they did not want to talk about lafayette square. that was very, very clear. lafayette park. and bill barr did everything he could to try to distract us, but we were not going to be distracted. >> i want to ask you about mail-in voting. you have unique familiarity with this given where you are from. bill barr was asked about this today and he continued to parrot the administration's view that mail-in voting is not secure. let's just listen. all right. you know what? i don't have the sound there, but the congressman rich richmond was saying, do you believe as the attorney general that mail-in voting will lead to massive voter fraud? the attorney general responds, i think there is a high risk that it will. he went on about that. tell me how you respond to this because you know mail-in voting better than many americans do. >> yes, i come from the state of washington. we're one of the states that has had mail-in ballots, mail-in voting for almost the long in the history of other states. you know, i think oregon may be a bit longer than us. i have this written down to try to count

bernard lafayette -- for those who don't know who dr. lafayette is, he is also an icon in the civil rights movement out of tennessee. american baptist college. but he described john lewis -- again, bernard lafayette was his roommate in college. he described him as a mountain of a man, which is saying something for his contemporary to say that. he also described him as ultimately resistant, improvable, unbreakable. he described a moment during the freedom rides, during many times when john lewis was attacked. someone taking a soda crate and cracking him over the skull with it. the metal binding on it opened up his skull, and he didn't even move. he said, that was his character. he'd stand in the face of great violence for the mission, right? we always talk about the kind of king and nonviolence. they harnessed the violence of evil and heaped it upon themselves, to reveal more about the flaws in the system. that's the part that i think can't be lost. this idea that it wasn't out of hate. it wasn't out of anger. it was out of great love. th

lafayette? >> well, it was kind of different, because he wanted to talk to me, john lewis, and he had his assistant there, michael, to give me a call. so i said, okay. so i talked to john, it was very interesting, because he didn't have anything particularly to request of me, or any particular things he wanted to share. so i later surmised that what he wanted to do was just to hear my voice. but i want to emphasize that john was always the person who could predict things. that was one of the advantages he had. so he kind of looked ahead in the future, probably realized that what the impending situation was, and decided that he wanted to prepare himself for it. so our conversation was very interesting to that extent. >> he just wanted to hear his friend's voice one last time. mr. lafayette, how did he convince you to get more involved in the fight for civil rights? as i understand it, you said that you were a bit reluctant as first? >> ah, yes. not so much as getting involved in the civil rights,

do you believe that william barr lied to you under oath about what happened in lafayette park? >> he not only lied. he doubled back. he did a backflip. i quoted him where he said it was not chemical, that the pepper balls used against peaceful protesters. this was a peaceful protest. if there was any kind of rioting, of course this is not the way you would deal with rioting. this was peaceful protests. that's what everybody has said. the attorney general said it was not chemical. no, it was chemical. he did a double back flip. he used pepper ball agents against peaceful protesters. and what i showed him was that the beauty of pepper balls is not only the chemical irritant but the blunt force trauma. that's what he directed when he stood in that square at 6:10 and said get it done. and there's no coincidence between the president finishing a law and order statement in the rose garden and walking across. what i compare him to, the attorney general worked as an advance man on the campaign. can you imagine the secret service would have thought there's some disturbance in lafayette

>> on lafayette, on lafayette -- >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> can i ask for a brief recess? >> madam chair, the witness would like a break. >> mr. barr, ten minutes? >> five. >> okay. the committee will stand in recess for five minutes. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. you have been watching a contentious hearing. democrats on the house judiciary committee trying to grill attorney general bill barr after more than a year of his refusing to appear before them on big issues like his characterization, they say inaccurate, of the russia probe, the mueller probe, his order of federal agents into portland and lafayette square and whether he's independent of political influence from president trump, after ranking republican jim jordan showed a graphic, selectively edited nearly eight-minute montage of protests around the country which he claimed were anything but peaceful including sound bites from democrats biden and obama, clearly very political and highly edited. our team is in place, msnbc's garrett haake on capitol hill, former federal prosecutor and house inte

