majority leader to ever lose a primary. the odds are so rare, it's more likely a majority leader will die in office. if that doesn't drive home the impact of this vote for you, try this. some pundits are calling this the biggest upset to the gop establishment since the emergence of the tea party. even cantor's opponents seem caught off guard. here he is with the daily rundown this morning. >> should there be a minimum wage in your opinion? >> um -- i -- i don't have a well crafted response on that one. >> let me ask you about something, a foreign policy question. arming the syrian rebels. would you be in favor of that? with the u.s. military helping to arm the moderate syrian rebels? >> chuck, i thought we were just going to chat today about the celebratory aspect. i'd love to go through all this but my mind is just -- >> i understand that. >> if you want policy questions, i'm happy to do them. but i just wanted to talk about

the victory at hand. i wanted to thank everybody that worked so hard on my campaign. i'm happy to take policy issues at any time. i just wanted to call out thanks to everybody today. >> policy. worry about that once you get to the capitol. a cantor loss wasn't even on most political radars. it was on none. let's not kid ourselves. he was leading the polls. after six terms, he was the up is posed speaker in waiting. he had 377 pacs backing him. a 40/1 cash advantage over an opponent who had only paid staffers working off of flip phones. let's go back to 1998. cantor spent more at steak houses than brat spent on his entire campaign. all that cash clearly backfired. cantor's campaign actually added to brat's name recognition and showed virginians there was a cantor alternative. as for impact, immigration reform was supposed to be the big issue this summer. cantor backed a dream act like

proposal. now that his house future is doa this fall, many say so is immigration reform. we'll dig into that coming up. cantor's loss could easily scare house republicans away from other bipartisan issues as well, adding to the gridlock. who would have thought the white house might be sad to see cantor go? let's bring in democratic strategist erica nudi and manu raji. manu, i got to start with you. we heard rumbles around the hall maybe this was possible. if the question was posed to a member of cantor's staff, they laughed at us. said we were idiots. we all drank the conventional wisdom juice on this one, did not see it coming. how in the world did this happen? >> turnout, luke. the bottom line, these primaries as you know are very difficult to poll. it's hard to get a clear sense exactly who's going to come to the polls. the cantor team clearly

mispolled this. they thought they were going to win by double digits. maybe 20 points. maybe 30 points. it was clear. his voters did not get to the polls. the people who were energized were the activist base. the people who wanted to see him gone. who were upset at his compromises that he's made over the years. and were concerned about some of his positions on immigration. as well as other issues. those are the folks that organized and got to the polls. that just shows every single republican here and democrat, too, you really cannot take any race for granted because at the end of the day, your polls may be wrong. because those are estimations when it comes down to it. >> right. it all depends who the elect electorate is, who's going to come to the ballot and put your name on it and whatnot. it's a total shocker. i'm still in dismay. erica, i want to play for you what nancy pelosi said for our own frank thorp on nbc news this morning. >> i feel bad for him. but the people have spoken.

they're our bosses. they decide. the whole dynamic has changed. what i've always said all along is the people in washington really don't know the pundits and the rest what's going on in the districts. >> now, it seems that democrats are celebrating this. last night the dccc sent out a good-bye eric cantor card for a lot of members to sign. while this certainly will put the house gop in their shells on controversial issues for the rest of this year, is this a joyous day for democrats? it means immigration reform won't happen and it puts it into the presidential election year. >> i think democrats are committed to immigration reform. they're not happy to see that stall ever. certainly not now. it would help in the 2014 elections in the senate. it depends on who replaces him. the opportunities that are going to be for dems going forward is going to be determined by how republicans respond going forward. they have a new majority leader to pick. we have a lot of races right

now, there are still primaries to come. are republicans going to start to move further to the right? are they going to read the wrong lesson from this. i'll be honest. i've got a family down in the 7th district. i talked to a lot of people down there last night. they told me to let you guys know the 7th congressional district, borders are secure. immigration was not the issue. it really was that, you know, eric cantor had kind of lost touch with his district. the number one rule is tend your own backyard. i think now the new number two rule should be for republicans, check your pollsters. because they are not helping you out right now. >> it's like under armour. we must protect this house. indeed. >> i think we're all still shocked and stunned. manu, on that point, talk to us about the future of the house gop leader sh p. i mean, there's got to be a lot of shuffling going on right now with cantor's resignation. he was, you know, the second most powerful member of the house. many people thought he was going to be speaker. give us some names they're tossing around not only to replace cantor, but likely boehner at a certain point.

