scalia and the rarest of events, a vacancy on the supreme court in the middle of a p psidential election. how the fight over his replacement could paralyze the senate and all of washington. we'll hear from fourrepublican presidential candidates, donald trump, ted cruz, marco r rio and john kasich. plus, that wild republican debate last night. >> you are a principle -- >> you are the single biggest tiar. >> when you point to h own record, he screams liar, liar, liar. >> i think we're fixing to lose the election to hillary clinton if we don't stop this. >> also, bernie sanders gets a taste of what he may face as he tries to win african-americanan voters. _v i've said black 50 times, all right. that's the 51st time. >> can hillary clinton win by making this cpaign a referendum on sanders, not herself? joining me this sunday morning

gwen ifil, chris, ron fournier and kathleen parker,olumnist for "the washington post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press with chuck todd". good sunday morning. it hasn't happened since 1968. a vacancy battle on the supreme electi year. we learned late yesterday of the sudden and tragic death of scalia. an intellectual and conservative thought leader, a man president obama last night called one of the most consequential judges and thinkers to serve on the supreme court. scalia's death of course is a personal tragedy for his family and lleagues, but it is also bursting with major political implications. what will his loss due to the balance of powerr on the court? will the republican senate even consider someone nominated by president obama? how long will this vacancy paralyze the court, and perhaps the u.s. senate?

presidential debate in south carolina the candidates made clear where they stand on this issue. >> i do not believe the president should appoint someone. and it's not unprecedented. >> there's no doubt in my mind that barack obama will not have a consensus pick. >> the senate needs to stand strong and say we're not going to give up the u.s. supreme court for a generation. >> i think it's up to mitch mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. it's called delay, delay, delay. >> we're going to hear frommour of the leading republican presidential candidates this morning, donald trump, ted cruz, marco rubio and john kasich. the democratic candidates meanwhile were also quick to respond to the vacancy. >> supreme court of the united states has nine members, not eight. we need that ninth member. >> elections have consequences. the president has a responsibility to nominate a new justice. and the senate has a

>> we'll also be taking a close look at the democratic race and how hillary clinton's team is working overtime to try to turn this contest from being a referendum on her to a referendum on bernie sanders. a lot to get to, but we start with the impact and the implications of scalia's death on the supreme court. nobody better to join me on this pete williams. pete, welcome back, sir. let me ask very quickly, we're in the middle of some court now. what happens right now? the most one with political implications is the immigration decision. >> right. when you have eight justices it creates the possibility of a 4-4 tie. when there's a tie it's as though the supreme court decision doesn't count, the lower court ruling stands and the supreme court decision has no presidential value. so for the immigration policy it would be a defeat for the administration because it would leave standing the lower court rulings that blocked it. for such abortion question which

tough texas restriction on access to abortion clinics standing. might encourage other states to try the same thing. for public sector unions though it might be a victory because they won in the lower courts, defeating an effort to try to restrict their ability to raise union dues. >> all right. we are headed fo the potential of if the president wants to nominate somebody, he's made that clear. the republican controlled senate doesn't want to consider it. it's possible terms of the supreme court begin in october and end in june. >> right. >> so at this point under this scenario w w might go an entirir term, october of '16 through june of '17 without a supreme court justice because even if the next president appoints it takes time to get through the process. >> two haugt ethoughts, majority decisions are not close votes. the court will continue functioning and do a lot of its business. it does raise the possibility that you won't get what only the supreme court c c provide, and that is the final answer. only the supreme court can resolve these things for once and forever. so a lot of these things will

until the supreme court gets the right combination to make the decision. >> scalia, the way cases are heard, once they're heard, there's an immediate vote that takes place among the nine justice. >> that's right. >> does scalia's v ve count posthumously? >> no, not unless the decision was handed down. the rule is votes can shift and opinions can change, you have to be present for your vote to count. >> i want you to talk about one candidate i think we may see nominated. it's a judge by the name of merrick garland. if there's a republican senate, this is a guy they think they can get through the republican senate. he's considered more moderate than other liberal justices, why? >> because of his record, experience in the justice department, widely respected. i mean, the thing is now presidents tend to want younger nominees. if you look at the most recent trend, they're nominating people in their 50s. that's not merrick garland, but

pete williams, going to be a busy 18 months for you on this confirmation process, i think. >> indeed. joining me now is the first of four republican presidential candidates who are on with us thismorning. it's donald trump. mr. trump, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> let me ask you first on the supreme court opening. do you have a litmus test? do you have a litmus teststn row v. wade? citizens united when it comes to who you might appoint to the supreme court should you become president? >> well, i think we have some great people out there. diane sikes from wisconsin from wwt everybody tells me would be outstanding. we need a conservative person. i think that certainly we have some great people. we lost one of the greats. i'd like to have the person tailored to be just like justice scalia, justice scalia was truly a great judge. and respected by all. both sides. >> that's what i mean, how will you determine that? how will you determine whether you got somebody -- >> well, i mean, look, you never know what happens, chuck.

