“America is a work in progress” — Sen. Raphael Warnock on Juneteenth, Faith and Politics

Summary

Here's the Scoop — “America is a work in progress”

Guest: Senator Raphael Warnock
Host: Yasmin Vossoughian
Date: June 19, 2026
Podcast: Here’s the Scoop (NBC News)

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Episode Overview

This episode, released on Juneteenth, features a thoughtful conversation between Host Yasmin Vossoughian and Georgia Senator (and Ebenezer Baptist Church pastor) Raphael Warnock. The discussion explores the meaning of Juneteenth, the current political climate in Georgia and the United States, Warnock’s new book The Crooked Places Made Straight, the intersection of faith and politics, voting rights, redistricting, and hope for America’s unfinished democracy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Meaning of Juneteenth and America's "Work in Progress"

• Juneteenth as Metaphor for America
  • Warnock draws parallels between Juneteenth—the delayed implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation—and the continual process of American freedom and democracy:

    "Juneteenth is a wonderful reminder that America is a work in progress. We are that grand and unfinished cathedral." (Warnock, 00:01/26:53) "Freedom had already been put on paper, but it took a while for it to get to them. And that is a wonderful metaphor for the American story." (Warnock, 00:18/26:53)

  • He invokes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s phrase of America as an "unfinished cathedral."
• Warnock notes the evolving understanding of freedom and the essential contributions of previously excluded groups, especially women.

2. 2026 Georgia Political Landscape

• Governor and Senate Races:

  • Discussion of the governor’s race (Rick Jackson vs. Keisha Lance Bottoms) and Senate race (Mike Collins vs. Jon Ossoff).
  • Emphasis on Georgia as a crucial state for Democrats.

• Warnock’s Approach to Bipartisanship:

  • Recognizes Georgia’s political diversity:

    "I'm aware of the fact that the people of Georgia elected me and they elected Donald Trump. And so for me, that's not a conundrum. It's the work that I enjoy doing." (Warnock, 04:17)

  • Proud of bipartisan work but stands firm on his beliefs.

• Community Engagement:

  • Shares story of supporting a predominantly Trump-voting town, Social Circle, in opposing a federally planned detention center:

    "I have continued to champion their cause because even those folks who voted for Donald Trump, they didn't vote for that." (Warnock, 05:30)

3. Redistricting & Voting Rights

• Recent Georgia Decision on Redistricting:

  • Georgia Republicans decided not to redraw congressional maps, a move Warnock attributes to public resistance and activism:

    "They were focused. You're not going to take our voice and our vote. And quite honestly, I think the governor and the state legislators... got scared, and they should be because they're going to feel the wrath of the people come November." (Warnock, 07:02)

• Gerrymandering and Voting Rights:

  • Warnock calls recent Supreme Court decisions a "devastating blow to democracy":

    "Democrats cannot afford to unilaterally disarm... Congress can pass my provision... that would ban gerrymandering." (Warnock, 14:30/14:55)

  • Advocates for making more competitive districts to encourage consensus-building in Congress:

    "If there were more districts in our country where a Democrat could win it, a Republican could win it, the issue is who's going to come with the best ideas." (Warnock, 15:12)

• Structural Political Problems:

  • Notes that extreme partisan redistricting leads to unrepresentative politics:

    "Because politicians aren't worried about the general. They're only worried about someone flanking them who's even more extreme..." (Warnock, 16:07)

  • Current system incentivizes extremism and blocks bipartisan compromise.

4. Warnock’s Book & America at a Crossroads

• Book’s Central Thesis:

  • America is facing a profound existential and social crisis:

    "We the people have a sense that something is profoundly broken and we are right." (Vossoughian, 09:37 quoting Warnock's book)

  • Warnock reflects on his own journey from poverty to the U.S. Senate, expressing concern that such stories are increasingly rare due to growing inequality:

    "It would be harder for me to achieve what I've done if I were that kid growing up on Cape street now than it was in the 1980s." (Warnock, 10:31)

  • Sees growing wealth inequality and systemic failures as a uniting concern across party lines.

• Barriers to Change:

  • Warnock ascribes gridlock not to lack of resources, but "a poverty of moral imagination." He urges a "return to big dreams."

