the derek chauvin's trial and especially right now at the site where george floyd was killed in minneapolis last year. as i said, substantial numbers of people gathering entirely peaceful and people reacting to those three guilty verdicts on three counts against officer derek chauvin. that's going to do it for me. "way too early" is up next with kasie hunt. ♪♪ today, we are able to breathe again! >> i'm going to miss him but now i know he is in history. what a day for floyd. >> victory for all of us. there is no color barrier on us. this is for everyone who has been held down and pinned down and we stand together in unity. >> the brothers of george floyd reacting after a jury finds derek chauvin guilty of murder. the first such conviction of a white police officer againstciv.

what is next for the fight for justice? ♪♪ good morning. welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, april 21st. i'm kasie hunt. we start with the news. >> the jury in the above entitled manner as to count one, unintentional second-degree murder while committing murder, guilty. count two, find the defendant guilty. we the jury in the above entitled matter as to count three, secondary manslaughter finds the defendant guilty. >> derek chauvin killed a black man named george floyd by kneeling on his neck for 9

minutes and 29 seconds. chauvin's bond was revoked and demanded for custody where he will spend next eight weeks waiting for sentencing. many outside the courthouse celebrated with tears of relief and crowds erupted into cheers for a guilty on all counts verdict that many were unsure would come. at a news conference with the prosecutors who tried the case, minnesota attorney general keith ellison said just has not yet been achieved. prosecutor jerry blackwell, once again, got the last word. >> i would not call today's verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration. but it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice. we need true justice. that's not one case. that is a social transformation

that says that nobody is beneath the law and no one is above it. >> no verdict can bring george perry floyd back to us, but this verdict does give a message to his feminine that he was somebody, that his life mattered, that all of our lives matter. >> his life mattered. his life mattered. the floyd family celebrated but said the fight for justice is not over after the verdict was read. >> reverend always told me, we got to keep fighting. i'm going to put up a fight every day because i'm not just fighting for george any more. i'm fighting for everybody around this world. >> yes. >> i get calls. i get dms, people from brazil, from ghana, germany.

they all say the same thing. we ain't able to breathe until you're able to breathe. today, we are able to breathe again. >> i believe, because of prayer, we got the verdict we wanted. >> amen. >> amen. >> amen. >> we got on our knees. some of us stood up but we asked the right person, we asked the right one. >> yes. >> come on. >> we said, god, we need justice. we need it now. and he answered. >> they give a guilty charge on all accounts, we got a chance to go to trial. this right here is for everyone who has been in this situation. everybody. >> joining us from minneapolis is nbc political reporter shaquille brewster who has been on the ground covering every twist and turn in this trial. shaq, thank you so much for being up with us early. i know you've had an incredibly

long last 48 hours and your work has been just outstanding. it will be two months until chauvin is sentenced here. what will happen during that time frame? how will the sentencing impact this? take us a little bit to the streets of minneapolis. how were people feeling yesterday as this happened? >> well, we know that in a matter of weeks, judge cahill will come back and determine whether or not there were aggravating factors in george floyd's murder. we know prosecutors previously said there were aggravating factors and mentioning that floyd was in a particularly vulnerable position and legal experts think that could double the amount of time that derek chauvin faces in prison. something we will see in a matter of weeks. both sides will put file briefing. derek chauvin waived his right for that part to be determined by a jury.

you mentioned the excitement and relief you heard yesterday in minneapolis after that verdict was being read. for many people on the ground, it's not about the details of how long derek chauvin ends up in prison. yes, they want him to serve time. they want him to be put away. but for them, it's the relief that beyond that doubt that they had in their mind, the doubt that despite the overwhelming evidence that they saw, the bystander after bystander that came up and testified and provided that emotional testimony. the medical experts and the officer after officer coming up on the stand, so many didn't allow themselves to believe a day like yesterday would come. they didn't expect to see that ultimate guilty verdict. i was in that park right outside of the courthouse yesterday when that verdict was read. you heard a hush with the crowd as they looked on their smartphones and watched the court feed. then you heard someone coming up on a bull horn and say, guilty. that is when you heard the cheers from the crowd. you heard it again, guilty. you heard cheers. you saw hugs.

