NBC News NOW Full Broadcast - April 5th, 2021 | NBC News NOW

hey everyone i'm allison morris you are watching nbc news now in minneapolis the derek shogun murder trial now in its second week today another crack in the blue wall the minneapolis police chief taking the stand for the prosecution saying his officers are trained to use de-escalation whenever possible we have to make each engagement with our community count and so the training is very important because for many in our communities the first time that they encounter a minneapolis police officer may be the only time in their life they do and so that that singular incident matters in washington d.c the head of the capitol police union warning there could be an exodus after the deadly attack outside the capitol on friday saying officers are struggling and are looking for other jobs this morning senator chris saying the capital is becoming a target for domestic terrorists for much of the time i've been serving there the last decade i've assumed that it was a place that international terrorists might target again someday just in the last year it's become a place that i'm more and more concerned is a priority for domestic terrorists nbc news capitol hill correspondent garrett hague joining me now garrett the capitol police union leader says his department is struggling to meet existing mission requirements what's going on why is that yeah allison and these were existing emission requirements that existed before january 6. the capitol police force is understaffed they're approved to have up to 2000 officers they're about 10 shy of that right now more than 200 open positions they're also facing a potential looming retirement crisis with anywhere between up to 500 officers who could retire sometime in the next three to five years so that's just the basic retention rate on top of that recommendations from lieutenant general honore who's been looking at the capital security situation overall suggested hiring even more officers on top of that existing staff so a major manpower issue here at the at the capitol police department probably the single biggest uh most glaring security concern right now so karen what is congress to doing to address some of those immediate needs to address the shortages there nothing immediate i think to the frustration of many there are a number of kind of after-action reviews that are going on right now different committees are reviewing the security posture around the capital the organization of the capitol police board for example and investigations into the events of january 6th now in the weeks that followed that there was some discussion about a supplemental spending bill that might bolster the budget of the capital police force help them start making those hires but there's been no movement on that that i've heard recently and remember congress is still out at least this week so don't expect anything immediate that's right garrett the officer who was injured on friday is out of the hospital now uh what do we know about how he's doing ken shaver yeah we saw him released over the weekend to cheers from his fellow capitol police officers kind of a heartwarming moment for a department that very much needed one we knew he was not in life-threatening condition you could see his foot in a boot there but we've gotten no specific update from capitol police on his condition since then but allison i can tell you we are asking and we're hoping to talk to him as soon as he's willing to do it oh looking forward to that when you're able to catch up with him glad to hear that he is out and doing well garrett thank you so much you bet [Music] the minneapolis police chief who fired derek chovin testifying today chief arredondo saying his officers are required to know the department's code of ethics and de-escalation policies last june he also called george floyd's death a murder nbc news correspondent megan fitzgerald is in minneapolis megan the chief talking about serving with compassion calling it a motto in his department what else did he say on the stand today [Music] allison so much to unpack here obviously this was highly anticipated because we don't usually see police chiefs taking the witness stand for the prosecution or the defense and so why this was so critical is because the prosecution meticulously went over uh all the policies in the police department and paying of course close attention to use of force and to what do you do if there's a person in your custody that is having a medical incident so they showed the jurors this idea that it is on the uh it is on the officer to make sure that they do cpr do a level of care on that person so obviously all of this feeding to that narrative uh that uh derek chovin did not do the right thing on the scene and that he violated policy so i want you to take a listen uh to what the chief said when he was questioned once there was no longer any resistance and clearly when mr floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless to continue to apply that level of force that in no way shape or form is anything that is by policy is not part of our training and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values so certainly damning testimony there for the defense it's also worth noting that before trial even started today there was a motion defense was trying to stop the chief from giving his opinion uh but it was overruled that the judge saying that he was allowed to comment on that video and whether or not it was a violation of policy and also just something to pay attention to here you'll notice that when the chief talked he was sort of looking over to the left-hand side that's where jurors are we have two pool reporters that are inside the courtroom they are telling us that when the chief started talking and making the eye contact with them these jurors were taking copious notes allison [Music] megan we also heard today from the emergency room doctor who pronounced george floyd dead what were the big takeaways from his particular testimony was another powerful testimony allison uh so this was dr bradford langenfeld he is the emergency doctor that received george floyd at the hennepin county medical center he talked about working on him for 30 minutes and then he in his decision in his medical experience he rendered the decision that george floyd died of asphyxiation of a lack of oxygen and again back to the jury when he said that that's when pool reporters say that