>> that's right. the majority leader's spot, the field is really starting to take shape. you're seeing kevin mccarthy, current majority when i wiip fr california. he's going to run for the majority leader session. pete sessions, texas republican. the person who ran the national republican congressional committee in 2010. really during that tea party wave and helped bring the republicans back to the majority. he's also running. he can potentially rely on a very sizable amount of republicans from that texas delegation. but there's a wild card. other members may jump forward. another texas republican, jeb hensarling has not said yet what he's going to do. if he runs, that could add another element into this race. this is a very -- it's a difficult thing to handicap. at the end of the day these leadership races are done behind closed doors. they're secret ballots. so when members go and they actually cast their vote, they may actually vote another way. even though they're saying

something else publicly. we're really setting the stage for an unpredictable three weeks. trust me, it will get nasty. particularly behind closed doors. >> no doubt. >> erikka, i appreciate your fresh reporting on how that district is safe. thank goodness for that. obviously this is a very low turnout election. let's not overstate the importance of what's happening here in eterms of nationally. brat was able to attack cantor basically for things that we would call being a grownup. right? being able to work with the other side. or at least listen to the other side. and bipartisanship is already rare in this congress. does this situation, this cantor loss, make it even more rare? >> i hope it doesn't. i mean, one of the things that i'm concerned, i think a lot of people will kind of believe this idea that it was immigration. i think that was a false line of a lot of pundits inside the beltway who had to quickly google david brat. what the hell happened there? immigration popped up because that was his most recent thing. really i think what it is, people are very frustrated with d.c.

eric cantor has been running the same kind of politics that he did in this primary. very nasty. very name calling. at the end of the day people want to see stuff move forward. immigration is an example of something they wanted to see some movement on that we didn't get any movement. if you come back as the majority leader, now you're the leader of the group that is not getting anything done and being disappointing and not actually moving things forward, then you are kind of literally the poster child and the leader of everything that people see that's wrong in washington. so i would hope that when republicans kind of do their, you know, murder board and kind of look at what really happened, they would say, moving farther to the right and not having compromise is a bigger problem. if you look at what happened with lindsey graham down in south carolina on immigration, there's a guy who voted for an immigration bill who has been a lead on immigration in the senate for years since i worked in the senate. he was, you know, one of those leaders behind the scenes on immigration. think he made a very calculated and correct choice that voters would tolerate someone with a different opinion. what they would not tolerate is somebody who is disingenuous or who they couldn't really tell

how they stood. eric cantor kind of moved back and forth. wouldn't really make a position. i think people didn't really feel like they got a sense of what he really stood for other than not the democrats, not obama, not obamacare. what does that really leave you if you're the person that he represents? we all have to kind of take a step back and think, at the end of the day, these guys represent people. >> right. erikka, the other piece of that is, dave brat talked a lot about immigration, but, erikka, he also used that as a way to tie immigration to eric cantor being of wall street. and of corporate interest. more than of the district. in fact, eric cantor was a very close ally of wall street. brat talked to fox news, making exactly that point. let's take a listen. >> it's the -- it's the most symbolic issue that captures the differences between myself and eric cantor in this race. but it also captures that fissure between main street and

wall street. >> erikka, it seems to me like that populist message is something democrats should learn something from, too. because democratic voters do not appreciate a flood of wall street cash any more than republican voters do. >> oh, you're totally right. going back to what luke mentioned earlier, the fact that eric cantor spent more on steak houses than brat spent total on his campaign, i mean, really think about that. what that symbolizes. what that's a symptom of. that is somebody that thinks that steak and dining and wining is more important than, like, pounding the pavement. i think that really the kind of misalignment of priorities is very, very clear here. >> well, there's no reason you can't do both, erikka. you can have a little bit of steak. then you can go pound the pavement to work it off, right? >> that's the boehner philosophy, right, luke? >> who doesn't like a good steak dinner. i know i love one. campaign finance reports are public. if you know you've got a challenger, why would you put

