Miller's husband. That's my claim to fame. That's how we have to. That is my claim to fame.

Hey, good morning to you and good morning to all. It's great to have you. This is, let's start though with that data on hate crimes and why all this work is so important because things are not getting better. Mika, this report really dovetails into what you all have been talking about all morning, and that is the philosophy of extremism, the domestic threat to our safety, the doctrine of white supremacy infecting and infiltrating mainstream politics. What we seek to do with this report, though, is connect the dots.

How is it affecting public policy decisions? So hundreds of bills have been introduced just since January 1 of this year to continue this campaign of voter suppression. Another 500 pieces of legislation have been introduced in states across the nation to suppress, censor, restrict the teaching of African-American history, black history, and structural racism. And the FBI is noting that many of these right-wing, far-right militia groups have active relationships with law enforcement. So this threat is a significant threat. And it's a wake up call

to all that we've got to battle it. We've got to fight it. It affects black Americans most deeply, but it affects all Americans because it is destabilizing to American democracy. Absolutely. It's not just hate crimes that are random. It's hate. It's hate that's embedded in our political system. Reverend out. No Al. No problem with really underscoring how important this report is. The Urban League always gives an annual report. For them to go from just economic data to this, I think is significant. And Mark, when you came to our conference last week at National Action Network with other legacy organizations talking about this. The other thing that is different is that you worked with Jonathan Greenblatt and Yang and me and others in having a White House conference on. United we stand last fall.

So it is a real heightened problem that is not just one group is any like non-white group and it's at an emergency level. And out of that summit and out of the work we're all doing together, we have Project Code, which is designed to build awareness amongst the community about hate groups and hate crimes and how to respond to it. But this, on the voter suppression front, can be stopped by the Congress of the United States. All they've got to do is pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act. On the history front, we must understand that this country could descend into a period of, like, the age of darkness, anti-intellectualism.

Let's not tell the truth. Let's just anti-history, anti-history. So we've got a bottle of black history today. What's tomorrow? Yeah. So we're going to fight it with every fiber. I remember Jonathan Lemire at the beginning of the Trump presidency, a member of the family saying, we don't have to look at history. We don't need to care about it. And I remember that being striking to me. It was sort of like a blink moment where I thought, this is going to be the way things are going with their message. Yeah, that president had no fluency with American history whatsoever and lessons to be learned from it. And that's where I actually was hoping you could go a little further. We're seeing the impact in the classrooms with books being banned, with

different philosophies being obscured, with fundamental parts of the American history refused to be taught. What sort of impact are you seeing there? It has spurred a backlash. We're going to launch a Freedom to Learn campaign in May with a number, a broad array of academics, scholars, educators, intellectuals, legacy organizations are behind it. See, this is the thing. All of a sudden, politicians want to make education policy. This is not educators. This is not teachers. These are politicians who don't effectively fund education, who now want to interfere in what's taught. And it's dangerous because it's inconsistent with the First Amendment and it's inconsistent

with the free exercise of information and thought that is a time honored American tradition. So we've got to fight it. We've got to battle it. We cannot allow it to become normalized. My concern is the normalization of extremism. It's always been there, but it's been on the fringe. It's been on the outside. It's now affecting, animating and driving mainstream politics. One of the greatest shortcomings of our country is black women, maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate. Can you talk about what your research in the report revealed about the new restrictions on women's health and how they disproportionately impact women of color? Deeply impact black women and their health and their right to make choices about their own body.

And it's seen as an attack on civil rights. And it's seen on an attack on people's right to make individual decisions. And we know that many of the challenges of maternal health strike at black women and black families most deeply. So we need every choice, every tool, every medicine, every safe therapy at our disposal to try to address that. And so that is the extremism is now in that arena as well. And that's the point of this report. It's now, Mika, affecting public policy decisions quite deeply. And we need a coalition of the willing, the able and the committed to resist it. I would think the National Urban League State of Black America report has a multi-pronged call to action. Yeah, it does. And

tomorrow we'll be at Morehouse College with young students there in the Atlanta University Center to have a panel discussion and an official event releasing this report. So those of you in Atlanta, come see us. If not, check us out online. But the report is now available online to each and every one. So we want it to be, as Reverend Sharpton said, and we had a discussion at his conference, to spur a conversation and a discussion and a call to action. All right, President and CEO of the National Urban League. And Michelle Miller's husband.

You got that right. That is, she's amazing. And I love her book. Yeah, thank you so much. Marc Morial, thank you very much.