The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell 5/19/2026 | MSNBC Breaking News Today May 19 2026

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[00:00:00]completing the 80th year of his life.

[00:00:04]And on this, the 338th day of Donald Trump's 80th year, he finally said, "I don't want to be stupid."

[00:00:19]Too late, Donald.

[00:00:22]Too late. The time to not want to be stupid is not when you are president of the United States. The time to not want to be stupid is when you are in elementary school or at the very latest high school. And the solution to the problem of possibly being stupid is to do your homework. Something Donald Trump has never done. Donald Trump's ghostritten first book tells stories of his life growing up as a spoiled rich kid. And in his school years, there is nothing about pulling all-nighters as final exams approached. There is nothing about academic excellence or academic striving because Donald Trump was still sane enough to know in 1987 when the book was published that if he claimed to graduate from college sumakum laad that kind of lie would be easily caught and exposed.

[00:01:25]There is a story proudly told in that book of Donald Trump punching one of his teachers in elementary school which is a very strong indicator of being very very stupid because it's Donald Trump telling a story about him punching a teacher.

[00:01:47]There's no reason to believe it because Donald Trump lies about everything and he always has. But either way, actually punching a teacher in elementary school or inventing a story about punching your teacher in elementary school is a mark of grotesque stupidity.

[00:02:05]We in the news media are now struggling to keep up with two constantly expanding stories about Donald Trump. The corruption and the stupidity. And it has been impossible to really keep up with both of those stories because they are each so enormous and always expanding.

[00:02:22]There is a new facet of Trump corruption and Trump stupidity revealed every day.

[00:02:27]But at the same time, not all of the corruption is visible and not all of the stupidity is visible. And some items in both categories just aren't big enough to make it into our coverage of the day. One small example of stupidity that you will probably hear nothing about anywhere else is the 90-day extension of the breathtakingly stupid waiver of the Jones Act that begins today. The extension begins today, making Donald Trump's waiver of the Jones Act the longest waiver in the history of that obscure law. The Jones Act requires that all cargo shipping between harbors in the United States must be carried on American flagged ships, American crews.

[00:03:16]No foreign flagged ships are allowed to transport anything from, say, New York Harbor to Boston Harbor or any other American port. The law is designed to protect the jobs of American maritime workers on ships and working in the ports. And Donald Trump has suspended that law because of his war in Iran, which a New York Times poll, a new New York Times poll says 64% of Americans believe was a mistake. The poll doesn't use the word stupid mistake, just uses the phrase the wrong decision.

[00:03:53]But surely tens of millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump's war was a stupid mistake by Donald Trump. To compound that stupid mistake, Donald Trump actually thinks that the price of gasoline in America can somehow be made cheaper by suspending the Jones Act and allowing foreign ships to transport goods and fuel and anything else from one American port to another, even though there is absolutely no economic evidence that that could have the slightest effect on the price of gasoline anywhere in the country.

[00:04:27]Waivers to the Jones Act are rare and usually targeted at a specific emergency. President Biden waved the Jones Act in 2022 to allow a foreign flag tanker, just one, to deliver fuel to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona.

[00:04:42]That's a typical use of a limited targeted emergency use of a Jones Act waiver.

[00:04:48]Donald Trump, who claims to be the American president more concerned with American jobs than any other president in American history, now faces this objection from the seafares union to his waiver of the Jones Act. quote, "America's maritime labor unions are deeply concerned about the administration's broad Jones Act waiver, which undermines our national security, weakens military readiness, enhance critical maritime work to foreign vessel operators, or any other president.

[00:05:16]Waving the Jones Act for what will now be 150 days would be a major story that would provoke emergency congressional hearings that would clearly demonstrate the utter pointlessness of such a waiver. But for Donald Trump, it's just a tiny entry in a long list of very stupid choices and broken promises about his devotion to American workers and American jobs.

[00:05:44]And the New York Times reporting on its poll showing Donald Trump at a new low in the New York Times poll of a 37% approval. Brent Klein Jr., A Republican who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and 2024 told the New York Times, quote, "He's not doing what he said he was going to do. That's my biggest frustration with him." Mr. Klein, 43, the owner of a cleaning company who lives in Branson, Missouri, described himself as very pissed off with the president's decision to attack around Iran without seeking congressional approval. I just want my family to live a good, healthy life, he added. and to not have to constantly pay more and more for food products and stuff. And a man who identified himself as Thomas from Hawaii, calling into C-SPAN on the Republican line, said he voted for Donald Trump three times and now regrets it.

