the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. julian castro, mayor of san antonio, texas, delivered the keynote address at the democratic national convention. >> mitt romney, quite simply, doesn't get it he visited a university in ohio a few months ago and gave students there a little entrepreneurial advice. start a business, he said. but how? borrow money from your parents if you have to. gee, why didn't i think of that? some people are lucky enough to borrow money from his parents, but that should not determine whether you can pursue your dreams. not in america, not here, not in the 21st century. i don't think governor romney meant any harm. i think he is a good guy. he just has no idea how good he has had it. [applause] we know and our free market economy, some will prosper more than others. what we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance. and the thing is, mitt romney and republican party are perfectly comfortable with that america. in fact, that's exactly what they're promising us. the romney/ryan bu

ledbetter, thank you for being with us, the namesake of the lilly ledbetter fair pay act it was the first bill signed into law by president obama. she addressed the nation and the convention this week in charlotte, north carolina. when we come back, voter rights, a voter suppression. ben jealous ahead of the naacp will join us. ♪ [music break] >> from charlotte, north carolina, this is "democracy now!" we are breaking with convention: war, peace, and the presidency. democraticing the convention inside an ounce. in this last segment, we're joined by ben jealous head of the naacp. i saw folks from the naacp at the republican convention and now here the democratic convention. voter rights has been a clear message. what do you mean? >> this country thinks it should be one person, one vote. we should be allowed to vote free and fair. we see more states pass more laws, push more voters at the ballot box than in the last hundred years. it is not simply a republican thing, because we saw republican governor of michigan veto strict photo ids, we saw bob macdonald of virginia actually expan

the ledbetter -- lilly ledbetter it was a manager for the goodyear tire plant in alabama. she was the lone woman in such a position at that plant. when she was in gauge in the 197's, she got the starting salary for people in that position -- which was engaged. over the year her pace slipped in relation to her male peers -- her pay slipped. she did not want to be known as a troublemaker. one day when she was close to retirement age, one of her co- workers to put a slit in her box that said her salary and the salary of the men doing the same job. she was getting 13 cents on the dollar less than the most junior occupant of the same position. she brought a complaint under title 7. she had a jury trial and won sizable verdict. the decision was upheld and the supreme court said, you sued too late. you have 180 days from the first time her pay slipped to file lawsuits. women are breaking new ground do not want to rock the boat. they know if they sue, the defense will be and have nothing to do with her being a woman. she just didn't perform as well as the men. when she got a good

we passed the lilly ledbetter legislation. it said for women who had been discriminated against in the workplace, on pay, that they would get tlir day in court. basic fairness idea. bush vetoed that. paul ryan voted against it. this is just one example of how republicans do not have a -- a set of policies that help women and could not mount to anything they could do differently that happened under george bush. >> i want it play a little bit of congressman paul ryan on the today show. he is still called out on his speech and being pushed to clarify statement that made, for example, simpson bowls committee, admitting he walked out on that. let me play what happened on the "today" show and get your response. >> you're one of seven members of that panel and you voted against sending those rec men dages to the senate, basically killing any further action on them. didn't you owe it to the people so say that as well. >> but if you read the next paragraph, i said republicans offered alternatives. on simpson bowls, it is not whether th

surely you meant lilly ledbetter cost case to be covered. my colleagues have given a posthumous reading to this law. the ball is now in congress's court to correct what i see as a misperception by my colleagues of the will of congress. inside two years, the lilly ledbetter act passed overwhelmingly, bipartisan support, and it was the first law that obama signed when he took office. >> this question comes from the auditorium here in the no. 5-4 decision said became very high profile -- a number of 5-4 decisions that became very high profile., the court was looking more like a political actor. how do you answer that charge? >> inevitably, there will be cases that will divide that way. overall, our agreement rate is much higher than our disagreement rate. year.had 15 5-4's last this agreement is interesting. -- disagreement is interesting. was there something? >> i think so. so you're saying that agreement is not news. it is boring. it is conflict that gets people's attention. yes. and in the cases of constitutional questions, there are very un

that's what lilly ledbetter is about. trying to create a level playing field for fair pay. >> bill: now, you are one of our great labor leaders here in this country. you have how many members here from the american federation of teachers? >> we have -- we have delegates -- we have about 120 delegates who were elected by their localities and communities to come here and represent them. >> bill: that message of getting out there and working like we have never worked before -- is that resinating across the labor movement in this country? are the unions really going to be involved? what do you hear from your fellow labor leaders? >> the answer is yes. what you have here is you have -- the difference between the -- the republican party that has more and more become the party of money, and the party of, you know, trying to create anger as a way of, you know getting people out to vote versus you have the democratic party that's trying to create a message of hope opportunity, empowerment, innovation and billing an enduring countr

