tv American Voices With Alicia Menendez MSNBC March 27, 2021 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT
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takes all of us. so stand up, be you, be your best you. >> lester, thank you. as we begin a new hour, what's held america back from decades of progress? the gop opposition helping reveal a number of realities this week using the situation at the u.s.-mexico border as a chance for political theater. after georgia rolled back voting rights, could michigan be next? michigan secretary of state is here with her fight to protect voters. plus, as we near the end of this pandemic, you'll meet three latinas helping washington understand the science. new developments in the pop culture frenzy to free britney spears, america's pop princess actually helping ignite a national discussion about how and when you can take power over someone else's life. this is "american voices."
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thank you so much for being with us. i'm alicia menendez. my first guest this hour is congressman joaquin coors who led a delegation on a tour of the refuge resettlement in texas as migrants await their day in court. in just a moment we'll talk to the congressman about what he witnessed inside the facility and at the border. we'll discuss how as a country can do right by those seeking refuge and a better life in the united states. but we can't talk about progress without talking about what's held us back from progress for decades. in fact, this week gave us a full smattering of many of the challenges that this country is currently up against and how it remains politically impossible to address these issues all because one political party's refusal to face hard truths. relying on fear to win and side
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shows in place of legislating. georgia's brand-new voting rights, calling it jim crow 2.0, restricting voting access and making kindness illegal, banning water and food being handed to voters standing in line to vote. make no mistake, the bill is a clear response to democrats winning big in 2020 when they took the presidency and both of georgia's senate seats. so to prevent it from happening again, the state's gop partially inspired by getting back into trump's good graces, used their power this week to strip away the voting rights of the very people who elected them. and then there's gun safety, the need for reform laid bare once again by two massacres this month. more than 20 americans from georgia to colorado lost to senseless violence. within hours, republicans, like texas governor greg abbott, used their deaths to revive the scare tactics on guns. democrats are trying to take
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them away, which is a lie. another big lie was spread even further this week as congressman castro led his delegation friday. this was texas senator ted cruz leading his own delegation on a tour of the border. not focused on finding solutions, instead, focused on furthering fear, using bullet proof vests is more to spread the perception that our southern border is unsafe, is dangerous. crews in the delegation in political cos play. it might be funny in its sheer ridiculousness if thousands of migrants within the united states were not desperately looking to congress for relief and solutions. so with all that gaslighting, tonight's great big question, how do you cut through those lies so we can finally move forward? let's bring in texas congressman joaquin coors. thank you for being with us tonight. i want you to tell us about your visit to the coriso springs facility. >> we took a congressional
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delegation there to make sure that the kids are being treated humanly and being respected, that their dignity is being respected. the biden administration is dealing with a system that was at least partially dismantled by donald trump to both process and settle asylum seekers of the united states. their challenge is to build up capacity to humanly house people while they get them to their family sponsors. so we were going to make sure that those kids are doing okay. what we saw were 13, 14, 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds, many of who made a dangerous trek all alone or perhaps with other family members. but they presented themselves at the border by themselves. so they're unaccompanied minors. >> your sense of those facilities, congressman? >> there are better facilities than the cbp processing centers where we've seen people sleeping
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with what looked like aluminum blankets in cramped, unsanitary conditions. so there are better facilities than that. they're not the right places for these kids. these kids need to be moved with their family and relative sponsors while they wait for their day in court for their cases to be considered. >> in light of what you saw, what are the recommendations you're going to be bringing back to the biden administration about what you would like to see them do next? >> you know, we spoke with the leadership of that facility who offered some great recommendations that i actually agree with. first, we have to reimagine and actually re-do how we hold people temporarily once they present themselves for asylum at the border. so, for example, i don't think we should be holding people in the cpb facilities any longer. they were not built for this purpose at all and having a lot of people packed in there, especially during the time of a
