time, his democratic opponent spent three dis campaigning in pennsylvania. on tuesday, the president visited his childhood home in the town of scranton, pennsylvania. that was the first stop in the tour of the crucial battleground state. the following day, he met with construction workers in pittsburgh. he also stopped by the you knowited steel workers headquarters there where he told the crowd he was proud to be the most pro-union president in american history. on the last leg of his trip, he stopped by one of pennsylvania's most important institutions, the convenience store and sometimes gas station waw waw which makes a mean sandwich and is way better than dunkin' donuts. the president also stopped by the other well known voens store and sometimes gas station, sheetz. but let the record reflect that i am a waw waw guy. biden attended a campaign event in philadelphia where he was endorsed by several members of

the kennedy family despite the fact that their own relative is running against him. president biden will hold events in washington d.c. and in florida where he will deliver a speech on tuesday focused on reproductive rights, one week before a 6 week abortion ban takes effect in that state. that was in biden world. entrump world, the only campaign stop he was able to make this week was at a bodega in manhattan which is a county where democrats outnumber republicans 10 to 1 and he continued to spread false claims about rising crime. otherwise the former president spent most of his week like this, in a courtroom, sometimes nodding off, a preview of what the next 7 weeks of his life will be like as the trial proceeds. it is only the first week and candidate trump is focused on how much of his legal obligations are campaigning his campaign plans. during remarks outside of the courtroom, he complained multiple times about how he

should be out on the campaign trail instead. to be fair, the former president's legal situation has not completely sidelined him from campaigning. he has the weekends. and he had aeraly in pennsylvania last saturday and he will have one in north carolina tonight. but for the duration of the trial rgs about 6 to 8 weeks, the campaign schedule will be dependent on whether the court is in session or adjourned. trump will be confined to the courthouse but trumpism is out there and continuing to spread at an alarming degree. at an event this week, the former arizona gubernatorial candidate dismissed the criminal cases the former president faces and used similarly violent rhetoric as the fommer president. >> he is willing to sacrifice everything. i am. that's why are they are coming after us with law fare. the next seven months will be intense. we need to strap on -- let's

see. we will put on the armor of god. and maybe strap on the glock on the side of us just in case. you can put one heater and one in the back or one in the front, whatever you decide. >> we are going to put on the armor of god and maybe strap on a glock on the side of it, just in case. that's what she said. she has risen up the ranks by ingreigeiating herself to trump, a prominent election denier running for a crucial arizona senate state that could determine control of congress. she was not the only republican to endorse the use of force. on monday, tom cotton took aim at demonstrators who have been blocking traffic as a form of protests against the war in

gaza. he encouraged people to take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way. he followed it up with a video from an unspecified protest showing people forcibly dragging protesters out of the street. he captioned it how it should be done. this is not the first time that lake or cotton have used violent rhetoric. and while they should be held responsible for their actions, it is clear that trump ushered in a dangerous era in politics. during his first presidential bid, he repeatedly promoted violence on the campaign trail. anti-trump supporters were assaulted at more than one rally. it happened in birmingham in 2015 to a black lives matter activist. the following day instead of denouncing the violence, trump said, maybe he should have been roughed up. when a protester disrupted his speech at a rally in las vegas in 2016, trump said, i'd like to punch him in the face. after multiple protesters showed up and interrupted an event in

north carolina in 2016, trump lamented about how in the good old days this didn't use to happen because they used to treat them very rough, end quote. one protester was assaulted by a trump supporter at that event and after that trump supporter was arrested, trump suggested he would pay his legal bills. this is a problem that is no longer being treated like a problem within the republican party. it is emblematic of a party that lacks leadership and does not have a unifying ideology. that's why we are seeing the chaos on capitol hill that we are been talking about this morning that is going on right now. joining me now is special correspondent from vanfy fair, and an msnbc political analyst. molly, we did not touch on the fact that donald trump at the beginning of his rallies, he has one tonight, he has that weird national anthem that is sung by the january 6th chors who he