you saw tears in people's eyes. for many people, this is just something that they didn't expect to get. you mentioned it's the first white police officer convicted in the state of minneapolis for killing a black man. this is something that they just didn't allow themselves to believe and for many people, it's the deep sense of relief now that they see that derek chauvin has been convicted of murder, of murdering george floyd. >> shaq, what do we know about the deliberations themselves? i mean, i certainly was surprised at how quickly this came down, although now that we know what they had decided, it makes some sense. are you able to take us at all into the deliberations that the jury made here? what was your sense of how long it took and, of course, a very tense hour, hour and a half as we waited for this to be read. >> yeah. we expected a little delay in between when the verdict was actually reached and when we would actually find out the

verdict and that is because of how high profile this case, how much preparations were taking place downtown, what notification was being provided. but we really don't know. we haven't heard from any of the jurors who still remain anonymous to this day what went on in that jury room. they, of course were sequestered from the start of deliberation. so that is one thing many people will be wondering. we know the communication has been limited. their understanding of when has been happening outside of the courtroom has been limited. that is really something that we will need to kind of wait until we hear from some of the jurors themselves to really understand what exactly happened with those deliberations. >> nbc shaquille brewster, thank you, my friend, for being up here early. great reporting from the ground and i know we will hear more from you coming up on "morning joe." we really appreciate it. meanwhile, we have to go to this story. police in columbus, ohio, fatally shot a teenage girl

yesterday. portions of body cam released by police hours later showed an officer shooting 16-year-old bryant as she attempted to stab two people with a knife. a warning the video you're about to see is disturbing. >> what is going on? get down! get down! >> a blade resembling a kitchen knife was found on the sidewalk. she was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead. bryant was a foster child who was under the care of children services. protests erupted in the city after news of the fatal shooting which happened minutes before the verdict was announced in the trial of derek chauvin for killing george floyd. still ahead here, we are going to take a look how the

sports world is reacting to the verdict in the derek chauvin trial. later, a shouting match over police reform breaks out after a house judiciary hearing and we will show you those fiery moments. then a check of the weather and other stories when we come back. r stories when wcoe me back up at 2:00am again? tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep.

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i know i speak to a lot of people in the world when i say i was sitting in front of the tv watching the verdict come down and my hands started sweating and my body start shivering and my heart started pounding because i was nervous. i was nervous because i didn't believe. you can't celebrate this but if there was any win today, to me, it was a win for accountability. to me, we got more work to do. we all know that. >> yeah. >> there is more work to do. so the work is not done. but today was definitely a good day to see accountability.

>> welcome back. that was future basketball hall of famer dwyane wade reflecting on today's verdict. lebron james one word, accountability. the nfl's las vegas raiders sparked unexpected controversy over this tweet. still pinned at the top of the team's twitter page, i can breathe along with yesterday's date. raiders owner mark davis took responsibility for the tweet. davis explained that the las vegas review journal that he took the lead of george floyd's brother philonis who said yesterday, we are able to breathe again. the european soccer super league appears to be over before it began. less than 48 hours after 12 of europe's top clubs announced a plan for the break-away competition that would rifle the

ufa league and they backed out. it came near unanimous objection and threats of government intervention and leaves the remaining spanish and italian participants stranded. the super league released a statement saying, it is now reconsidering the appropriate steps in order to reshape the project. okay. let's turn now to a little major league baseball. history made on the mound in san diego. milwaukee brewers pitcher corbin burns continued his dominate start to the season striking out ten over six scoreless injuries and now leading the majors 0.37 earned run average. he has errored 40 strikeouts and zero walks over four games. mckinney's diving catch here along the foul line saved one run in the fourth inning. wow. look at that. finally, pro golfers will no longer only be rewarded for

their performance on the course. the pga tour is offering a $40 million bonus for players who drive the most engagement for the sport. the payout will go to the top ten players not year, determined by an cumulative score measuring popularity. it's like the worst of high school, except for millions of dollars on the line. time for the weather. let's go to meteorologist bill karins for a check on the forecast. bill, good morning. >> good morning to you. it's going to be a crazy weather day in the northeast today. we could deal with some areas getting like inches of snow and travel delays. other areas getting severe weather today, including new york city. right now you're waking up and it is snowing outside your window if you look outside in buffalo and rochester and syracuse and snowing in cleveland. pittsburgh, snow is on the way. along with areas of west virginia. so this is the additional snowfall we are going to get today. it looks like the highest totals will be western new york, areas around buffalo to syracuse 1 to