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pandemic is quite dangerous. and so the administration has a real opportunity once and for all to change the way that we, quote, unquote, intake people when they're seeking asylum. that's the immediate short-term thing, treating people humanly by putting them in a different space, but then doing other things to speed up the location of relatives and family sponsors, to speed up the process by which they get background checks and become fingerprinted so that the kids can go over and stay with them while they wait for their court cases. we'll have a chance to talk about all of that in the house of representatives and also with the biden administration when we get back to washington. >> congressman, there is just no question that the border constantly politicized. case in point, you had senate republicans in bullet proof vests touring the rio grande with armed border patrol agents yesterday. i'm not even going to play you the sound of what they said because most of it is absolute rubbish. but i want to know, at this point are there republicans who
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are coming for the table with solutions to address what is really happening at our southern border? >> so far, no, i don't think so. you know, that's not to say that they won't in the next few months or the next year or something. there's certainly that opportunity for them. but right now what i see the republican party doing is trying to figure out what their big issue is going to be for the 2020 elections. during president obama's first term, their big issue became obamacare and they ran the 2010 elections very effectively, the midterm election against obamacare. and so they're trying to figure out what it's going to be. and right now you can see them trying to figure out how big an issue this immigration issue is going to be, how many people's fears they can play upon, how much resentment they can engender among the white americans that there's a bunch of brown people coming here to harm them. and so right now i don't think
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they're coming up with solutions. i think they're trying to figure out how they can use this as a political issue. i hope that changes, but if i'm going to be blunt, that's where we are right now. >> i mean, when talking immigration reform in "the atlantic" writes solving the bored issue sole through punitive measures because it doesn't works, it simply creates demand for more and harsher border security measures, which also cannot stem migration. is there a way to have this conversation, to have this debate without constantly coming back to this question of enforcement? >> that's a great question. to be honest with you, i'm not sure that there is right now in today's political climate. remember the 2014 compromise bill that passed the senate with flying colors like 68 votes. there were two anchors to that bill. one of them a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
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the other anchor to that was border security and border enforcement. even though it passed the senate, it never got a vote on the house floor because john boehner wouldn't put it on the floor for a vote. in the intervening years since then and actually before that, all this country has really done is more and more enforcement, more border patrol agents, more drones, more resources to militarize the border. it's the largest law enforcement agency in the country, and we haven't done the other side of that, which is actually figure out what you're going to do to -- with the 11 million undocumented folks that are here. >> i also want to ask one of the other big stories we're following is the voter suppression legislation that we saw coming out of georgia. of course there's similar legislation that is moving through texas. as you watch that play out in your home state, what role do you see for yourself for the federal government in making sure that you are getting out in front of what is happening at the state level?
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>> yeah, well, many of us have been trying to speak up forcefully against this legislation. i hope that it won't just be politicians who are speaking up, but that we will be joined by the very powerful business community in georgia, in atlanta specifically, who will use their leverage to speak clearly against the state government there, that this is wrong. the same thing in texas. republicans have gotten to a point, unfortunately, where they're trying to win elections by crafting who can vote and who can't. and this is a kind of point shaving game for them. they're trying to shave off the number of people who are going to go to the polls and vote, especially the people that don't vote for them. that's how they're trying to stay in power. they're not offering new ideas. they're standing against ideas like background checks that have 90% support among the american people. so the only way they can have a shot at winning is by stopping people from voting.
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>> congressman castro, thank you so much for spending time with us this evening. still to come, first, can georgia now the gop is rolling back voting rights in michigan. i'll talk to jocelyn benson who is fighting back. the renewed assault on abortion access across america. the new challenge to roe. new zealand takes action using compassion. why can't we do more of the same? first to richard lui with the big stories we're tracking had hour on msnbc. >> good saturday to you, alicia. a major digging and scooping of dirt and sand started. the dredging could free the ship stuck isn't the suez canal. the almost sideways ship has been blocking the canal since tuesday. some estimates say that every hour the ship is stuck holds up to $400 million of international trade. myanmar security forces shot and killed at least 114 protesters today. it is the deadliest day of
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protests so far according to independent media outlet myanmar now. protests since february's military coup resulted in violent crackdowns. the colorado shooting suspect was moved to another jail because of, quote, safety concerns and threats. he faces ten counts of first-degree murder. motive still not known. more "american voices" right after this break. cell phone repair. did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? just get a quote at libertymutual.com. really? i'll check that out.