did you sign lilly ledbetter. >> paul ryan was against lilly ledbetter, which says that women will be paid as much as men. women need to work they need education, and they need to protect their bodies. the idea that they wouldn't allow abortion in the case of rape or incest is it horrendous. >> stephanie: yeah, and paul ryan said, it's a start where mitt romney is on abortion meaning mitt romney if anything has not come to the center in this general election we will be pushed further and further to the right. >> stephanie: i think the problem with mitt romney is he has been pushed all the time. we have not heard him stand up for one thing, and say to his face, no that's tough. no we can't do that. i feel sorry for the guy in a sense. and you really shouldn't pity the republican nominee but i do. >> it really feels like he doesn't believe in anything beside destroys companies so he can profit it from. >> when you are in private equity, beliefs are not what you are judged on you are judged on your results. so his whole experience is not what it means to be president. >> stephanie: he ra

but this fight became bigger than lilly ledbetter. today it's about my daughter. it's about my granddaughter. it's about women and men. it's about families. it's about... it's about equality. and justice. this cause, which bears my name, is bigger than me. it's as big as all of you, which began as my own is now our fight. a fight for the fundamental american values that make our country great. and with president barack obama, we're going to win. thank you very much and god bless america. [cheering and applause] >> ifill: lilly ledbetter, alabama native whose name is on an act about pay equity. she's an alabama native. >> woodruff: and probably the most memorable line from her, maybe 23 cents doesn't sound like a lot to somebody with a swisss bank account, but that's how much money they're talking about getting their paychecks increased. >> ifill: we keep hearing about that swiss bank account. here comes deval patrick, who will talk about mitt romney's record as governor of massachusetts. he's governor romney's successor. >> good evening. are you fired up? [cheerin

speakers include lilly ledbetter, and martin o'malley, julien castro, and also family night. the president's half sister will speak. so will first lady's brother craig robinson, in tonight's keynote address of course delivered by the 37-year-old mayor from san antonio, and determined to have an hispanic leader deliver the keynote and democrats are hoping castro will repeat the performance of another former rising star. another harvard law grad raised by a single mom. a guy by the name of barack obama, the keynote in 2004. castro introduced by his twin brother, state representative and congressional candidate, not opposed, he'll be a member of the cabinet. a speech during a dnc walkthrough yesterday. >> the first lady i'm sure is going to deliver a very positive message. governor o'malley has an optimistic message as welling. of course partisanship in there. i'm at a democratic convention, but it will be optimistic. the speech is an optimistic speech. >> by the way, one question about this week's program was answered definitively this morning. the obama campaign including camp

that's why he signed the lilli ledbetter pay act, to help women get equal pay for equal work. >> president obama was not in north carolina for his wife's speech. he was watching in d.c. with their two daughters. and, of course, right before the keynote speech last night, governor o'malley took the stage and abc 2 news' linda stow breaks down what he talked about and the reaction. linda, a big focus on jobs, right? >>reporter: yeah, he used maryland as an example, pointing to the state's 29 mobilities of job growth in the private sector. o'malley was on the attack as he took the stage in charlotte. he spoke for about nine minutes. he criticized romney, saying his policies would take the country back. his message to voters? give obama another four years in office and another chance to keep moving america forward. >> let us move forward, not back by reelecting barack obama, president of the united states. god bless you all. >>reporter: it's been widely speculated that o'malley is speaking a presidential run in 2016. politico is reporting that later this morning o'malley is set to have breakfa

s he's ended a lot of predatory lending policies he signed the lilly ledbetter fair at fair pay for women act he's taken away from the banks as much of the student loan business in ansi palosi was running the house of representatives they produced literally hundreds of strong pieces of legislation that would have raised wages brought our manufacturing jobs home from overseas and made the rich pay their fair share for the cost of running this country almost all however were defeated by republican filibusters in the same. it's going to take a lot to undo the damage of thirty years or reaganomics but it begins by asking the right question which is not are we better off than we were four years ago but we're are we better off than we were thirty years ago that needs to be the message coming out of the d.n.c. over the next few days joining me now is senator ben cardin from maryland senator cardin welcome to the program. senator cardin. walking to the program senator. senator can you harris. senator can you hear me. hello senator. hello senator. apparently not. ok now we're going to go to live c