something like that out there? i'd be a lot more careful about it. the populism is something that does resonate everywhere. >> rising up on the right and left, indeed. erikka knuti, manu raju, thank you so much. up next, the other big news reverberating through washington today. what was the administration thinking when it came to bowe bergdahl? lots of people are asking that question right behind me on this wednesday, june 11th. do not go anywhere. [ male announcer ] don't just visit hawaii. [ squeaking ] [ water dripping ]

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we are back. it's been a big day on the hill as defense secretary chuck hagel was drilled by the house armed services committee about the

bergdahl prison swap. he defended the terrorist exchange saying the ultimate decision belonged to the commander in chief, president obama. >> i assure you, this committee, the american people, this prisoner exchange was done legally. it was substantial mitigation of risk to our country. and in the national interest of this country. >> what's complicating matters even more are claims that bergdahl went awol and reports that six soldiers may have died looking for him. but secretary hagel warned against jumping to conclusions. >> he was held captive by the taliban and the haqqani network for almost five years. he was officially listed as missing captured. no charges were ever brought against sergeant bergdahl. and there are no charges pending now. we do whatever it takes to recover any and every u.s. service member held in captivity. this pledge is woven into the

fabric of our nation and our military. >> the american people don't see it as so clear cut. in a new poll, 43% say the exchange was the wrong thing to do. a fewer number of americans say the president did this the right way and with five known terrorists now free, many are fearful of the danger that we now face. that brought out a testy exchange from secretary hagel. >> and did you make an assessment of the number of american lives that may be put at risk if we have to go to recapture them again? >> and i have in front of me the facts on the five. two of them were detained by u.s. forces. >> mr. secretary, i understand that. i understand -- we're running out the clock. i only have 50-some seconds. >> the answer is no. >> you didn't even make a calculus. >> i said i did. and i said the answer is, you asked if there were lives lost in capturing these. >> you said no. >> i have no direct evidence that there were any american lives -- >> did you make an assessment of how many american lives may be put at risk if they have to be

recaptu recaptured? >> no. >> as expected, this debate is only getting more heated. here to talk about the secretary testimony's, welcome back colonel tony schafer. there's been anger, as you know, on both sides of the political aisle. >> correct. >> not necessarily on the release of bergdahl, but on the lack of communication from the administration and president obama. >> right. >> is there any logical reason why the president did not notify and justify congress before the swap actually happened? >> based on my direct knowledge, having been briefed on this issue in december of last year, no. there's absolutely no reason. the decision was made in december to go with the swap option beyond a shadow of a doubt. between december and now is more than 30 days. i think there's some real legal issues that i don't know how secretary hagel is going to overcome that. frankly, again, i think the president would have been well

served to at least brief those on the committee's friendly to him on this issue on the democrat side. there's really no excuse at all for not having given congress heads up. let me be clear on this. congress knows how to keep secrets. i had to testify to black operations in closed session. those operations are still secret to this day. so i think it's a very thin reason given by the secretary of defense so far on this. >> yeah. >> yeah. on that point, this is not just republican criticism. this is dianne feinstein and the senate select committee on intelligence who pushed this, as well as 80 to 90 administration officials knew about this and not one member of congress. john boehner made the point yesterday that, in fact, this deal, because we in theory negotiated with terrorists, made americans less safe. chuck hagel pushed back on that today during this testimony. where do you fall on that? >> luke, these individuals don't fit into the geneva convention of prisoners of war. let me be very clear on this. these guys were actually authorized to be killed or captured as part of the original authorization of use of military