called hostages and patriots. they were people engaged in violence. you can say they were to blame or suckers but he honors this political violence, day in and day out. >> he elevates political violence because he wants to create an example for others. these are the really violent january 6th protesters who ended up in jail. a lot of them were held accountable but only a very few were put in jail for a long time and those were the ones that did violent acts. all of these people, it will be wild. we will go to the capital, it will be beautiful. don't have them go through the machines , all of that stuff, right? trump was very involved. now we haven't seen legally if he will be held accountable. he has spent millions on legal fees to punt all of the cases

except the new york criminal case. >> he asked the judge in the new york criminal case, the lawyers asked him say he wants to appear at the supreme court which will deal with the issue of his immunity and the judge said no. appearing in the supreme court is an important thing if you happen to have a case there but this is also an important trial and you have to be here. the idea that the judge will give him permission to go out and campaign is a nonstarter. the one thing about the trial that is important for donald trump to register is he is on trial as a defendant encourt, in new york, he has to show up. he has to do what he has to do. >> he is being treated like everyone else for the first time really ever. this is a person who has been so successful at getting, using his privilege, his afluence, the way he grew up, his whiteness, and maleness to have a cake walk. he has gotten away with

devaluing property to pay less taxes and then valuing it to get more insurance. he has done all of this. he has a fraud bond that is looking a little --. >> there are questions about it. >> right and he has to be encourt on tuesday. this is a person who has not been held to the same accountability standards as anyone else and here he is and he has to sit in court as a normal defendant because he is a defendant. >> who has to follow rules. i think the point that joanne made in the last hour is that he made a career out of being a rule breaker or the rules not applying to him. people seem to like that about him. some of his supporters like that he operates outside of norms and rules. except this week, he is not. >> and i wouldn't say like one of the things that trump has done successfully is he never apologizes. he will get something wrong or lie and he will never be like a normal newspaper would print a retraction or say you are sorry,

he has nfsh done that. that has worked well with him with a percentage of the american public but not enough to make him president again in 2020. and we will see in 2024 if it is enough. remember, this is a person who has never had any interest in growing his base. he has never, ever, ever in all of these years wanted to grow his base. i'm not convinced that this group, this hardened group that loves him so much and treats him as a religious figure is really enough to even win the electoral college. >> the argument that tim snyder makes frul yale is that he doesn't need it to be enough. he needs it to be close. he is throwing enough chaos and concern about the integrity of the election, electoral system to this day, while people may not vote for him, there are enough people that think there was something fishy about the last election. >> right. and the problem is that the

republican party has been so cowardly and they have not taken a stand. you have seen them say there were questions. there was a once in a lifetime pandemic. people have looked at this election every which way. >> it has been deliberated in court. >> hugo chaeznever did fix the voting machines. this is the authoritarian playbook. you talk about how elections are real. you talk about how the courts aren't real. you try to sew dissent to get back in power. it is a desperate play. but this is all a desperate play. it is an anxiety of a true multiracial democracy. these people do not want that. they are willing to do anything they can to gum up the works. >> there are some people who don't love this as the case. they think it is unimportant and uninfluential and not an attack

on democracies. there is an element of this bogue an attack on democracies. but what you are seeing is the process of a case at work, a judge who has asserted himself and says i am the boss in the courtroom. you're not. you are a defendant just like any other defendant would be. and that is something that donald trump is having great trouble with. but in the end, if he has to set through this for one through eight weeks, america is going to see a different donald trump. >> the question is does it permeate the news bubble . the people who are not 100% read in on everything, do they see it? what i was surprised with last week was the people who came back from 2015, the ones that trump worked hard to get rid of. karen mcdougle, stormy daniels, the alleged one year affair when his third wife had delivered his fifth child, he pays off a fill starm. those are salacious details. this is a man who is supposed to

be the candidate of evangelicals. >> right. >> so i think this is not so helpful. >> someone will have to have a squaring off with who they are with their beliefs. thank you molly. still ahead on velshi, we will watch capitol hill where house members are working to pass a long stalled aid package and others are working to oust the speaker. and the story of a red state governor who figures prominently on trump's vp short list got herself banned on one fifth of the land in her own state. and then maulik choley talks to us about the book he wrote on kids navigating multicultural layers. but now it is not just his book