cruz pushed very hard for justice roberts. everyone thought that was wonderful. and justice roberts let everybody down by approving obamacare, twice. i mean, he really did let us down. that's largely cruz's fault and the bush fault because they put the wrong guy in there. that was a shocking decision. so, you know, you never really know. but a a the time he looked okay. but he's -- that was a ted cruz mistake because he pushed him very hard. look, we need great intellect. we need i say absolutely conservative. but i think the real plan for it would be somebody just like justice scalia. >> all right. i want to move on to the debate last night. >> by theheay which isis hard to find. >> yeah, i think a lot of con terve sieve servetives will agree with you. i want to go to the debate last night. your 2008 comments about george w. bush were brought up and this idea that you were surprised at the time that then-speaker pelosi had ruled out iupeachment.

just want to clarify this, did you believe that there was enough ere to bring up impeachment proceedings against george w. bush in 2008 over iraq? >> no. i was in the private sector, so i didn't think about it too much. but certainly the war in iraq was a disaster. , not to be impeached, but the war in iraq it was a mistake. he just made a mistake. we went into iraq, we lost thousands of l)ves -- >> but you don't believe it's an impeehable offffse now? you were implying it might be in 2008. >> well, that's for other people to say. look, that is for other people to say. i can say this, it may not have been impeachable because it was a mistake. i think it was a mistake. but it was a horrible mistake. number one, there were no weapons of mass destruction. so did they know there weren't or not? that would tell you something right there. but there were no weapons of mass destruction. chuck, the warn iraq was a disaster. we end up with absolutely nothing. iran is taking over iraq as we sit here right now.

is doing pretttt well worldwide. they take $150 billion, we get nothing. they're taking over iraq. they're getting the oil. it was a disasterous decision the war in iraq and unfortunately bush happened to be president. >> you were saying president bush lied. how do you know he lied about wmd? >> i think that people knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction. i think they wanted to go in there. i think they thought it would have been easier. they didn't prosecute the war well. it wasn't well prosecuted and they ended up getting -- i mean, leaving. now, i have to say he made a mistake getting in. and i'm the only one on the stage that said we should not go into iraq. that the war in iraq is a mistake. everyone else sasa, oh, yoyo know, all the other people on stage i should get points for vision. because everybody -- >> let me pause you there. >> chuck, it took -- >> right. let me pause you -- >> it took jeb bush five days --

it took jeb bush five days to say that the iraq war was a mistake. he went back and forth, back and forth. then finally his pollster told him what he had to say. but jeb bush -- then he admitted it was a mistake. i mean, look, he's got no chance anyway, but it almost cost him the election before he even started. >> well, i want to for what it's worth politifact that has never been able to find, none of us have been able to find any instance where before the invasion you came out against this war. why is that? >>well, i did it in 2003. i said it before -- don't forget, i wasn't a politician. so people didn't write everything i said. i was a business person. i was as they say world class business person. i built a great company. i employ thousands of people. so i'm not a politician, but if you look at 2003 there are articles, if you look at 2004, there are articles in facac i saw somebody commenting on it last night that trump really was against the war. i was against it -- look, i'm the most militaristic person,

bigger, better, stronger, hopefully we'll never have to use it, but nobody's going to mess with us. but i will say this, the war in iraq, it was a mistake. anybody would have realized iran and iraq they used to fight. they'd go back, forth. chuck, you destabilize the middle east, i'm the only one that called. i was the only one that called it. >> you made it clear that you wanted to remind people that 9/11 happened, i believe you bush's reign. do you believe that george bush kept america safe? >> no because the world trade center was knoed down. look, that's another myth. i wish he did. i have nothing against him. i don't know him. i don't know that -- i don't think i ever even met him. i don't think i did meet him. i ave nothing against george bush. i'm just saying when jeb bush gets up and says my brother kept us safe. how did he keep us safe when the world trade during his time in

friends -- that was the worst tragedy in the history of this country. worse than pearl harbor because they attacked civilians. they attacked people in office buildings. >> and you think george w. bush could have prevented this? >> well, according to -- if you go back, you will see the cia and other agencies had information that bad things were going to happen. and, yes, the answer is he hould have known. they were not talking to each other. there was total disassociation. they didn't like each other, all of the different agencies were a mess. they were fighting with each other. known. they should have known something. osama bin laden -- hey, look, i wrote about osama bin laden in 2000 in a book. laden. if i know about osama bin laden just by seeing press and seeing, you know, what's going on, why wouldn't the president of the united states know about osama bin laden? >> well, let me ask you this. in south carolina as you know, publicans. you are -- this is a risky stralt