force, aumf, back in 2001. at least two of them should have been tried as material supporters of the al qaeda network for the attack on 9/11. so -- by the way, i consider this a bush failure, not an obama failure. these guys should have been taken care of under the years that bush had them under their control. i don't know why they didn't. with that said, these guys going back into combat or at least being available for combat, they're not back yet. we don't know the mou which was used with qatar to put them back where they're at. has already given new, reinvigorated energy to the taliban. they've actually been attacking in pakistan, karachi. there's been two attacks. discussions now by the taliban of grabbing more people, quote, unquote, like bergdahl who will give them more leverage. this is, again, a very tenuous move on our part. i don't agree with the secretary of defense on his assessment on this. >> colonel schafer, it seems that in america there is a war over the image of bowe bergdahl. facts on both sides to shape how american public opinion

coalesces around him today. from the "washington post" we learned he was discharged from the coast guard for psychological reasons. and that in a larger sense, he struggled to rationalize what he was even doing in afghanistan. he writes in his diary, compared to the hell of the real wars of the past, we are nothing but camping boy scouts hiding from children behind our heavily armored trucks. we tell ourselves that we are not cowards. i'm wondering, who wants us to know about these things that he's thinking and writing in his private diary and why? >> well, i would agree that this was a deeply troubled youth. i think you and i would both agree that because we were actually fighting two wars at the time, which i think was clearly not the right answer regarding some of the things that got us into iraq, we were actually digging deep into people -- recruiting people who would not otherwise be recruitable. we were accepting people with criminal records which resulted in criminals going into combat and killing people and murdering

them. and then people like bergdahl who should never have been allowed to go back into service. they were issuing for every five recruits one waiver to get people in at this time. why this? i think there needs to be a balance of the portrayal of bergdahl. please don't take this as me defending him. i'm not. i'm defending the fact that the army has a material role in having recruited him. the army is partially responsible here for what happened. with that said, there's no justification in my mind for every abandoning your post. which as secretary hagel said, this is going to have to be dealt with. i understand there needs to be a new investigation. there's already an old one. this is something that has to be reconciled one way or another. i do believe this gives additional light on his thinking. again, the army has a material responsibility for accounting why they even allowed him into service. >> right. his thinking as you're pointing out should be a separate issue. >> right. >> from the details and the rationale of this deal. tony, we also are learning that bergdahl was held at least for much of the time in pakistan with the haqqani network there.

what are we supposed to make of our relationship with our supposed ally, pakistan? >> it's a tough question. you would ask that. look, one of the problems that we faced over the past 13 years is the fact that the safe havens in pakistan, that the pakistani military and isi, intelligence service, allowed to happen has been the one thorn in our side which has never allowed us to achieve a real victory there. we've achieved tactical victories. beat the taliban on every instance on the tactical side. strategically because we couldn't get into safe havens like the haqani network where bergdahl was held is something that's resulted in continued destabilization. as we leave, the taliban has now re-established a shadow network all through afghanistan based on these save havens in pakistan. until pakistan gets serious about eliminating the taliban and going after these safe havens, you will continue to see these problems. identify talked about the northern ireland peace process as being kind of format to follow. the northern ireland peace process was only successful when

the irish republic said no more to the ira operating out of its -- across the borders into northern ireland. something has to happen similarly with pakistan. otherwise pakistan will continue to be victimized like they were over the past week with attacks by the taliban. it's a very serious issue. >> tony, i think you managed that question quite well. thank you so much as always. >> thank you. coming up, will the guys in that building behind luke russert spartan up when it comes to reform? that reference will make a lot more sense after tomorrow's show. cheerios? honey nut. but... chocolate is my other favorite... oh yeah, and frosted! what's your most favorite of all? hmm...the kind i have with you. me too. you need to see this. show 'em the curve. ♪ do you know what this means? the greater the curvature, the bigger the difference. [sci-fi tractor beam sound] ...sucked me right in...