here's what he said about the june 1st protest at lafayette square. he said that demonstrators were behaving peacefully and that tear gas was deployed in an excessive use of force. and i guess the point of this body of reporting and this important new development from carol leonnig is that this is a playbook revealed, right? >> well, i think the big question for most voters, nicole, is whether or not donald trump is bringing federal troops to actually try to quell violence or if he's using it as a political weapon. and that kind of reporting just suggest that it's being used for politics. and i think the big question that most people have when they look at portland or other areas, where there's some conflicts and protests is the question of whether or not bringing in federal law enforcement is making the situation better. it's really just throwing gasoline on a fire. just making the problem worse. >> cornell, my last question goes to you. and it's almost like the opening of a bad joke. how bad is donald trump? he's so bad that the ronald reagan founda

president trump got in trouble for one incident in lafayette park where he tear gassed peaceful protesters for a photo op. well, every night in portland he's tear gassing peaceful protesters for a photo op. >> lawrence, help me understand that. i will be talking to a number of senator who is put forward legislation to prevent federal troops from going in. i certainly do not understand the constitution the way you do. but it does actually -- our first amendment does give us a right to protest. the president is criminalizing protesting in general rather than arresting people who set fires to things and threaten public buildings. >> you're clearly right. and in fact just listening to nick reminds all of us that the destruction of america is underway in the hands of this tyrannical president. there is no ill legality except occasional minor offenses that the police of oregon can take care of themselves. and the homeland security acting director chad wolf and the attorney general are deploying paramilitaries on the streets of america sweeping up lawful protesters, targeting the press, essential

do you think that was appropriate at lafayette park to pepper spray tear gas and beat protesters and injure american citizens? >> well, i don't accept your characterization of what happened. but as i explained, the effort there was -- >> mr. barr, just answer yes or no. so let me just tell you, i'm starting to lose my temper. according to sworn testimony before the house natural resources committee by adam demarco who was there, this was, quote, an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, numerous media reports. >> i don't remember demarco as being involved in the decision-making. >> sir, sir, the president told governors on a telephone call that the way to deal with the protesters of police brutality and systemic racism like in lafayette square is that, quote, you have to get much tougher. you have to dominate. if you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. these are terrorists. and he also talked about you on that call, sir. here is what he said. he said, the attorney general is here, bill barr, and we will activate bill barr and activate him

john's episcopal church near lafayette square. secret service and park police appropriate use of safe restorative force actually cleared that up. in total, however, 51 u.s. park police officers were injured during the weekend leading up to the perimeter expansion. do you want to expand on the actions with lafayette park? >> for the 29th, 30th and 31st there was unprecedented rioting right around the white house. very violent. during that time, as you say, about 50 park police and a comparable number of secret service. so we had about -- i think around 90 officers injured. i'm talking about things like concussions. one was operated on and so forth. we had the president -- it was so bad that it's been reported the secret service recommended the president go down to the shelter. we had a breach of the treasury department. the historical building on lafayette park was burned down, the lodge. st. john's was set on fire. bricks were thrown at the police repeatedly. they took crow bars and pried up the pavers on lafayette park and threw

lafayette said, i'm just amazed john made it. and diane nash, who was with him in the beginning, an activist living in chicago now, said that she was -- that she always thought that john was a figure really out of the new testament. he was someone who bore witness to the best parts of us, and to do that, he had to confront the worst of us. and from the -- you know, he was born february 21st, 1940, in troy, alabama. he didn't have to imagine what slavery was like because his great-grandfather had been born in slavery in alabama. and he went from that farm that you and gene were talking about to the height of not worldly power. that's not quite right. he always believed that the temporal could be a lot closer to -- religious. and i think that's one of the most extraordinary contributions anyone's ever made in american history. >> jon meacham, when did you last see and speak with john lewis? >> about 3 1/2 weeks ago. i met him for the first time 30 years ago on an election night in 1992, and we talked for a long -- we talked and got

