John Defeterios News Today

Level. certain states and localities will no longer have to ask the federal government before making changes to voting laws. before the ruling, mississippi would have had to ask the government for approval to-to-chang their voting law. >> and representative john lewis is with me here in the situation room. this is a significant decision by the supreme court today. you say its awful. why? >> it is awful. its a sad day. i never thought that i would see the day when the united states supreme court ...

Light to these nine southern states and a handful of other jurisdictions to change the law any way they want and basically to say to the justice department catch me if you can. it looks like these southern states are going to start making some changes and well see how that affects the actual right to vote in the relatively near future. >> so the political fallout, gloria, from this is pretty significant. >> it is very significant. i mean, you heard what congressman lewis said. theres going to be...

We have an obligation to do it. >> because the supreme court said now theyve thrown it back to congress. its up to congress to decide. >> but the people elected us and we should be responsible and responsive and do it. >> congressman, thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you, sir. >> joining us jeffrey toobin and gloria borger. jeff, in terms of voting rights legislation, how much of it was dismantled today? >> its important to point out as chief roberts said in his opinion discrimination ag...

Right now. >> how does the president, john, turn this around, get some leverage on the russians to send snowden back to the united states? >> he doesnt have any good known options. the putin/obama relationship has been more sour than the putin/bush relationship was at the end. as the president does this publicly, he risks humiliation. you have on the world stage this playing out at a time when hes already upset with the russians over syria. a lot of domestic issues at home are stalled. so the pr...

Administration after the u.s. supreme court limited a key part of the voting rights act dating back to the civil rights movement in 1965. congressman john lewis calls it a dagger in the heart of that law. hell join me next. but first, heres cnns crime and justice correspondent joe johns. >> the courts bitterly divided guts a parts of the voting rights act that singles out 15 mostly southern states and other jurisdictions with a history of discrimination. federal courts and the justice department...

Investigate every county in every state in the south. there a lot of changes that now will certainly go under the radar. the real test will be do those changes really hurt african-americans right to vote? certainly a lot of civil rights groups are very worried about that now. john lewis made that point. it is still illegal to discrimination against people in voting. the question is justice department now has to go seek it out rather than have all the counties come to them and get preapproval fir...

Hold on for a minute. were going to try to reconnect with you. well get back to you. but in the meantime, i want to move on. john is over at that airport in moscow right now. edward snowden landed in moscow with a treasure-trove of americas top secrets. and you have to wonder if the russians are trying to get their hands on that information right now. brian todd is here in "the situation room." youve been looking into this extremely sensitive part of the story. >> thats right. vladimir putin den...

What did you see? >> reporter: well -- wanted to be a normal transit passenger, youd have two choices. either camp out on the floor like some of those behind my shoulder are doing right now. or the single transit hotel available here. lets look at the pictures. its called a capsule. its not very space age-like like the name suggests. only has 40 rooms and modest in size. its about the scale of a large walk-in closet in the united states with a shower, couple of beds if you have a double. single ...

Is a free man, but are they also secretly pumping him for information? and one of the leads on the leaker that came up empty. stand by for a first hand account of a rather bizarre flight to cuba that snowden never got on. im wolf blitzer. this is a "situation room" special report. nsa leaker on the run. there are only so many places inside the moscow airport that the nsa leaker can hide. as weve told you, the russian president vladimir putin conf m confirmed today snowden is somewhere in the t...