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♪ that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. the news cycle starts right now. right now back on the east coast the walmart truck driver charged in the crash that killed one man and critically injured comedian tracy morgan had just pleaded not guilty. kevin roper is charged with vehicular homicide and assault by auto in the weekend crash involving morgan's limo. morgan remains in critical condition. still reportedly unconscious. three other people were also

hurt. new outrage is bubbling up today against the troubled veteran affairs system. even as waiting lists were growing, the v.a. handed out nearly $100 million in bonuses to executives. that's according to a new report by the asbury park press. they found systemic issues during that same time period led to the wrongful death of a number of patients. back on the battlefield in iraq, the security situation this week is deteriorating in the not northern part of that country. an al qaeda splinter group has gained control of government buildings and pushed security forces out of mosul. militants have reportedly taken control of tikrit which is saddam hussein's hometown. all of this increasing concerns that u.s. trained military forces are failing. back now to washington and house majority leader eric cantor's stunning primary defeat last night. one of the biggest questions being asked down here today is

whether it was cantor's willingness to work on immigration reform, albeit in a small way, that sealed his fate. regardless of the role that that played on the senate side, democrats are vowing to continue to fight. here's new york's chuck schumer on the senate floor this afternoon. >> now we have a new excuse. the excuse is that we supposedly cannot pass immigration reform because eric cantor lost his primary election. well, madam president, just like all of the other excuses that have proven to be illusory, the idea they can't do immigration reform because eric cantor lost his election is another phony excuse for not passing immigration reform put together by those who willingly and unashamedly hand the leadership gavel on immigration to far right extremists. >> recent stories of hundreds of children crossing the border have both sides of the issue digging their heels in even

further. nbc's mark potter spoke with a group who crossed over down in texas. >> reporter: this teenager who arrived with his mom says he and others are fleeing gang violence in el salvador. now that he's in the u.s., he feels safe. children in the group say they've come here hoping to reunite with their parents, already in the u.s. the mother of one of the kids telling nbc news, families pay smugglers $8,000 to $9,000 to escort a child. >> so have republican voters shown the establishment that they don't want immigration reform? or is the door still open for a compromise like senator schumer suggested? let's get more on what folks at the white house are thinking with the lovely kristen welker from the north lawn. kristen, what's the latest from 1600 p.a. ave. >> reporter: officials here at the white house sound a lot like senator chuck schumer. behind the scenes they are insisting that immigration reform is not dead. several of them making the argument that it's not as if

eric cantor was one of the major champions of immigration reform. however, they still acknowledge that august is probably the last best chance to get something done even if it's a piecemeal piece of legislation. the reality, though, luke, is going into yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of hope that immigration reform was going to get passed. and eric cantor's loss certainly doesn't add any momentum to the effort to get immigration reform passed. look, he embraced a small piece of it. the dream act piece of it. and that is one of the factors that contributed to his loss yesterday. there are several other factors including some analysts who say he just didn't do a very good job of campaigning. on the other side, you have lindsey graham, senator lindsey graham one of the authors of the senate immigration reform bill who did win his primary yesterday. so those are the two sides of the coin. but certainly for republicans who are facing tough re-election fights, it does give them any extra momentum to act on immigration reform, luke.

i think that's the real problem here. i think the thing to watch, though, is what you mentioned just now. which is that surge in unaccompanied minors. of course, it has reignited the debate over border security. but i think it's also highlighted the fact that this country has a big problem when it comes to immigration. that it just isn't dealing with. so you could see that start to reignite the debate over immigration reform. but, luke, i think it is still going to be very, very difficult to see anything significant get done by that august recess. >> yeah. probably not a year of action. kristen welker, thank you so much. >> reporter: probably not. with more on the fate of imimmigration, paul raul -- rather reyes, attorney, "usa today" columnist and nbc news contributor joins the table. thank you so much for joining us, sir. >> hey there. >> so where does this play out? from a strategic standpoint, if you're a reform advocate, there is a lot of people that said republicans were standing in the way. there's truth to that. but then lately there's been

this whole sort of movement against obama as being the deporter in chief. what's the message now? >> i think the message now, and this might surprise people, there is actually a little room for optimism. and that's -- that's always -- >> whoa! >> yes, there is. because the immigration movement is continuing. it's probably dead legislatively. but these young people are going to continue demonstrating. they will still be heckling the president. they'll still be going after john boehner a t the diner. they're going to keep pressing that issue and forcing it on all these different members of congress. and the good news here is that this may advance immigration reform into the white house. maybe speed up the president's timetable for easing deportations. >> raul, we saw those heartbreaking images of children crossing the border. breaks all of our hearts. the message from the right has been that they're coming over the border because they think they can get amnesty. amnesty is acting as a magnet. what is the real reason they're

