What is happening . They have me sitting today. There we go. I will join you my friend. There you go. Here we are. Everybody is losing their job today. Do something to make them invite me back. We will make lexi the normal one today. Have a great rest of your day. Have a great show. Velshi starts now. Good morning. It is saturday april 6th. As donald trump started his president ial bid last year he made it abundantly clear that vengeance was the theme of his campaign. For those that have been wronged and betrayed, i am your retribution. That is a vow he made to his followers as he tried to revive his political career From The Ashes of the inspection that he incited. Now, with his first criminal trial beginning and nine days, he has doubled about his use of imagery and language that could again be interpreted as incitement to violence. Again, it is his followers, not trump paying the price. On monday, authorities arrested Ervin Lee Bolling after they say he rammed his car to a Security Barrier at the gate of the Fbi Field Office in atlanta. He is facing one federal count of destruction of federal Government Property and his motives remain unclear. An opensource investigation of his Online Presence conducted by the Group Advanced democracy found he may have engaged in rightwing conspiracies. In one instance, they found a account appears to belong to him on the messaging Platform Telegram that he was a member of several nonrelated groups. Advance democracy discovered a social Media Program which appears to block the suspect with shared possible containing lies with the president ial election. One included the comment, try one i love you donald trump and tagged former President Trumps file it is not a isolated incident. Late last year an official said the justice for missing an unprecedented rise in threats across the federal government across the board. In august 2022 after federal agents performed a search of maralago within the classified documents case, a man armed with a nail gun try to breach the Fbi Field Office in cincinnati. Later, they thought he was at the Capital On January 6th and was an active user on truth social where he posted multiple ominous threats against the fbi prior to the attack. This weeks incident in atlanta against the backdrop of trump aaa denies recent warning that if he loses the election there will be a, bloodbath. Rather than move on from outrage the comment caused, his campaign is using the term bloodbath as part of a anti biden slogan. At an event in michigan on tuesday, former President Trump spoke from behind the podium that had a puckered on it that read stop bidens border bloodbath. As if it is a biden thing. Rupublican National Committee has paid for new website using the slogan to criticize the Biden Immigration policy. It is no secret that the American Immigration system is deeply broken, but there is no about the border, nor an invasion. These are outrageous lies just like the false claim crimes on the rise around the country. We know this is really about. It is about Fear Mongering. That is the real strategy a play. It has worked for other autocrats in the past, including trump, who began Fear Mongering about immigrants from the moment he launched his first president ial bid. In june 2015, he spent his entire political career disregarding norms and cultivating a culture of violence. It is no longer unusual for Trump Supporters to where merchandise or wave flags the future threatening slogans or imagery of guns. In 2017, he defended participants of a violent and racist unite the rally in charlottesville claiming there were good people on both sides. He has even federated january 6th convicts dismissing the gravity of the crimes. Calling them hostages and unbelievable patriots. Trump is simultaneously repairing his loyalist days for an authoritarian takeover of the federal government if he went back a second term and sowing seeds of doubt to De Legitimize the actual income of this years election in the event he loses. The question is, what can we do to stop this . I do not mean we as voters, i mean we, as citizens. For nearly a decade former President Trump has made the Republican Party bend to his will. He has manipulated the political system to work in his benefit. He has worked the nations moral compass along the way. No one person alone will be able to write the many wrongs that trump has committed. We all have a Civic Responsibility to keep them in. That comes from being well informed and by organizing and devoting. To come right the 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington in 2013, president barack obama stood on the same spot where dr. Martin luther king jr. Delivered his i have a dream speech. Obama recalled the marches, the boycotts, the void or registration driveins and citizens. The small, incremental actions that define the Civil Rights Movement and effect a change. To drive from his point He Invoked A Famous Quote With The Celtic of his own, the arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it does not bend on its own. Trending now is a democratic congresswoman from texas Jasmine Crockett. She is privately worked as a public defender and as a civil rights attorney. It is your debut with me in studio. It is. We talk so often and it feels like we know