i was shortchanged, but this fight became bigger than lilly ledbetter. today, it's about my daughter. it's about my granddaughter. it's about women and men. it's about families. it's about -- it's about equality. and justice. this cause which bears my name is bigger than me. it's as big as all of you, which began as my own, is now our fight. a fight for the fundamental american values that make our coun country great and with president barack obama, we're going to win. thank you very much and god bless america! >> you could hear every inch of possum trot, alabama, which is where she is from. a powerful voice in the face of the lilly ledbetter fair pay act, which is the first law signed by president obama. she has been a very powerful surrogate for him. the next speech is deval patrick, the current governor of massachusetts. after mitt romney left after one term. >> are you fired up? are are you ready to go? well, i hope so. this is the election of a lifetime. because more in any one candidate or policy, what's at stake is the american dream. that dream,

the lilly ledbetter ad provides struggle protection for women and some states are doing now the opposite, weakening women's legal protections against discrimination. it was brought to my attention the other day that extraordinary money wielded by a few men behind the far right conservative movement is aimed perhaps not so much at electing romney and ryan, but in fact in the senate. who knows what would happen if that were in republican hands. so all right, why? why? when women are 51% of the work force, 57% of higher educational degrees, primary care givers at home, primary consumer force in the marketplace, why have we done so little to protect ourselves in this political arena? so little to demand equal representation? [applause] i want you to imagine something with me. imagine, if there was to be one day, say, the monday after mother's day, and easily communicated now by our social media, when women choose to stay home, not to gather anywhere or under the aegis of any organization, but just stay home. to sit down for a day and gather our collective breaths. can you imagine what kind o

i thought this was all taken care of with lilly ledbetter and all of that. >> lilly ledbetter helps a little bit. it certainly gives people more recourse if they think they've been discriminated against but there's still a big problem with wage inequality in the united states and with this -- what this study did, it took the number that some people may have heard which is women earn 77 cents on the dollar. >> bill: right. >> compared to men. and it looks at it by congressional district. basically finds that it's a problem in every congressional district. whether you're on the coast or you're in the heartland women are earning less than men for the same kind of work. >> bill: across the board. >> across the board. >> bill: this isn't just in right to work states or red states. >> it's everywhere. sexism obviously in the workplace is still a problem. it even found there's a couple of congressional districts in louisiana, kind of ranks them. from worst to best. a couple of the districts in louisiana, women are earning 60 cents for a man's dollar and so it really just shows how big of a p

that is why he signed the lilly ledbetter pay act to help women get fair work. that is why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet. that is how he brought our economy from the edge of collapse to creating jobs again, jobs you can raise a family on. good jobs, right here in the united states of america. when it comes to the health of our families, barak refused to listen to all of those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day. another president. he didn't care whether it was theasy thing to do politically, no, that is not how he was raised. he cared that it was the right thing to do. he did it because he believes that here in america, our grandparents should be able to afford their medicine, our kids should be able to see a doctor when they're sick. and nobody in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or an illness. and, he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. that is what my husband stands fo

. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome lilly ledbetter from jacksonville, alabama. [cheering and applause] >> thank you. good evening. my name is lilly ledbetter, and i'm here tonight to say what a difference four years makes. [cheering and applause] some of you may know my story, how for 19 years i worked as a manager at a tire plant in abama, and some of you may have lived a similar story. after nearly two decades of hard, proud work, i found out that i was making significantly less money than the men who were doing the same work as me. i went home, talked to my husband and we decided to fight. we decided to fight for our family and for your family, too. [applause] we sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an american value. that fight took me ten years. it took me all the way to the supreme court. and in a 5-4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime and my retirement just because i'm a woman. the supreme court told me that i should have filed a complaint within six months of the company's first decision to pay me