[00:06:42]I wanted to believe Trump was the real deal for a long time, even though I had doubts because I knew enough about his uh business history to think otherwise.

[00:06:54]But now I regret my support for him and I should have known better. He's making it plain as day. He's a con man, a liar, doesn't keep his promises. He's in office all for himself, and he doesn't even try to hide his corruption anymore.

[00:07:11]He's the worst president we've ever had and he's the most corrupt president we've ever had. I know that's hard. Took me a while to be able to say that. Very difficult when you commit yourself to believing in somebody.

[00:07:24]>> Thomas from Hawaii was asked, "What was the straw that broke the camel's back?"

[00:07:30]>> What was the the straw that broke the camel's back this time around? Was it the war? Is it >> I don't think it's one thing. It's been a cumulative process.

[00:07:40]Um, and it's it's gotten so blatant now.

[00:07:43]And he's just literally the things he's, you know, he was going to lower prices on day one. He was going to do this on day one. Only he could fix all this stuff. And uh, now I understand how somebody like Adolf Hitler was able to brainwash millions of people. I never thought I'd see that again in my lifetime, but but it's happened, right?

[00:08:04]I thought we got past that, but we don't learn from history.

[00:08:09]Speaking of history, Donald Trump is the first president in history to publicly promise to commit war crimes, which is in and of itself a war crime. He did it yesterday on social media, saying, quote, "For Iran, the clock is ticking and they better get moving fast or there won't be anything left of them." "Time is of the essence." exclamation point.

[00:08:32]The world has come to ignore Donald Trump's written threats of war crimes.

[00:08:36]The president of the United States yesterday said there won't be anything left of them. That would mean that Donald Trump was planning to kill every child in Iran, every baby, every pregnant woman, every person in the country.

[00:08:56]And not one person in the world took Donald Trump seriously when he said that because he has said it too many times before, more times than the world can keep track of. And the world knows, as the Iranian regime surely knows that Donald Trump wasn't going to do it, that it was just another empty threat from Donald Trump. And sure enough, today on social media, Donald Trump said that he had decided quote to hold off our planned military attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow. He claimed that the dictators of other countries in the region, urged him not to commit any war crimes against Iran in the hope of concluding a peace agreement with Iran.

[00:09:42]And Donald Trump said, quote, "This deal will include, importantly, no nuclear weapons for Iran." exclamation points.

[00:09:48]In other words, it will include exactly what was included in the deal President Obama and five other countries negotiated with Iran in which Iran promised not to make nuclear weapons, not to pursue nuclear weapons in any way. Donald Trump ripped up that deal negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry in his first term as president.

[00:10:10]Donald Trump just dropped out of the deal. Donald Trump withdrew the United States from an agreement in which Iran said in writing, quote, "Under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons." And now Donald Trump has gone to war to desperately attempt to get Iran to put that same sentence in writing again for him. and Iran is refusing to do so. At 5:37 p.m. today, Donald Trump said, quote, "We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while because we've had uh very big discussions with Iran and we'll see what they amount to.

[00:11:00]I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others if we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal. And if we can do that where there's no nuclear weapon going into the hands of Iran, I think, and if they're satisfied, uh, we will be probably satisfied also.

[00:11:26]That's the man who said, "I don't want to be stupid." So there is Donald Trump now saying the negotiations are up to Iran's neighbors and if they're satisfied then we will be satisfied.

[00:11:38]That's not what President Obama did.

[00:11:40]That's not what John Kerry did.

[00:11:43]Donald Trump has found an even weaker negotiating position with Iran.

[00:11:48]The Iranian regime knows just how opposed to Donald Trump's war the American people are. And that came up today in a Trump phone interview with the New York Post. The New York Post reports, quote, "Questioned about regional source claims that Iran is attempting to wait out Washington on both the nuclear issue and reopening the Straight of Hormuz." Trump said he hadn't heard that. I'm not hearing anything. He said, "I can't talk to you about it. It's a negotiation.

[00:12:19]I don't want to be stupid."

