niger take a giant step towards a better future. and remember, you can always find much more about many of our stories on our website. the address as ever is aljazeera.com. aljazeera.com. ♪ >> today i am nominating chief judge merrick brian garland to join the supreme court. >> the president makes his choice for the supreme court, but republicans are still refusing to consider anyone. >> we're going to win, win, win, and we're not stopping. >> donald trump scores big in the presidential race. marco rubio bows out.

>> you have been waiting for the right moment. now is the time to come join us. >> hillary clinton celebrates a strong night, but may still be short of a clean sweep. this is al jazeera america live from new york city, i'm richelle carey. republicans are already pushing back against president obama's nominee to replace justice antonin scalia on the supreme court. it is merrick garland. he is being called a moderate, but there is still a bitter fight over whether he will get a hearing. he is the oldest nominee ever for the supreme court. in 1997 the senate confirmed him with bipartisan support. he described how he would try to serve. >> fidelity to the constitution

and the law has been the cornerstone of my professional life. and it is the hallmark of the kind of judge i have tried to be for the past 18 years. if the senate sees fit to con for the position for which i have been nominated today, i promise to continue on that court. >> president obama urged the senate to overcome party politics and confirm garland during his announcement. >> it is tending to make this confirmation process simply an extension of our divided politics. the skwobling that's going on in the news every day. but to go down that path would be wrong. >> john terrett is live for us on the north lawn of the white house. john, it sounds like the president is perhaps not going to get his wish. what are republicans saying in

response? >> well, you know, richelle, good afternoon from the white house. it seems as if he may not already. and you saw that judge merrick garland was in tears there when he was speaking. and you saw president obama patting him gently on the back as if to say don't worry too much, because you might not get there anyway. it is merrick garland, then. 63 years old. quite a smart pick most seem to think. because you have got somebody that the republicans can see is deemed to be a moderate judge. somebody who is conservative when it comes to justice issues, and somebody who is widely liked and widely known among republicans and democrats in this town. and if the republicans don't allow the nomination to go forward, and they don't allow a confirmation hearing, then it will become an election issue for whoever is the nominee for

the white house. president obama said today, he simply asked the senate for a fair hearing, and then an up and down vote. he acknowledged the fact that the senate and the house are going away for two week's vacation. he asked them to think about the pick and to think about the ramifications of not allowing a confirmation hearing. and the president said presidents don't stop working in their final year in office, nor should the senate. however, the republicans are saying they will not allow the nomination to go forward. here is mitch mcconnell, the majority leader at the senate, speaking within the last hour. >> the american people are perfectly capable of having their say, their say, on this issue. so let's give them a voice. let's let the american people decide. the senate will appropriately

revisit the matter when it considers the qualifications of the no, ma'minenominee, the nex nominates. >> reporter: as you can imagine [ inaudible ] have been lighting up all morning ever since this announcement was made. and we have a full screen graphic to ill state the next comment which comes from patrick leahy from vermont: so in that sound bite and graphic, you are already seeing the battle lines drawn, not that they weren't drawn even before today, but this is going to be a monumental fight, richelle. >> john, thank you.

coming up this term, the high court faces several landmark decisions including cases on affirmative action, immigration and abortion. we spoke so boston college law professor, who said it is hard to gauge how he would vote if confirmed. >> even if we can read his paper trail, it's unknown, really, how someone will vote once they become a justice on the supreme court. and there has famously been justices that join the court and then seem to change their views over time. so, you know, byron white appointed by president kennedy became more conservative over the decades he was on the court. some say david suitor became more liberal. so who knows how he would actually vote. >> if garland is concerned he would be working alongside a former colleague, john roberts.

the nomination of garland will play into this year's election. the presidential race is now looking clearer for the front runners. voters helped donald trump and hillary clinton take primaries. clinton won ohio, but that's where trump came up short looking to gov your john kasich. trump leads cruz in missouri by less than a point. hillary clinton has nearly 1100 pledged delegates. but her lead is much larger when you factor in the super delegates. donald trump has more than 600 delegates. trump's big victory in the sunshine state forced florida senator, marco rubio to suspend

his campaign. the so-called establishment candidate lost to trump by nearly 20 points in his home state. let's go down to randall pinkston who is live for us in miami. randall is it fair to say donald trump basically trounced rubio. why did he do so poorly in his home state? >> yes, it is very fair to say that. 500,000 more votes than rubio received in his own home state. one possible reason is that when rubio ran for the senate back in 2010 he was the anti-establishment kind of candidate. he was the darling of the tea party. app parent rently the tea party fell out of favor, or he fell out of favor with the tea party. he began to promote causes that the tea party hated. such as immigration reform. donald trump promises to build a wall, and keep all muslims from