>> well, a wise woman, lilly ledbetter, actually told me it's not important what you hear from a politician when they're being criticized. it's important what's in their record. so mr. ryan cannot run from his record. >> talking about records, women at the dnc made a strong case to re-elect president obama. watch this. >> president obama understands women. he trusts women. and on every single issue that matters to us, he stands with women. >> we cannot trust mitt romney to respect our rights. >> he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. that's what my husband stands for. >> do you think the case was strong enough for women voters on behalf of the president, sandra? >> you know, the president makes it easy to make a case to women voters for him. because he's been a consistent champion of the issues that we care about. and that's what cecile laid out. it's fabulous to see women responding to him that way. >> you make it easy for us to stand with a young courageous woman like you. >> thank you, reverend. >> thank you for your t

that's why he signed the lilly ledbetter fair pay act to help women get equal pay for equal work. (applause) that's why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses, and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet. (applause) that's how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again, jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs, right here in the united states of america. (applause) when it comes to the health of our families, barak refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. he didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically, no, that's not how he was raised. he cared that it was the right thing to do. (applause) he did it because he believes that here in america our grandparent its should be able to afford their medicine, our kids should be able to see a doctor when they're sick and no one in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or an illness. (cheers and applause) and he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about o

but i do think that she was political because she mentioned lilly ledbetter, for example. she mentioned the choice issue. she mentioned, and julian castro did this brilliantly as well, they really explained all of these government programs that republicans don't like. but they did it in a way that was very personal and tangible. and they did it in a way that explained how that bridges for people to opportunity and to success. especially those people who aren't born with it. >> the republican criticism, though, of the night, that it was really a big government night. this was promoting government. >> absolutely. >> it was. >> when you talk about -- >> no debate here. >> investing in ourselves, that's code for spending. how is the government investing in people and infrastructure. one of the things i was struck by, this necessity of the democrats to take back the american dream narrative from the republican national convention. marco rubio talked about it. republicans talked about it very compellingly. so did julian castro. >> maria, you tweeted last night. i follow you on t

on the women's rise in terms of their pay, we have laws on the books,lillie ledbetter is already in effect. anyone who feels they are discriminated against can bring positive action. the boston chamber of commerce -- chamber of commerce -- i agree with them. i will not give lawyers an early christmas present. >> senator brown can say all of he wants, but he has voted against equal pay for equal work. he was a co-sponsor of the blunt amendment. when many someone they can depend on, not some of the time, but all of the time. >> senator brown, you will go first. under what circumstances would you all today to authorize american military intervention in the affairs of another country. thus involvement in afghanistan fit your criteria or not? -- does involvement in afghanistan fit your criteria or not? >> thank you for the question. i have the opportunity to be on the armed services committee. these are things i think about on a regular basis. when we send our men and women off to war, that is the toughest decision any president can make. i supported president obama in his surge in afghanistan

we will see key speeches from women like cecil rie richards a lilly ledbetter. the most recent poll shows president obama leading romney from women by 16 points. >> when it comes to a woman's right to make her own health care choices, they want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century. i believe women should be in charge of their own health care decisions. we are not going backwards. we are going forwards. in november you can say that in this century, women should be trusted to make their own health care choices. >> and tonight we will see women making that appeal to women on the biggest stage in democratic politics. joining me now is senator barbara boxer, democrat from california. senator, it is nice to see you. thanks for coming on the show tonight. >> i am so excited to be here and to be on your show. >> well, senator, what do democrats have to do on the issue of women in the convention? >> we have to tell the truth. we have to tell the country that president obama has stood by our side. he's fighting for our right to ch

we can talk all day along about lilly ledbetter at the democratic convention. i'm glad the president did that. it was a historic day. but we've gotta get serious about poor people as well. and the president number two ought to call a white house conference on the eradication of poverty. bring all of the poverty experts together. let's craft a national bipartisan plan that would allow us to cut poverty in half in ten years and eradicate it in 25. again, those plans exist. there's just not been the will in washington to make this a serious issue like lyndon johnson did. progressive tax code, the book lays out ten ideas. i've given you three or four of them right now. >> jennifer: here's what i'm obsessed about. i think that the structural changes in our nation's economy have meant that the good-paying middle class jobs have gone somewhere else and we've got focused, like a laser on getting good, advanced manufacturing jobs in america. we haven't had the policy in the right place to be able to operate jobs that would lift people out of poverty. i don't think it is

in 2009 when president obama signed the lilly ledbetter act. forget about the 77 crept option a dollar. you don't want us to be a pundit. >> this is pundit, not putt. >> it allowed women to have more time to actually oppose and come and say, you're not treating me fairly. it allowed women to be able to have lesser stan dares for the corporations to stand up to. means more women are wing so they can earn more. that's a really important thing that happened. if you're opposing it and you want to get paid more money because you feel it hasn't been good. now you have more of a time to prove your case which wasn't true. >> ryan actually voted against that and romney has not been clear where i stands on that? >> he would argue he's been very clear on it. what we also need to look at, whatever becomes president of the united states. we have to make sure they can work with congress. it doesn't matter what your ideas are. if you don't have a congress working with you. while we're focusing on the two candidate, we also heed to focus on the congress and pr