you called him a liar last night about wmd and you essentially said you would have been okay -- >> i didn't call him a liar. i didn't call anybody a liar. >> well, you called ted cruz a liar. >> chuck, i said maybe there were lies because, look, the weapons of mass destruction they said they existed and they dididt exist. now, i i was his group that said there are weapons of mass destruction. that's why we went in. that's why so many people got hoodwinked into going into iraq. then they go in there, they searched high and dry. they looked all over. there were no weapons of mass destruction. turned out that there were absolutely not no weons of mass destruction. now, was it a lie? i don't know. if you lose south carolina, do you think the game change moment people will point to is what happened last night and what you said about george w. bush? but if you win, does this prove that the republican party is rejecting bush? >> no, i don't think so. i think they're rejecting the war in iraq. the war in iraq is a disaster.

soututcarolina and the people. i've known them for a long time. i've been there many times. i have great relationships there. they're very smart people. they understand that the war in iraq is a disaster and was a disaster. it totally destabilized the middle east. when you look at the migration, when you look at al of the things that are happening right now, it all started with the war in iraq. and you know what, we got noththg. we have absolutely nothing. iran is getting the whole deal. >> mr. trump, i have to leave it there. little short on time this morning. i look forward to speaking with you again soon, i hope. thanks for congresswoman iming on and stay safe on the trail. >> thank you very much. moments ago i spoke to senator ted cruz of texas. and i began asking him about how he might go about replacing justice antonin scalia on thee court. let me go to litmus tests, do you have them for potential supreme court justices? >> well, my litmus test for any supreme court justice is whether he or she will faithfully apply

it's not a specific issue. it is rather a jurs prudential apprch. the only way to determine that is if they have a proven record, if they have spent years faithful to the law. that's the job of a justice. it's what liberal activists don't do. ,iberal activists want to bench. a perfect example of that is justice scalia. justice scalia was a lion of the supreme court. he was one of the greatest supreme court justices in history. spent three decades on the court. but before he was on the court he was a law professor for many, many years. he was a court of appeals judge. he had a long proven record so you knew exactly what you were getting with justice scalia. i knew justice scalia for 20 years. >> is this the mistake you think was made with john roberts? >> of course it is. >> you were a big supporter of him, but in hindsight you're not. is that because you think that he didn't have a track record? >> he didn't have a track record. and i would not have nominated john roberts.

i supported the nomination as a republican nominee, but i would d have nominated my former boss, a court of appeals judge, justice scalia's very first law clerk and had a long proven track record. and, chuck, just as ronald reagan was to the presidency, so antonin scalia was to the supreme court. he had that big an impact. and i think his passing yesterday really underscores the stakes of this eection. we are facing our fundamental rights in a balance. >> let me ask you, does the united states senate have an obligation to at least consider a nomination that president obama puts forward? i understand that you guys don't want it. and you would prefer to let the -- bu doesn't the united states have an obligation to at least go through the process and have an up or down vote? >> not remotely. >> why? >> it has been 80 years since a supreme court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year.

you don't do this in an e eection year. and what this means, chuck, is we ought to make the 2016 election a referendum on the supreme court. i cannot wait to stand on that debate stage with hillary clinton or bernie sanders and talk about what the supreme court will look like depending on who wins. if hillary clinton or bernie sanders wins, or for that matter if donald trump wins whose record is indistinguishable from them on a great many issues, then we will see the second amendment written out of the constitution. another thing we'll see, and@ this is very relevant, for conservatives in south carolina, if donald trumpmps the nominee, or if hillary clinton is the president, we will see unlimited abortion on demand throughout this country. partial birth abortion, taxpayer funding, parental nnification. and we'll also see our religious liberty torn down, basic rights. >> i want to go back to the united states senate here. so you believe the presidency is only three years long in each tetm?