    "To the degree that we don't have these things, it's not because of a poverty of resources. It's a poverty of moral imagination." (Warnock, 12:50)

5. Faith and Politics

• Guiding Principles:

  • Warnock separates "creeds" from "values," citing empathy, compassion, love of neighbor, and justice as guiding his Senate work:

    "Not the creeds, but the values of my faith. And those values... love of neighbor, justice making, truth telling, empathy, compassion..." (Warnock, 20:29)

• Faith as Social Justice:

  • Cites the Black Church’s historic emphasis on freedom and justice, challenging interpretations that separate faith from social policy:

    "My church emerged literally fighting for freedom. It's a freedom church. And so it gives you a certain perspective on things." (Warnock, 22:19)

  • Calls out political leaders who use public displays of faith to justify policies that harm vulnerable populations:

    "They joined hands in a very ostensible way in public, and they prayed a prayer... And then they went and cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid..." (Warnock, 23:41)

  • Quotes Dr. King questioning the integrity of American Christianity in the face of racial and economic justice.

• Debate with Speaker Mike Johnson:

  • Shares a private disagreement about faith’s role in policy:

    "He said to me that he thought that [care for the poor] was a matter of personal conduct, private behavior. It had nothing to do with public policy. On that point. He is so very wrong." (Warnock, 24:23)

  • Warnock emphasizes the prophetic tradition’s concern with systems and justice, referencing Isaiah and Jesus.

6. Hope for Renewal & The American Future

• Contractions as Metaphor for Change:
  • Warnock ends with a metaphor of birth, seeing moments of democratic contraction as painful but necessary for new beginnings:

    "This is a contraction moment. But every woman who's given birth will tell you that contractions are necessary for new birth. I still have a great deal of hope in this country and what we will build together." (Warnock, 27:36)

  • He maintains his faith in the American project despite its setbacks.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote |
|-----------|---------|-------| | 00:01/26:53 | Warnock | "Juneteenth is a wonderful reminder that America is a work in progress. We are that grand and unfinished cathedral." | | 02:53 | Warnock | "We need to continue doing what the president is not doing, and that's focus on the American people." | | 04:17 | Warnock | "I'm aware of the fact that the people of Georgia elected me and they elected Donald Trump... that's not a conundrum. It's the work that I enjoy doing." | | 07:02 | Warnock | "They were focused. You're not going to take our voice and our vote... they're going to feel the wrath of the people come November." | | 10:31 | Warnock | "It would be harder for me to achieve what I've done if I were that kid growing up on Cape street now than it was in the 1980s." | | 12:50 | Warnock | "It's not because of a poverty of resources. It's a poverty of moral imagination." | | 14:30 | Warnock | "Democrats cannot afford to unilaterally disarm..." | | 16:07 | Warnock | "Because politicians aren't worried about the general. They're only worried about someone flanking them who's even more extreme..." | | 17:30 | Warnock | "They're trying to mute and diminish the voices of the people... they're trying to get to pick the people who get to vote." | | 20:29 | Warnock | "Not the creeds, but the values of my faith... love of neighbor, justice making, truth telling, empathy, compassion..." | | 22:19 | Warnock | "My church emerged literally fighting for freedom. It's a freedom church. And so it gives you a certain perspective..." | | 24:23 | Warnock | "He [Johnson] said to me that... care for the poor... was a matter of personal conduct... had nothing to do with public policy. On that point... he is so very wrong." | | 26:53 | Warnock | "We have these grand charter documents... but they were written by Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder... Juneteenth gives me hope. It causes me to take the long view..." | | 27:36 | Warnock | "This is a contraction moment. But every woman who's given birth will tell you that contractions are necessary for new birth. I still have a great deal of hope..." |

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction & Juneteenth’s Meaning: 00:01–01:53
• Georgia’s Political Landscape & Partisanship: 02:04–06:10
• Redistricting and Voting Rights: 07:02–07:58 / 13:48–17:30
• Challenges Facing America & Warnock’s Book: 09:30–13:48
• Faith and Politics: 20:05–26:38
• Hope and Juneteenth Reflections: 26:38–28:35

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Tone & Style

Warnock’s tone is reflective, passionate, and hopeful, richly informed by both his pastoral background and political insights. Yasmin Vossoughian steers the conversation with clarity and empathy, helping to translate policy and philosophy into everyday understanding for listeners.

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Summary Takeaway

Sen. Raphael Warnock uses Juneteenth as a launching point for a wide-ranging exploration of democracy, faith, and justice in America. He discusses the ongoing fight over voting rights and fair representation, the role of faith values in policy, bipartisan outreach, and America’s "unfinished" story—a project requiring persistence, imagination, and hope. Ultimately, despite setbacks, Warnock expresses optimism for the American future, insisting that contraction and struggle can precede renewal.