the jury started taking notes because of course this again feeds into the narrative for the prosecution the idea that the knee on george floyd's neck stopped him prevented him from breathing and then another thing i want to point out here is that this doctor went on to talk about how critical it is to administer cpr because every single second matters and again we saw in that video that these four officers did not make any attempt to render any sort of medical care to him allison megan a last question for you this morning you spoke with chris martin the store clerk who sold cigarettes to george floyd who was on the stand last week what did he tell you today [Music] christopher martin uh i think he captured a lot of attention when he talked about how he felt responsible yeah for the actions that day because he was the one who uh you know sold the pack of cigarettes and then told his boss that he thought it was a counterfeit dollar bill so this this then 18 year old kid uh living with this amount of guilt and he said you know it has been very challenging for him i want you to listen to the moments when he described how he felt and how he reacted shortly after testifying i was off and on crying i felt some physical pain i haven't really experienced a death other than that one close up so i didn't really know how to process my emotions and i didn't know how to feel i didn't know what i was feeling [Music] so still filled with a lot of guilt alison and he says that you know it's a day-to-day thing but he certainly finds uh strength he told me through his church community and through prayer megan heartbreaking to hear him testifying uh to that last week and then talking to you again about it today you can just only imagine what he's been going through since thank you so much for your coverage of what happened in the trial today absolutely all right let's bring in nbc news legal analyst and former federal prosecutor glenn kirchner and caroline palisi a federal criminal defense attorney and adjunct lecturer in law at columbia university glenn uh let me start with you and let's start with who you might call the prosecution's star witness today chief aerodondo you tweeted that he was a strong precise testifying witness calling him an example of public service at its finest what most impressed you about his testimony today well allison he is such a thoughtful circumspect precise witness and it seems person and he really exemplifies what we want our police officers to be so you know you can't see the jurors but even when you're watching on tv you can feel how dramatic his testimony was and he rendered actually four different opinions about how derek chavin violated departmental policy he said the force was not reasonable he said he violated police department de-escalation policy he said he violated departmental neck restraint policy which is only allowed to be light to medium and what he said and i thought this was a powerful characterization he said in no way shape or form was this light to medium neck restraint and then finally he said he also violated departmental policy by failing to render aid to a man who plainly was in need of medical aid i mean he has given the jury everything it needs to conclude that this was just a blatant disregard for police department policy so caroline let's look at this from the defense team's perspective what part of the chief's testimony do you think was the most damaging for the defense and what did you think of the cross-examination they started this afternoon glenn's absolutely right and when it comes down to what does the defense have in this case it's causation and it's reasonableness and the the chief's testimony obviously went to reasonableness he really is sort of like an expert witness with regard to whether or not the use of forth force was reasonable at the time the defense has been trying really um you know for better or worse to sort of revise history in that they're they're they're shaping it as this narrative of a split-second decision on the ground dynamics changing at a rapid pace and you see there the the defense attorney really trying to chip away at this you know really strong statement on the part of the chief that this was unreasonable trying to ask well you know aren't there situations in which maybe the use of force would be um you know reasonable in this type of situation and and the chief just at every turn coming back and saying no no no it was really quite devastating on the causation front excuse me on the reasonableness front glenn sure glenn prosecutors are focusing now on chauvin's police training here's chief arredondo talking about his department's training methods take a listen we put a lot of time energy and resources into our our training i believe last year the minneapolis police department in terms of our mandatory in-service training and leadership training we probably spent about eight and a half million dollars in our pre-service and in-service training that was probably about four and a half million dollars so training is absolutely vitally essential to us as a department glenn what did you think of that particular line of questioning how effective uh was that sort of track there yeah you know i think that was really good because the jurors have gotten to see with their own eyes a videotape and i think everybody's gut reaction is this is just absolutely wrong but jurors don't necessarily know police use of force policies and sometimes policing can be ugly it can be difficult to watch but it can be necessary so when you have uh chief arendando talk about the training talk about how important it is to use reasonable force to de-escalate to give aid and to treat the citizens with respect in the process you know i thought he he summed it up nicely when he said listen what i saw and on that tape violated policy it violated training it violated our ethics and it violated our values he in essence gave the jury permission to say okay if even the police hierarchy believes this was wrong this was excessive this violated policy then who am i as a civilian to say i should disagree with it and frankly i've already seen it with my own eyes and it looks wrong to me as well caroline the doctor who pronounced george floyd dead said today that he believed a lack of oxygen caused floyd's cardiac arrest here's part of his testimony i did not receive a report that mr floyd had received bystander cpr no it's well known that any amount of time that a