we're cutting off a presidency with a year to go. and more importantly, senator cruz, the risk here for conseruatives is that if you have all these 4-44 ties in the court, then the more liberal leaning circuits will then have, you know, their rulings will take precedent. >> look, the consequence of a 4-4 tie is that the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed by an equally divided vote. this has happened many times in history that there have been vacancies, sometimes o o a clososly contentious case they'll hold over for the next term when the replacement justice arrives. in an election year we have a long tradition that a lame duck president doesn't get to jam a supreme court nominee through in the very end. lbj tried that and the supreme court rejected it. and particularly when the court is 5-4 is balanced an obama liberal nominee would dramatatally shift the u.s. supreme court. >> but why not go through the process? should the united states senate

process, reject it, senator, but go through the process? >> by the way, the senate's duty is to advise and consent. the senate is advising right now, we are advising that a lame duck president in an election year is not going to be able to tip the balance of the supreme court. that we're going to have an elelction, and if liberalsls are so confident that the american people want unlimited abortion on demand, want religious liberty torn down, want the second amendment taken away, want veterans memorials torn down, want the crosses and stars of david sandblasted off of the tombstones of our fallen veterans, then go and make the case to the people. i don't think the american people want that. i'm very happy to take th94 ] case directly to hillary clinton, directly to bernie sanders. and i would note, look, how do we know donald trump's record on this is going to be bad? he has supported liberals for four decades, jimmy rter, john kerry, hillary clinton, chuck schumer, harry reid, anyone who cares about judges would not be supporting harry reid and chuck

hillary clinton. d the consequence is if either hillary or bernie or donald trump is the president, we will see the second amendment written out of the constitution. this is a basic queueion who will defend our liberties. >> senator cruz, i have to leave it there this morning. a lot more to get to. i look forward to hopefully having you on perhaps next sunday and we can get to more of that. tnk you, sir. >> excellent. when we come back, we're going to hear from marco rubio who hopes to put new hampshire behind him. and john kasich who hopes new hampshire is a sign of the future. >> the world trade center came ddn because bill clininon didn't kil we were born 100 years ago into a new american century. born with a hunger to fly and a passion to build something tter. and what an amazing time it's been, decade after decade of innovation, inspiration and wonder. so, we say thank you america for a century of trust,

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accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise and we are back. earlier this morning i was joined by senator marco rubio of florida and governor john kasich of ohio. and i started with senator rubio asking him whether the senate president's supreme court nominee an up or down vote. >> we have an obligation to do it, but not now. the term of this supreme court is already -- they just started it, but it's not all yearlong. the court can function with eight justices, it does it all the time eecially when justices have to recuse themselves. kagan has to recuse herself early in the term. we're going to have an election in november where thi vacancy will be an item of debate and voters will get to weigh in. i don't think it's wise and it's precedent for this president nearing the last few months of his administration to put someone on the court that may be there for 30 years.

and i understand the decision that you may not support and that the republican mority doesn't want is, but aren't they obligated to at least go through the motions here? i mean, you're saying -- >> no. >> you're saying don't even go through the motions, why? >> correct. we will go through the motions, but not while barack obama's in the white house. it's not going to happen. >> do presidential terms end after three years? that's what i don't understand is why not go through the advice and consent. you don't have to approve it. you can reject it. that's w wt happened in '6'6 but why not go through this process? >> because there's -- actually, it's not just for the supreme court. even for appellate courts it's been both parties followed this precedent. there comes a point in the last year of the president, especially in their second term, where you stop nominating -- or you stop the advice and consent process. you basically say at this point with a few months left in your term, no accountability from the ballot box and the pointment you're going totoake on a lifetime appointment. that's the important thing here. these are not laws that can

that can be reversed. in essence this is a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the country at a time when the balance of the constitution and the court's interpretation of it is at stake. mitch mcconnell has already made it clear we're not moving forward and i support 100%. bottom line i don't trust barack obama on the appointment of supreme court justice. we cannot afford to have scalia replaced by someone like nominees he's put there in the past. wre going to have annelection, there's going tooe a new president. i believe it's going to be me. we're going to look for someone that most resembles scalia to replace him. >> i want to move to the debate. you said in response to a heated exchange between jeb bush and donald trump on 9/11, this is what you said about 9/11. and i want to ask you about it on the other side. >> the world trade center came down because bill clinton didn't kill osama bin laden when h h had the chance t t k kll him. >> that's a big charge. i know bill clinton has said it is one of his regrets, but he

but you believe that is a direct result that basically bill clinton's failure led to 9/11? >> well, i believe that if osama bin laden had been killed, al qaeda as an organization would not have grown to the point where it have conducted 9/11. it was in response to this argument that trump was making responsible for 9/11. and my argument was, no, the responsibility of 9/11 falls on the fact that al qaeda was allowed to grow and prosper and the decision was not made to take out their leader when the chance existed to do so. not once but four times according to the 9/11 report. president clinton has acknowledged that has as a regret. so the bottom line is that al qaeda was able to carry out 9/11 because as an organization they grew and prospered in capability led by osama bin laden. had bin laden been taken out, it is doubtful that 9/11 would have happened. at least on september 11 of 2001 because al qaeda would not have been in a position to be able to carry something like that out. >> so you're not blaming 9/11 on bill clinton? >> no, he made a decision not to