Transcript

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Juneteenth is a wonderful reminder that America is a work in progress. We are that grand and unfinished cathedral. Those who are awaiting for free, who are awaiting freedom. On Juneteenth, they finally heard the good news of the Emancipation Proclamation some two years later. Freedom had already been put on paper, but it took a while for it to get to them. And that is a wonderful metaphor for the American story.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

Hey, everyone, and welcome to here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yazem Desugian. So today is Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years after President Lincoln issued it. President Biden made it a federal holiday just five years ago. It's actually called Juneteenth National Independence Day, marking the day when all Americans were free. In 2023, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, marked Juneteenth with a sermon at the Washington National Cathedral.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

I am mindful of the fact that my predecessor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr. Preached his final Sunday morning sermon in this place. And he talked to us about remaining awake during a revolution. And here we are on this Juneteenth weekend, still reckoning with the complicated nuances of our grand and glorious American story.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

He talks about the meaning of that moment for him in his new book, the Crooked Places Made Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America. And he joins me now. Senator Warnock, welcome.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Great to be here with you.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

It's great to have you. I want to talk about this book, but before we go there, I want to talk quickly about the primaries in Georgia this week. Let's talk about the governor's race first. The president endorsed the Kenneth that lost. So billionaire Rick Jackson is going to go against Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is the former Atlanta mayor and senior advisor in the Biden administration. In the Senate race, Representative Mike Collins is going to face Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. Ossoff is the only Democratic senator running for reelection in a state that Trump carried in 2024. And Georgia is a must win state for Democrats to take over the Senate. What do Dems need to do in your estimation, through your experiences, to win back the Senate?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

We need to continue doing what the president is not doing, and that's focus on the American people. Donald Trump said to the people of Georgia, I'm going to keep you out of wars and I'm going to lower your Costs. I'm going to address this issue of things being unaffordable. He's done just the opposite. He's taken us into a dangerous misadventure in the Middle East. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this agreement. That's another story. But he's increased people's prices. Folks in Georgia are going to the grocery store. There's no amount of political spin that you can put forward that helps people not to see what they're seeing when they're looking at their own bank account trying to buy gasoline. Healthcare is unaffordable. So I think as long as our candidates continue to lift up this issue and we lay out a plan about what we're going to do for the people of Georgia, we will win Georgia just as we've done before.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

As a Democratic senator in a purple state. How do you reconcile the president faring pretty well in this primary season so far? The folks that he has endorsed, aside from two of them, have, have won. Yes, he's got low approval ratings right now, but amongst the Republican Party, they still trust him, they still believe him. How do you reconcile that?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, look, it is a purple state, as you point out. I'm aware of the fact that the people of Georgia elected me and they elected Donald Trump. And so, you know, for me, that's not a conundrum. It's, it's the work that I enjoy doing. I'm listed as one of the most bipartisan senators in the Senate. I do a lot of work with Republicans. And in the places where I need to stand up, I stand up. So, you know, he, he's had some wins in terms of his primary picks, but as you point out, he had one big L the other night as well. In the state of Georgia, the candidate he picked did not win the primary. And I think, you know, as long as we're talking about the politicians, I think the people tune out. You know, I recently went to a very red little town in Georgia called Circle Social Circle, Georgia, where most of those people voted for Donald Trump. He's got a lot more votes there than I do. But I promised the people of Georgia, you know, I'm a pastor, that I would walk with them even as I work for them. That's how I look at my work.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

How are you received?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, warmly, because they looked up one day and they found out that the big bad federal government had purchased a huge warehouse in their town and were planning to put a 10,000 bed detention center literally across the street from an elementary school. Maybe about a mile up the road, tripling the size of the city from 5,000 to 15,000 people. They don't even have the water infrastructure to support this detention center. I went there. I have continued to champion their cause because even those folks who voted for Donald Trump, they didn't vote for that.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