4 inches of snow and maybe an additional inch in areas of ohio and vermont could get snow and the mountain areas could get 4 to 8 inches. as far as the severe weather threat goes, the yellow and slight risk of severe storms will roll through about 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and the window for the severe weather. all the way down through atlantic city. damaging winds are possible with these thunderstorms as they come through. then behind it, it will get much colder in a hurry so we have to watch for travel delays in the northeast. not a good day to have an airplane flight this afternoon with the high winds and severe thunderstorms. middle of the country you're still very chilly but at least most of your snow is over with. tomorrow, we will watch the cold winds blow in through the northeast as the rest of the country has a pretty quiet weather day. a little bit of everything on this april day in the northeast. you kind of have one of those days you have to dress for everything. bundle up and maybe you'll carry the jacket at one point and then you'll need it another period

later. >> you're reminding me of the time when i lived in london when the weather was basically always like that. bail karins, thank you very much. i'll see you tomorrow. still ahead here. republicans have a new strategy when it comes to interference. we will be back in a moment with details. s to interference. we will be back in a moment with details. from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past

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east has a stark warning for the withdrawal of troops in afghanistan. he told the house armed services committee leaving the country will make the work of counterterrorism more difficult. >> if you leave afghanistan and you want to go back in to conduct these kinds of operations, there are three things you need to do. you need to find the target. you need to fix the target. and you will need to be able to finish the targeted. if you're out of the country and you don't have the ecosystem that we are there now, it will be harder to do that. it is not impossible to do that. it will just be harder to do it. >> general mckenzie told congress the groans that can reach targets in minutes right now will have to be stationed further away. the u.s. does not have contracts currently with surrounding countries to station them there. doctors for russian opposition leader for navalny were blocked yesterday from

seeing him. they waited hours outside of the gates. he was transferred to a hospital area this week amid a sharp decline in his health. he has been on a hunger strike three weeks now to protest the prison's refusal to let him see his own doctors. a massive rally will be held today for him in moscow, russia. we actually this morning can show you live pictures of vladimir putin talking in moscow right now. there he is. it is the annual state of the nation address. we are going to be keeping an ear on that and we will let you know if we hear anything from him on these questions about navalny. ahead here, how the white house is reacting to the verdict in the derek chauvin trial. we will show you what the president and vice president had to say. before we go to break, why are you awake? are you awake?

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♪♪ welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 on the east coast and 2:30 out west. i'm kasie hunt. we begin this half with the fate of derek chauvin after a jury found him guilty on all charges in the killing of george floyd on may 25th of last year.

>> count one unintentional second-degree murder guilty. count two, third degree murder guilty. count three second degree manslaughter guilty. bail is revoked and the defendant is in the hands of the hennepin county sheriff. >> the 45-year-old faces up to 45 years in prison when he is sentenced in eight weeks. president biden called it a step forward after derek chauvin was found guilty on all counts. >> guilty verdict does not bring back george. but through the family's pain, they are finding purpose so george's legacy will not be just

about his death, but about what we must do in his memory. >> today, we feel a sigh of relief. still, it cannot take away the pain. a measure of justice isn't the same as equal justice. this verdict brings us a step closer and the fact is we still have work to do. we still must reform the system. >> they spoke with the floyd family after the ruling promising to work on passing police reform.

>> the white house renewed its call for congress to pass the george floyd justice in policing act. a shouting match broke out during a house judiciary committee hearing yesterday. during the debate over the covid-19 hate crimes act, congresswoman val demings criticized an amendment introduced by republicans to prevent police departments from being refunded. she was interrupted by congressman jim jordan. >> i served as a law enforcement officer for 27 years. it is a tough job. and good police officers deserve your support. you know, it's interesting to see my colleagues on the other

side of the aisle support the police when it is politically convenient to do so. law enforcement officers risk their lives every day. they deserve better and the american people -- i have the floor, mr. jordan! what? did i strike a nerve? law enforcement officers deserve better! than to be utilized as pawns! you and your colleagues will -- of yourself! >> wow. congresswoman val demings will be a guest this morning on "morning joe." i'm looking forward to that. joining me now, is author of the playbook eugene daniels and also an msnbc contributor. eugene, good morning. i want to start with president biden and kamala harris and moving words they had for the floyd family in the wake of this verdict. what did you hear as you listened to that phone call from

president biden to the family? and what happens next here in washington in terms of trying to turn this into laws that actually change the system? >> we heard, you know, something that, frankly, joe biden is really good at, right? joe biden is someone who we talk about this all the time, because it's so important to understanding how he and his white house administration approach issues of grief and death in the way they think about this country. so you heard him consulting this family. this is a family that he has talked to and had a relationship with for months. one of the very first trips that he took as a candidate during the election after covid, after they started traveling a little bit was to meet with that family. he also shot a video for george floyd's funeral. so what he and kamala harris promised the family was some kind of action, right?