think ended up being there, the situation that happened with 9/11. and as a response to an attack that the reason why 9/11 happened was because of george w. bush. my argument i i if you're going to ascribe blame, don't blame george w. bush, blame a decision that was made earlier not to take out bin laden when the opportunity presented itself. >> so i'm actually still not quite clear. are you putting this on -- are you putting 9/11 on bill clinton? >> no, i'm putting it on his decision not to take out bin laden, absolutely. this is what happens when you have a chance to take out the leader of a terroristst organization and you fail to do so and the results are something like 9/11. >> later this week pope francis is going to speak and certainly going to tour the border of mexico and the u uted states. in september in front of congress he called himself the son of immigrants. and he called on congress and americans not to, quote, turn their bcks on their neighbors. you yourself got emotional listening to that speech. do you feel that the pope's message about immigrants,

and our immigration debate here, do you agree with his take on this? >> sure. we're a country of immigrants. we continue to be a country of immigrants. let's have some perspective here. america accepts close to a million permanent residents every single year. no other nation in the world comes close to that number. that's not the issue we're debating. the issue we're debating is not whether or not we're going to accept immigrants, because we do. we're going to continue to. the issue is is there going to be a process people have to follow to immigrate to the united states? do we as a sovereign country get to control how many people come here, when they come here and who they are? and the answer is, yes. i don't think the pope is saying open up the borders and allow anyone who wants to come in. i mean, you can't move to o e vatican just because y y feel like moving there. they've got laws that restrict who can live within that nation's city state. and i think the same is true for the united states. so i agree with pope francis' saying we should be compassionate towardrd immigrants. and we are. the united states is more than any nation on earth. but we are allowed as a sovereign nation have an

laws and to enforce them. and that's what we need to be doing better than what we're doing now. >> all right. i have to leave it there. we're short on time this morning. a lot to get to, senator rubio, nice to catch up with you. stay safe on the trail, sir. >> thank you. and i'm joined now by the fourth presidential candidatete we've h h on the show this morning, republican governor of ohio john kasich. welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> always, you know, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> i appreciate that. i've had two u.s. senators on this morning who say the u.s. senate shouldn't even bother considering a nomination that president obama puts up. does the u.s. senate have an obligationono at least cononder it, holol a hearing? and if they vote it down, they vote it down, but should the u.s. senate, should mitch mcconnell at least open up that part of the process? >> well, you know, that's their decision, chuck. you know, as the governor of ohio i have to deal with legislators and their decisions. and i don't try to tell them what to do.

president -- i understand the presidenenhas prerogative here. i got that. senate has prerogative too of course. but i just think at a time when the country is so divided it would just be great if the president didn't send somebody forward and we had an election and then everybody would be clear about what they want in the next supreme court justice. but i guess it's not going to go that way. >> to roll the dice. >> pardodo >governor, it's a roll of the dice, you could have a democratic senate, democratic president could come in and then have a more liberal justice than what president obama might provide. >> well, but that's life. then the people actually have had some say. it's really kind of a unique thing when you think about it, chuck. it's unique to say that the public itself is going to have sort of an indirect vote on who's going to be a supreme court justice. i think that's kind of cool. and what i don't like now is, you know, we can talk about this all day long. you and i both know in the real world they're not going to confirm anybody.

so beloved that everybody goes that's great. okay. i don't think that's going to happen. >> yeah, you're probably right on that. let me move to the debate. and i got to play this one clip from you last night because i want to get a better explanation of what you meant. here it is. >> i got to tell you, this is just crazy, huh? this is just nuts. okay. >> that was after jeb bush and donald trumpmpere going at each other. what did you mean by that comment? explain. >> well, i mean, it's like all the yelling and screaming and back and forth. chuck, what i h he found -- i tell you, i'm having the time of my life. people want to know what you're for. look, i've been all over. yesterday i had went to this barbecue shack. there were 500 people waiting there. i i s there, you know, taking pictures, must have been another 45 minutes after i got done speaking and people are grabbing onto you saying please stay positive. please don't get into these fightht

i don't get my energy by being against things. and i think people tend to get negative when they're not selling their own positive. look, that's whe i am. if it workss out for me, great. if it doesn't work out for me, i'll get to spend more time with my family. but look, i want to win. and 're doing well. really well. >> let me point to something last night you said at the debate. you said you didn't think we should have gone into iraq if there weren't any weapons of mass destruction. >> right. >> but you also said we should not get embroiled in civil wars overseas. >> that's right. >> well, we've done it beforere we did it with bosnia. >> we did it with lebanon. chuck, let me tell you -- well, libya was a terrible mistake. frankly that was -- that's something people ought to be thinking about in regard to hillary. you know, they spend -- they talk about benghazi, which is very legitimate, of course it is. but we should never have deposed gadhafi. that was a terrible mistake. the guy was working with us and