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the house of representatives is in session now on a saturday, set to vote today on four bills that would allow the united states to send new aid to ukraine, israel and more. together the bills make up $95 billion in foreign aid. if they pass, they will be packaged together and sent to the senate. the votes have ben long delayed because of republican drama and the drama is not over. the far right congressman from arizona, paul gosarjoined forces with marjorie taylor greene and thomas massie who are threatening a motion to vacate which would force a vote on keeping or ousting mike johnson in retaliation for even allowing the vote on ukraine aid which they all oppose. now if all democrats vote against johnson asthy typically

do and vote for a leader from their own party, mike johnson could only lose two republican votes to lose his speakership. either that our convince democrats to bail him out. julie tsirkin is live on capitol hill. we have to separate this into the bills that are being voted on and then what, if anything, happens to johnson if the bills are passed. >> reporter: well, we are about two hours away from the house beginning to vote to take up the foreign aid bills plus the bill that would force chinese company bytedance to sell tiktok if it doesn't happen within a year. you could see something from the group of three, potentially more as thomas massie is one of those three, just a few feet away from me. he was just talking to reporters, telling us that he thinks johnson's job is in jeopardy. he wants him to resign. as i told youalist hour, we had that conversation yesterday. it is not clear if that will

translate to a group of three or more to kick johnson out of the job. that remains to be seen. what massie did say in part was even if johnson survives, even if democrats take him over the line with the foreign aid bills today, there is significant republican support for israel aid and for the indo pacific but if he manages to push that through and if republicans get a motion to vacate, he believes that johnson would face an issue when it comes to next congress. he said he would not bow a popular speaker. democrats saving a republican does not bode well for anyone no matter what party you are or where you are in loadership. we will see if that happens. that is a big if. i think the bottom line here as we have been talking about for months is that finally the house will take up the foreign aid package. the senate will presumably follow. it is not clear what the timing will look like. they are trying to speed the process along.

but we do expect all of this to be clear by mid week next week. president biden said he would sign it. >> generally speaking, these bills all have democratic support. so they don't need republicans to support them? >> reporter: you get into different coalitions when you look at the bills. you have aid to israel which is more contentious among democrats because of the continued aggression by israel in gaza in retaliation for the hamas attacks on october 7th. democrats did push for $9 billion in humanitarian aid. some of thet would go to civilians in gaza. you can imagine that speaker johnson and republicans would have been okay to leave it out perhaps. but when you go to ukraine aid for example, you will lose republicans on that. democrats would take up a majority of that and that is in part why johnson put this on the floor individually. >> we will stay close to you

throughout the day. julie tsirkin, capitol hill. coming up, how a red state governor got herself banned from large parts of own state. and the author and activist, and actor maulik pancholy paid us a visit with his children's book exploring identity was targeted. he himself is now the target of censors. is now the target o censors. a better way to do things. like bundling your home and auto insurance with allstate. yeah, she knows. and some people... don't. like... come on. yikes! ughh... no. you know, there's a better way. save time and money by bundling your home and auto with allstate. you're in good hands with allstate. i'm adding downy unstopables to my wash. now i'll be smelling fresh all day long.