there is literally a bill that has passed the house in the name of george floyd, as you said, the george floyd justice in policing act. they promise that they are going to do more. and, you know, that is something that, for this white house, while they were in transition, while they were on campaign, racial equity and issues of racial justice were one of the top four crises they saw in america so it's clearly a priority for them. they wanted the family to know that and they reiterated that yesterday. kamala harris, while she was a senator, was one of the people that drafted this language. and so she has an obvious stake in making sure that something happens. and it feels like something that they are willing to spend a lot of political capital on, right? that is how things work around here. it's also an issue of importance the base of the democratic party to which joe biden has kind of -- people. however, all that said, you know this, ten republicans in the senate have to sign on and one of the major sticking points is

this qualified immunity which shield police officers from lawsuits. it's a red line for republicans. and for democrats, they say there has to be some type of accountability in the bill no matter how much republicans, you know -- scott from south carolina, the lone-backed republican and the senate has talked about this bill, leading off police reform for republicans but qualified immunity is something that democrats want to see getting rid of it is something democrats want to see in the bill, because they say there has to be some accountability. so not sure -- it doesn't look like republicans are going to move on that and neither are democrats so hard to see how this bill gets to joe biden's desk getting through the house and the senate. >> to that point, eugene, i mean, i think that exchange with congresswoman demings underscores the emotional impact of this country. clearly the whole country has been focused on this chauvin trial but even in the personal

relationships that exist between and among members of congress. val demings was chief of the orlando police department and she had had a 27-year career in that department. to your point about tim scott. he is someone who also, again, his personal relationships matter a lot. he is very well-respected. he has been, as you point out, the lone african-american voice as a black man in the senate. and he has really stepped out and used it. to what extent do you think he can reach out to others? do you think there is a world he can convince ten republicans to get on board and make a statement that, hey, we need to do something? or are the politics of it simply too fraught? >> this job makes us a little bit more cynical than most people on these issues and whether someone like tim scott, despite those relationships, could convince his colleagues. you know, it's four republicans, they have -- we saw that in --

talked about the val demings and jim jordan debate/argument. one, you can't paint val demonstration who doesn't support police because as you said, she was a chief of police. that is something republicans have wanted to do. they have this kind of political calculation that is in that same kind of culture issue, right? talking about backing the blue and always supporting police, republicans. then you have democrats who want to hold them accountable. even with tim scott pushing this in the senate, can you get ten republicans on board? mitt romney also talked about this yesterday. he is one of that group of ten republicans who call themselves moderates who want to work with this white house. those two things are at lagger head and hard to see it pass because of the emotion behind it. republicans have made it very clear to us that they are going to continue to try to paint the democratic party at large as a party take wants to defund the police.

there is, obviously, a contingent of the left that wants to allocate funds from police officers but that is not something held largely by every democrat and, more importantly, by joe biden. >> people like jim clyburn have said, hey, maybe that messaging isn't necessarily productive. as you point out, i think senator scott is the one to watch here. does he reintroduce the legislature he was working on so we will watch that in the coming weeks. political, eugene daniels, thank you for waking up early for us. ahead here a study says you should be getting more sleep. maybe we all have an issue! "way too early" is back in a moment.

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and i'm still working. in the kind of work that i do, you are surrounded by people who are all younger than you. i had to get help somewhere along the line to stay competitive. i discovered prevagen. i started taking it and after a period of time, my memory improved. it was a game-changer for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. you'd never want leftover food residue on your surfaces. but that's what you could be doing with a used dishcloth. so, switch to bounty for a more hygienic clean. unlike used dishcloths that can redistribute residue, bounty keeps your surfaces cleaner. bounty, the quicker picker upper. welcome back. time for something totally different. we look toward the return of live events five members of the house of representatives have signed a bill urging president

biden to listen into the ticketmaster merger they say ma monopolized the merger. they say the following. they detail the company's hold on the industry and ask the department of justice and federal trade commission to investigate their practices. those ticketmaster fees, they have been a pretty significant break the last year. sad, but there you go. now this. a new study released yesterday suggests that middle-aged adults who sleep less than six hours a night -- not me, no? definitely me! can increase their risk for dementia later in life. oh, no! researchers followed nearly 8,000 adults in britt for 25 years beginning when they were 50 years old. they found that those who consistently got less than six hours of sleep on an average week night in their 50s and 60s were 30% more likely than people

who got regularly seven hours of sleep, to develop dementia later in life. researchers found no general difference between men and women. the findings are significant and study is not create and require more research to fully understand why and how. good reason to make sure you're getting to bed on time. earlier on in the show, we asked all of why are you awake? niko writes i went to bed at 8:00 p.m. and wide awake now after a hike. speaking of the great outdoors. barbara says i'm out to utah to visit five national parks and watching an 8:15 plane at jfk. boards at 7:35, so i'm up. look at this cute dog! here is one from bernadette.