patient spends in cardiac arrest without immediate cpr markedly decreases the chance of a good outcome [Music] the defense is arguing that drug use and other health conditions led to george floyd's death your thoughts on that approach i mean do do they have any other more effective options here well when you talk about the defense one thing that is in their favor on this front is that the burden of proof right they don't need to prove that it was a drug overdose or a prior heart condition they just have to plant a tiny little seed of doubt in really one of the girls mind that maybe there was some doubt with respect to whether or not actually it was the nine minutes and 29 seconds that derek chovan's knee was on george floyd's neck um as opposed to you know you saw the defense attorney there asking this this doctor well what are some other causes potential causes of hypoxia of the lack of oxygen um through the brain or in the blood and he asked point blank is fentanyl use one of those things and the doctor said yes he could not rule that out so you know it was sort of a yes if you're calling a win a bit of a win for the defense they don't have much to work with but you know on this causation front i think i think it was it was a you know edifying before we got into uh the testimony today there were rulings on a few motions glenn i want to ask you about the ruling to allow more of derek shovin's body cam video into evidence prosecutors were arguing that these new portions were irrelevant because they don't show chauvin using force how could this change the prosecution's strategy going forward i don't think it necessarily changes the strategy and frankly i wasn't all that surprised by the ruling because the prosecution technically was correct that if these body worn camera recordings were taken after george floyd had already in essence been killed been removed from the scene um they're not all that relevant to the issue of the force that was exercised by the police officers to kill him but there are things like rules of completeness that say look if the prosecution attempts to put part of a statement or part of a video in and the defense argues that you know what judge we really need the balance of the statement or the video in to paint a more complete a more accurate picture um it doesn't surprise me with all of the dramatically incriminating video that we've seen it doesn't surprise me that the judge is sort of and i'm going to call it what it is throwing the defense an evidentiary bone by letting them put in some of the additional video footage that they hope will help i don't believe it will help but it doesn't surprise me that the judge ruled this way caroline on the flip side the judge ruled not to allow body cam video from other officers if you were on chauvin's defense team how would you feel about that ruling today look the question always comes down to probative versus prejudicial whether or not their prohibited value outweighs the prejudicial value i think glenn is right look the defense here is trying to sort of recreate this experience from the perspective of derek chovin and they're trying to make an experience or recreate that experience that is different from the bystanders because of course when when we all see it we see how awful the situation was they're trying to make the point hindsight is 2020 and that maybe with respect to derek shovin's perspective you might think differently if you if you were having an on the ground you know i had to make a decision at that point so the question is whether or not it goes to that argument if it's going to show evidence like the crowd was getting out of control or things of this nature or you know there was there was more of a chaos on the ground i think absolutely the defense wants to get that in because that's the story they want to tell glenn caroline always wonderful uh to have your insights thank you both so much for being with us today thank you allison let's go to nbc news now correspondent simone boyce she has the latest headlines for us from nbcnews.com hi simone hey allison let's start with the nation's highest court tossing out a lawsuit over former president trump's right to block twitter followers now lower courts had previously ruled blocking followers based off of their viewpoints violated their first amendment rights the dismissal comes after the justice department said the case was moot since trump is no longer president now trump is also banned from the platform following the january 6th riot at the capitol okay let's move on to asia where china is pushing its boundaries with its neighbors taiwan reporting eight chinese fighter jets and two other aircrafts flew into their defense zone now this is just the latest incident and last month 20 chinese aircraft flew into taiwanese airspace now china is also in hot water with the philippines the government there is calling the presence of hundreds of chinese ships in the south china sea a territorial incursion okay over in saint louis inmates at the county justice center are protesting pandemic conditions at the jail inmates broke windows and set fires during the uprising on sunday night according to state representative rasheen aldridge jr the protesters had two demands end cash bail and resume speedy and fair court hearings well the details of more than 500 million facebook accounts found on a hacker website the data include phone numbers full names birth dates a range of other things like email addresses and while the information seems to be several years old it shows how much information facebook and other social media platforms collect and just how secure or not secure that information is and in case you missed it the 27th sag awards were last night netflix's the trial of the chicago 7 won the top award which is a first for a streaming service film and for the first time actors of color swept best actor and supporting actor categories with chadwick boseman winning best male actor and viola davis winning best female actor definitely something to watch since sag wins are also said to predict oscar wins on occasion so allison i'll send it back to you thank you so much simone great to see that last night uh we'll talk a little bit [Music] a toxic wastewater reservoir in manatee county florida about to collapse local officials ordering hundreds of families there to evacuate nbc news correspondent ellison barber is in palmetto florida ellison great to see you and have you back