the lilly ledbetter act. and what about the auto industry? for all those whose jobs were on the brink, they're better off. this is not some romney/ryan spread sheet. these are real people with real families and their real jobs were saved by president obama's policies. >> just a few years ago when the auto industry was flatlining, what was in his and governor romney's play book? let detroit go bankrupt. we weren't going to let detroit go bankrupt or lordstown go bankrupt or toledo go bankrupt. i stood with american workers. i stood with american manufacturing. i believed in you. i bet on you. i'll make that bet any day of the week. and because of that bet three years later that bet is paying off for america. >> the president bet on america time and time again. and because of that, we're better off. case closed. joining me now is chairwoman of the democratic national committee, congresswoman debbie wasserman shultz. thanks for joining me tonight. >> thank you. great to be with you again. >> what does the president need to do this week? >> what

we are so proud that the first law signed by president barak obama was the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. the first bill was about america's first principles. equality, opportunity, and prosperity. now, those republicans in the senate tried to block our efforts to go further. and anti-dis-- end discrimination once and for all but we the women of the senate with president obama by our side we are going to keep fighting. our shoulders square, our lipstick on because you deserve equal pay for your hard work. [applause] nothing gets done more nothing gets done more to improve the day-to-day lives of american women in our families than healthcare reform. before healthcare reform women, can you believe this? women would be charged 50% more for their health insurance than men. in nine states. listen to this. in nine states, victims of domestic violence were denied coverage simply because of those victims. well, anyway, you know what was happening. our mammograms and our cancer tests, draining the family budgets. often we had to go without to pay for the services and we've tried to change that.

tonight he said that he wants the lilly ledbetter act, which he was not in the senate when that passed. he wants it enforced more and said he would have voted for that had he been in the senate. when the opportunity for a fair pay act came up when he was in the senate, he voted no. >> right. >> so, i mean, is his appeal to women voters based on saying he has done something that he hasn't done? >> first of all, it's based on being graded on the curve. you compare him to the extreme right wing republicans and he looks okay. but he's not running against those republicans. in fact, he's running to help them by putting them into the majority. and when you compare him to elizabeth warren or senator kennedy who he really inappropriately tried to claim was on his side on the question of birth control, contraception, no, he's not there. he used the arguments when he said, oh, i want it enforced but i don't want to help the plaintiffs' lawyers. that's the key. if you start attacking the lawyers who are going to bring these lawsuits, then you're saying the law shouldn't be enforced. there is no f

tonight, mayor villaraigosa, rahm emmanuel, harry reid, jimmy carter and lilly ledbetter. all leading up to keynote speaker julian castro and headliner michelle obama. more on them coming up. vice president biden is expected to be there thursday and the president later in the week. >> whatever i say here today, it's going to be at best, a distant second to the speech you will hear tonight from the star of the obama family, michelle obama. on thursday night, i will offer what i believe is a better path forward. a path that will create good jobs. and strengthen our middle class. and grow our economy. and the good news is, virginia, that in just two months, you get to choose which path we take. >> our very own steve kornacki is? charlotte. steve, what's the vibe ahead of tonight's big speeches? >> i tell you just a minute ago we had one heck of a crowd behind us. some of them are still here can which is great but skies just opened and the pouring rain all of a sudden. that seems to happen a lot here in charlotte. you talked about michelle obama and we will discuss that later,

among them, cory booker, joe kennedy iii, rahm emanuel, lilly ledbetter. who is getting the big buzz and is this a makeup session for martin o'malley? >> the people i'm actually looking at, and of course you look at maryland governor martin o'malley who is definitely somebody. if you're looking ahead to the 2016 presidential race, he is somebody. massachusetts governor patrick due value mayenzuel duval. but his chief of staff, someone who knows his way with words and it will be a pretty interesting speech i bet. >> mark murray live for us in charlotte. thank you, sir. >>> another wisconsin lawmaker taking stage tonight for the democrats or this week, that is will be tammy baldwin, hoping to become the first openly gay u.s. senator. and we'll be speaking in prime time on thursday. she's going to join me next. meanwhile, her which iss with colleague paul ryan defends his convention speech and clarifies his comments about the president. and that gm plant in his own hometown? what did you think about the choice that we have right now? the picks we have for nov