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country are seeking revenge for democratic gains in washington, d.c. there are bills in more than 40 states targeting access to the ballot box. in georgia, the republican state legislature just approved a law making it harder for people to vote. this comes as michigan republicans work on 39 different bills that all restrict voting. michigan, of course, is a state donald trump targeted in his efforts to overturn the election. michigan secretary of state
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jocelyn benson vows to fight these threats to democracy and joins us now. secretary benson, what are some of the proposed restrictions that you are most concerned about? >> i think the citizens overwhelmingly voted to amend our constitution in 2018 to give themselves to right to vote absentee. the restrictions make it impossible to do so so they can't use a drop box to return their ballot or eliminating the ability for my office or a clerk to give them application to request a ballot. a number of small but collectively significant ways to make it nearly impossible for someone to vote by mail or absentee, despite the fact that so many voters on both sides of the aisle chose to do so in 2020. >> unlike georgia, michigan has a democratic governor with veto power, but the state gop is planning a petition that could override that veto.
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how possible is it that these bills can become law? >> there's a number of steps. this is a battle over the future of our democracy that's playing out the in state legislatures around the country. so there's going to be moves that, quote, unquote, the other side makes, the democracy deniers including ballot initiatives and the like, but there's elections we have particularly in our state constitution in michigan. voters amended knit 2018 to instill a number of rights, including the right to vote absentee. it could violate that constitutional provision. that would require court litigation, but i'm prepared to seek and use every tool at my disposal to protect citizens' fundamental right to vote and the constitutional rights they've given themselves to express that vote through absentee ballot process. >> we've talked a lot about what all of this means for democratic voters, but i found this really
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interesting. i want to read it to you, this article in "washington monthly" arguing these jim crow tacics are about appealing to the republican base. not only to quell a growing body of opposition votes, but to keep their own base engaged. it is stated only in you've mechanisms and hushed tones, there's the conservative voters will simply tune out if these measures are not passed. i wonder what you make of that. >> first, it's a sad state of affairs that, you know, we're seeing one political party may do political party in this country try to block access to democracy as opposed to simply just engaging in a dialogue over ideas and winning the vote through that. that aside, what this also underscores is that the lies, the misinformation that we saw emerge throughout the post-election moment last year that, of course, escalated in
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the violence at the capitol on january 6th has now manifested itself in the outgrowth of the policies across the states and the country. this is essentially a continuation of the big lie that's now an effort to respond to those who've been lied to who are demanding some sort of change with these draconian roll backs on voting rights. it's a terrible thing for our democracy, for the history of our country to be experiencing, but it really is a continuation of what we've experienced these past six months and a reflection of the fact that there's been no accountability for the lies told after the november 2020 election, including the insurrection at the capitol january 6th. >> to what extent are you looking to washington and the movement around h.r. 1 and thinking that that is necessary in order to not end up over and over again in these state fights over voting access? >> this is a critical moment for the federal government to step in, as they have throughout history in the passage of the
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voting rights act, the help america vote act, to protect the rights of every citizen regardless of where they live and who they vote for. truly the future of the democracy depends on the leadership coming out of washington right now to support protections, the reinstitution of the voting rights act, the expansion and protections of the vote through the for the people act, and we've shown in michigan and other states that all the policies and protections in the for the people act are possible to easily implement. it's practical and it's a way to protect the rights of every voter in this country and that's why i hope fervently that the leadership in washington on both sides of the aisle recognizes to do what's right and pass these federal protections. >> madam secretary of state, thank you so much for your time tonight. next, could it be political payback? how one gop senator is holding up a vital appointment to biden's cabinet.