on air again if that reservoir wall is breached i understand it could send something like 15 to 20 feet of water into nearby homes what's causing it and what are the other risks here this sounds really bad yeah i mean there there are there's a lot to unpack here first of all this is not a new problem this has been an idol phosphate plant for some 16 plus years about two decades so this is an ongoing issue that has taken place and people have discussions about needing to do something here for many many years in the early 2000s there was a similar situation where they had to drain some of these ponds because hurricanes were coming and it was getting to a point where it could potentially overflow right now the current most immediate problem is that there seems to possibly be a second breach that may have been identified officials had a press conference this afternoon and they said that when they had drones infrared drones flying over piney point they were able to see some sort of signs of a possible second breach they say investigators are looking into that right now at the same time they now say they will by the end of the day have some 20 pumps up and operational where they can potentially and they hope to by the end of today double the amount of water they have been removing from this reservoir so essentially what has happened here of late is at the end of march there was a tear identified in the liner of this pond a reservoir that contains toxic waste water there was no chance they say of repairing it so in order to prevent a collapse what officials have been trying to do is just drain it out it started with million gallons as fast as possible into the port of manatee in tampa bay to just try and prevent a collapse and the possibility of what they have said are catastrophic floods but what we're seeing now happen allison and the other questions moving forward is yeah but what does this mean for the ecosystem because they are taking this water that while officials say it is not radioactive it is still waste water it is toxic and they are putting that into the bay because it's the only way to avoid flooding and a potential collapse of this pond allison so i guess allison then two questions for you do they have a sense yet of just how damaging this could be to the ecosystem or is this a what we'll just have to see and is there any sense of how long it could be before they say okay we have this under control and and folks can feel safe in their homes again well initially the hope and the authorization is to get out the south pond where they have the leak the first leak and potentially the second leak is to get the water drained out of that so that then they can kind of just figure out what to do next and come up with a more permanent solution but one thing to remember here is there are actually two other large reservoirs there are three uh what they call ponds at this site all of them have waste water so there is some concern that if there's a collapse or even after they have drained the south pond where there's the leak that maybe it could cause some sort of structural instability with the other ponds but then you also have millions of gallons of that wastewater as well in terms of specifically though what this could do to the ecosystem the water the waste water they say it's primarily salt water as well as processed wastewater from what was a manufacturing plant for fertilizer as well as rainfall environmentalists say the possibility when it goes into the bay and into the water is that it has nutrients in it that can lead to the formation of harmful algae blooms and that can lead to a lot of marine life dying and also really negatively impact the tourism industries here allison ellis in a terrible situation there for everyone from the marine life to the folks worried about their homes uh thank you so much for your reporting you really explained that one in depth for us appreciate you president biden back at the white house today with a renewed focus on his two trillion dollar infrastructure plan pushing back against republicans who say only five to seven percent of this plan is for real infrastructure it's kind of interesting that when the republicans put forward an infrastructure plan they sought everything from broadband to dealing with other things with trains or infrastructure now they're saying that there's only a small portion that i'm talking about is infrastructure the fact of the matter is that when you're in a situation where you can't turn out a water fountain in school and where you're gonna drink polluted water and get your health replacing all those fights with infrastructure nbc news white house correspondent carol lee is in washington d.c carol republicans framing the president's infrastructure plan as a tax hike how is the white house clapping back at that well one of the things they're saying allison is that that this tax hike which would be on corporations is something that corporations would actually benef benefit from that they would benefit from better ports better roads they move their products on and through those sorts of facilities and so that infrastructure is something that these corporations can afford to do their part to help support they also are making the case that this corporate tax rate going from 21 to 28 that 28 is actually lower than the corporate tax rate was in 2017 which is obviously when a republican president took office and so they're saying that this is not actually that big of a deal that's kind of the way that they're casting this and we heard president biden say he was asked about this whether he thought that this was something that would hurt the economy ultimately which is the case that republicans are making and he's really downplaying that and saying no this is not something that's going to hurt the economy and so that's what their posture is right now is to try to make this something that while republicans are saying this is going to be like potentially bad for the economy and it's a big tax hike the white house is saying you know slow down this isn't as bad as everybody's making it out to be i will say though that corporations are something that polls well if you want to tax corporations and have them pay more they haven't gotten yet to the individual tax rate increase and in terms of taxing individuals and families that make over 400 000 a year which is something that the president has also said he supports that's going to be a tougher sell