coming across. >> we have yet -- we have not yet seen enough evidence to support either conclusion. these kids, there's an equal case to be made. they're coming -- it's a humanitarian crisis. they're not coming from mexico or costa rica, stable countries. they're coming from central america. honduras, el salvador. these countries are in the top three for most violent countries in the world, for top murder rates. this is not necessarily an immigration issue. dave brat was very successfully able to use it as an immigration issue because it was in the news. it forced this whole notion of invaders and our borders being out of control. that was part of the reason he succeed zb succeeded. >> i think immigration is one of the issues that best highlights the divide within the republican party today. cantor's loss last night was evidence of that. it makes me wonder with folks like jeb bush and marco rubio that have talked about any form of support for immigration reform, if they should rethink running in 2016. is that going to be an issue in the primaries, one that i lived through in 2012, it could be one

issue that kicks them to the curb. should they be thinking twice about this? >> i think it just depends the depth of their commitment to the issue. certainly, they're aware of what's going on. but i always tell people, immigration is not necessarily a republican problem. it's a problem of the republican leadership. most republicans want reform. there's even some polls that show that tea party leading republicans want reform. so they just have to figure out how to deal with the civil war going on within their party. they need many of these engaged voters to turn out in the primaries. but yet in the general election they're a hindrance on the immigration issue. they have to work that out. >> they have a catharsis they have to go through. probably happening 2016. raul reyes, thank you so much for being on "the cycle." lots to unpack on the immigration issue, of course. thank you for helping us do it. in only the way you can. big decisions are coming from the supreme court on everything from presidential power to abortion rights. the future of how we watch our favorite shows. hmm. but here's what's already been decided. one man in particular is going

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in 1960 a handsome young senator for massachusetts was running for president. in order to win, he had to say "i am not the catholic candidate for president. i am the democratic party's candidate for president who happens also to be a catholic." that endeared him to many americans and helped kennedy win. but a young lawyer named anten scalia was offended by that sentiment. he later said catholicism is not some superficial overlay. it is who i am and how i see the world. scalia has been a supreme court justice for 28 years and our next against says scalia's faith is at the heart of how he approaches the bench. that's one of the key insights in a fascinating new biography called scalia, a court of one,

by bruce allen murphy, a professor at lafayette college. talk to us about how scalia's catholicism has shaped his legal philosophy. >> scalia was taught his catholicism by his immigrant romance language professor father. immigrant italian. and he learned a very devout, prevatican to traditional catholicism that has shaped his life. and he got to the point that he was very much in disagreement with kennedy. and when kennedy disavowed his connection between his job and the presidency and catholicism. once on the court, scalia has been disavowing any connection to catholicism in his judging, while simultaneously has been showing in many of the social issue cases abortion, gay rights, the death penalty cases, that he -- to a much older,

traditional, prevatican faith. he actually has gotten into a disagreement with the pope and modern catholic church over the death penalty issues. and he believes that the -- the clock should be turned back, i think, to a different era. >> pretty remarkable when you are more conservative than the pope. but, bruce, scalia uses a judicial approach that he calls originallism. right? it's the opposite of the idea of the constitution as a living document. he thinks you can go back to the text itself, divine the original intent of it and use that for all your judicial decision making. he talked about that specifically in this case d.c. versus hellor. which was a landmark case regarding how to interpret the second amendment. is the second amendment about the rights of a militia or does it include an individual right to self-defense and to bear arms. scalia supposedly using his philosophy of originalism comes to this idea it's really about individual rights and is very

much criticized by not just more liberal justices, but also by conservatives. richard pozner essentially said you're cherry picking historical data and making stuff up. he said the range of his tor ral references in the majority opinion is breathtaking, but it is not evidence of disinterested historical inquiry. it is evidence of the ability of well staffed courts to produce snow jobs. so is scalia really using this, you know, very careful process of originalism or is he manipulating originalism to get to the political result that he ultimately wants. >> that's a good question. scalia sees himself as a good judge of historians as well as history. so he is looking at the kind of history that's sent to him in the legal briefs. and he is picking the pieces that will get him the result that he wants. what he wanted there was, in the heller case, was an individual right of self-defense. that right of self-defense isn't in the second amendment and