[00:12:22]There is no reason to believe Donald Trump is planning a major attack on Iran, knowing that the American people are opposed to that. A possible indicator that nothing serious was planned in Iran is the fact that Donald Trump's defense secretary went to Kentucky today to campaign for a Trumpup supported Republican running for Congress against the incumbent Republican Thomas Massie who has angered Donald Trump by supporting the release of the Epstein files and pursuing more information about the man who said he was Donald Trump's closest friend for 10 years, the rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. We've never seen a secretary of defense campaigning for a member of Congress. Most secretaries of defense chosen by Democratic presidents have actually been Republicans.

[00:13:10]President Clinton had a Republican Secretary of Defense. President Obama had two Republican secretaries of defense. And needless to say, none of those secretaries of defense campaigned against the president's political opponents.

[00:13:26]That is a uniquely Trumpian event and nothing could make it more clear to the American people that Donald Trump's defense secretary has no serious business to conduct in his job this week if he can go to Kentucky for a campaign event when he is supposed to be planning according to Donald Trump a way to attack Iran so that quote there won't be anything left of them. How stupid do you have to be to repeatedly threaten Iran with attacks that never come to the point that your threats become meaningless? And how stupid do you have to be to send your secretary of defense to Kentucky for a campaign event when you want Iran to think that the defense secretary is planning the next big attack on Iran?

[00:14:15]And Donald Trump says today, "I don't want to be stupid."

[00:14:20]Which is exactly the same as Donald Trump saying with his 80th birthday approaching, "I don't want to be old."

[00:14:29]Leading off our discussion tonight is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State. He is the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. Carson Smith, uh, this situation that we're now in where where the world has lost track of how many times Donald Trump has threatened war crimes in Iran, threatened to just wipe out Iran, wipe it off the face of the of the earth with the Iran on the other end of those threats, realizing that they're empty. Uh, where does that leave these negotiations, if there are any negotiations?

[00:15:04]>> Well, it leaves them where they were. I mean, look, Trump has done this over and over and over again. So, let's start with the actual factual world. And in the factual world, there aren't much in the way of negotiations going on between Iran and us right now. Iran has said what they will negotiate over is how much are we going to pay them to open the strike. They're not going to talk about nukes. They're not going to talk about anything else. And as far as we can tell, that position has not changed for over a month now. But Donald Trump keeps coming out and making this big threat and then saying, "Oh, I'm pulling that threat back because they've agreed to something." It's really important for your listeners to understand or your viewers to understand he's making that all up. Okay? We are in the exact same place we were before. The real alternative here is to actually start working with the rest of the world to get into a stronger negotiating position. But what Trump is doing right now, he's all he's making it all up.

[00:15:54]None of this is actually happening. And yes, the the threats of war crimes diminish the United States and make us look horrible on the world stage every single time he does them. Um, even if he doesn't mean them, but they don't change the fundamental fact that he started a war that he doesn't know how to end and he's just as stuck now as he was when it began. So, what we just heard him say on video today is in effect that Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region are negotiating with Iran and if they agree to something with Iran, then the United States will agree to whatever they agree to.

[00:16:31]Yeah, that that doesn't really make a ton of sense there because we are the ones that are in the conflict with Iran most directly. And is Saudi Arabia and the UAE going to be able to open up the straight? Are Saudi Arabia and the UAE going to be able to enforce an agreement to, you know, eliminate their nuclear weapons? Now, that doesn't even make any sense. We are engaged in this negotiation. And look, it is just having such a devastating impact on this country. The cost of Donald Trump's policies just keep going up and up and up. None more so than the war, but it's certainly not the only one. So, look, again, I think it's important, and we can lament all the terrible stuff that Trump has done. I think it's also important for a path out, and that path out is not to start bombing again. That doesn't get us anywhere. The blockade's not working. We've got to bring in the rest of the world, negotiate an actual agreement from Iran. And it's terrible.

[00:17:20]Trump has put us in an incredible position of weakness. But continuing this comes at such an incredibly high cost. We have to get real negotiators to get in there and actually start working to find some agreement to end this war.

[00:17:34]In terms of high cost, the high cost for the American consumer, the American taxpayer is something that Donald Trump has basically said he doesn't care about. He's not even thinking about. Uh how does that work? That seems to be reflected in that New York Times poll.