I want to stay in Georgia for one more question and then we'll move on to your book. Wednesday, Georgia Republicans announced they were scrapping plans to redraw congressional maps, even though the governor had called a special session to redraw for the 2028 elections. Georgia's House speaker said this was, quote, not the right path forward. And the House believes it is important to do things responsibly, transparently. This is a quote directly that I'm reading here and with ample opportunity for public input. You have said previously you hate partisan gerrymandering. How do legislators in Georgia see redistricting differently than other states that are redrawing maps in preparation for 2028? Actually, not even for 2028. In preparation for November for the midterm elections and then beyond to 2028.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, Yasmin, I really want folks to pay attention to what happened in Georgia yesterday because it's instructive and it's helpful. I went down to Georgia, even though we were in session. I missed one or two votes, but I was trying to save the votes of the people. And while we were on the ground, I tell you, I went down there to inspire the people. They inspired me and they were focused. You're not going to take our voice and our vote. And quite honestly, I think the governor and the state legislators who were up to this madness got scared, and they should be because they're going to feel the wrath of the people come November. They've done absolutely nothing while they were in session to address the affordability crisis around housing in our country. They're focused on drawing crooked lines. We're trying to stand up for everyday people.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

All right, we're going to take a very quick break, but when we come back, I'm going to ask South Senator Warnock how Democrats are planning to fight back against the redistricting wars because it's happening elsewhere. Stay with us. And hey, while you wait, do me a favor and send this episode or another one of your favorites to a friend and tell them why you love listening to here's the scoop. We would love the support. We'll be back in a minute.

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[Senator Raphael Warnock]

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[Yasmin Vasugian]

And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm talking with Senator Raphael Warnock. I want to make a transition to your book because that is why you're here with us today. You've got this new book out, the Crooked Place Is Made Straight. You say in your book, Senator Warnock, that Americans are at a, quote, unquote, critical crossroads. And you write, and I quote, we the people have a sense that, that something is profoundly broken and we are right. It's interesting that you write this because we actually had this new poll in from NBC sponsored by More Perfect. And it found that 78% of people said the American dream is harder to attain.65% of adults who identify as Democrats said they believe America's best years are behind them compared to 50% of Republicans. That's depressing. What is the crossroads that you're talking about? And how do you convince people in this nation right now that feel hopeless, that feel depressed about the future of this country to actually have hope?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

You're looking at a United States senator who was just a kid growing up in public housing in Savannah, Georgia. I'm number 11 out of 12, first college graduate in my family, kid who grew up in the 80s. But here's what happened for me. America provided for me a narrow but achievable path to get to the life that I enjoy as someone who's earned an excellent education. United States senator from Georgia. Here's what keeps me up at night. It would be harder for me to achieve what I've done if I were that kid growing up on Cape street now than it was in the 1980s.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

Is it harder because of. Because you see racism as being a bigger part of the picture. Is it harder because of economics? Is it harder because. Or is it all of it in one?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Americans of all colors and of all races see a growing gap between what they ought to be able to reasonably expect from their government and what government actually delivers. So it's all of us, they see that gap on a whole range of issues. We're seeing growing wealth inequality. So people feel it and they feel it on the left and they feel it on the right. And it's why Donald Trump got elected, quite frankly, people were looking for somebody to shake it up. That's the thing that people on the left and the right have in common and they each have their own candidates. But people sense the ways in which the system is not working, is not delivering for them. It's centered around the politicians and who's going to win the next election. Meanwhile, we're witnessing growing wealth inequality. Even the things where we agree we have differences. But for example, the gun safety issue, Fox News, and I don't say this often, but a Fox News Post said that 87% of Americans believe we ought to have universal background checks, even though there's enough agreement on the left and the right to get that done. Why is it that we can't get a vote on that in Congress? It's because of special interests. It's because of the well connected. They increasingly own our politics. They're squeezing the voices of the people out of their own house. And that's why I fight so passionately and I began my book actually talking about voting rights because democracy is not just one issue alongside other issues and is the context in which we get to fight for health care that is affordable, that will keep us well and our families well. It's the context in which we get to fight for a livable wage and the ability to retire with dignity. What I observe as somebody who's been engaged in this fight for years, to the degree that we don't have these things, it's not because of a poverty of resources. It's a poverty of moral imagination. And what we've got to do is begin to dream big again. We cannot allow demagogues and those who are trying to move well from the bottom to the top to believe that we can't afford a better life for everyday Americans, we can.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