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turning to iran and israel where attacks have raised concerns of a full blown war leaving the international community on edge. israel launched an air strike in iran near a major air base and nuclear site in the city of

isfahan. it triggered iran's air defenses and caused now harm to the nuclear facilities. iran described all sites as fully safe. the u.n. international atomic energy agency confirmed there was no damage to the nuclear sites. this comes a week after iran's unprecedented drone and missile attack on israel, most of which were intercepted by israel's missile defense system known as the iron dome. this is the first ever direct attack on israel launching # 00 missiles and drones into israel last saturday. the recent cycle of violence between israel and iran began on april 1st when israel bombed an iranian consular building killing five generals and two officers. the exchanges between the bitter foes have threatened to escalate the longtime shadow war which until now has largely been conducted through armed proxies and assassinations, avoiding direct confrontation, missiles

and rockets between the two countries. prime minister netanyahu of israel vowed to recaliate against iran, following the attacks. president biden warned him that the united states would not participate in military action. iran and israel on friday appeared to down play israel's latest strike in a sign that the two countries are ready to prevent an all out rio de janeiroenal war. a senior ezraley official told the washington post that the attack was meant to signal to iran that israel can attack its territory. iran's foreign minister told nbc news that iran has no plans to respond. with more on the developments, i'm joined by nova patalsky who has covered the conflict. you will know her well from this show because she has been on regularly discussing the

tensions in the region. great to have you here. >> great to see you. >> tell me about everything i just said. it does seem strange that between iran and israel that are blijerants who have a lot to say about each other, that neither have in the last couple of days. it seems they are trying to cool it down. >> let's hope they are scared and scared into a certain kind of silence. >> i'm scared. the idea of iran and israel going at it is akin to something close to world war three. >> i'm glad you are scared. i'm terrified. i live there. yes, it could be. we are not out of the danger zone. it still could be. if we take a step back, iran wants to show it is a boss in the region. you see militants armed by iran. the top general was killed apparently by an israeli hit in

damascus. this is a guy for the last 20 years has been in charge of arming the iranian proxies. >> right. >> he had a direct role in the attacks of october 7th through arming hamas. he armed hezbollah and the uthies in the south. israel is surrounded by this and iran has been resurgeant. >> right. israel has lived on the fear of hostile arab neighbors but houthis, hamas, hezbollah, arab groups provided for by iran. >> and directly trained by iran which this gentlemen also did. speaking of the arab countries surrounding israel, jordan with which israel has a peace s accord, saudi arabia which it doesn't but it hopes to. >> there is some talk of that happening. >> these countries took part along side united states and great britain in the air

defenses of israel. the reason no israeli died last saturday in this massive attack was an alliance of all of these nations. i have some good news to share with me which is the little girl, the israeli girl who was hit, the only victim of that attack is now breathing on her own. and she will survive. a little 7-year-old bedouin girl from southern israel. >> you and i have a lot of time to talk about the 50,000 foot view and the global politics. but ifore in the last two weeks as we have been talking about iran and israel, there are hostages. there are still palestinians who are dying, innocent ones and there is still a famine headed towards gaza. the people victims of this get foreguten in our big game wars. >> 100%, and it is shattering for me to realize as someone who has covered the politics for so

long, the fact that today's political leadership, the regional ones, truly it appears just don't care. this little girl, her father announced that she is breathing on her own and she will make it in the last hour, and heed added, no member of the ezraley government has reached out to us, no minister, no aide. israelis and palestinians, each in their own way feel they are on their own right now. >> yeah. >> you also her increasingly reports of anger at hamas which is ruthless, islamic militia that has ruled gaza and the first victims of them were the gazans. and you hear more and more daring critiques of hamas by gazans who have just about had it. >> we have talked the last fou years, because israelis stood up against things that they thought the government was doing that were unfair, is there some

chance of a larger ground swell movement that involves palestinians protesting their government and israeli protesting their government that could lead to some change that could lead to peace? is there anything in your heart as aiohave covered this as long as you have living in jerusalem that something good could come of this? >> yes, and i could name names. there is an organization called standing together. it is an organization of palestinians and israelis who protest together and hold events. there is in jerusalem, a community center in my neighborhood called fill bet. which is a play on words, to feel at home. it has wonderful arabic, hebrew events. i could go on and on. the people involved in active initiatives for creating a positive life in the future have