we are thinking of you! what yesterday's verdict in minneapolis could spell for the future is coming up for police reform in the united states. don't go anywhere. "way too early" is coming right back. ay too early" is coming ri back feeling sluggish or weighed down? it could be a sign that your digestive system isn't working at it's best taking metamucil everyday can help. metamucil psyllium fiber, gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. it also helps lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so you can feel lighter and more energetic metamucil. support your daily digestive health. and try metamucil fiber thins.

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we don't find pleasure in this. we don't celebrate a man going to jail. we would have rather george be alive. >> amen! >> but we celebrate that we, because young people, white and black, some castigated and many mere marched and kept marching and kept going. many of them looked down on, but they kept marching and wouldn't let this die. and this is an assurance to them that if we don't give up, that we can win some rounds. but the war and the fight is not over. just two days from now, we are going to have to deal with the funeral of daunte wright in this same county, the same area.

we still have cases to fight. but this gives us the energy to fight on. >> welcome back. that was reverend al sharpton reacting to minneapolis police officer derek chauvin convicted on all counts in the death of george floyd. joining us is professor of law terry ravano. thank you for being with up with us early. we appreciate it. i know you've been studying and looking at a lot of the issues that we were just talking about from a political perspective. questions about qualified immunity and other things that shape cases like the one that we saw just play out. can you explain to us what this verdict for derek chauvin means in the context of what we may see in the in terms of these cases? how will it impact what happens in the future to others who may find themselves facing similar charges? >> you know, it can affect

things in a lot of different ways. one of the things that we have to think about whenever we think about this sort of incident with police violence is we need to think about it on both a criminal level and a civil level. and what we just saw play out in derek chauvin's trial was the state's criminal prosecution of mr. chauvin. what we did not ever see play out was a civil trial or civil rights lawsuit that sort of weaved its way through the system. instead, what ended up happening is the case was settled, the civil case was settled relatively early in the process because the facts were just so egregious. when we think about qualified immunity, that is something that plays out in the civil context as opposed to the criminal context. >> that makes sense. so in terms of the bills that are winding their way through

congress, as someone who is very familiar with the body of law that exists around these issues, what do you think is the minimum that needs to be done? i think we may see some back and forth, some negotiation, republicans have drawn a line in the sand at changing this qualified immunity question. what do you think is the bare minimum, in your view, that congress needs to do to try to reform some of these police-related laws? >> i think that the bill that is currently in congress really is a good start. and, in a lot of respects, it is the bare minimum. it abolishes qualified immunity for law enforcement officials but not for all government officials. but one of the things that is really important to realize is why the idea of abolishing qualified immunity and to give you a little background. what the qualified immunity defense does is it suggests that even if government official violates a constitutional right and the court has found that the

government official has violated the constitutional right, that that government official doesn't have to pay so long assess the right wasn't clearly established. and so, again, part of the sort of contradiction and i think we see so much resistance to qualified immunity constitutional violation and there's no accountability for it. but what happens with -- if we were to abolish qualified immunity is there is a second question, is that actually going to result in greater accountability and more compensation for civil rights victims. and that's where things get a little bit more questionable. just because we abolish the doctrine, what that would mean is police in that context would be required to pay, but they may not actually have the money to pay the judgment, so it may not lead to further compensation for victims unfortunately. so it's a start, but we need to do much more and think about something like vicarious liability for municipalities.