look, i was not in favor of u.s. troops in lebanon. and i voted against it. even when reagan wanted them there, tip o'neil wanted them there, then when they got blown up tip was out blaming reagan. i'll never forget it. civil wars -- getting in between -- you know, since the sixth century sunni and shia have been fighting. >> so you would stay out of syria? >> i would only go to syria to destroy isis. i would not use u.s. troops to depose assad, but i would support the rebels there. it's okay to support people who share your view, but for the united states to be embroiled in a civil war in syria against assad i think is a big mistake. >> you know, you've also been critical of how the surplus that you as a republican budget leader and working th the clinton adminintration you guys foraged a budget that was

century. it was gone immediately. one way many democrats have said one of the reasons that surplus went away so quickly was due to the bush tax cuts. do you concur with that? were the bush tax cuts too big? chuck. the dirty little secret is and republicans do too, it's guilty. look, if you don't have a leader that stands in the breach too restrain the spending of spend. >> i'm going to leave it there. >> okay, chuck. >> i appreciate it. we'll catch up i'm sure in the next week or so. >> yeah, we will. all right. coming up, the democratic race and why it may start getting tougher from here for bernie sanders. and of course saturday night fights, in other words, last night's republican debate and what all of those nasty exchanges mean.

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with the microsoft cloud we don't have to build server rooms. we have instant scale. the microsoft cloud is helping us to re-build and re-interprpr our business. this cloud helps transform business. this is the microsoft cloud. welcome back. the panel is here on a huge sunday of political news. gwen ifil fresh off moderating that democratic debate i think happened in the last few days. welcome of pbs news hour. kathleen parker, columnist from "the washington post" and ron fournier. let me start with consequences quickly on scalia and then move to the debate of the united states senate. chris, you knowhe politics of this. >> yeah. >> the united states senate, this year? or could this fight shut the

>> okay. so i generally put myself in the 1% of most cynical people about politits. i was surprised that mitch mcconnell came out with a statement as quickly as he did saying not it'u unlikely that president obama's nominee will go through, there's no point in president obama putting a nominee forward. you then saw harry reid respond. given that and given what we've heard from ted ccz, donald trump, m mco rubio. i think mitch mcconnell will feel under considerable political pressure. i know he just got re-elected but considerable political pressure to shut this thing down before it ever starts. >> and, gwen, this is the base. they don't want to see even a chance that somebody could get confirmed. on the other hand there's five blue state republicans who do they want to look like obstructionist? basically he's got a tiger on one end and the cliff on the other, i think. >> it's the box that mr. mcconnell has been in and john

time. i was not surprised that he came out that quickly. i'm not sure he had any choice but to come out and say this is the line we're going to draw and then step back and let other people fight it out. just as the leader to say this is the line i'm drawinn we saw from the pressure coming from the presidential candidates, that wasn't a big risk for him. and for the blue state republicans, worry about them later. right now they have to worry about the base. >> i think it's even worse. within 20 minutes offhe announcement that he was dead i got an e-mail from a very prominent republican consultant all of who you know saying we're not going to allow even a hearing. the man's body, a good man's body was not e en deadet and politics was already in play. the republicans are not going to let this happen. it's totally irresponsible. it's a sign again of our democracy, of our system not functioning. and i have no reason to believe that if a republican wins the white house why would the democrats nominate? >> i was going to say. i think this is heavy political risk. >> i think we could have a 3-3 for years. >> this seems like a go time to say among conservatives especially people are very, very

acknowledge that for a moment. because justice scalia, you know, we've heard a lot about the many wondrs of his personality and his brrliant mind and all that. but to your point i agree it was a little bit jarring to suddenly have everyone talking about the political implications. that's our job. >> within hours. >> within minutes. >> and i got a call from the hill just of somebody saying, okay, game over, time to get serious. everything matters now. but let me just say this, on the conservative side i think a lott of these people,, lot of republicans feel president obama does not respect the constitution and that he's gone around the legislative body to -- you can argue that he had to, but he wanted done. let's remember it's not unusual -- no, it's very unusual to nominate a supreme court justice during an election year. it's only happened once in 80 years. and kennedy's -- it was justice kennedy, it took a year. >> well, it did. i want to move to the debate

