we will speak with ari berman of mother jones. then as the rollout of johnson & johnson vaccines begin today, we look at the racial vaccination gap. black americans are not only twice as likely to die of covid-19 as white americans, but also dying at rates similar to those of white americans who are 10 years older. we will speak with dr. oni blackstone about her call to lower the age cutoff for vaccine eligibility for black americans. then "as the pandemic raged, abortion access arly flickered out." >> abortion access was an a crisis before the pandemic had. what we have seen over the past year is the collision of a deadly pandemic with many years worth of state laws aimed at making access to abortion as difficult as possible. so the covid pandemiin many ways has offered as a preview of what it will be like when the supreme court overturns roe v. wade. amy: we will speak to investigative journalist amy littlefield. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. go

. >> joining me now is la tasha brown, co-founder of black voters matter, ari berman for mother jones and the democratic lieutenant governor of the great state of michigan, garland gilcrest. thank you all. ari, i'm going to start wide and start with you. have a listen to what senator cruz had to say about hr-1. >> this bill is the single most dangerous bill this committee has ever considered. this bill is designed to corrupt the election process permanently, and it is a brazen and shameless power grab by democrats. they do this by instituting a bill that will promote widespread fraud and illegal voting. >> okay. so ari, i wanted to play that and get the conversation going about hr-1. the for the people act. one, respond to senator cruz, but more specifically in your answer, talk about how hr-1 could impact what just happened in georgia, vis-a-vis, the voting rights law there. >> well, the amazing thing, jonathan, is that senator cruz is accusing democrats of doing the very things that republicans are doing. >> exactly. >> it's republicans that are doing the massive power grabs right n

joining us now, is ari berman. he is the author of "give us the ballot" the modern struggle for voting rights in america. and he has been following every twist and turn of this, from the beginning. ari, thank you so much for being here. i appreciate it. >> great to see you, rachel. thank you. >> let me ask, because i know that you are very much an expert on this. let me ask if i explained any of that wrong, or if i am getting any of this the wrong way around. >> no, you nailed it, as usual. >> what is your top-line reaction to what just happened in the state of georgia? we knew that this was moving fast. i'm not sure it was clear, until it was actually happening, that this was going to rocket from the house, all the way through the senate, all the way to the governor's desk, and into law. all, in one day. what's your reaction? >> my reaction to what's happening in georgia is that republicans, all across the country, including and personified by the state of georgia, are now weaponizing trump's lies to make it harde

i'm joined now by ari berman, no relation. senior reporter at mother jones and the author of give us the ballot the modern struggle for voting rights in america. great to have you with us, ari. first, broad question, we'll talk about the supreme court. the bigger issue is all the state legislatures trying to pass new laws on voting and voting access. the basic question is, why now all of a sudden? >> hi, john. well, thank you for having me and good to see you again. i think why now because we're seeing the weaponization of trump's big lie all around the country republicans are pointing to the fact that so many of their voters believe the election was stolen as a reason to cut back on voting. so, for two months trump said the election was stolen. and afterwards now we are seeing republicans in state after state including all of these key swing states like georgia and arizona rush to restrict access to the ballot. they are not just targeting mail voting, which is trump has largely decried they're also targeting early voting and

joining us now is ari berman. he's a senior reporter at mother jones and the author of "give us the ballot" the modern struggle for voting rights in america." and he has been following every twist and turn of this, from the beginning. ari, thank you so much for being here. i appreciate it. >> great to see you, rachel. thank you. >> let me ask, because i know that you are very much an expert on this. let me ask if i explained any of that wrong, or if i am getting any of this the wrong way around. >> no, you nailed it, as usual. >> what is your top-line reaction to what just happened in the state of georgia? we knew that this was moving fast. i'm not sure it was clear, until it was actually happening, that this was going to rocket from the house, all the way through the senate, all the way to the governor's desk and into law. all in one day. what's your reaction? >> my reaction to what's happening in georgia is that republicans, all across the country, including and personified by the state of georgia, are now weapo

ari berman, senior reporter at "mother jones," somebody whose reporting is absolutely seminole on this issue. thank you for being with us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thank you so much, rachel. >> since these bills, these measures have been pending in georgia, we've been covering all along the effort in georgia to try to organize against it and fight against it. well, tonight, that includes some very dramatic footage of a member of the georgia legislature being arrested at the governor's door when she was trying to be allowed into the signing ceremony where governor kemp was signing this thing. we've got that footage for you ahead. it will curl your hair. the fight against what just happened tonight in georgia has also taken a turn tonight. we've got breaking news on that next in terms of a legal fight over what happened. lots more to come tonight. this is a big deal. stay with us. more to come toni. this is a big deal stay with us for skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relie

for more i'm joined by ari berman, senior reporter with "mother jones." ari, i am not hopeful that this 6-3 majority will keep the voting rights act in place. are you as pessimistic as i am? is the voting rights act about to be eliminated? >> it's hard to be optimistic about the voting rights act with this court that already gutted the voting rights act. i'm not sure they're going to go so far, joy, to say the voting rights act is completely eliminated. but they might just interpret it in such a restrictive way that it will be functionally eliminated or reduced to so little protection for minority voters that they can't really look to the courts for relief anymore. the fact that republicans are challenging the voting rights act at the very moment that they're trying to pass all of these new voter suppression laws that very likely violate the voting rights act just shows how big of a threat to democracy we see right now from the republican party. >> yeah, while claiming that their strategy for 2022 is to run women and people of color for election. here's f

you can hear the protesters asking in that footage by journalist ari berman. representative arrested for knocking on governor's door. that's what she did. tonight we can report there are new protests in georgia and around the nation. all of this smacks of '50s era jim crow abuse. and that critique, that strong language, that level of moral stakes has now been endorsed by president biden himself, condemning the new law's most extreme provisions like making it a crime to provide water to people waiting in line to vote. >> it's an atrocity. they passed a law saying you can't provide water for people standing in line? this is nothing but punitive, designed to keep people from voting. you can't provide water for people about to vote. give me a break. >> the law restricts voting by adding hurdles that are not needed legally for accuracy or fairness. makes voting by mail harder with an id rule. it cuts drop boxes, which is how many voted, including the governor who signed this law. it criminalizes water and food for people in line and ends voting before many get out