lafayette said, i'm just amazed john made it. and diane nash, who was with him in the beginning, an activist living in chicago now, said that she was -- that she always thought that john was a figure really out of the new test amen. he was someone who bore witness to the best parts of us, and to do that, he had to confront the worst of us. and from the -- you know, he was born february 21st, 1940, in troy, alabama. he didn't have to imagine what slavery was like because his great-grandfather had been born in slavery in alabama. and he went from that farm that you and gene were talking about to the height of not worldly power. that's not quite right. he always believed that the temporal could be a lot closer to -- religious. and i think that's one of the most extraordinary contributions anyone's ever made in american history. >> jon meacham, when did you last see and speak with john lewis? >> about 3 1/2 weeks ago. i met him for the first time 30 years ago on an election night in 1992, and we talked for a long -- we talked and got

he's going to be asked about his role in lafayette square. this will be his first time answering any questions before congress. there will be other hearings on this about exactly how it unfolded, whose idea it was, was tear gas fired, if so, who fired it, as you know, the park police said it wasn't them, but it wasn't them who was it, could it have been them and the leadership just doesn't know. that's going to be a whole line of questioning there, the first time you'll be questioned about this. on the protests, i think there will be a lot of questions about whether who is behind the violent protests. is it as he and the president have said antifa or white supremacists or some kind of combination of both? i think he may well be asked about the president's views on the census. the president has signed an executive order saying that census takers can't count people who are here undocumented migrants. that's a change from the long-standing position of the justice department. he'll probably be asked by -- about that. and then i think that you're

it started in lafayette park. officers from multiple agencies violently cleared a group of pieceful p ful peaceful protesters. he allowed federal agents to use weapons of war, firing tear gas into a peaceful group of protesters in lafayette square. we know. our cameras were there. our reporters were there. now the same thing is happening in portland, oregon. armed federal forces patrolling the streets of that city. last night federal agents fired tear gas into a crowd of moms, a croup known as the wall of moms who stood behind -- between the agents and the demonstrators to protect the demonstrators, to protect the demonstrators from federal agents. i should tell you, we're going to speak to one of the founding members of that group later in this show. they're also grabbing protesters off the streets and throwing them into unmarked vehicles, detaining them without telling them why they are being arrested. now, listen to how the acting secretary of homeland security, chad wolf, tried to justify that on fox news. >>

he should be answering for what he did at lafayette square, a disgrace. so this -- it's really -- he was like a blob. he was like just a henchman for the president of the united states instead of the attorney general of the united states of america. >> speaker pelosi, you get the last word on that. we covered several important items. you're very busy, i appreciate you making time to come on "the beat." i hope you'll come back. >> i hope so too. thank you so much. appreciate being here. >> thank you, madam speaker. we fit in a break. when we come back, we have big news out of joe biden's campaign about what he's going to do with the running mate. heather mcghee is here. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. no no no no no, there's no space there! maybe over here? hot! hot! oven mitts! oven mitts! everything's stuck in the drawers! i'm sorry! oh, jeez. hi. kelly clarkson. try wayfair

you saw, we all saw the shocking scenes from lafayette square across the street from the white house, perfectly peaceful protesters who were harassed and gassed by paramilitaries. why? because they were raising their voices around issues of police overreach and violence. and in order to make a pathaway for this president to have a stroll across the street so he could have a photo op for his campaign. i mean, it is a shocking combination of circumstances and the president is looking to expand this. and so we have to have congress do its job in terms of oversight. i believe that attorney general barr is due up on the hill as soon as next week where i hope he will be asked -- i'm certain he will be asked and i hope he will answer some direct and hard questions about this action. and i hope that the courts will do their job and respect and defend the constitution. because it's quite clear that the president and his team will not. >> good to see you again. he's the former 2020 presidential can dade. thanks for joining us this morning. >>> if 2020 has taught us anything, it can tell us that

for example, andrew jackson's statue, which is just here in lafayette park in front of the white house. the emancipation memorial also here in washington, d.c. the president has been so much emphasis on protecting what he calls that heritage and history and he has shifted the conversation to that, instead of spending as much time talking about police brutality, police reform, systemic racism. those were the conversations that took place around the death of george floyd and the ensuing protests, but in the last couple of weeks you haven't really heard that from the president or from this white house. it's very clear, the executive order he signed on protecting monuments, where he stands and what message he's trying to signal to his base and what i thought was remarkable today was that for the second straight day in a row, the trump campaign is the one previewing the president's remarks. these are official white house events, these are official white house speeches. they aren't campaign events. you would be forgiven for mistaking them for campaign rally because of the content and how pol