gotten stronger out of this despair that most of society is feeling. >> tell me about what happens now in israel. there is a break that is becoming clear between the military establishment which is not a liberal organization in netanyahu. because they feel he is doing things to maintain his hold on power, probably so he doesn't go to jail. that is not in keeping with israel's actual security needs. >> that's right. it is extremely, extremely dangerous. the generals running the war feel they are being thwarted. the chief of staff of the israeli army has said out loud that the government needs to have a strategy so the military gains won't be lost. that to me means that military gains are already being lost, that hamas is finding a way to reposition itself politically in gaza because the israeli government has refused flat out

to name who will be the new administrator. >> right, right. >> so for the army, this is a catastrophe. they don't want to have to become a local police force. >> right. they said this is not going to be practical. israel administering in gaza is not something they want. >> they say it will be a waste of the army. >> thank you so much. many times i have spoken to you in the middle of the night. and you hear the calls to prayer behind you when you are in jerusalem. it is great to see you here. >> thank you so much. >> independent journalist with two decades of experience covering the izerallyy palestinian conflict. coming up, how trump loyalist and south dakota governor kristi noem got herself banned in stepping foot in one fifth of her own state. you're watching velshi on msnbc. own state you're watching velshi on msnbc.

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on thursday, the rose bud sioux tribe of south dakota banned the governor kristi noem from stepping foot on the reservation. it is the fourth tribe to ban the governor from their lands. the cheyenne sioux, standing rock sioux and the rose bud sioux reservations cover more than 8 million acres according to state and federal government records which means that kristi noem is currently banned from roughly 17% of her own state. why? well, for the past few months, governor noem who is vying to be trump's pick for vp can't seem to stop talking about the violent drug trafficking cartels and the war zone at the texas border with mexico. in talking about the border situation and the cartels and the drugs and the murders, she keeps suggesting that the native american tribes in her state are complicit and even benefitting

from the cartel activity. last month during a press conference, noem said we have some tribal leaders that i believe are personally benefitting from the cartels being there and that's why they attack me every day. since january, noem has repeatedly claimed that the cartel are using the reservations to spread fentful throughout the state. oneoge laa leader said how dare the governor suggest that the trinal councils do not care about their communities and children or that they are involved in nefarious activities. the troibl loaders described that the decision to ban the governor was not made lightly. it is not the first time she has been banned from tribal land. in 2019, there was a major protest against the construction of the key stone excel pipeline on the pine ridge reservation. she supported antiprotest

legislation that outlawed the demonstrators and made it punishable by 5 to 25 years enprison. in response, the tribe of the pine ridge reservation voted to ban her from the land temporarily. when tribes set up checkpoints during the height of the covid-19 pandemic to regulate access to the land to protect their medically vulnerable elders, noem called on them to shut the checkpoints down. i visited the area shortly after they set up the checkpoints and i spoke with red dawn foster about the importance of the checkpoints. >> what's the point of the checkpoints and what's the controversy? >> thank you for having me on here. the point of the checkpoints wer to limit traffic coming into the reservation that was not normally living here. it was a matter of life and death on the reservation and we need to limit the spread and

people coming into our xhounts and potentially wiping our hole community out. we have the right to have the checkpoints. it is enour best interest. it is about maintaining our health and wellness and protecting our people. >> after the checkpoints were set up, noem facilitated the department of education in removing the bulk of native history and culture from the state's k-12 crimlm. when tribal leaders called for help with the heavy snowstorm, the administration took more than a week to respond, sending the national guard only after the snow receded. six tribe memberses died in the wake. tribe members point out how troubling this is as noem has deployed the south dakota national guard to the u.s. mexico border. now she has blamed tribal leaders for drug related deaths on the reservations suggesting # they are facilitating and benefitting from cartel activity. the rose bud sioux tribe says

governor noem claims she wants to establish meaningful relationships with tribes to provide solutions for systemic problems but her actions show otherwise. the recent disparaging allegations made against students, parents, and tribal leaders have led to further division and distrust of tribal state relations. her disengenuous nature towards native americans to further political is an attack on tribal sovereignty that the tribes will not tolerate. five tribes have demanded a public apology pub from noem but she has not. this is someone who is being considered to be the running mate for donald trump, first in line to the presidency if donald trump is elected. right now, she is not allowed to step foot in almost one fifth of