[00:17:51]>> Yeah. Look, I mean, and the thing is, and I listen to the people saying, "I voted for Trump. I regret it. He didn't do what he said he was going to do." I mean, I'll take that. But look, Trump said when he was campaigning this time, he's going to go out and take vengeance on his enemies. He's in it for himself 100%. Now, that isn't that he doesn't occasionally have policies here and there that he that he sort of, you know, flits around with all over the place, but at the end of the day, he wants to have as much power as he possibly can for himself. He doesn't care about us.

[00:18:17]and he wants to use our government, the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security to settle his personal scores and and just basically for his ego, you know, whether it's renaming the Kennedy Center, tearing down the the the East Wing of the White House, you know, now he's putting up an arch, he's doing all the look, this is unbelievable to me. I mean, this is an authoritarian destroying our representative democracy basically just for the glorification of his massive ego. and we're all paying an enormous price for it. So, it's time to wake up and hold him to account for it.

[00:18:52]>> Congressman Adam Smith, thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight. Thanks, Lance. And coming up, Elizabeth Warren is calling it corruption on steroids. And Donald Trump is lying, claiming that he knows nothing about it, as his attorney general is planning to hand out almost $2 billion in what could be secret payments to violent criminal Trump supporters or anyone else Donald Trump wants to give money to. That's next.

[00:19:25]Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling it corruption on steroids. Donald Trump is ordering the United States Treasury to pay 1 billion776 million to criminals who were convicted of violently attacking the capital in an attempt to overthrow a presidential election won decisively by Joe Biden.

[00:19:47]Donald Trump did this in the form of a so-called settlement of a lawsuit that he filed against the federal government which he controls for $10 billion when Donald Trump's attempt to basically steal $10 billion directly from the federal government became politically unbearable even for Donald Trump. He forced the Justice Department to settle his case, which is a frivolous lawsuit of no merit at all. And the Justice Department announced the settlement today, landing on the magic number of 1776 as the precise figure for a fund called the Anti-Weaponization Fund. The fund will be controlled by Donald Trump and his attorney general. And nothing the fund does needs to be made public.

[00:20:32]According to the agreement, nothing the fund does can be questioned by anyone outside the fund, like a court. The fund will be run by five members chosen by Donald Trump through his attorney general. The fund will pay unlimited amounts that will not be taxable income to anyone. Donald Trump is an attorney general decide have somehow been victimized by being prosecuted for their crimes. Or they could just give the money to anyone who claims they've been in any way bothered by the American legal system. When asked about it today, Donald Trump told this lie. He said, "I have to tell you, I know very little about it. I wasn't involved in the whole creation of it and the negotiation, but this is reimbursing people that were horribly treated." Donald Trump is the plaintiff in this case. It is impossible to legally settle a lawsuit without the plaintiff knowing everything about the settlement and approving everything about the settlement. Personally, Donald Trump's lawyers would not be allowed legally to settle this case without Donald Trump being involved in that settlement. So, Donald Trump continues to lie and continues to believe that there is no way of insulting the intelligence of elected Republicans in Washington or his Republican voters.

[00:21:53]Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Roan of California. He's a member of the House Oversight Committee. Uh Carson Connor, we have never seen anything like it. And as I read this thing, it's really open to Donald Trump to give money to anyone he wants to, even if you weren't prosecuted for anything uh by the Justice Department.

[00:22:16]>> Lawrence, this 1776 fund is making a mockery of every principle of our 1776 founding. I mean, it's literally Donald Trump stealing American taxpayer money and giving it to his criminal allies. No president, no president in our history has ever just ever just stolen American taxpayer money like this. And what is shameful is at a time where Americans have more costs of food, of gas, of utilities because of a war Donald Trump started, he's not taking this money and giving a check to the American people as any decent president would do. He has no regard for the public good. It's shameful. It's the most corrupt administration in American history.

[00:22:56]>> The uh the the details of this are are are really quite stunning as you read them. Uh it it includes the fact that uh that they make no claim of being able to prevent anything illegal from being done with the money by any recipients of the money.

[00:23:17]Absolutely not. I mean, look, Todd Blanch, who is the attorney general, acting attorney general, has blocked all the Epstein files. He's going to get to appoint five people on a board who are basically going to determine who gets the money uh of this tax dollars.