Senator Warnock, you mentioned voting rights, and it's a big chunk of this book. Back in April, the Voting Rights act was essentially gutted by this Supreme Court, of which the president put many Supreme Court justices on. That sent a lot of states kind of scrambling to redraw their congressional maps. You call this a devastating blow to democracy, particularly for people of color. I guess my question is, if not, then redrawing maps, how do you fight back? How do you fight back when this happens to voting rights?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Let me be very clear. Democrats cannot afford to unilaterally disarm. Since we're in this fight around gerrymandering. It would be malpractice for us to allow the Republicans to engage in gerrymandering in the rabid way in which they've been doing it and not respond in kind. I support.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

Got it.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

What California did. But in the meantime, I am saying to my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, that we can stop this arms race to the bottom. Tomorrow, Congress can pass my provision, Senator Padilla's provision, that would ban gerrymandering. And that's what we need to do. That's what I would support. I honestly think, as a citizen. Let me just step back from my role as a United States senator representing a party. I think our democracy would be a whole lot better if we had more competitive congressional districts, if there were more districts in our country where a Democrat could win it, a Republican could win it. The issue is who's going to come with the best ideas and who are people convinced that that's going to fight for them. People wonder why we can't get anything done in this House, why so little gets done in Congress. It's because the primary is the whole game, and we need to do something about it. The democracy would be better off.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

What do you mean by that? Primaries, the whole game.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Because politicians aren't worried about the general. They're only worried about someone flanking them who's even more extreme, because these districts are so extreme the way they're drawing them. They're not worried about the general. They just. They got to get out of the primary, and they don't want someone who's even more to the right or even more to the left. And so then you get to Congress and there's very little incentive to compromise, to get something done of substance on health care, to get something done on gun safety in the places where we actually agree to work so that working families will have a livable wage to get to some agreement. There's little incentive to do that because of this deep structural problem. The Supreme Court poured fuel on that fire with that awful Kalaid decision. You're witnessing it in real time at a time when voters should be voting. Politicians are busy redrawing the lines. That's not how democracy is supposed to work.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

If we think about the objective of what the Republican Party is doing right now in redrawing some of these maps, including Speaker Mike Johnson, who I know you sat down with last week, and we'll talk about that in a moment. What do you think the ultimate objective is in redrawing these maps? What are they trying to do?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

They are trying to mute and diminish the voices of the people. Today's Republican Party, Trump's MAGA party, has a real problem. How do you stay in power when you're the minority? That is the problem that they're trying to solve. There's no proof that you have huge segments of undocumented people voting. It's illegal to do and it's too risky to try to do that at scale. If you think about it, it wouldn't make sense to. It's a non issue and they're willing to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of other people to chase after solving a problem that doesn't exist. And so rather than adjusting their policies to where the people are, they're trying to get to pick the people who get to vote.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

We're going to take a very quick break and when we come back, Senator Warnock on being a pastor and a senator. That's next.

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[Yasmin Vasugian]

And we are back with. Here's the scoop from NBC News. Senator Warnock, I want to talk about the intersection of faith and politics. As you have said, you are not a senator who used to be a pastor. You're a pastor serving in the Senate. What is an example that you can give folks as to how your faith has actually guided your decisions in Congress?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Oh, my faith guides my work every single day. And let me be really clear. Not the creeds, but the values of my faith. And those values, I think, are resonant in all of the great faith traditions. Love of neighbor, justice, making, truth telling, empathy, compassion, the ability to look into the eyes of the other, the eyes of your neighbor and those who don't even agree with you and see a glimpse of your own children's eyes. And so for me, this moment, the American nation, this idea of a government of, by and for the people, is a distinctive turning point in human history. It's a grand experiment. America is a grand cathedral of democracy. Cathedrals take a long time to build. Decades. And so as we approach the 250th anniversary of our country, I've written this book, the Crooked Places Made Straight, to try to encourage us to keep building this unfinished cathedral of democracy.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

How do you make sense, though, of other leaders in Congress? And listen, I could literally ask this question of any person on the street, which is, how do you make sense of someone else having the same faith as you, even if it's a different God, but coming to very different conclusions?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, I believe that the acid test of one's faith is the depth of your commitment to those on the margins? And part of how you correct what you lay out as a challenge for people to fade, part of how you correct that is you stay in conversation with people on the margins because privilege blinds you from things. So even as we come to the book, I think our reading of the book is much better. When we're reading next to other folk who come from a different experience, that is. That is the power and the gift of the faith tradition that shaped me, the black church. And when we say the black church, we've never meant anything racially exclusive about that, but I'm talking about a distinctive experience of Christian faith. My church emerged literally fighting for freedom. It's a freedom church. And so it gives you a certain. A certain perspective on things. Christians are often on the wrong side. American Christians, by and large, were on the wrong side of slavery. They were on the wrong side of segregation. Dr. King says over and over again, I'm so disappointed in the church. As I travel through the south and I see the beautiful churches, he said, and their spires pointing heavenward, I asked myself, what kind of people worship there? And who really is there? A God. That's a question that Dr. King asked. And it is a question that I asked last summer when right before passing the one big ugly bill, as I call it, a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top, the speaker of the House gathered with other legislators. They joined hands in a very ostensible way in public, and they prayed a prayer leaning into their faith. And then they went and cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid. They went and took snap from veterans, from seniors, from children who are in working families. I don't understand how you read the book that I read and come to that conclusion. But what I hope is, as a result of the book I've written, we