but right now they're trying to say that businesses will benefit from this and they should get onside and something that they can afford to do carol transportation secretary pete boudej said on meet the press yesterday that this bill is a generational investment and that president biden wants to take a bipartisan approach to get it passed here he is how much time do you give to bipartisanship well the president really believes in a bipartisan approach and it's one of the reasons i'm constantly having conversations with members of congress on both sides of the aisle gathering ideas but the president also has a clear vision and as he said this has to get done he's asking for congress to make major progress on this by memorial day the bottom line is we've got to deliver for the american people and we can't let politics slow this down to where it doesn't actually happen [Music] carol biden wants congress to get this done by memorial day what is the president willing to compromise on here to try to get republicans on board before then if possible you know that's the great question and that's one that the white house has not so far been answered able to answer publicly it's what is he going to compromise on everyone knows and allison it's not just republicans it's democrats they have they have an internal party problem say they were going to do this with just 50 votes in the senate and use a legislative procedure to do that they have a joe manchin problem joe manchin said 28 corporate tax rate increase is too much he would settle at maybe something closer to 25 percent white house press secretary jen zaki was asked about that today and just they won't negotiate in public said you know we're open to all ideas that's kind of the line that they're putting out there right now so and then you get to republicans as you mentioned and you have folks like mitch mcconnell who says i'll fight the president every step of the way on this we heard from mitch mcconnell again the republican leader today saying look this is just not something that we're going to get on board with but if the president wants to do something smaller narrow down the scope focus very specifically on things that we consider infrastructure roads bridges things like that not broadband electrical car outlets and things like that that are in this bill then maybe he could get on boards but again the white house is not saying whether or not that's something that the president would ultimately support he is the president supposed to meet with republicans and democrats in coming days the white house says those meetings have not be scheduled but they're going to make some sort of effort and where where this lands really is remains to be seen carol president biden's son hunter talking about his history with drug and alcohol addiction on cbs here's part of that interview i spent more time on my hands and knees picking through rugs smoking anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine i probably smoked more parmesan cheese than anyone anyone that you know i went one time for 13 days without sleeping and smoking crack and drinking vodka exclusively throughout that entire time carol hunter biden doing that interview ahead of the release of his new memoir beautiful things which is out tomorrow what else did he say about his personal struggles and and what did he say did he talk about his dad yeah he did allison pretty extensively and as he goes into vivid detail of his personal struggles with addiction it's really a book of just grief and the tragedies that his family has endured he talked about his daddy actually there's part of the book where he talks about his dad staging an intervention to try to make him get help and and the family gathering around him and saying that they that he needed to take care of this and so it's a very emotional book for sure carol lee with the latest from the white house thank you so very much [Music] california now scrambling to keep two of its mass faction vaccination sites open one is in los angeles the other in oakland around half a million people have gotten coveted shots at those sites since february but now fema says it's pulling out nbc news correspondent josh letterman is outside the oakland coliseum which is one of those sites so josh the big question why is fema leaving now and what are the biggest worries there in oakland if this site shuts down next week well allison fema says that these sites were always designed to be temporary and that it's essentially a mission accomplished for what they set out to do here in oakland as well as at the site in los angeles uh but the issue is if you take a look there have been about 300 000 people who have been vaccinated just at this site alone over the last eight weeks allison those are 300 000 doses of vaccine that california would not have gotten otherwise because these fema sites they get their own flow of vaccine from the federal government and so authorities here on the ground who have been appealing for this site to stay open they say that it's insulting for fema to suggest that they can simply hand over control of these sites to local authorities if they're not actually going to be providing uh the vaccine we talked to henry gardner who's actually runs the authority that oversees the coliseum where this site is being held take a listen to what he said about whether the job is really done here now is hardly the time to shut down the site probably need more sites we need this program to continue and it is unacceptable that only after finally beginning to barely scratch the surface of reaching our african-american and latino communities that they would end this work right now and that's really the issue here allison here in oakland about 20 percent of the people who have been vaccinated have been hispanic in l.a it's upwards of 40 percent these are the communities that california is really struggling to try to make sure there's equity in the distribution of vaccine and that's the concern about how they're going to be able to carry that out if these sites are no longer able to operate the way they were so josh fema's saying it never promised to keep these open for more than eight weeks as you mentioned saying that you know they were always meant to be temporary but what else are you hearing from the agency well fema told nbc news this morning that they are agreeing to provide a full funding for these sites through october if they're taken over by state and