[00:23:31]There's no legal process. It's Trump's cronies getting to distribute workingclass money uh taxpayer money to whoever supported him. And these are criminals. These are people who invaded the capital. These are people who beat police officers. It is a just total corruption in plain sight.

[00:23:52]>> And then it's a fivep person group u and a quorum is defined in the agreement as three and a majority of that quorum. Two is all you need uh to actually get one of these payments. Uh and and it's it's just and there's no as I read it, there's no requirement for any of the decisions, anything that is done by this group to be made public.

[00:24:19]Nothing. Basically, you have to convince Todd Blanch that you're a Trump acolyte.

[00:24:25]You could have a criminal record. You could have beat a cop. You could have uh been part of the insurrection. You could have destroyed the capital. But if you're for Donald Trump and you can show that this group, the secret group, will take American tax dollars and basically hand it to you. And uh we're not talking about an insignificant sum. We're talking about $1.7 billion. I mean, you could have a check to everyone who has a higher gas prices at the pump. Instead, you're funding Trump's criminal allies.

[00:24:55]And I think people are seeing this now.

[00:24:57]It's because it's not just corruption.

[00:24:59]It's corruption that's taking literally stealing from American taxpayers >> and the Treasury Secretary is involved in this particular corruption. Donald Trump ordering the Treasury Secretary to deliver that money to the Justice Department. Uh Carson Conor, we have to squeeze in a commercial break here. If you could please stay with us. When we come back, I want to ask you about today's interview uh by the the House with the last person who saw who thinks she's the last person who saw Jeffrey Epstein alive. That's next.

[00:25:31]We have an update at this hour from San Diego, California, where authorities are investigating the murder of three people at an Islamic center today. The victims include two staff members of on the school grounds there and a security guard. Police have not released the names of the victims or of the murderers. Police also say that the two murderers then killed themselves. Here is San Diego's police chief Scott Wall speaking tonight.

[00:26:00]>> At about 9:42 this morning, we received a call of a runaway juvenile and she began to share information that se several of her weapons were missing.

[00:26:16]Her vehicle was missing in addition to her son.

[00:26:22]She also said that she was her son was with a companion and that they were dressed in camo.

[00:26:37]Joining us now is former FBI special agent Rob Demo, MS NowWow National Security and Intelligence Analyst. Uh Rob, what what do you expect uh to be the timeline on the release of more information about this?

[00:26:51]>> I would expect tomorrow uh probably midm morning. Uh let them dig through some of the things that they're finding out tonight. Obviously interviewing the family. Uh the the situation coming out with the missing weapons and vehicle and such was uh after the first one. So now that they they kind of know where to hone into, they're going to start, you know, doing the search warrants. We won't get into the deep real details because that's going to take obviously search warrants and other legal procedures, but they're going to be interviewing folks and I think they'll come out with some more information. Uh, but it's not going to be as much as people actually want.

[00:27:24]>> The uh the presence of two shooters is is relatively unusual in in these kinds of events. Uh, how does that affect the investigation?

[00:27:36]>> Well, it it just doubles the amount of resources that you're going to need.

[00:27:39]normally just focus in on, you know, one person, one family, one set of, you know, people that know them. Obviously, now that doubles into two. Um, we saw it in Calibine. Uh, but it it isn't one of those often things to get two people to commit to do something horrific like that. Um, and they also probably, you know, uh, fantasized about this, talked about it, talked about their demise.

[00:28:03]This was part of their plan. I think uh you know they planned to get into the the mosque and the school uh do what they were going to do and then probably they they fantasized about dying in there when it didn't go right when they couldn't get into the the mosque and the school. Uh it obviously changed their plans. They they drove a little bit off.

[00:28:22]Not sure about the shooting at the the landscape or if that was accidental, if it was something uh that he was looking at them and and they're about to do whatever and they they took the shot.

[00:28:33]But I I think the the suicide or shooting them, you know, each shooting each other or something along those lines was part of their plan. It just didn't happen where they thought it was going to happen. Rob do thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:28:50]Thank you. Well, today the House Oversight Committee heard from the woman who has said that she believes she was the last person to see Jeffrey Epstein alive. Tova Noel, a former prison guard at the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan who was on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein died in his prison cell in 2019, was on Capitol Hill this afternoon for a for closed door testimony. Congressman Roana is back with us. Congressman, what did we learn uh from the person who may be the last one to see Jeffrey Epstein alive?