each other well. For years. I wanted to talk to you about this. When i say what can we do, it is a Call To Action. We are in battle not of our choosing. Most americans do not pick a fight with donald trump, but he has picked a fight with most of us. It is fine the peoples will to vote and think more people will vote for joe biden the donald trump this calls for a little more than that. It does. It is interesting. We talk with the fight we did not pick. I never wanted to be in politics. I never took Political Science at i never thought this is the way that my life would turn out. At some point in time you get frustrated and you say, what more can i do . Sometimes, when it is just you, you think there is not enough that you as an individual can do. But the girl that went from being frustrated now ending up in the u. S. House. A place i never intended to be. It is the people that are frustrated. It is the people that just do not know that we need to bring in. We do not need political digging in. Winning people that say genuinely, my life is affected by what is going on around me. I have a Sorority Sister in the statehouse in texas, tony rose. She says, you may not do politics, but politics will do you. I think the more that people recognize our lives are so connected to politics, the more angry they may become to say, let me dig in. Weather vanes a volunteer on a campaign. I have so many brandnew volunteers when i ran for the statehouse. Brandnew, meaning you energize them to come campaign for you . They had never been involved in a campaign a day in our life. Part of this is candidates that inspire people and want more. That is what we sell only had barack obama. You saw so many people that had never been engaged in politics there were so attracted to him. This election cycle, i do not know who people are expected about, but i know people are expected about the issues. They are expected about the possibility of having real freedom in this country again. They are expected about the opportunity to have reproductive freedom. The opportunity to make sure we are carrying about what is going into the atmosphere and the air and that we have a greener space. It is excitement, as well as fear. The trick is, any of us can express the excitement or the fear. The anxiety or the inspiration. Perhaps you can change the bad one into the good one. You can look at the situation out there, and i think a lot of people are fearful. That is what donald trump wants. He wanted to be fearful of immigrants, black people, transgender people or whatever it is. You can take that and say i would like to direct my energy. You and i have talked about me different versions of this it can be your school board. It can be a public library. I could be would at your library to telling them you support them. It can be Phone Banking or running. It can be anything. That is what i want to do is i go around and speak around the country. One of the things that was tell people is the power belongs to the people. None of the seats blood test. It is not my seat. I am here and serve at the pleasure of Congressional District 30 in texas. The power belongs to the people. It is time for the people to take the power back. For so long, people have felt powerless. They would say things like, it doesnt matter if we vote they will do what they want to do. Know, the reason they want to change the laws all around the south mostly is because they know that your power is just that strong. We have seen in georgia. They want george to continue to believe that they do not have the power to come out and turn out again and be blue. They want them to believe that they are destitute and the system is going to hold them down. But the way our system in this country was built, it was built based on the power belonging to the people. Does not mean you have to go run for office. Let me tell you, i did not get here by myself. It was a coalition of people. It was a village of people. The idea that you have to have legacy politician versus the little girl from st. Louis who just got frustrated and had a fewbecause you have a lot of great. You can have another Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost or whoever it is that you feel inspired by. But, it is about number one, letting those people know you have got their back. You also want to let the Jasmine Crockett know. You can find the early Jasmine Crockett i think youre frustrated, why dont you do this . You can absolutely inspire people. That is what i had to. I remember, before my predecessor even decided she would retire, people tell me to start looking at the seat. They said, she is getting to retirement age. I said, no, we plenty of drama in the statehouse. It was so hard for me to get here. Most people wonder and say, where did Jasmine Crockett come from . They do not realize that i had the closest Statehouse Race in texas when i ran. Won by 90 votes. When people feel like their votes do not count, i try to tell them that i would not be in congress but for people believing enough to put me into the statehouse. So many came out late in the day is that i dont have to make it over the top and i will be the one to help do it. That is the power. In the south, texas and georgia, it was about voting. And then it became about abortion. It