>> so that would be an expansion of that. of course, this could potentially affect how individual officers think about their actions. teri ravenell, thank you so much for being with us this morning. we appreciate your expertise and insights. coming up next, the powerful role of activists. coming up val demings, and congressman hakeem jeffries on what's next on democrats' agenda. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" just moments away. . (neighbor) just by phoning it in? (burke) just phone it in. (homeowner) yeah, you just phone it in! it's great! (friend 1) i'm phoning it in and saved four hundred and forty-four dollars for switching my homeowners insurance, too! (friend 2) i don't know what you're waiting for. phone it in already! (burke) switch and save just by calling farmers today. go ahead, phone it in. (grandpa) phone it in, why don't ya?! ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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i can't believe it. it feels -- if you couldn't breathe, it feels like we got a breath of fresh air that we can breathe. >> we hear bad news after bad news after bad news in this movement. to finally hear something positive, it's like you don't even know how to react to that. >> i had such relief as a victim of police brutality at the hands of minneapolis police department in much a similar manner during a wellness check. this was such a moment of vindication, of the community getting what it needs. >> those were just some of the

reactions from those gathered outside the courthouse in minneapolis yesterday to hear the verdict in the derek chauvin trial. washington post reporter eugene scott has been writing about the role of young activists in america and he joins us now. eugene, thank you so much for being up with us. we really appreciate it. and you've written so much about these young activists, the protesting the police violence, black lives matter movement, how it has evolved in the context of the civil rights movement, what's different between now and what we saw, for example, in the 1960s. what do you see as you listen to those young activists talk about this and what does it mean for the movement going forward? >> well, you see a group of individuals who have been at the forefront of trying to bring more attention to police violence against black people. before it became a national story that led to lawmakers and presidents speaking about a verdict almost immediately after it. when you look at the earliest days of the black lives matter

movement, that was millennials. we've now seen it obviously expanded to generation z. but these people are now voting and millennials are one of the largest if not the largest voting blocks now based on their size. and so that push to see policy match the activism that has been in the streets and outside of courts for years is leading to some expectations beyond convictions that many people are awaiting after this. >> so, eugene, there was a lot of skepticism, and i think you heard that if you watched some of the videos before that unfolded after the verdict actually came down, how skeptical were you going into this? and how do you think the fact that this outcome was different than so many people expected it to be will impact things going forward? >> well, personally, i wasn't confident that there would be a guilty verdict on three counts.

despite the fact that we had an abundance of footage and video to look at because we have seen black people killed on video before and cops not be the recipients of guilty verdicts. so that skepticism is based on fact and based on history. but for many people, it was also based on pessimism. the reality is that a conviction has not provided many americans, many activists the amount of relief that one would think because that is not how justice is always defined. justice for many people is defined as police officers simply not killing cops for any reason possible, and so that shaped outcomes and perhaps what could happen in the future in terms of what people are expecting. >> gene, what role do you think the ubiquity of cell phones played? few people had video cameras on

their persons at all times. it's a sad commentary that's what it took for us to be able to see something that a lot of people have been trying to tell us has been happening for a very long time. i mean, how important do you think that piece of this puzzle is? >> well, we know video footage played a huge deal. the video, the recording from the young woman daniela frazier who was 17 at the time changed a lot of minds of people who were doubting these young activists and just black people in general for years. last summer we know that pew research center said more than 65% of americans were siding with black lives matter after the george floyd killing, and many of those individuals in groups that historically have been more skeptical, be they white people or republicans or older people came forth and said that it was the video, seeing that knee on that neck for more than 9 minutes that led them to believe that these weren't incidents that were being exaggerated or were being made up. but they were actually true, and now had documentation to prove it.

>> so, gene, let's talk about what it takes to actually make these changes. obviously congress, there is a bill in congress that's so far gone nowhere. we're waiting to hear from republican senator tim scott whether he wants to make a push on this. this all comes down at the end of the day to voting. and you mentioned young activists who have been out in the streets. we don't always see as high rates of voting from younger people. you also, of course, have states like georgia implementing new laws that are making it harder for many people to vote. what do these activists think about making sure their age cohort is as engaged as, say, those who are old enough to remember not having had the right to vote and who do show up in bigger numbers? how do you retain that going forward? >> when i've spoken with activists following the 2016 election, we saw in 2018 that was the largest time that voters under 30, largest participation rate of voters under 30 in at least 40 to 50 years if not

longer. and as you saw, quite a few millennials, quite a few progressives squad that crowd got to congress in 2018 because these activists showed up in polls in record numbers. they continue that in 2020 and there's reason to think that that will continue next year. >> all right. the washington post eugene scott, we appreciate your reporting and insights. thank you for being with us. and while you've heard this morning from so many about a collective sigh of relief in the wake of this verdict, i'm just trying to focus on remember that we have so, so much work to do and that work needs to be done by every single one of us. thank you so much for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. >> count one, in intentional second degree murder guilty. count two third degree murder guilty. count three-second degree manslaughter guilty. bail is revoked, bond is discharged and the defendant is remanded to the custody of the hennepin county sheriff.