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at bombas, we're obsessed with socks. tees. and underwear. because your basic things should be your best things. one purchased equals one donated. visit bombas.com and get 20% off your first order. last july, we featured a poignant and enduring children's book on the book club. it was called the best added by author maulik pancholy. many viewers may know him from his role on the sitcom 30 rock. the best at it tells the story

of raule kapur, a gay indian boy in a small midwestern town. it is an a story of identity, acceptance, friendship, and overcoming anxiety and bullying. it is one of those backs that is so categorically appropriate that there is no good faith argument for removing it from schools and classrooms. at its core, it is a book that teaches empathy, a book that teaches you to love yourself and love one another and it is a semi autobiographical story. but his life and story were under attack again this woke in a different way. on monday, pancholy was scheduled to speak at an antibullying assembly at mountain view middle school in pennsylvania, 100 miles west of philadelphia. he learned through social media that he had been disinvited and

that the school district voted to cancel his event. i'm sure you can guess why. but in case you can't, the board cited his life style. >> he is a homosexual activist or what have you and has written bos, he will be talking about? >> if you research the individual, he labels himself as an activist. he is proud of his life style and i don't think that should be imposed upon our students at any age. >> it is not discriminating against his life style, that's his choice. but him speaking about it and it did say that is not the topic but that's what his books are about and he will talk about this pathway because he talks about antibullying and empathy and inclusion, and part of that is his journey individual, and that's as a self proclaimed

activist, that's where it gets concerning. >> yeah, it gets real concerning. it will tell you how he got there. the school board member says it at its best, the book is concerning because it deals with antibullying and it is centered around a gay character. faculty at mountain view middle school condemned the board's decision to prevent him from speaking writing in part that statements made by the board members identified pancholy's sexual identity as a factor, an identity shared by many members of the school community. in doing so, pancholy's person hood was reduced to a single aspect. it goes on tosay as a public school it is our responsibility to serve the entire community. no one should be made to feel that who they are is less than anyone else. but it is too late. the damage has been done for now. the children at mountain view

middle school will not get to hear the story in person. they will not learn to grow from the information that he could have shared with him. the first meeting of the velshi banned book club took place two years ago in february of 2022. since then the list of targeted books has grown much longer. censorship efforts have become more brazen, the chors raising against the differences that should unite us as americans has gotten much louder. donot consider this a warning. consider this your reality. coming up after the break, i'm joined by maulik pancholy to discuss the ordeal and the potential impact on our youth. don't go anywhere. l impact on our youth. don't go anywhere. they need their lawn back fast and you need scotts turf builder rapid grass.

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i'm joined by maulik pancholy, octer, activist, octer of two children's book including the best at it. it is fascinating to me that we have discussed banned children's books. we do a lot of young adult stuff, literature, shakespeare. but kids books that are getting banned, like you must have written some terrible stuff in the book to get it banned, right? >> yeah, it is really horrible. it is about finding yourself in middle school and being comfortable with who you are as

a human being. i love that someone at the school board referenced that there is empathy in the book. >> but they referenceded it as if it was a bad thing. >> and i'm grateful to the people on the ground in the community, and the mother who has been doing so much to advocate for all of the young people there who had the foresight to report this board member who said this is going in the wrong direction and i want to record it. that is not happening everywhere. this is a unique situation where someone on the ground, many people on the ground are confronting their school board. >> right. >> but there are places around the country where that is not happening. the school boards are making decisions and authors are getting canceled, books are getting banned. i hope that what is happening in the situation becomes a model for other people around the country of how they can stand up for their students. >> another thing has happened at the university of california