is about abortion and book banning in florida. We have all sorts of freedoms being taken away. That is the obligation of citizenship. You have the right to vote any of our locations to protect what that is. That needs to be motivating. Whatever those things are, your freedom and your environmental freedom is being taken away from you. It is i am so expected about florida. I may be the only person expected. Because the people get to raise their voices. It is something we do not have access to in the state of texas. They do not allow us to do things like that. We cannot collect signatures and get a constitutional amendment on the books, which is annoying. Nevertheless, florida has an opportunity. I believe in the people. I know, number one, the popular vote was not won. People need access to the freedom they deserve. Whether you agree with the freedom are not. They recommend if you come after this freedom, you will come after another one. We talked about our trends kids. The fact that your politicians that think it makes sense to eat up on women and take the right way and then got the kids it is most ridiculous thing ever. That is why people feel that the system does not work. That is why people feel that these people are kings and queens instead of being servants. We are Public Servants to the people i really believe that even in florida, people will rise up and show them better than they can tell them. It is fallout that will have big results. Go out and vote to make sure someone else is going out to vote and take them with you on polling day. You know what, if the water and food also. Jasmine crockett, what a great thing to see you in person live. Coming up, a sign of dystopian times. A law passed shortly after the civil war has entered the conversation about banning abortion nationwide. Joining me after the break is democratic senator lisa Smith Tina Smith actively working to repeal the 150yearolds of legislation. She joins me on velshi. 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There is perhaps no clear Sign Of The Times in postroe american than conservatives trying to revive a 150yearold chastity law passed during the Ulysses S Grant administration to ban the mailing of lewd materials which at the time included information related to contraception and abortion. Today, this law known as comstock act appeared to have a receptive audience among members of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court last week, it was referenced three separate times during oral arguments in a case concerning access to the Abortion Pill mifepristone. Passed in 1873, the Construct Act was name for this cat, anthony comstock, anti pornography crusader who collected pornographic images and racy books and presented them to congress as part of its pitch for a public reality code. It reflected puritanical sensibilities that centered around the needs and wants of White Christian men. At the time of its passing, entire classes of people were denied basic rights and freedoms. Women could not vote, nor could they open a line of credit without a male cosigner. Racist laws known as black codes liberated through the self denying Black Citizens Legal Status and maintaining white dominant. Laws existed to ban interracial relationships. Over time, as societys values involved in the comstock act with absolute and went dormant. That is until today. Its resurrection is accommodation of a decadelong effort to ban abortion nationwide ever since roe v. Wade made legal in 1973. Now, incredibly, the plaintiffs in a case aimed at rollback access to medication for abortion have invoked the comstock act to argue that the fda should have considered this 150yearold chastity law from Ulysses S Grant era when approving the Abortion Pill. Even more incredibly, Justice Samuel alito seem to entertain this idea as considering it a prominent provision. While Clarence Thomas asked the lawyer for mifepristone how she would respond to the argument that mailing the product would violate the comstock ask. For its part, the Biden Administration argues the statute is not relevant to the current dispute over mifepristone as it is not the fda s job to interpret and enforce a criminal statute. It is worth taking a moment to consider how backwards and dangerous it is that this argument is taking place on the floor of the Supreme Court. Again, this is a chastity law that has been dormant for over a century. The version of america to which this law belongs in the country that did not grant the basic rights of citizenship to women are most people of color. My next guest, democratic senator tina smith is leading efforts to repeal the comstock act writing in the the new york times, here is the bottom line. We cannot let anyone, not the Supreme Court, not donald trump and certainly, not a random busybody from the 19th century take away americans right to access medication abortion. Very few republicans will admit to wanting to see a total, no exceptions ban on abortion in all 50 states, but the comstock act could allow them to achieve that in effect. Americans deserve better. The constitution demands better. And common sense dictates that we stop this outrageous backdoor ploy to eliminate abortion in its tracks. Joining me now is democratic senator tina smith of minnesota