eded. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com donald trump looking to answer the big question. >> can we unify? how do we unify? can we unify? don't fake unifying. >> is a paul ryan endorsement inevitable? also, elizabeth warren comes out swinging. >> what donald trump has demonstrated over his entire career is it's all about donald trump. donald trump is just not used to people who stand up and challenge him. >> could warren become the democratic running mate? plus, federal civil rights charges in the walter scott shooting. >> if you want to know what civil rights history looks like, take a look at today. >> what could it mean for the eric garner case? all that, plus outrage over offensive comments from trump's

longtime butler and a strong new push on equality from president obama. from rockefeller center in new york, this is "politicsnation with al sharpton." good morning. i'm al sharpton. donald trump wants gop leaders to take him seriously. but he spent days dealing with other issues like hateful talk from a former butler, claims about phony calls to reporters back in the '90s, and his own admission that he doesn't have policies, just, quote, suggestions. gop leaders dote want to deal with any of that. speaker paul ryan made it clear what they do want after meeting with trump this week. >> what is it that we need to do to unify the republican party?

we are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified, a process on how we unify. unifying the republican party is very important that we don't fake unifying, we don't pretend unification, that we truly and actually unify. i don't want us to have a fake unification. what it takes to unify, unite all of us. a unified republican party. can we unify? how do we unify at all? can we unify? >> okay, we get it. they want unity. ryan hasn't endorsed trump yet, but trump says he's willing to wait. >> i thought it was a great meeting. we had -- we discussed a lot of things, a lot of very important things. and i thought it was really a very, very good meeting. i think paul felt the same way, and everybody else did also. i don't mind going through a little bit of a slow process. it's a very big subject. i mean, we have a lot of things. and i think for the most part we agree on a lot of different items, and we're getting there.

>> but the same day trump reached out to republicans, he suddenly had to distance himself from his longtime butler who sparked outrage for writing on facebook that president obama should be, quote, shot. and then doubling down in an interview with nbc news. >> i think he ought to be hung. i think he should be hung. i think he should be hung next to hillary clinton, and i think it should be public. i think it should be televised. i think it ought to be done from the portico of the white mosque. it used to be the white house. >> the trump campaign has disavowed those comments. trump also denied a report that back in 1991, he posed as a publicist named john miller in phone calls with reporters. >> how are you? >> good.

how are you? what's your name again? >> john miller. >> what is your position? >> well, i'm handling pr. he's starting to do tremendously well financially. the people that you write about really are -- i mean, they call -- they just call. actresses, people that you write about just call to see if they can go out with him. he's living with marla and he's got three other girlfriends. >> now, i don't know whether to call him donald trump or john miller, but i do know that republicans have a few more things to think about as they decide whether to unify with their presumptive nominee. let's bring in our pam. panel. democratic strategist and former congressional candidate krystal ba ball, "new york times" national reporter yamesha and editor in chief of "reason" magazine, matt welch. thank you all for being here. >> thanks for having us, he have. >> krystal, can trump get gop leaders to take him seriously when there are headlines about butlers and fake calls?

>> well, if the things that he has already said and done weren't deal breakers for people like paul ryan, i'm not sure what's going to be. i mean, i don't think we have to look at the people that he's hired or things that he did 25 years ago to find things that should be absolute red lines and no-goes for people like paul ryan. i mean, if you have to really think seriously about whether to back a guy who was reluctant to distance himself from david duke who called mexican immigrants racist and has repeatedly made insulting comments about women, people with disabilities, et cetera. >> called mexicans rapists. >> exactly. did i say racist? my apologies, yeah, rapists. so i don't think that these are going to change anything for these leaders. ultimately they want to win. and if they calculate that backing there trump is going to be the way to win, that's who they're going to do. >> even digging a little deeper, he says that things he said like the muslim ban was just a suggestion. i mean, like, everything he says

is a suggestion. listen. >> yeah, it was a suggestion. look, anything i say right now, i'm not the president. everything is a suggestion. no matter what you say, it's a suggestion. >> well, will trump voters care that he may not mean or believe what he's saying? >> what trump has really shown is that he can say a lot of different things, kind of contradict himself, and still keep winning and still keep his base. the idea that the people that are supporting trump are really motivated not only by his policy ideas, but they're motivated by what he represents. they think that he's going to be making quote, unquote, america great again. they think that he's going to be the person who is going to kind of solve their problems. i think a lot of the people that are backing trump have economic issues, are looking at their futures, and really worried about whether or not their kids are going to be able to make it, whether or not the world that they're seeing is going to be a better one in the future. and whether or not they've lost something. i think a lot of people that i've talked to, even though i covered bernie sanders, a lot of