as the hearse made that left onto 8th street, north part of lafayette square, it was incredible. here you have in the laet congressman john lewis who put his life on the line for equality, justice, and fighting against the very things that people are back in the streets marching for, driving past signs that note that the movement that he was part of and that the march that he started has not yet been completed. i was reminded of a quote from ambassador andrew young when i interviewed him at sunnyland in 2019 about the assassination of dr. king and he said to me, quote, i remember he, meaning king, used to say that you know some of us are not going to make it to 40, he said, but if we can make it to 40, we can make it to 100. and reflecting on his own life, ambassador young said it became almost an obligation for me to keep doing whatever i can do as long as i can do it. at that point he was 87. he said i don't know if i can make it to 100 or not, but there are ideas that will keep me going. you can't waste the experience we've had. and that is exactly the same thing, the same fue

can the findings at all be used, danny, in the lawsuits against the departments for portland and for lafayette park? >> sure to. some degree, inspectors generals' reports are made public. they're posted right on their websites. sometimes they're very detailed. other times, not so much. depending on whether it's an audit or investigation, certain information is released. they'll sometimes publish summaries to congress, and that will be made available online. any time it's made public, it can be used in any lawsuit if it's information that's helpful to meeting the burden of proof. >> can we quickly talk about michael cohen here for a moment? >> yes. >> as i read, he's being re-released. does the government have any appeal to that? >> they can appeal that order, but they shouldn't appeal it. this has all the indications of a bureau's messup and an administration failure. it could be something that goes higher up the chain of command in the doj. but the poorly drafted language of the release is something. keep in mind i'm biased. i have a lot of personal dealings with the bureau of prisons which l

bernard lafayette, thank you for coming on the program tonight. it's a true honor to have you. i'm hoping you'll simply reflect on what you knew about john lewis when the two of you were roommates together and the arc of his life and your life alongside it to bring us to where we are today >> yes well, it's really kind of difficu difficult, but i feel this is a great opportunity for us to really realize what great giant of a person we had with us of course being my roommate, just casual. john lewis was one who always exemplified the best of coalitions in other words, bringing people together, even people who were, you know, separated in their thoughts and ideas he exemplified exactly what it was about. yes. >> i read you spoke with the "new york times," and you talked about joining together with him to get on a bus together with the driver tell you that you couldn't sit in the front row. take us back to that night and that time when you were together facing that down >> well, this was the christmas holiday of 1960, and we had already desegregated the buses, the bus station in n

still with me is brittney cunningham and the civil rights leader and activist, bernard lafayette jr. we have only a fewing seconds left, but reverend, i wanted to talk to you because a lot of people who are just learn iing about the movement don't know but this was not the only instance of violence that congressman p lewis faced. this is where he suffered a skull fracture, but you talk about you having cracked ribs and john lewis was repeatedly struck. this lifelong commitment to nonviolen nonviolence, where did that come from with the congressman? >> it is something that happened when he was very young. and he made that commitment. he did not want to live under the circumstances and he also believed that they could be changed. that's why he applied for a library card and he also you know, wanted to go to college there. in alabama. ended up at american baptist seminary. so it was something in his blood. in his conscious. in his spirit. and while he tried to persuade others to also join him. >> i'm so sorry, i hate to interrupt you, we just want to listen in on what's happening right

his role in the clearing of peaceful protesters in lafayette square come to mind. your thoughts. >> nick coole, watching the bid statements you are airing and i was thinking about the contrast between these two, the testimony. biden reminds me of a time where not everything had to be political. you can respect the dignity of either side. that's true of all government officials but particularly true of the justice department and what it's supposed to be. it's supposed to be above that partisan corrosiveness. my first attorney general really kp exempt filified that and so sad watch the justice department. barr was partisan, selective and he came off so partisan and the attorney general is really supposed to be above this. barr was going and taking trump's line on coronavirus saying obama was responsible for coronavirus and stuff like that. and his defense of the justice department actions on the census and the violent federalization of policing and the like was really evasive and indeed, he began his statement by talking about the things that trump told him to have c