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as president biden says that the department of justice is, quote, taking a look at georgia's new restrictive voter laws, republicans are attempt to go grind the confirmation of one of his doj nominees to a halt. this week the senate judiciary committee's vote on gupta, the third highest ranking doj official nominated dead locked among party lines, republicans unanimously in opposition. republicans attacked gupta over past tweets critical of the gop and accused her of being in support of defunding the police, which she says she is not. in fact, numerous law enforcement groups such as national fraternal order of police have come out in support of gupta's nomination.
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so what's really behind this gop opposition? with me now is zerlina maxwell, senior director of progressive programming for sirius xm and author of the end of white "end of white politics". it is great to see you both. zerlina, "the washington post" editorial board points out two of president biden's top nominees have been subjected to baseless smear campaigns. judiciary committee chair senator durbin says only two senate republicans have even been willing to meet with gupta and the senate hasn't even scheduled a hearing for clark yet. zerlina, what does all of that tell you about republicans' opposition? >> well, i think that in line with what they did with neera tanden's nomination, basically attacking her for supposed,
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quote, unquote, mean tweets. the same thing, they're trying that same playbook with gupta's nomination. but i actually looked up some of the tweets because i was, like, what was so mean? you know, for example, she said that there was racism, xenophobia and lying at the republican convention in 2020. republicans are very uncomfortable with, frankly, women of color speaking the truth about the current state of the republican party. and so i think what they're having trouble with her nomination is she's essentially a mirror to their past behavior and all the things that they tolerated during the trump administration. >> erin, this is not casual. this is not uncoordinated. as zerlina just said, it's from a playbook that they have run before. as you're watching what they're doing with clark, i mean, where
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do you see remnants of that in the past? >> you know, kristen clarke, he's been nominated to run the civil rights division at the doj, the kind of moral heart of the department of justice, has been the subject of this concerted smear campaign that is based on tissue-thin evidence or even lack of evidence. tucker carlson has done five segments about her. there's a website of opposition research which, to zerlina's point, the top two people are kristen clarke and another african-american nominee. so it's hard not to see a pattern here. i think there's a couple of things going on here. one is the women of color are hypervisible in the eyes of republicans and they make easy targets for their base who love to see them go after accomplished women of color. the other is that they are women of color who support civil rights law and historically the civil rights division, even when it has been male nominees has been subject to this kind of scrutiny, creation of controversy, even though these
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are civil rights laws passed on bipartisan basis like the civil rights act, the voting rights act, or perhaps they're vindicating the u.s. constitution, which is also supposed to be a dealership document. you have this deep-seated opposition. so in 2014, one is nominated by barack obama and a concerted smear campaign led by the fraternal order of police kills his nomination. and significantly in that instance it was democratic votes that helped sink his nomination, even though they had an even healthier majority than they do now. now with this razor-thin majority, it's going to be make or break because of this smear campaign that's being leveled against her. >> erin, not only are they attacking access to the ballot box, they're attacking women's access to reproductive health care.
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over 500 abortion restrictions have been introduced in 44 states this year, the ultimately goal for the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. you reported on this issue extensively. your sense of where this fight stands today? >> there is a race to the bottom to get a vehicle to the u.s. supreme court where, of course, justice amy coney barrett replaced ruth bader ginsburg, restricting contraception and beyond, but abortion is firmly in the cross-hairs and each of these states is pushing past what has previously been upheld by this court in hopes that the new composition of the court will give the right what they wanted for generations now, which is to profoundly restrict women's autonomy over their bodies.