people are really anxious about the country and really anxious about whether or not we come out of a recession. so i think that trump saying that he has suggestions with policies i don't think is really going to change that much for his base. >> he's running on the force of his personality more than any specific policy suggestion, really. >> but matt, you know, gop senator johnny isakson, he has said he didn't want to talk about trump's policies. he said, quote, i need laryngitis as quick as i can get it. i mean, was this a good or bad week for trump? how long can elected republicans dodge questions about trump's views? >> itself going to be a great season for vick's sales on capitol hill. no, a lot of people are going to be holding their nose. like mitch mcconnell. mcconnell never opposed donald trump. he didn't go the showy paul ryan move. he just said he's going to be our nominee, okay, whatever, but i don't want to talk about it. ryan made a big show of it. now ryan's going to have to be ritually humiliated and brought to heel. so you're going to see a lot of people try to protect the

down-ballot races so there's no trump damage to that and focus on that instead and not really talk a whole lot. but meanwhile, with paul ryan and lindsey graham and other people. they don't have a choice. he's going to be the nominee. >> right. >> so they're going to want to try to influence him. so ryan's trying to tell him about long-term deficits which has always been his project. lindsey graham and the hawks are going to be trying to tell him hold on, don't talk about dissolving nato. >> but can you unfluns hiinflue? krystal, his senior adviser in talking to chris matthews this week, he said he expected at the gop convention -- let me show you what he said. >> all right. >> break some eggs, though, right? >> i don't think we have to break any eggs. >> reince priebus is going to give us an exciting convention? come on! >> donald trump is going to give you an exciting convention. >> what do you have? do you have movies? >> we're going to put a program together. it's not put together yet.

this is the ultimate reality show. it's the presidency of the united states. >> a reality show, krystal? a reality show? i mean, what are they thinking in the trump tower? >> i don't know. i think that's a very revealing comment because i do think that they kind of think of this as the ultimate reality show. we can get caught up in these questions of whether the leadership of the republican party is united or not and whether they're all going to back mr. trump and some have already said that they wouldn't. but if you look at the party, mr. trump has already unified most of the party, as much of the base of the party as the democrats have unified behind hillary clinton. so these leaders are missing the fact that he has already vanquished 16 opponents. they need to be asking themselves harder questions about what that says about their party and what that says about their role in the rise of trump. what has paul ryan done that has contributed to this environment that has created donald trump? i'll tell you one thing, that none of them have been able to do that mr. trump has actually been able to speak to some of

the economic anxieties of the base of the party. and paul ryan and the others have othered absolutely nothing in terms of solutions. >> that's what she should referring to. let me ask you this. the butler and his outrageous statements, the claims of a fake pr calls, will any of these stick to trump? >> i think if we look at the past, we can say that trump has been able to kind of dance around a lot of things and distance himself. you think if he goes into a general election, though, whether or not that's going to matter is a different thing than whether or not it's going to matter to the republican base. i think the republican base and the people that have already supported trump, they're not leaving because of what his butler said or because of any changes in his policies or even because of what republican leaders say. but i think when he goes into a general election and you have somebody talking about hanging a sitting president and you have somebody talking about hanging your opponent, i think that's going to matter to the people and independents and the people that are trying -- and the 17 million republican voters who didn't vote for him because while paul ryan said that he has

gotten the most votes in the republican history in terms of republican nominees, there are 17 million people who voted against him. and that means something. and those people, i think, are going to care about that. >> matt, the point is that i think she makes a good point. the point also is, let's remember that all of the republican primary voters, that's just a percentage of the vote that is in the general election. i think it's less than 20% has voted. so you're dealing with a much broader base of voters that you have to contend with now who may react much differently than the republican base voters that voted in the primary. >> correct, but as krystal pointed out, hillary or democratic voters, about 20% of them, say they're not sure about voting for hillary. it's only about 25% of republicans. those numbers are are surprisingly close. there are more democrats than republicans. so it's not totally apples to apples. but the other thing to think about, it's not right now about trump unifying the republican party. it's about trump going after

bernie sanders voters. that is the moment that he had this thing seemed up, he started talking about how nafta was the worst -- >> there's no way. there's no way. >> you might say there's no way. i'm talking about strategy, not about possibility. in order to win, he needs to go after women voters, which is going to be a hell of a thing for him to do. but independents support bernie sanders, young people support bernie sanders and women support bernie sanders. lots more straight ahead. >> straight ahead, the premiere of our campaign series "the trump effect." reluctant republicans pledging their support and risking their own re-election. plus, warren peace. elizabeth warren takes on donald trump. would she run with hillary clinton? ♪ ♪