the ig also says his office will investigate the actions of department personnel in lafayette square op. it's intriguing news that someone will investigate what federal officers are doing beating up protesters while moving in unidentified badges. but i will also say bear many mind that the attorney general bill barr is scheduled next week to give his first ever testimony to the house. how much will you bet bill bar will be unable to comment on portland or lafayette square because now they are under active investigation so he couldn't possibly remark. yeah, watch for that. that's going to do it for us tonight. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, rachel. it was july 6th. i'm looking at the actual transcript. july 6th when you and i chatted about the republican convention in florida and both of us were very doubtable that it would actually happen, and we had to wait until now to discover how correct our doubts were. >> it's untenable, and it has been untenable from the very beginning. when the jacksonville sheriff came out last week, it was like,

you saw the reaction at the lafayette scare from the retired generals and admirals to this site of a four star general, the chairman of the joint chiefs in camouflage walking across pennsylvania avenue and heavily armored personnel on the streets. dealing with civilians who don't have guns. and we react accord bingly to i and this current event in portland is creating much the same crisis and much the same environment and it's wholly unnecessary. i used to say to dhs component leaders, let's avoid controversial one off missions that are away from our core mission. in so far as dhs is concerned. there's the federal protective service, which their core mission is protecting federal buildings. i deploy protective service in times of high tension to protect buildings, but you also have components of customs and border protection, those are border protection people, board security people, and i.c.e. immigration enforcement. people that enforce our immigration laws. i use d to say to people within dhs, let's not let side shows like this derail our core mission and discredit us in the commu

square, "the washington post" coming out with new reporting about the clearing of lafayette square to ensure the president's photo-op almost two months ago went ahead as planned. a new statement from adam demarco, national guard commander who witnessed that scene said demonstrators were behaving peacefully and that tear gas was deployed in an excessive use of force. how would you want to see lawmakers address this in tomorrow's hearing? >> yeah, there was so many problems with that particular protest and the way it was handled, and it mirrors the way the protests today are being handled. you know, at -- whenever you have community protests, there is always a way -- there is always a crossroads you come to, you can take the road that is likely to ratchet the emotional situation down or take the road that is likely to enflame and ratchet up the problems. the federal government appears to be taking the route most likely to cause problems. there are so many problems in the mix here that i think the judiciary committee tomorrow should rightly inquire are you doing this because you're reall

as i said what he did at lafayette square was act as the top advance man for a campaign. he cleared the square for the president to go over with a borrowed bible and have a photo op they would use in campaign materials. can you imagine if i used the resources of this capitol to do such a thing, i think you would haul me right out of here. this is an attorney general who has sworn an oath of office, swore the truth to us and i believe he should resign. i have called for that a long time ago. he's terrible for the morale of the office. go ahead. >> but then again, besides urging him to resign, you and i both know he's not going to do that. what are the actual consequences he could face? everything you've said, disingenuous, misrepresented things, disrespectful, dishonest, i got you. let's say all of those things are 100% true, is there anything democrats can do to change this? >> there are things we can do, and i'm in conversation about this. >> like what? >> i don't want to preview those for you today, thank you for asking i don't want to preview those for you today. >> th

s, lafayette square last month. according to testimony that was just made public today, he is supposed to tell lawmakers tomorrow morning that police moved suddenly on the d.c. protesters, clearing the way without adequate warning before president trump's staged photo op in front of st. john's church. he's expected to call out those aggressive tactics. he will say, quote, having served in a combat zone and understanding how to assess threat environments, at no time did i feel threatened by the protesters or assess them to be violent. from my observation, those demonstrators, our fellow american citizens, were engaged in the peaceful expression of their first amendment rights. yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force, end quote. with that in mind, is it any wonder that protesters and demonstrators around the country are now skeptical of the federal forces that are being deployed to their cities? joining us now, seattle mayor jep jenny durken. you have been watching what's going o