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>> you had women lawmakers of color introducing the each act which guarantees insurance coverage for abortion wherever people live. i wonder how you weigh the efforts to restrict care against the efforts to expand it. >> well, i think it's actually really refreshing to see democrats in the congress take proactive steps to try to expand access to abortion. additionally, during the pandemic there were steps to expand access to telemedicine and medical abortions through medical means. and so folks, i think, understand that their right to decide to do whatever they want with their bodies is at steak. as soon as amy coney barrett was confirmed to the supreme court, essentially folks who had been paying attention to this issue laid it out for us. roe is at stake, it's on the line and they're going after it
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in a more direct way than they had previously. if you look at 2010, many of the laws proposed then in state houses around the country went after regulations that had to do with clinics and hallway widths, so clinics had to close. those were called trap laws, so essentially you were trying to restrict access by closing clinics. this is a direct shot at roe. they want to go to the supreme court and get it overturned. what i think states need to do is expand access in addition to the democratic-led house proposing expansions to access. >> we're going to continue to follow both of these stories, zerlina and erin. thank you both. you can see zerlina every weekday 6:00 p.m. on her own show streaming on the choice on peacock. next, fueled by passion, latinas are leading us out of this pandemic. >> i see the dedication they have and the positive attitude
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that they come in every day. i know the work is hard, but i see that all the time and that's what keeps me going all the time. >> you'll meet three women playing a vital role in covid research right after this. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high you know how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good ♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups.
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medical field, the science field, laboratory field, being run by white male? now it has turned into this beautiful rainbow of colors. >> in the nation's capitol, it's these three latinas in lab coats who are leading the study of covid-19. they're analyzing virus samples every day to track the spread and to detect new covid mutations in the d.c. area. >> reporter: do you have moments throughout your day where you're like, wow, i'm living history right now? >> yes, >> absolutely. >> every day. every day i take, i reflect like wow, this is probably going to be in a history book. probably no book, right? a history module on a computer. >> on a computer, yes, on a usb drive. >> reporter: connie, liz, and monica became the three musketeers at the start of the pandemic. >> oh, it was scary at first. i was very nervous. >> reporter: after years of
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working behind the scenes in a quiet lab, suddenly the city was watching them. >> it's just unbelievable how much the media, the pressure we had. we were under a microscope at that point. we were the ones that were detecting this virus. after detecting it saying it to the public how many positives we had. i'm normally pretty calm when i do testing, but at that moment when i was testing covid, i have to admit, it was nerve-racking. >> reporter: growing up, the lab wasn't a place they thought they could be. >> i didn't expect a lot of women in the science field much, especially because i probably just didn't think that that was an option. >> reporter: in the u.s., both women and latinx or hispanic people are underrepresented in science and engineering jobs. in 2016, only about 2% of all s.t.e.m. degrees went to hispanic and latinx women.
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>> my heritage is just the woman will stay home and take care of the kids and do most of the cleaning. my mom actually put aside her career just to raise us kids. she dedicated all those years to us, for us to have a better life. >> growing up in uruguay, a low-income family, my mom wanted to be a nurse. that was her dream. unfortunately, life didn't give her that chance. she married at 18, got her first child at 19. she always loved to take care of sick people, right? she had that passion and she's very proud of me now. >> my mom does have a bachelors in biology, so she did grow up loving the sciences and having a passion for the sciences, but she never got to fulfill a career in the sciences, and i wanted to do things a little differently. i didn't want to be a housewife, so i wanted to get out and get a
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career and work full time. >> reporter: today these three have each other to look up to. they credit their bond for getting them through some of the toughest days of the pandemic. >> when i see monica and liz, i see hard-working women and the positive attitude they have coming in every day. i know the work is hard, and i see that in y'all all the time and that's what keeps me going all the time. >> we stay late just to finish the job. we have that same kind of work ethic. and i think that's very inspiring. >> we are latinas, that's what we do. we grew up the hard way and we keep applying that every day. we give each other a name. i kid around with liz and we already named her this. i say [ speaking spanish ] >> you think lab, you think such a sterile environment, but it's the three of you bringing this
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hope. >> the lab is our home away from home. >> reporter: young women who are envisioning themselves or who don't envision themselves in spaces like these, what do you want them to know? >> keep knocking on doors and some of them will open. >> reporter: how about when people make you feel this isn't a space for you? >> actually more motivating. it makes me even work harder. like, i'm going to prove them wrong. >> i get that sometimes when people ask me what i do, they're, like, really? sure am. i can tell you about some dna, you want to learn? >> reporter: while the end of the pandemic finally seems to be in sight, these latina scientists aren't done writing their chapter in history. the three musketeers aren't going anywhere, except maybe on a well-deserved break. >> i think we're going to continue this forever. >> maybe one day vacation. >> vacation together, yeah.