[00:29:26]We learned uh that Jeffrey Epstein was getting special treatment. He was allowed to have certain medicines uh and certain things in his jail cell that others were not. We learned that the prison system really was incompetent.

[00:29:42]They were underst staffed. They didn't have people on shift. Uh and they really should have had more guards there uh to ensure that something didn't happen to Epstein. that said uh in her belief uh it was suicide. She said she had no reason to suspect that it was not suicide.

[00:30:03]The um the the the situation at the jail that where he was getting favorable treatment as we've seen Golain Maxwell get it. I think we know why Galain Maxwell is getting the favorable treatment. But was there any explanation about why Jeffrey Epstein was getting favorable treatment?

[00:30:21]She did not know and she refused to speculate. But it raises serious questions. Uh the questions that go at the heart of this Epstein matter. Why was Epstein getting these this favorable treatment? Why are people who raped, abused these young girls, why were they never prosecuted? Why are they still not being prosecuted? Uh and this is really the anger that so much so many of the survivors have. And so there this calls for further investigation about who was influencing the prison conditions and why was he getting favorable conditions like Dillain Maxwell is.

[00:30:54]>> Did she talk about her own interactions with uh Jeffrey Epstein, if any.

[00:31:01]>> She talked about him in a professional context. She said that uh she uh did what she could, but she kept bringing up this point that there were not enough guards there. That she had actually pointed out that they were short staffed. There were not enough people on on duty. Uh and that may have contributed to the conditions where if he did commit suicide that he took his life that that uh it may have been intentionally short staffed. I mean the two questions that we came away with, why was he getting special treatment? uh and why was the prison as lax in its conditions knowing that days earlier he had had a suicide note and that he was on a watch for potentially taking his own life.

[00:31:45]>> Where's the logical next investigative step for the to the answer of the question of why was he getting special treatment?

[00:31:55]>> Well, we have uh other uh witnesses that we are going to call in. Of course, the most explosive will be Pam Bondi, who uh has information about all of this investigation, what was released, what was not released, why was it uh covered up. But uh we need to continue to have an investigation because the Justice Department refuses to. And uh this is something that we will continue to do.

[00:32:18]As you know, there are at least a dozen more depositions scheduled.

[00:32:22]>> Congressman Roano, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:32:27]>> Thank you, Lawrence.

[00:32:28]Coming up, Donald Trump's Supreme Court justices have declared racism is over in the former Confederate States where Republicans are now trying to return to the era when it was impossible for a black candidate to be elected to Congress in Alabama.

[00:32:47]Congresswoman Terry Suil joins us next.

[00:32:53]Over the weekend, voting rights groups gathered in Alabama for a national day of action called All Roads Lead to the South, protesting Republican congressional redistricting throughout the South. On Saturday, thousands gathered in Selma, Alabama for a prayer service at Tabernacle Baptist Church before a silent walk across the Edund Pettis Bridge, the site of the 1965 bloody Sunday attack when Alabama state troopers beat peaceful marchers in scenes that shocked the nation and helped lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Thousands gathered in Montgomery outside the Alabama state capital, the same place where the 1965 voting rights march ended 61 years ago.

[00:33:45]>> Thing that got me the other day was my aunt who participated as a foot soldier said and she was in pain and she said, "Clean, why in the world do they hate her so much?" Because she participated in all of the marches and it just sort of hurt my heart to hear her say that at 92 years old. There's a lot of hope.

[00:34:02]There's a lot of hope and our people have strong resolve. After 400 years of slavery, they still said, you know what, guys, we'll be getting out of this. So, in the same vein, we'll be getting out of this. This is not the way the way things are not the way they will always be.

[00:34:17]>> Alabama Democratic Congresswoman Terry Suil, who will join us in a moment, is the first black woman ever elected to Congress in Alabama. Last week on the House floor, she said this.

[00:34:31]For me, this fight is personal. I grew up in Selma, in the shadow of the civil rights movement. People in my district bled for the right to vote. Some died for it. And now, six decades later, extremists are trying to drag this country backwards. They are trying to erase our hardfought progress and silence the voices of the very communities that marched, that sacrifice, that organized to make America, democracy real for everyone.

[00:35:03]>> Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Terry Suil of Alabama.