the northern side of the white house would be lafayette square. that's where we see the golden knights parachute team making their jump. the u.s. army's aerobatic team, the counterpart to the blue angels and the air force thunderbirds. after they make their jump, we expect comments from the president. the event that you are looking at is taking place on the south side of the white house. that's the one that's directly in front of the washington monument, kind of flanking at the western end of the national mall. the north side of the white house is lafayette square, where we had been keeping an eye on protests in front of what is now known as black lives matter plaza. understandable why the white house might want to hold this event on the other side of the white house from where those protests are. we'll continue to keep an eye on this jump from the golden knights as we await the president's remarks there. you can see the army flags behind the parachuters. one of the things we'll be listening for are what the comments will be from the president ton

the ig also says his office will investigate the actions of department personnel in lafayette square op. it's intriguing news that someone will investigate what federal officers are doing beating up protesters while moving in unidentified badges. but i will also say bear many mind that the attorney general bill barr is scheduled next week to give his first ever testimony to the house. how much will you bet bill bar will be unable to comment on portland or lafayette square because now they are under active investigation so he couldn't possibly remark. yeah, watch for that. that's going to do it for us tonight. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell.

john's church, lafayette park. you were there, you experienced this in ways none of us care to have to have done ourselves. that seems to be an important moment in this campaign. >> that's right, chuck. very few of us thought we would ever see something like that in this country. i had lived through it in latin america but not here in the u.s. we were getting ready to go live for our evening newscast, and all of a sudden we realized we were under attack. we did not expect it. there were people kneeling in protest around me when we started tasting tear gas, then came the mounted police and the flash grenades. i looked down to see if my feet were still there. we realized we were being targeted. they started shooting at us. my bureau chief got hit in the back, the photographer in his stomach, also in his arm, i got hit in my arm. we don't know what it was, pepper balls some people have said, rubber bullets. you have some pictures of what my arm was looking like. and everything got worse when we realized that all this

bernard lafayette. i'm pleased to have you with me on what must be a very difficult day. you have known congressman lewis the longest. you talk about how you were so close that your mom would send you two suits and you would give him one in college. some of us have nightmare stories about roommates in college, but you got to room with congressman lewis. paint for us a picture of a young john lewis when you all first met. >> well, one advantage was that we were both from the south. we had the experience of growing up in a segregated situation. we had something in common. that's why we were able to relate to each other and talk about what happened even in our early childhood where we had experiences where we challenged the segregation system. in fact, i had sit-ins in tampa, florida, ebor city, when i was just 7 years old. i used to be mr. coffee and go one block over to the commercial area, and i would be able to get -- take orders for coffee for the merchants who were actually opening up their shops. i would go back to the restaura restaurant, and i would order the coffee

forced a lot of military officials to speak out when they were asked to remove peaceful protesters from lafayette square, people like jim miller, jim mattis and people like general milley. where are those voices in law enforcement? they must not be comfortable in asking to police the streets of american cities. >> nor should they be. look, let me talk about normal. i miss normal, but normal might add context here. when federal law enforcement agents go into cities it's always cooperatively. we're wanted. they asked us to come. they need our help. that's when we're most effective. can they protect federal property? sure. they don't need an invitation to do it. but that's a narrow mission. to the extent this mission has expanded and you have federal agents doing things they're not trained to do, like riot control and arresting protesters, that's deeply, deeply problematic. now, there are voices speaking out about that. i've heard them. i do it myself. i can't stand what i'm seeing. the problem, nicole, is when we need to be somewhere and the city wants us to help, it gets politicized by this presid

we're hearing from people, he's the president this time and we have seen his actions that moment in lafayette square really congealed for a lot of these voters who had doubts about him the last time but thought maybe he was a vessel and maybe they had awareness that he's not a vessel. secondly the opponent is different. we have this viral video from a guy in massachusetts, talking about hillary clinton. maybe it was unfair. some of it was her felt, some of it was sex yichl. but it's a different time. they're more open to hearing these messages if they come from people like them. >> you know, joel, donald trump seemed to understand at that sort of cellular that joe biden represented a threat to him. he got impeached trying to take joe biden out of the race, trying to get him out of the race, there were a dozen democrats running in the democratic primary, what is it about joe biden that represents such a threat to donald trump? >> well, nicolle, what's interesting about that to me is that i do think trump wanted to damage biden but i also think he could run the same campaign against joe biden a