entering the country. the kind of thing that conservative tea party folks just love, and so they voted for trump. meanwhile rubio had to give up his run for the republican party presidential nomination. >> while it is not god's plan that i will president in 2016 or -- or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that i have even come this far is evidence of how special america truly is. and all of the reason more why we must do all we can to ensure this nation remains a special place. >> reporter: rubio of course referring to his upbringing by working class family people. he said gave him the love and support he needed to rise to one of the highest positions in politics, and his mother was able toing count any votes -- the loosing votes for his run here in the florida

presidential primary. >> randall what is next now. let's pivot to the guy who won big last night. what is next for donald trump? >> reporter: trump goes on to presumably win more votes. there are states coming up that are winner take all, or winner take most. and trump has a good chance of continuing to widen the gap between himself and the nearest candidate. trump meanwhile is claiming to be the victim of attacks, although as we well know in recent weeks it has been he who has been accused of harboring and speaking ill at his campaign rallies. here is what trump had to say last night about the all of the political ads that the establishment pulled out to try to stop him. >> nobody has ever, ever in the history of politics received the kind of negative advertising that i have.

record, record, record. by the way mostly false, i wouldn't say 100%, but about 90%. mostly false, vicious, horrible. >> reporter: of course donald trump is making reference to some of the political ads that some of his republican opponents have been running to persuade republican voters not to select trump -- not to select trump. the interesting thing is that the establishment now is facing an interesting choice. donald trump, the anti-establishment candidate, or senator ted cruz who is not exactly loved by many of his senate colleagues, who is probably going to get more votes than governor john kasich who is still in the race, but no one gives him a chance of catching up to trump or cruz for that matter. >> and all of those ads that donald trump is talking about, generally they use his own words. >> yeah. >> thank you very much.

lincoln mitchell is the national political correspondent for the new york observer, and joins us today. appreciate it. donald trump had a big night, yet you still hear parts of the republican party talking about a brokered convention. is that science fiction? >> it's not science fiction, but it is close. the vote to delegate ratio works more in mr. trump's favor. if he continues to get that 40, 42, 45, he'll be getting much higher numbers of delegates. if we continued on that pace, he will get that simple majority and be the nominee on the first ballot. >> the negative ads that trump referenced, might those ads at some point actually have an effect. >> i was just listening to the

clip you were showing here, what strikes me is he believes that. i think he believes he has been the target of more ads ever in the history of politics. what has come up in the last few weeks is less. so he has not been the victim of anything. will that move voters? i don't think so. because what is the message trump is inconsistent and uses nasty words? that's the core of his appeal. so this is not how you will take primary votes away from him. in a general election, yes, i think for example the ads we have seen about -- with the women speaking the nasty things he said, in an election where particularly middle age white women will likely be a swing vote, i don't imagine that ad will help him. >> ted cruz has been saying for the past few weeks that he is the one candidate that can beat

donald trump. >> to the extent that anyone can beat donald trump it is ted cruz. right now in missouri -- on both sides it's too close to call. but on the republican side, one of the reasons it's too close to call is because marco rubio stayed in that race. if marco rubio drops out a day sooner, almost all of his votes are splint evenly between kasick and cruz. in a three-person race, it's unlikely to see him beating trump consistently going forward. there is a scenario where if it comes to a brokered convention, cruz is in a good negotiation position, but the scenario where he beats trump to the nomination out right now that is different. the clinton campaign did a very good job in keeping the expectations manageable. everyone expected that she would

win big in north carolina and big and florida. and there was the kind of sense that if she did that and had a draw in the other states it's okay. so they kept the expectations low, and quite frankly she hit it out of the ballpark. >> yeah, she did. >> bernie sanders has a path forward. i don't know if it leads the nomination. he needs 58% of the delegates the rest of the way. right now he has been at about 42 through this point. so he would really need a huge turn around, and in some of the mayor states particularly here in the northeast these are a lot of delegates. in those states those are closed primaries. and those will hurt mr. sanders as well. >> all right. let's talk about the president's nominee for the supreme court. and the republicans responded

that it really doesn't matter who this person is, we're not going to give them a hearing. who -- who -- who does this energize going forward? what base does this energize going forward for the election? >> it may in fact energize both basis, but it also helps the democratic story towards the middle. the problem is the republicans have backed themselves into a tough corner. we heard them saying you keep go backing down. and now they said we are going to stand up to obama on this. so they have to. but swing voters are hearing the republicans are obstructionists. what puzzles me about this, is if i were mitch mcconnell or advising mitch mcconnell, i would say i get the politics. have the hearing, and then vote against him. >> but at least have the hearing.

and if you can't get the majority of senators to vote against him, you couldn't be majority leader. and the president himself talked about institutions today, that really does undermine the institutions which are essential for our country to function. >> this is the job of the president. >> and the job of the senate -- >> to have the hearing. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. underwater with no relief in sight. communities in texas and louisiana brace for more rain.

>> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target.

today this is what it looks like along interstate 10 in texas. it is shut down because of the flooding of the main river. residents used sandbags to try to keep flood waters out of their homes, and there is a risk for more rain. >> we could be looking at more rain for portions of the south, and it has to do with this. it is a low-pressure area that will sit for the next couple of days, already creating snow on the backside. the front is coming down the appalachians and as that lays up over the south that could be a problem for us. the front by tomorrow could start to see some of that rain. now it's hit and miss, but it goes for a couple of days, and that could be on top of where we have already seen some of that

flooding concern, soeven an inch or two of additional rain, that is going to be a problem for us. here is a look at some of the areas already flooding. a lot of these rivers haven't crested yet. on the snowy side of all of this, could mean rain layer tonight. but the snow -- this is a lot for a late-season snow. some places could see over a foot in wisconsin or minnesota and high winds associated with all of this. portions of the midwest could also reduce that visibility. the justice department is expected to drop hits lawsuit against the city of ferguson. the city council agreed to overhaul its police department tuesday night. al jazeera east andy roesgen is following the latest for us.

>> reporter: richelle the justice department has said that the city was using its traffic stops as a cash cow. pulling over minorities and charging them with mine your traffic violations and then getting them into court for more fees and even jail time. last month they say we'll agree to changes, but only with some revisions, because the original proposals, they said would bankrupt us, and we couldn't afore them. the justice department was having none of it. they filed a lawsuit against the city and said the cost of these changes no excuse for not doing them. so last night the city council essentially backtracked and said, okay. we'll accept all of the original proposals and changes with no revisions and now a federal judge will have to sign off on it. >> what caused the city council to change its decision? >> the member we talked to last

night said look, we were just looking for clarification on these things. we wanted assurances that the costs would not be overwhelming to us, and we got that. and also that the federal government would be helping us out with this. he said it is a messy process to get there, and he said by the way usually when a city negotiates this kind of thing with a federal government it could take up to three years. >> reporter: by the way they also tell us that there are other towns -- they said if you think we're bad here in ferguson, which we don't think we are, there are other towns around us which are far worse in their policing, and we talked to a social justice lawener is in st. louis and they told us the

same thing. they said ferguson is not that bad compared to other policing agencies around that area. >> all right. andy thank you. coming up new occasions that south africa, bought the 2010 world cup. plus how safe is your personal information when you go online to donate to candidates? ♪

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washington, d.c. is set down for emergency inspection. after a fire monday raised worries about the safety of the metro system. the metro is expected to reopen tomorrow. new details today about the impact of the zika virus. researchers say only 1 in 100 pregnant women infected with the v vieries gave birth to babies with microcephaly. this is the first report to reliable estimate the rate of that virus. fifa is accusing south africa of paying a $10 million bribe to secure the world cup. the accusation is in legal papers filed with the u.s. authorities. south africa denies it. it is suing some of the former

officials for tens of millions of dollars saying it was the victim of corruptions. online do nations have become hugely important in this year's elections. >> reporter: browse through candidate websites and it's hard to miss the donate button. giving money is easy, but when it comes to keeping credit card information safe, some sites are more vulnerable from others. donald trump's is he safest. donation and security experts we spoke with say, by and large the transactions are safe, but giving money to a political candidate on the web is no different than shopping on life. >> there is never a 100% fail safe way of making a purchase, contribution, or transaction.

>> reporter: security scorecard says all candidates use third-party vendors for the transactions. it also means unless you check the fine print, your personal information could then be sold to third-parties. >> name, address, email address, sometimes their phone number or other identifying information that could be very, very valuable for other political campaigns, for super pacs, organizations that could raise and spending unlimited amounts of money or even data brokers who could take this information and use it for whatever purpose it wants to. >> reporter: thousands of people have given small amounts ranking from a few dollars to hundreds to the campaigns. ines ferre, al jazeera. thank you for joining us. i'm richelle carey. the news continues next live from london. keep it here on al jazeera. ♪

♪ >> hello there, i'm felicity barr, and this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up. >> today i'm nominating chief judge merrick brian garland to join the supreme court. >> a showdown with republicans as he names his choice for the county's most powerful court.