county authorities they're also saying they're willing to keep the locally hired staff here to continue working at these sites but what they are also saying is that they will not be providing the actual vaccine doses and so california authorities are saying it's all well and good to say you'll help us keep these sites open but we don't have any more vaccine to bring from other places that's why they're so concerned but fema pointing to the fact that in the next few weeks california's broad statewide allotment of vaccine is supposed to tick up to about 3 million per week and so they're saying if california can just wait a few more weeks they think this problem should get a little bit better all right josh letterman at the oakland coliseum thank you so much [Music] a growing number of human smugglers advertising their services on facebook giving false hope to migrants looking to come to the u.s nbc news identifying several posts on public facebook pages one of them written in spanish says travel to mexico to the united states costs eight thousand dollars one hundred percent safe nbc news correspondent julia ainsley joining me now julia these posts are not new but you are seeing a lot more of them in some cases smugglers also responding to posts from migrants asking for help crossing the border tell us about what you've seen online and some of the dangers here yeah that's right i mean these were really astounding to me my colleague dd martinez when we started doing the research and i went to some experts who've been following this and they said that the trend really started in 2019 but especially now we're seeing smugglers take advantage of the incoming administration and trying to basically bolster their message farther than is true saying that it is very safe and easy to get into the united states some people might ask questions can i send my child alone or should i go with them they'll give false hope about it oh if you send a child alone it'll be very easy well we obviously know that it hasn't been easy and a lot of those children are in terrible conditions now in border stations none of that is ever communicated by these smugglers on facebook they basically just sell the idea of a safe and secure passage to the united states where you'll be quickly reunited with loved ones that you know in the united states julia last month facebook ceo mark zuckerberg told lawmakers human smuggling is against facebook's policies and that his company is taking a lot of steps to stop it do we know what any of those steps are yeah i mean they take it down as they see it allison but it's basically a game of whack-a-mole i mean we identified 35 of these posts that we were able to very easily identify when we went to facebook for comment and they took them down but only because nbc flagged them there are more that crop up immediately after that so when they see them and they're identified and they're flagged to their teams they take it down but there are just so many the sheer volume is something that they just can't keep up with right now but they are against their terms of service i mean to be advertising illegal services like human smuggling is definitely in violation but right now all they can do is take it down as they see it and they clearly haven't been able to stay ahead of the problem enough to prevent people falling for this kind of information julia the department of homeland security says that misinformation about the biden administration is fueling these posts how so can you explain that yeah so basically it's people who don't understand what the policies are now and they're using uh sometimes they'll take a kernel of truth something that someone might have heard for example we know that biden wanted to do a 100-day moratorium on deportation that was put on hold by courts but what we've seen is smugglers will say things like look if you get in within the first 100 days of the biden administration you won't be deported well that was never a policy that new arrivals would be allowed to stay and so they'll take something that maybe someone uh someone is considering making this journey might have heard and then they start to spin it it's the same way conspiracy theories spin on social media right here in the united states it's the same thing we've seen down in central america as well all right julia ainsley thank you again for your reporting once more on this really important situation down at the southern border thank you republican lawmakers crying foul after major league baseball pulled its all-star game out of atlanta that move in response to georgia's controversial new voting law critics are calling that bill jim crow 2.0 saying the law makes it harder for voters especially black voters to cast their ballots nbc news correspondent blaine alexander is at truest park it's the home of the atlanta braves which is supposed to host the 2021 mlb all-star game plane georgia's governor brian kemp signed that bill into law and had this to say about the mlb's decision over the weekend georgians and all americans should know what this decision means it means cancer culture and partisan activists are coming for your business they're coming for your game or event in your hometown and they're coming to cancel everything from sports to how you make a living and they will stop at nothing to silence all of us blade what are you hearing from other georgia lawmakers today well you know allison what's interesting is that there is one thing that democrats and republicans can agree on around this entire thing and it's that nobody wanted to see the all-star game leave the state of georgia you know we've heard from both democrats and republicans essentially saying that they are disappointed that mlb decided to pull the all-star game out of atlanta and really kind of acknowledging the fact that it's going to be georgia businesses georgia workers all of course the restaurants and the hotels that are nearby truest park that are going to be the ones to suffer that are going to feel that impact but that's about where that agreement stops so we're hearing after that it's just a lot of finger pointing of course democrats are pointing squarely at republicans in statements from stacey abrams from the two democratic senators rafael warnock and john ossoff all of them are essentially saying that it's republicans fault specifically the republican-led state legislature for putting georgia into this position but again as you heard from