[00:35:06]She's a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and the House Administration Committee where she's the top Democrat on the elections subcommittee. uh Carwin, uh that election subcommittee now h has a focus that has has not been it seems as though it hasn't been necessary for a while.

[00:35:28]>> No, you're right. The subcommittee currently uh run by my Republican colleagues are trying to pass something called a Save Act, which is doesn't do anything to save American democracy or to promote better elections. But a hope springs eternal if we take back the house. Um I will get a gavvel and I will make sure that we pass the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Of course we have to reform it to make sure that we deal with this partisan germandering that the uh Calala Supreme Court uh ruled was okay. I mean, to say that it's okay to draw maps based on partisan uh politics, even if it causes racial intimidation or racial discrimination in voting, uh seems uh totally against precedent that this court has set for 61 years. Um tomorrow, voters in my district will go to the polls and vote in a primary where four elections, including the election for my seat, will not count. those votes will not count because the state of Alabama has set a new a new primary date for August 11th. And um they're doing so because the Supreme Court vacated an order that Alabama's the state of Alabama had agreed to keep the current map until 2030. Um and all of that just went out the window. I I I have to tell you, Lawrence, that I am it saddens me. I I I'm deeply frustrated. I know that the folks that I represent feel helpless. But you know what? We've overcome far worse obstacles. Um our ancestors were were met on that bridge with billy clubs. Um children in Birmingham fire hoses. Uh intimidation, but they still persisted and we must too.

[00:37:22]What do you say to voters and people who uh ask that question that Clyde Thomas's uh aunt asked it? We just heard him say, he was the protester there who quoted his 92year-old aunt saying to him, "Why in the world do they hate us so much?"

[00:37:44]>> Well, I mean, I think the fact of the matter is that progress is elusive and old battles have become new again. And I think that because of that, we have to do everything we can to mobilize and organize. Everyone has a role in this uh democracy. And those of us who are elected must legislate, which is why I think it's really important to reintroduce and reform the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Uh and citizens must organize and mobilize and get to the polls and vote. And they need to vote like their lives depend upon it because we know that it does.

[00:38:19]And I think it's so important that we remember what John Lewis said. He said, "Our fight was not a fight of one day, of one year, of one lifetime. Ours is a fight to the very end." And I think that that grandmother, that aunt, uh her sentiments um really reflect the fact that no matter how many steps we make in progress forward, it seems to be elements, extremist elements want to take us back. And we have to do everything we can because we're not going back, Lawrence. We're not going back.

[00:38:52]>> I I want to listen to what Candace Howard said. She's a a teacher in Selma, Alabama. Let's listen to what she had to say.

[00:39:02]>> We can't allow that to happen again. We can't allow us our voices to disappear.

[00:39:06]We can't allow our voices to be silent.

[00:39:08]We have to stand up. And that's why I am in love that we're seeing these people come out here to stand up for the exact same thing that people died for. They literally died since 1965. So now today, I don't expect to die. I expect for us to rise and for us to stand up for what's right.

[00:39:24]>> There's just there's something about Selma and there's something about the spirit there of rising uh to this kind of moment as Selma has done in the past.

[00:39:34]>> Absolutely. I'm a proud daughter of Selma. I attended Selma High School where their teach that teacher teaches now. I think it's important. Um the gathering uh on Saturday was inspirational. You know, it wasn't about a protest. It was about creating a movement, a call to action. As she said, it's important that we are uh make sure that we uphold the legacy, that very proud legacy of not giving in, of not giving up, of doing everything we can to fight back. And you know it was ordinary people of Selma, ordinary young uh John Lewis who was 26 years old who achieved extraordinary social change by just standing up by standing up and doing what is right. And John's voice still is in my head. I remember John on that bridge his last time. It was in 2020 right before he passed away. and his body was riddled riddled with um cancer, but his voice was strong and he said, "Never give up. Never give in. We have to keep the faith and keep our eyes on the prize." And people come back to Selma year after year after year. And this time it was really symbolic that we began the day in church because it was the black church where mass meetings were held. It was a black church where we uh you know we it was a clarion call for moral clarity. So it was really important that uh we do that and so I don't I hope that people don't give up.

[00:41:02]I think that we can be mad but we can't be deterred.

[00:41:07]>> Congresswoman Terry Sil, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:41:14]We'll be right back.