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this is going to last a lifetime. >> yeah. this is it. >> the three musketeers. isa, thank you. next from hashtag to national conversation. the movement to free britney pay lead to real change. later, we take you to new zealand where there is solid proof that government can work if you want it to. bit of chicken fried ♪ ♪ cold beer on a friday night ♪ ♪ a pair of jeans that fit just right ♪ ♪ and the radio up ♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. only at applebee's. whatever stereotype you're gonna try . . . . . . to put on me about having hiv isn't gonna fit. that's for sure. my name is zach and i'm on biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment . . . . . . used for hiv in certain adults. it's not a cure but with one small . . . . . . pill, biktarvy fights hiv . . . . . . to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test.
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the explosive "new york times" documentary framing britney spears is shedding light on a sometimes overlooked auxiliary conserve toreship abuse. the mega pop star has been locked in a battle to regain her finances and career after her father, jamie spears, was appointed by a court to be her guardian in 2008. "the los angeles times" reports the new proposals aimed to
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strengthen the requirements of conserve toreships require more insight and oversight. that may mark a small victory for the hashtag #freebritney amusement, but the issue is so much bigger. kathy familiarity is the executive director of the connecticut legal rights project. it is good to have you here. i didn't know about this, honestly, before i started to watch a documentary, before i started reading about this movement. the benefit is it's brought this ongoing duo light. can you just sort of define what conserve toreship is? >> it really comes into play when people for some reason believe that another individual isn't capable of managing their own affairs, whether that's making decisions about their
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medical treatment or managing their money. and what they do is they bring a petition to a court. sometimes those are petitions that are brought by family members. sometimes those are petitions that are brought by health care facilities because they need somebody to give informed consent to certain kinds of treatment. i think it's always challenging to talk about an outlier case and a celebrity case, which certainly britney spears' case is. but conserve toreship and guardianship are something that happens to people with disabilities all around the country every single day. it's really controlled by state law, which is why it's going to some of the interesting thing of the congresspeople bringing attention to a hearing is quite something else too. but what was remarkable about that was that in the footnote of congressman gaetz' alert was a reference to an article written
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by rick rain of "the hartford current." it's a case our office was involved in, so to see a conversation that i have been engaging with people on twitter become, really, a twitter -- become, really, a national-news story, certainly with the celebrity aspect, an international-news story. but it's really talking about the deprivation of rights of disabled people. and it's why our entire community has really been having that conversation for a while. >> yeah. can you give me a sense of how the connecticut legal rights project helps conserved people hold their conservator accountable? >> absolutely. there have been a -- i can give a few different examples. is that sometimes when there is a conservator of the state appointed, they are required to do accountings on a regular basis. we represent clients who don't always get those accountings, on a regular basis.