georgia governor brian kemp and a number of other top republicans across the state they're putting the finger right back and saying essentially that it's cancer culture that's gotten out of control allison so blaine quick question for you about the masters i know it tees off later this week in augusta georgia is the pga tour saying anything about changes to that tournament or anything with the tour championship coming up in atlanta this fall not expecting any changes to the masters it's been held on the hallowed grounds of augusta national and will continue to be so at least for this year so that's going to tee off just as expected but we do know that the pga tour that takes place in september the tour championship that's held at the east lake golf club that is also going to move forward as planned the pga tour put out a statement essentially saying they're not going to move they put out a statement expressing support for voting rights but made it clear that that tour is going toward championship rather is going to stay as planned in augusta this fall all right so blaine moving away from sports to business several big corporations headquartered in atlanta we know home depot coca-cola delta what are they saying and doing about this new law and how can it affect georgia's post-pandemic economic recovery allison there has been so much spotlight on those three georgia-based giants essentially like you said delta coca-cola home depot uh you know there has been a lot of criticism from opponents to that law essentially saying that they did not speak out until after the law passed it was after the law passed that we heard from delta from coca-cola uh essentially calling the law unacceptable but some critics say that it's too little too late and so i've just spoken with a pastor who is leading a boycott he plans for that to actually begin on wednesday unless these companies come out and as he says do more than just put out paper statements he wants them to use their resources use their financial resources to support voting rights in other states but we're also hearing from atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms and she says that she is concerned about what this could mean from georgia take a look i do know that there are other large-scale events that are are contemplating whether or not they will uh stay in our state so this will have a devastating impact and the irony of it is that we were opened up early under the name of getting back to some type of economic recovery and with just one signature that's all been wiped out and allison keep in mind of course all of this comes as there are multiple federal court challenges to this law people trying to knock it down already just less than two weeks after it was signed into law allison all right blaine alexander in atlanta thank you and it is not just georgia with companies coming out against gop-led voting bills across the country republicans in corporate america are on the outs nbc news political reporter alan smith writing dust-ups between big business and the gop are becoming more frequent as republicans lean into culture war issues adding the divide could be possibly one of the most consequential in u.s politics and society alan joins me live now alan big corporations the republican party have traditionally been more in lock step on economic policy things like deregulation tax cuts but a republican lobbyist told you that is not cutting it for new voters tell us more about the divide here so really what's happening with this divide and you you can see it in a number of episodes so far this year you know whether it be the backlash over you know mr potato head or dr seuss or other much more you know uh severe blowbacks as we've seen in georgia this past week it really goes to these companies facing a lot more uh pressure from you know outside advocates and activists that they need to be taking more active stances but also from their own employees and from a younger consumer base that they're trying to attract meanwhile this is running up against the republican party that is very focused on cultural issues right now very much wanting to be opposed to a lot of the things that these companies are now speaking out against and you've got a republican voting base that is now becoming uh you know more and more white working class as the democratic party uh manages to gain uh inroads with more well-to-do suburbanites and you're just seeing some of that traditional republican base sort of fracture and be remade and and some of the policies that the republican party has really been speaking to for years they're just not necessarily as attractive to the base that the party's becoming all right so let's look at what some top republicans are saying this week donald trump calling for a boycott of baseball after the mlb pulled the all-star game out of atlanta and today senate minority leader mitch mcconnell had these strong words for corporate america i found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate ceos getting in the middle of politics my advice to the corporate ceos of america is to stay out of politics [Music] you spoke to republican senator pat toomey ellen what's his take on all this well i mean of course it's kind of you know ironic to hear a language like that now of course people have been pointing back to the citizens united decision from from the last decade when you know corporations were essentially deemed as people that have their own rights to be expressing political opinions and now that some of these opinions have been expressed it's not going over quite so well um but what what senator toomey said was that there is this strain on the right uh for more you know quote-unquote economic populism or economic nationalism that might actually lead to some republicans proposing you know more regulations on some of these companies maybe they might not be in such favor of tax uh tax breaks for these corporations anymore but he also said you know look this isn't something that's obviously a dominant strain on the right right now when it comes to economic policy and basically nobody that i spoke to said that you know all of a sudden because of this you're going to see republicans be you know against uh you know lowering corporate tax rates and whatnot um what what you might see though is with the biden administration looking to raise that corporate rate uh in the tax plan that they would like to pass you might see conservatives