isn't in the constitution. and to get there, he has to change the rules of grammar by moving the well regulated militia, predecessor to the keep and bear arms section of the second amendment, to the back of the second amendment. and go right to this individual right of self-defense. and i think part of what he was doing was, if he made that claim, he would pick up the libertarian anthony kennedy. he would also pick up the libertarian clarence thomas. he'd be able to hold his five vote majority. >> this book really gives you a better sense of what makes anthony scalia tick. the take away was that he's an incredibly intellectual guy. he also craves attention. we were talking about this. how it's interesting, as smart as he is, he's actually become more and more partisan as he gets older. how much of that -- well, first of all, how common is that for judges on the supreme court to seek that attention? but how much of that falls back to him just wanting people to follow him and to like him? >> there were two parts of scalia's personality that became evident when he was in college at georgetown.

he was tony scalia, the charismatic actor who everyone loved. he was nino scalia, the championship college debater who would use add homonym attack to win at all cost. when he was appointed to the supreme court, ronald reagan thought he was getting tony scalia. the person who showed up was nino scalia. from the very first moment he wanted to establish he was the equal of the other eight people and that he was, in fact, going to be their leader. as justices get older, sometimes people like william o. douglas and others, try to become more an individual on the court. a court of one. so that they can get attention as opposed to the others on the court. and so i think that's what we've been seeing here. >> bruce, the book is masterful in explaining how scalia has

manipulated the court in getting decisions he wants. don't go far. we'll hear more from you shortly on krystal continued. that will be up on our website, thecycle.msnbc.com this evening. follow us on the facebook and the twitter to get the link. speaking of the internets, all of them, up next, one of the business world's sharpest minds on clicking your way to the dot-com cash. when kevin knight left the army, he decided he wanted to help other veterans assimilate into civilian life. he started knight solutions. the contracting firm hires returning veterans to maintain and renovate military cemeteries. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community,

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see if you can name one person you know that is not on facebook, twitter, instagram or some other social network. you'd probably be hard pressed to come up with anyone. and i'm not surprised. since 2005 social network usage has shot up from single digits to 90% of 18 to 29-year-olds and almost half of internet users are over the age of 65. in all, nearly three-quarters of internet users are on social media. but what makes for a successful site site? why is facebook worth billion of dollars while myspace is a sort of footnote at this point in the internet history books? our next guest says that he has the answer. he teaches at the harvard business school. he's author of "a social strategy: how we profit from social media." thank you so much for joining us. let's start with the facebook, myspace question. what did facebook do right that myspace did wrong? what can other companies learn

from that? >> it's really important that facebook gave us the ability to express ourselves just to a select group of people. it started really small and really allowed us to expose ourselves to a few people. myspace was very open very quickly. i think most of us are quite afraid of saying things very broadly to people. when we know we're saying things just to a few people, we're actually willing to disclose quite a lot about ourselves. a z you said, a lot of people are posting pictures from their holidays. pictures with their children. so it really is a relatively safe space for you to disclose a lot about yourself. the other reason why facebook is so incredibly successful is, you and i just met a second ago. it would be very, very strange if i asked either one of you to share pictures with me. but if we became facebook friends. >> you would have all our photos. >> exactly. immediately. we would basically be great. we would actually be able to do things that we are not able to do in the offline world very easily. one of the reasons why we're so attracted to these sites and we're spending so much time on these sites is exactly because they give us so much that we cannot do in the offline world.