[Yasmin Vasugian]

can have that conversation as we talk about that. You sat down with Speaker Mike Johnson. This conversation with Mike Johnson happened not that long ago. What did you guys talk about?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, we agreed that we have disagreements, and I hope we can keep that conversation going, but without revealing any confidences, if you will, because I want to maintain the integrity of that conversation. He has a fundamental different view of the faith. He said to me, as I pointed out to him, that the scriptures that we read have a lot to say about how you treat the poor. In fact, there are 2,000 verses, 2,000 in scripture that tell you how to treat the poor. And he said to me that he thought that that was a matter of personal conduct, private behavior. It had nothing to do with public policy. On that point. He is so very wrong. I don't want to turn this into a Bible study, but the Scriptures, the prophets particularly, which is why this book is centered around Isaiah, they have a whole lot to say about systems. Can I just lift up one verse where. Where Isaiah says he. He Says, speaking for God, I. I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Even though you pray many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Cease to do evil. Do good. Release the oppressed. Give justice. This is in the very first chapter of Isaiah. The prophets deal with systems. In Jesus very first sermon, he said, I came to preach good news to the poor. If your faith is narrow and you're saying, well, it's just about personal conduct, then you can see why people don't seem to have any contradiction between witnessing systems crush ordinary everyday people while showing up to church every Sunday morning. But we need to have more conversation about this, because I don't believe in. There's another way in which I don't believe that. Those on the religious right believe that faith is just about narrow personal behavior, because they've got a whole lot to say, actually, about systems and about the distribution of wealth. They're just distributing it upward.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

My final question to you is, it is Juneteenth. What does that day mean to you? Especially when this is also the year in which this country is celebrating the 250th birthday of this nation.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Juneteenth is a wonderful reminder that America is a work in progress. We are that grand and unfinished cathedral. Those who are awaiting for free, who are awaiting freedom. On Juneteenth, they finally heard the good news of the Emancipation Proclamation. Some two years later. Freedom had already been put on paper, but it took a while for it to get to them. And that is a wonderful metaphor for the American story. We have these grand charter documents Dr. King called the Declaration of Independence sublime words of cosmic proportion, but they were written by Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder. But over time, through diverse voices at the table, we've come to understand what freedom looks like. Women had to come to the table and said, well, is the American promise also for us? And they stood up in the suffrage movement, and we're a stronger democracy as a result of that. And so Juneteenth gives me hope. It causes me to take the long view and to recognize that, yeah, our country goes through moments where the democracy expands and it goes through moments when it contracts. This is a contraction moment. But every woman who's given birth will tell you that contractions are necessary for new birth. I still have a great deal of hope in this country and what we will build together.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

As a woman who has given birth, you certainly do need contractions to get through that. Senator Rafael.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

They're painful, but they give birth to the promise. Yes.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

Senator Raphael Warnock. Thank you, sir.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Thank you. Keep the faith.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

All right, that is going to do it for us. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasim Vasugin. We'll be back on Monday with what whatever the weekend may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for the Inside Scoop as part of our paid [e-mail] we'll see you on Monday.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Why have I asked my h vac

[Yasmin Vasugian]

guy I found on Angie.com to change

[Angie Advertiser]

my grandpa's trachea tube?

[Yasmin Vasugian]

Because I was so amazed by how

[Angie Advertiser]

quickly he replaced our air ducts, I

[Yasmin Vasugian]

knew I could trust him to change Pop Pop's tube while I was on vacation.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Make it quick, young man. Aw.

[Yasmin Vasugian]

See, Pop Pop trusts you.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

I think we we should call a doctor. Connecting homeowners with skilled Pros for over 30 years, Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home [e-mail].