but we'll know what kind of fight president obama wants. does he find somebody who's a little more to the right of his two previous nominations in order to find a confirmable sort of left leaning judge or not. >> there's not such a thing -- >> i don't think anymore. >> but it's clear that presididt obama was notgoing to take mitch mcconnell's advice on this. >> nor should he. but he started out on the high road yesterday with a very high road complimentary -- >> of course. >> about scalia. he should do the same thing. put up somebody who would be confirmable if things were working well and show that the republicans aren't willing to work. >> well, that is the big risk for the republicans. he's got to be thinking, oo my gosh, ted cruz or donald trump could become president and then they're going to appoint the next justice. >> big story, chuck, this is another sign of the political dysfunction in this town that you and i have talked abtd for a long time. i think this is going to be a long timee before we h he nine judges on that court. a long time. >> can i say one more thing? there's also a risk for these republicans that maybe hillary clinton or bernie sanders does get elected.

appointment until the next president, the next president could be a democrat. >> by the way -- all of these potential presidential candidates be careful what you wish for. if your first 100 days is dominated by a supreme court fight and this environment, you will get nothing else done. >> we've talked about this. you have basically one big swing, right. >> yes. >> for obama it was healthhcare. you have one big thing. >> it's a scotus pick. >> well, you have to do the right thing i agree with john kasich, just let the process roll. >> let it roll. all right. we got to let it roll here. we're going to do some debate chatter later in the show, but coming up, bernie sanders came up big with white voters in iowa and new hampshir but can he win over african-americans to defeat

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after the new hampshire primary we saw a flood of press releases from the national parties and their related interest groups. and most of them had a similar theme, they did not want to talk about what's going on on their side of the aisle at all. look at this. the rnc wrote, hillary clinton's resounding loss in new hampshire is another devastating blow for her campaign. and then the house campaign republican arm said, clinton was defeated in the first in the nation primary by an elderly socialist. on the democratic side it wasn't

in the new hampshire snowskap where robot rubios run free and the republican debate stage mirrors an "snl" skit donald trump has emerged as a decisisi front runner. and trump has done nothing but cause anxiety and heartburn for senate incumbents and candidates since his launch. so national republicans and democrats burying their heads in the sand about what's going on there. ha ha sanders and ha ha trump, trying to avoid confronting what's going on in their own anyway, we'll be right back with

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welcome back.

very well against hillary clinton in iowa. a new poll gave hillary a 57 point lead. the morning after new hampshire sanders traveled to harlem for breakfast with my next guest, civil rights leader and msnbc host al sharpton. reverend sharpton, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> i want to pl for you an interaction that bernie sanders had on friday with an rican-american voter in minnesota and get your response on the other side. here it is. >> so the question specifically, my black son -- okay. i know you're scared to say black, scared d say reparations -- >> ma'am, ma'am, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth, especially within the african-american community. >> say black -- >> i've said black 50 times. all right. that's the 51st time. >> is that a fair criticism from the crowd of him? >> well, i think that what it is is that people have felt in our

and marginalized and that people have kind of like generally discussed things. and we are supposed to assume we're part of that whwh we have me very specific needs. and all of us don't agree nobody can deliver the black vote, but all of us agree that there are specific things that you just can't cover jus talking about economic inequality without talking about racial inequality in that. you can't just talk about the problems with washington without talking about a race problem in that. so i think that some of the anger you hear is from being marginalized. and that has come from both liberals and conservatives. >> go ahead, guys. >> i think the reverend is right in that -- and i think this is the problem for bernie sanders is that bernie sanders believes at the core the fundamental inequality that explains america is economic in nature, not racial, not anything else. the problem is he believes --

i've talked about economic equality. you've heard his response there in minnesota. that's not enough for some voters. >> go ahead. >> there was also in that same eventnt he was asked about reparations. >> right. >> he's been through this argument already. yet somehow he went back to what we were talking about, talking in general about economic inequality. the skepticism about bernie sandndrs among many african-americans can be summed up in two ads he's run. one, the wonderful simon and garfunkel come to america ad whee there was base #barely a face of color and then the new ad that has almost nothing but faces of color, this together ad. reminds me a lot of the will i am ad from 2008 because it was very much about how we can all be together. >> part of the problem that i think that is coming to the surface in this is that we have experienced both in the liberal north and the souou hostilities. let's not forget howard beach

new york. howard beach was in the north. people like me emerged in the north. i never lived in the south. we are dealili with hollywood progressive hollywood with an oscar whiteout right now. so i think what a lot of people are beginning to see is wait a minute we do not want to be marginalized. and we don't want to be thrown into a situation where specific needs are not dealt with. >> what if bernie sanders talked about one of the issues where the african-american community has been marginalized and instead of talking about the number of times he said black what if he talked about the number of african-americans imprisoned under president clinton? what if he talked about the 10-1 racial despairisparity under president clinton? what if he said i have a solution for this, i'm going to unleash the powers of presidential clemency and i'm going to frfe every person, many of who are african-americans in prison over sentences that have not been grandfathered?