>> yeah. you make the point that what separates companies that profit off social media and everybody else is basically knowing the difference between traditional media and social media. talk to us about that. >> yeah. i think it's social media. talk to us about that. >> i think it's a really big problem because when a lot of companies try to leverage facebook or twitter, they feel they have to broadcast, which is very typical because we're very used to the advertising framework. the big problem is the reason we're on the social media is not to be broadcast by companies. you want to visit with friends. imagine if you were talking with friends and someone pulled up a chair and said, hey, can i sell you something? you'd be angry and say, hey, hold it a second, we're having a conversation and i don't want to be argued. the right way to do this is to come to the table and say how can i help you facilitate a conversation. most of the companies that

actually leverage it have gone into the business of facilitating conversations and interactions between people and have stepped back quite a lot from broadcasting. >> professor, i've always wondering and i get a lot of different answers when i pose this to academics like yourself around people on wall street. where exactly is the tangible valuations? snapchat. kids turned it down. i don't know what they were thinking but got love them. where is the tangible money for us laypeople out here? >> it's really interesting. i think about facebook. facebook is probably the only place on the internet where advertisers can contact you and you directly. so if i actually go on facebook, i can enter your name and put an ad and only you will see this. the fact that they can tar bet people so precisely and so unique, they found they can integrate it so the management

systems allows them to target people very precisely. that has made a tremendous difference. >> what company's done it best? >> oh, my god. where do i start? there's -- in this sort of space, there's a business consumer space, i really love what nike has done. nike has really integrated social deeply strategy. so the first thing they've done is actually build their own platform, nikeplus platform as you can see. they're broadly -- oh, wow. >> we have a whole bunch up there. >> we've got a great team. >> what they've done is they build their own data that people can upload to their devices. they don't cost that much to make but they're inexpensive. yu coplay. >> doing things that you can't

do without it. thank you so much for joining us and helping explain your book. still ahead, it is the world television premiere of "luke lets loose." >> get your popcorn ready. better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. ♪ that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones

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. a few weeks ago my good friend jake sherman from politico returned from richmond, virginia, and he sincerely believed that david brat had a chance against house majority leader eric cantor. i laughed him off. brat was maxing off at $220,000 and cantor was outspending him

26-1 and had a budget of $168,000 for steak dinners. there's no way he would lose. he was on his way to become the first jewish speaker of the house. well, i and the rest of the reporter pundit operative class all had egg on our face today. nobody aside from maybe jake saw this coming but the question must be asked. what does it mean? people are quick to say this is the ultimate victory for the tea party of the establishment, but as lee c orsow says, not so fast, my friend. mitch mcconnell beat a well funded tea partier in kentucky a few weeks ago. what happened here is simpler. it goes back to the line some of us have heard in relationships. i don't even know who you are anymore. that's what the seventh district of virginia said to eric cantor. he had been the modern face of new age politics.

facebook at palos ail toews festival and davos in switzerland, deep ties to the innovative start ups at wall street. that was all fine. but if you look at the 56% to 46% beatdown cantor received last night, it wasn't just the tea party rising up. they hardly spent any money there. it was peer simple anti-dissatisfaction of the status quo and because they have governed in crisis mode since 2011. now, this probably won't happen in this capacity again. what ayers told a gop "washington post" poll, it's one race many in one congressional district that mirrens very little for other races in other states but very few people will report it that way. cantor's was unique, he was in the leadership. he owned the house republicans'

capitulation in the shutdown fight and he had problems his money couldn't solve. cantor's money ended up probably hurting him as his negative ads against brat helped define him as the sole opposite majority leader. so the question must be asked. what happens next. the house gop conference will not move on any legislation that could be interpreted as tloeshl year due to the fallout and probably an extension of unemployment insurance. as my colleague chuck todd said, the mascot of the house gop now will be the turtle as they hide in their shells for the remainder of this year and perhaps a little in 2016. we'll see what happens. but for now. i'll say this. soak this in. isn't it amazing in this post-citizens united world where billions are spent on elections and we have an assurance of results ahead of time, an

economics proffers with $200,000 and no political experience can take out the main one. it still comes down to whether the constituents think you're there for them. virginia 7, the public says eric cantor was not. that will do it from washington. alex wagner starts right now. who's having a worse day, eric cantor or john boehner? it's wednesday, june 11s, and this is "now." >> the republican party is the tea party. >> a seismic shift is being felt on capitol hill this morning. the battle for power within the republican ranks republican house majority leader cantor is out. >> it's the biggest shock i have ever seen in electoral politics. >> there's nothing you can do. the people have spoken. >> everyone was on