where they banned the valedictorian without looking at the speech but people have said she is probably going to speak about this and this will be bad. it has never been done in the history of school. this has always been my issue with book banning. there are books in the club that would not be to my taste but that's not the point. we do not want our institutions and states making decisions that individuals, students, and their parents should be making for themselves. that is a principle of or american values and society. once you let the state start making the decisions and once you let institutions make the decisions, where might it stop? i can't even hear from you. >> right, right. it is fascinating that the video was caught because you hear the school board is making a vote on something that they are not familiar with. they could have very easily reached out to the principal, superintendent, i'm glad you featured the letter that the

school administration wrote back protecting their students which one would think would be the job of the school board but they failed to do that in this instance. i have heard from so many students from the school about how this does not present their values. i have heard from former stounts there who have spoken about how a talk like this would have been so important to them. there is an open letter on facebook that is quite moving by a former student there named tony conte, who talked about growing up different and the suicidal ideation that he had because he didn't have role models to look up to. he had a friend who committed suicide. i think as we discuss about this, we are not just talking about ideas. we are talking about kids' lives. i just want to thank the person for writing with such courage and so eloquently. he wrote an open letter tothe school board and we have to take this into account because the

people are sitting at the chairs debating ideas when we know that i am the chair and cofounder of an antibullying nonprofit. >> right. you would think that is something we can get behind. >> where is the politics in that? and a nonprofit by definition is not political. >> right. >> we know that bullying rates are going up around the country. every state -- i shouldn't speak hyperbolically but we are getting reports from states around the country that incidents of bullying are up. we know through organizations like the trevor project that lgbtq plus teens are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. these are not ideas. they need the mirror of seeing themself in a book and that's all i do is give them opportunity to see themselves and bring empathy and celebrate things that may be different. >> we often talk about books as windows and glasses, where you look into a house that you are

not familiar with but the concept of it being a mirror, a number of authors have brought that up. a number of people have written to them saying i saw myself in your book. one of the members said he will probably talk about bullying and inclusion and identity. part of that is his journey as an individual, as a self proclaimed activist, that is where it gets concerning. >> right. >> the first part of the sentence i really loved. and then it is concerning. why is it concerning that you talk about your journey? the character in your book is a seventh grader, facing identity issues, being different, being an indian kid, being gay. this happens to people. this is a reality. this is not teaching people stuff. >> no, and i love that the school administrators wrote that there are a number of lgbtq students at the school and faculty. i have heard from so many of them. by the way, using this national

platform to say thank you for all of the messages. it is impossible to get back to everyone but i'm seeing everything and the mobilization on the ground has been phenomenal. >> we do have a segment called small acts of courage. that's the small act of courage, the people who are there to write the letter, just take that stand. you don't have to change the whole world but if you might just change what happens at your school or on your school board, the world will change because someone will get to hear from you. someone who has suicidal ideations will say i'm being seen and they will say i didn't do it. i'm still here. >> and just to speak to that, the quote about antibullying and inclusion, i issued a statement about this and i posed a real question. i don't know the answer to it. the question i posed tothe school board was why is the school board so afraid of that? where does the fear behind that lie? who wouldn't want their kids to go to a school where kids are

not bullied, where there is empathy and people feel included? >> this may still happen. the talk is scheduled for may and the school board will reconsider this. it would be my advice to everyone in the community to undertake a small act of courage and get maulik pancholy back as your speaker. congratulations for everything you have done. thank you for continuing to be brave and thank you for being here a second time. >> thank you for having me back. >> the author of our book club feature, the best at it. before we go, my new book, small acts of courage comes out on tuesday, may 7th. i'm hitting several cities in the next few weeks. my book launch kicks off in philadelphia on may 7th. and then i will be in washington d.c. and in baltimore right after that. i will keep you "the katie phang show"

begins right now. >>