and sam stein is absolutely right to point us back towards the clearing of peaceful protesters in lafayette square. trump learned no lesson. he simply learned to replace active duty military with border patrol agents. >> the president has been signaling to us, nicole, since at least march that he wants to be a wartime president. in fact, in march at a white house press conference, he referred to himself in the context of the coronavirus as now, i guess i must be a wartime president. he likes that theme. he's going to go with it. he's not going to divert from it. in fact, as you just noted, he's going to announce that he's going to bring this really bad hollywood, terrible movie set to cities near you. he's going to make it happen, because that is going to stoke the fear that he needs in people to think the only way that they can get law and order is from him. as tom friedman points out, this is really a page right out of the textbook for tyrants. historically, what dictators and authoritarian regimes do when their people turn against them is to pit their own people against each other. and t

vivian, marion barry, jim bevel, bernard lafayette, paulina knight, angela butler. how all of us gathered in 1958 and '59 and '60 and '61 and '62 in the same city at the same time, i count as being providential. we did not plan it. and when kelly smith and the national christian leadership council met in the fall of 1958, and we determined that if there is to be a second major campaign that will demonstrate the efficacy of satya graha, of soul force, of love truth, that we would have to do it in nashville. and so i planned, as the strategist and organizer, a four-point gandhian strategic program to create the campaign. we decided with great fear and anticipation, we would desegregate downtown nashville. no group of black people or other people anywhere in the united states in the 20th industry against the rapatiousness of a segregated system ever thought about desegregating downtown, tearing down the signs, renovating the waiting rooms, taking the immoral signs off of drinking fountains. but it was black women who made that decision for us in nashville. i was scared

supreme court ruled that segregation of interstate bus facilities was unconstitutional, john and bernard lafayette bought two tickets, climbed aboard a greyhound, sat up front and refused to move. this was months before the first official freedom rides. he was doing a test. the trip was unsanctioned. few knew what they were up to. and at every stop through the night, apparently the angry driver stormed out of the bus and into the bus station. and john and bernard had no idea what he might come back with. or who he might come back with. nobody was there to protect them. there were no camera crews to record events. sometimes, rev, we read about this and we kind of take it for granted. or at least we act as if it was inevitable. imagine the courage of two people malia's age, younger than my oldest daughter, on their own to challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression. john was only 20 years old. but he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table, betting everything, all of it that his example could challenge centuries of convention and generations of brutal violence and countless dail

resources committee which is investigating the government's actions in clearing protesters away from lafayette square with gas, projectiles, and mounted police. thank you so much for joining us early. i first want to address the chaos we've been seeing in portland so far. so we know the white house is facing a lot of scrutiny over whether the president has the legal authority to deploy federal law enforcement officers in this situation specifically. what reaction are you you hearing on the president's plans to send in even more forces? >> what we're seeing, yasmin, largely is a broad pushback from efforts here. that's not going to be any different with this new push to send more troops. it's a real escalation for trump to try do something like this. it will be very interesting to see whether or not the administration tries to de-escalate and take the mayor up on this attempt to take down the tensions because as you mentioned, it's been only made more intense and escalated, some of the violence we've seen there. what we've heard from democrats -- and let's be clear. they're attabing democrat-le

which really abuts at lafayette square after all of that violence, all of those federal forces marching on, beating on, firing gas upon peaceful protesters. and of course john lewis knows something of peaceful protests. it is really remarkable that he was there. he lived to see three words in yellow on black pavement visible from space, and it will probably be said visible from heaven. they read out "black lives matter." our hour-long look at the life and times of john lewis begins now. >>> in my younger days, i got arrested and went to jail 40 times. i've since been in congress another five times. and i may get arrested and go to jail again. >> he's an icon of a civil rights movement. >> they found the power of the human spirit in john lewis, and he came to symbolize the student movement. >> he believed that he could help a country find its soul. >> risking death to fight for what's right. >> i did not think john would survive. >> he likes to stir things up. he likes a little drama. >> give us a vote. let us vote. >> john lewis is not popularity. he's about purpose. >> never give up. n