>> whether he talked about issues people not agree specific issues. the problem is when you talk about president clinton and the crime bill, bernie sanders voted for it. so that might be one reason he doesn't bring it up. but i think that at the other side of that is mr. clinton has said he made a mistake, mr. sanders augtd to say he shouldn't have voted for it. and then we ought to talk about how we deal with mass incarceration, police reform and aa of these issues. i don't think unless we press it those of us -- >> i got to wrap it up here, but reverend sharpton, are you going to endorse before south carolina? >> i don't know. we're meetinnwith mrs.. clinton tuesday. >> okay. >> we're talking to senator sanders. we may or may not. what i don't want to get caught in is who we're going to endorse. i want to see who's going to eeorse us having a fair share in this country. not whose side are we on, whose on our side. >> reverend sharpton, i will leave it there. prophetic words.

than a minine with our end gamam segment. some of the highlights or low lights from last night's debate. coming up, "meet the press" end game brought to you by boeing, building the future one - you set rules around the house, right? so set rules for your kids when they go online: don't be a cyberbully. no racy selfies. and remember everyone can see everything you post, even grandma. rules keep kids safe online.

"meet the press" end game is brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. well, donald trump was building a reality tv show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. and i'm proud of what hedid. [ cheers and applause ] and he's had the gall -- >> the world trade center came down during his reign. remember that. [ audienceceooing ] >> end game time. panel is back. we haven't discussed the debate. kathleen, jeb bush's big moment there taking on trump. >> at was a good line. you know, every time trump baits jeje bush, jeb bush responds. and it never works that well for him. i don't know why, but he just can't pull it off. and every time trump opens his mouth, i think, okay, he's really trying to get fired this time. this is the time he's going to do it. you know, it's all about style. you can say the iraq war was a

in south carolina particularly where you have a high percentage of military people and veterans, with great respect to the brave men and women who fought in iraq, i have to just say it was a mistake. and i think a lot of people agree. and let me just say this and then go on. but he attacks the family, he attacks the mother. jeb is desperate. he brought in laura yesterday. >> if any other candidate literally in politics in america performed the way that donald trump did in that debate last night, i would have written and concluded this person is gone off the rails. he looked angry, to kathleen's point though -- >> but we know bettete than that now. >> you spent $36 billion and thing about new hampshire and ads and thing don't care about, but -- any seasons that begins this is going to doom donald trump because has been proven wrong so many times. what's the point? >> it's not so much about trump, it's about the people supporting him who are so angry with the establishment. why do we assume that they're going to defend the establishment?

>> it was interesting to watch marco rubio who found a way to wait, to let the fight between trump and cruz and bush play out and he said this is what i believe and he did it in the fluid nonrepeative way. in that respect he did himself a favor. >> it was mutually destruction last night and good night for kasich kasich. >> i think we have trump,p,cruz, one, two and we don't know which order one, two is going to be. third place matters. >> that's why i thought jeb was actually as good as he has been. and i thought -- >> but rubio doing well didn't help. >> rubio needed to do another last saturday debate because rubio's b-plus and better than b's a in debate terms. and i think rubio was better, did more goo for himself. i thought to gwen's point, how does marco rubio wind up being theig figure defending the bush administration in a fight with jeb bush on the stage? >> i think overall don't you think people just felt like, okay, kids, can you just stopop

>> to your point about john kasich. he's clearly said there's only one place for me to go. i can't get into that fight. i'm not going to get init. i'm going to be mr. positivity and we saw it again this morning. >> i love it. my mom will be happy about that. that's all for today.

press." >> announcer: this is the steele report. >> ron: this week on the steele report, we'll see if there are

new mayors in the cedar valley our questioning begins right now fch. >> announcer: now from kwwl, this is the steele report. captioning provided by caption associates, llc www.captionassociates.com >> ron: welcome in this week's edition of the steele reportas we w welcome the two now mayor of the cedar valley. from cedar falls, jim brown and from waterloo, quentin hart. jim brown was on the board of education, there for six years if i remember correctly. big victory over david halterman. mayor brown serve six years on the board of education. he's a business development manager. his campaign promise was to bring a different leadership style to city hall. we'll ask if he's done that. quentin hart we've had on the program before, earn his batch love's degree from uni, first elected in 2008, representing waterloo's fourth wart on the city council and then serve as mayor pro temand gave up the