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sometimes, there are questions about that accounting, making sure people's money is managered properly. but often, we have clients come to us because they feel while the conservatorship may have been put in place, at a time in their life when they were struggling with their mental-health condition, they feel they have recovered and they want to take their lives back. they want the power back over their own lives and really, when you think about what the purpose of a conservatorship is, it is not necessarily to deprive somebody of their rights for their entire life. it's to put this subsequent decision maker in place, when somebody's not capable of making decisions or expressing their decisions or communicating their decisions, at a particular point in time. and that's why a number of us are really talking about, can we look at other options? first, like a voluntary conservatorship? because, if a person desires to have one, they can ask the court to appoint one for them. there are other alternatives, like advanced directives, where
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somebody can express their preferences, ahead of time. and more states are starting to use, where people surround themselves with a trusted team. you think of the way when you are out to buy a or i am out to buy a car. i can do a certain amount of research but i am still going to consult with people who know a lot more about cars than i do to help me make the decision. but i am the one who, ultimately, makes the decision and that's what supported decision-making is. >> kathy, thanks so much for joining us. next, change can be easy if you really want it. new zealand just proved it, as we will show you right after the break. but first, a look at what's straight ahead for you tonight, here on msnbc. hey there, i'm joshua johnson. tonight at 8:00 eastern on the week. civil rights groups suing georgia over a new law they argue will dramatically restrict voting. bee nguyen joins us to discuss the future of voting in her
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longer to catch up. and while it is useful to have days on the calendar that give us a reason to talk about these things. new zealand, this week, gave us a powerful reminder of what happens when you stop talking about things like equal pay or paid family leave, and just, you know, do it. on wednesday, parliament passed legislation giving mothers and their partners the right to paid leave following a miscarriage or stillbirth. new zealand is the second country in the world to do so. india currently has this kind of legislation. though, it's much more restrictive. what's more, the bill passed, unanimously. with legislators acknowledging that it takes time to come to terms with loss. guaranteeing, employees three-days leave that does not require them to tap into their sick days. new zealand is no stranger to being out in front on these questions of equity. equal pay for women has been law there, since the early 1970s. and last year, parliament focused on progress, took that equal-pay law, a step further. unanimously, passing an amendment that focuses on pay equity. ensuring women in historically
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underpaid, female-dominated industries, receive the same bonuses and benefits as men, in different but equal-value work. while, here in america, we still devote a day to raising awareness about our own lack of equal-pay protections. the u.s. women's soccer team visited the white house to mark the occasion. megan rapinoe, who's won two world cups and olympic gold. yet, despite all the awareness we have raised over the past-25 years, the pay gap between men and women in america has shrunk, by just 8 cents. one nickel. three pennies. treat yourself to a tootsie roll, i guess. important to note, these inequities made even more by the pandemic. vowing to pursue policies to close that gap. >> doesn't matter if you are an electrician accountant, ar or part of the best damn soccer team in the world, the pay gap
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is real. and this team is living proof that you can be the very best at what you do and still have to fight for equal pay. >> that is all the time i have for today. i am alicia menendez. i will see you tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. because tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. eastern, ari melber is going to host an hour-long special previewing the trial of former-minneapolis police officer, derek chauvin. ari's going to take an in-depth look at what we can expect from both the prosecutors and the defense ahead of monday's opening statements. so watch that, and then i will see you back here tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. eastern for more "american voices." but for now, i hand it over to my colleague, joshua johnson. hello, joshua. >> hey, alicia. i am glad you brought up the equal pay day. we will be talking more about that later in our program about why this gap is still so large and what we need to do to finally close it. hello, to you. it is good to be with you tonight. for that and more, including
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what's happening in georgia. we saw scenes of protests like these after the governor signed a new law stricting access to voting, signed behind closed doors with no-media access. protestors argue the law amounts to voter suppression. we will dig into how the law will change how georgians vote. dueling visits from congressional leaders at the southern border. on one side, the quest for solutions as more migrants are showing up. on the other side, gun votes and bullet proof vests. we will take you to the border live. and congress grilled executives from google, facebook, and twitter, again. the issue? how to regulate social media. but who is driving the discussion? capitol hill? or silicon valley? from nbc news world headquarters in new york, i'm joshua johnson. welcome to "the week." we know the
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