donald trump tried to send troops to lafayette park and the u.s. military told them to go to hell, they knew how to read the constitution. now he's sending bill barr's groups, these little green men, to portland and other cities. this is the caravan on steroids. >> there's nothing else to call it except creeping auth authoritarianism. i don't know if it's creeping anymore if you have the president using federal power for his own purposes. this is a natural, i feel like, build up of the post war on terror, when you have the local police stations being outfitted with m rwraps, it makes it easir to just keep escalating. and i hope that governors, that they speak out. i hope that people speak out, but it's very scary that donald trump has this much power at an election time. and to underscore what everyone else has been saying, he has clearly signalled -- donald trump has clearly signalled that he is going to sow chaos and doubt about the election results if it does not go the way he expects it to go. i think we need to all be taking that with dead ser

the speaker was reverend james lawson, who 91 years old, mentored john lewis, diane nash, and bernard lafayette, and that entire amazing crew of activists in '50s in nashville in the philosophy and the techniques and tactics of nonviolent direct action. a toweringly important figure in our recent history that probably a lot of people don't know of, but, wow, what a history lesson he gave us today. and at 91, he sounded as if you asked him, he would go right down and man the barricades again. it was quite a day, and it was the america that we -- that we imagine and that we hope to reclaim. >> extraordinarily well put. jon meacham, share with our audience at this hour some of our conversation earlier today in the 3:00 eastern hour of coverage about all the bisecting through lines that went through that sanctuary today. >> it's arguably the most fabled pulpit certainly in protestant -- the protestant world, i would argue. dr. king, daddy king being there. john lewis lived and worked about four miles away at 6 raymond street, and that was the headquarters of the student nonviolent coordinating comm

so i appreciate you bringing that up and you also reference reverend bernard lafayette who will join me tomorrow as we commemorate the life of john lewis as well so i hope folks will tune in. i do want to bring in dr. bernard ashby, a cardiologist in miami, florida, who had the privilege to meet congressman john lewis. doctor, i'd love to hear this story. >> thank you, tiffany. and thank you for that interview with bruce lavelle. i mean, the contrast between him and congressman lewis couldn't be any more stark and i believe you calling out the bs, but congressman lewis, you know, he impacted me personally but impacted the world. my story begins when i was actually in congress at a -- i'm sorry, i was in the halls of congress and i just happened to bump into congressman lewis and myself and my friend, dr. allen started talking to him and during the course of the conversation he basically opened up to us and invited us to his office and it was during that time that he told us the stories about bloody sunday about the civil rights movement and just so happened to have some pictures from

and now we know the inspector general, michael horwitz, from doj is investigating both there and at lafayette square across from the white house. what is going on here and do you think it's necessary for these troops to be -- these federal agents to be deployed as aggressively as they are? >> no, i don't at all. and i don't think it's appropriate. and what's more, the people in the region don't want the presence of these federal troops, these largely unmarked federal troops. they think it's only going to make it worse, that it's going to be incendiary. and we've seen evidence that people are being grabbed off the street, hustled into unmarked vehicles by people who are not well-identified, if they're identified at all. and this includes people just peacefully protesting. this is the kind of thing you see in repressive regimes around the world, not in the united states. it's kind of why it's being done. it's being done against the wishes of these local officials by the president of the united states because he feels it's a good campaign issue for him to run on. he is more than willing to creat

bernard lafayette and diane nash both told me they were surprised that he made it out alive, that they thought -- as bernard said, they always went for his head. >> yeah. it is worth a reminder given that he knew that there were things, so many things yet to be done that he had fought for, that the version of the voting rights act has been on mitch mcconnell's desk i think 225 days now. eugene robinson, andrea mitchell, john meacham, i can't thank you enough for the conversation. jonathan capehart, you're going to be back with us but thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and your memories of this great man. and coming up next, california has had to roll back reopening after a sharp increase in covid-19 cases, pushing it to number two in the u.s. only behind new york. the latest in a live report straight ahead. (vo) touch and go. handwriting recognition and the audi a4. get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. i appreciate what makes each person unique. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only