just withdraw from that battlefield you know they'll talk about the individual tax rates but you're not going to see them put up quite the same level of fight on corporate rates and whatnot alan smith and his excellent collection of bobble heads great to have you on today thank you so much thank you nasa gearing up for its first ever flight on another planet its miniature helicopter ingenuity touching down on mars over the weekend next up a historic first flight nbc news aviation correspondent tom costello has all the details hey allison good day so you know if you love space this is for you right it's taken seven months 293 million miles and now the moment is coming up within the next week or so well nasa will actually launch an autonomous aircraft on another planet the goal here is to conduct aerial recon and do some photography of the red planet the images are still stunning a nasa rover right there on another planet and now the next monumental moment of the mission is about to begin with the ingenuity helicopter a drone really successfully touching down on the surface of mars the delicate process involved the experimental mini chopper swinging down from the belly of the perseverance rover flipping from a horizontal position to a vertical one deploying its four legs all before being dropped off on a patch of martian soil now ingenuity is being put to the test of surviving martian nights where temperatures can drop as low as negative 130 degrees fahrenheit to do that the four pound helicopter will both power and heat itself using onboard solar panels and internal heaters mimi ong is the helicopter's project manager you know we've tested it our analysis so it will but really doing it for the first time huge milestone up next will be more pre-flight checks preparing for the challenge of actually flying on mars challenging atmosphere 99 less dense than earth's engineers developed a special twin rotor system that could provide the necessary lift to get airborne with blades spinning roughly five times faster than a conventional helicopters and the mini chopper also has to control itself in flight making 500 tiny adjustments every second secret sauce a startup for mars helicopter make the place as big as possible spin as fast as you can and make it as light as possible already the rover perseverance has sent back images of the red baron landscape and listen closely to the wind perhaps mere glimpses of what could come if the chopper is able to take flight being able to fly will allow us to access places that are simply not accessible today you know besides a very steep cliff and down in the craters also this morning nasa reports more seismic activity on mars not earthquakes but mars quakes a seismometer on insight a lander that's been on the red planet since 2018 has picked up evidence of two new quakes research into what's causing the tremors on mars remains ongoing nasa previously captured evidence of active landslides in that same region if all goes as planned they will lift off with this ingenuity chopper drone on sunday night to monday morning and if that goes well four more flights are planned in the very near future alison back to you baylor and gonzaga tip off in the ncaa men's championship game tonight after a wild weekend of college basketball stanford took the women's title in an epic game last night clinching the championship for the third time nbc news correspondent stephanie gask has more hey there allison so everyone's getting ready for the big game tonight after an incredible weekend of basketball arizona came as close as you can possibly come to winning a national championship but in the end stanford eked out a win just like they have been doing all season overnight a thriller in the lone star state the stanford cardinals outlasting the gritty arizona wildcats to win the national championship the tournament's top overall seed stanford came out firing williams the three you pick overwhelming the wildcats with a balanced attack jones pops it in but arizona refused to give up a great look after struggling early star senior aaron mcdonald gave her team a chance but the underdog wildcats incredible run coming up just short before punching their ticket to the championship game arizona's coach adia barnes telling me they belonged it's huge because no one but us thought we could be here but in the end stanford did just enough i'm just so proud of this team and we're champs i can't believe it we're champs stanford coach tara vanderveer the all-time winningest head coach in the women's game a champion again for the first time in nearly 30 years on the men's side tonight's highly anticipated title game between gonzaga and baylor is coming on the heels of an instant classic [Applause] with the flick of a race gonzaga star freshman jalen suggs cementing his spot in college basketball lore and look at the poise of this kid suggs epic buzzer beater eliminating 11 seed ucla saturday night and sending the sports world into a frenzy that's something that you practice you know on your mini hoop as a kid or in the gym just messing around and to be able to do that it's crazy up next for the bulldogs a championship clash with baylor advances to the championship game the bears are back in the big game for the first time in 73 years after blowing out houston they win a lot of games we win a lot of games i think we match up well this morning a champion crowned and a battle still to come as a memorable march madness readies for a fitting finale last year jalen suggs was chosen top high school player in both basketball and football in the end he chose basketball to the thrill of millions of college basketball fans on the football field he was not surprisingly the quarterback allison back to you hey nbc news viewers thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

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Keywords: NBC News NOW, nbc news, nbc, news, breaking news, us news, world news, politics, top stories, lester holt, Minneapolis police, Minneapolis police chief, Derek Chauvin trial, George Floyd, Capitol police, deadly car attack, Stanford crowned, NCAA, womens basketball champions, basketball champions, police brutality, police violence, police murder, murder, racism, racist, racist police, minneapolis, abuse, george floyd murder, black lives matter, african americans, black americans

Id: 938DG12Vvvo

Length: 53min 14sec (3194 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 05 2021