CBS News97%
Tennessee, Alabama consider congressional redistricting in special sessions 93%
5/5/2026, 6:07:02 PM
BS Summary: This video contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Anecdotal, and Recency Bias, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 30.5% saturation with 263 hits. Analysis detected 2,371 faulty-reasoning hits from 863 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 89.5% and a BS Rank of 93% (1,170 of 16,813 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 93.00% of the video peer group.
Think about this.
Usually the president of the United States doesn't generally weigh in on state senate races.
Stays out of that.
But that is the case today in Indiana.
These are the new times and they sometimes look like presidential payback.
Think about this.
President Trump wants to oust Republican state senators who voted against a redistricting plan to favor the GOP last year.
He said he would.
Now he is.
And the nationwide redistricting rage war rages on.
We're talking about this.
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court allowed last week's landmark decision striking down Louisiana's congressional map.
That takes effect immediately.
Now, at the same time, you see Florida Governor Ronda Santis there.
He signed into law a new congressional map that could help flip seats from Democrats to Republicans in his state.
Tennessee and Alabama also moving to redraw their congressional maps after that Supreme Court ruling and it narrowed the Voting Rights Act quite a bit.
Team coverage now.
CBS News reporter Shauna Meiselle is at Alabama State House in Montgomery.
But let's start with CBS News correspondent Nicole Valdez.
She is in Nashville outside of Tennessee's capital building.
So Nicole, what are you watching for there in that special session?
>> Our state.
>> Whose state?
>> Our state.
>> We will of course a lot of talk about the potential uh redistricting in the state of Tennessee, but you got to notice the people here behind me chanting whose house our house.
These are hundreds of people that have come from all across the state of Tennessee to protest this special session one.
They say they were given just days notice of to redraw the congressional maps here in Tennessee and essentially break up Tennessee's ninth congressional district.
That includes the city of Memphis.
It's the only Democratic district left in the state of Tennessee and it is a majority minority district.
So, a lot of people here are certainly uh vocal against this.
They are calling this an unconstitutional move.
Uh but they're expecting to see lawmakers file into the House uh or rather the Tennessee capital here in just a few moments to start that uh hearing to really discuss the rules of this session and once again decide whether they will redraw this district.
There's a chance that the district that currently sits could be divided up into three.
Now, one of the main concerns here is what impact this will have on the upcoming midterm elections, recognizing that those candidates who have already qualified and that qualification deadline has long passed will now have to re-qualify and their campaigns will now have to extend to a much different group of people if this makes its way.
Now, I just spoke to several Democratic leaders who are out at this protest today, including Representative Justin Pearson here in Nashville.
He believes not only that this is constitutional, that several Democrats and state leaders will look to file legal challenges to this map if it is moved forward, but he says, "Look, I don't think that they would have called this special session if they didn't have the votes."
Again, Governor Lee uh said for this to happen just last week after Marshia Blackburn certainly shared the map that she believes should move forward here in Tennessee.
President Trump has definitely uh shown his support for such a map that would give Republicans a 90 leg up here in the state of Tennessee.
An additional Republican seat in Congress.
So certainly a lot of outspoken people outside the capital today and we'll see how the conversation goes once session starts later today.
>> All right, the issue and the people making their voices heard.
Nicole Valdez, thank you.
So let's continue on this.
CBS News reporter Shauna Meiselle, she joins us now from Alabama.
Similar session kicked off yesterday.
So, what did we hear from state lawmakers there in Montgomery?
>> Hey Reed.
Well, state lawmakers here just wrapped up a rally where they really expressed their disappointment, their anger, and their disdain.
At some points, there were even some profanities lobbed.
They are very upset about this effort from the Alabama governor and Republicans here to bring back some old congressional maps that were previously struck down.
They say that this is going to be voter disenfranchisement and not any voters, but specifically black voters here in the state of Alabama, which makes up about 20% of voters here.
They say that they deserve and earned two seats to represent those voters in Congress.
I actually just wrapped up an interview with Congresswoman Terry Swool and she said she does not have any faith in the man-made system here, but she is keeping her faith in God.
She's expressing a little bit of optimism and calling on constituents here to call their state legislators and express this disdain because this special session has a few more days to go.
It actually ends on Friday.
>> All right, we know you're all over it.
Shauna and Meiselle, thank you so much for that update.
We appreciate it.
Analysis
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