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the top of the ticket always has a significant effect. >> i'm going to vote for our republican nominee. >> i fully intend to support our nominee. >> this morning, we're launching a new election-year series, "the trump effect: gop under pressure." we'll highlight down-ballot races where republican incumbents could be in trouble with donald trump at the top of the ticket. and today it's missouri. gop senator roy blunt says he's skipping the convention this summer and has been trying to distance himself from trump for months. >> any thoughts as you watch donald trump run for president? >> you know, i think he's mostly a distraction from trying to find solutions. >> but now blunt says he'll

support the presumptive nominee. he even met with trump on capitol hill, and that could be an opening for his democratic challenger, jason candor is missouri's secretary of state and a military vet, giving blunt his toughest race in years. this week "the washington post" said that blunt faces a tough post-trump reality. no seat is safe. joining me now is senator blunt's democratic challenger, jason candor. thanks for being here. >> thanks so much for having me. >> now, senator blunt met with trump this past week. what should missouri voters think about his support of donald trump? >> well, i'll tell you what missouri voters do think about it. they're pretty frustrated with the fact that their senator has said that he doesn't have time to meet with judge garland, no time to do his job. but he does have time to meet with donald trump.

it's yet another example of senator blunt choosing to put his party in front of his country. >> now, you know, senator blunt's office put out a statement after the trump meeting, and it says "senator blunt reminded him that tone and language matter in our efforts to defeat hillary clinton. senator blunt urged donald trump to unite americans." do missouri voters worry about trump's, quote, tone and language or about his policies? >> well, i think everybody across the board has a lot of concerns, naturally, about donald trump. i mean, he is unfit to be president of the united states. and i think that leads us to additional concerns about senator blunt. the fact that senator blunt, again, demonstrates that his constituents really have become lobbyists and his political party. and in this case, his political party has demanded that he do certain things like endorse

donald trump and say that he wants to take the country in a new direction with donald trump. and so i think senator blunt has demonstrated that that's what's important to him, not what's going on at home or doing his job but doing whatever his party and lobbyists tell him what to do. >> let me ask you something near and dear to me. your state senator recently passed a voter i.d. law -- voter i.d. bill, and your office has said that it would disenfranchise 220,000 voters. i mean, do you feel the intent of this bill was to reduce democratic turnout in an election year? >> well, missouri is a state that has never had a single case reported of voter impersonation fraud, which is the only kind of fraud in that piece of legislation. >> not one case. >> not one case of voter impersonation fraud. now, i as secretary of state have done more formal

investigations than any other secretary of state in missouri history. but there's never been a reported case of voter impersonation fraud in missouri. this piece of legislation, if it were to be voted in on the ballot, it would actually take effect in a future election year. but this is another example of where folks like senator blunt have decided to focus on things other than what is most pressing right now. i mean, there's a reason that, for instance, we have so much momentum in this race. i mean, just in the first three months of 2016, we actually outraised senator blunt. thousands of people went to jasonkander.com and made a corroboration. whereas blunt with all his special interests over decades of investing in him and financing his campaign and lifestyle weren't able to compete with that. so whether it's donald trump or whether it's other issues like this one that are really meant not to do anything like raising the wages of middle-class missouriens, it's pretty clear that they don't want to talk about the things that missourians care about.

>> missouri candidate for senate jason kander, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you for having me. next, tale of the tape. a police shooting caught on camera leads to a federal indictment. could this set a precedent? it takes a lot of work... to run this business. but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i just don't eat the way i should. so i drink boost® to get the nutrition that i'm missing. boost complete nutrition drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a great taste. i don't plan on slowing down any time soon. stay strong. stay active with boost®.

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some things are simply impossible to ignore. the strikingly designed lexus nx turbo and hybrid. the suv that dares to go beyond utility. this is the pursuit of perfection. if you want to foe whknow w civil rights history looks like, take a look at today. this is historic. what happened today is that the federal government said it stops now. police brutality stops now. >> that was the attorney for the family of walter scott. after a major development in a police shooting case that brought national attention by a cell phone video. it captured michael slager in 2015, then an officer in south

carolina, firing eight times as scott fled from a traffic stop. this week a federal grand jury indicted slager on charges including depriving scott of his civil rights. slager has already pleaded not guilty to murder charges. but these new charges appear to be the first recent civil rights indictment in a nationally known police shooting case. slager's attorney called the charges extreme and said, quote, it really feels as if officer slager is carrying the burden of many past cases that were handled differently. one question now. is this a precedent for other cases caught on tape? in new york, eric garner died after being placed in a chokehold by police. >> put your hand behind your

back. >> i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. >> a new york grand jury declined to bring charges against the officer. there are reports of federal grand jury is considering a civil rights indictment, but nbc news has not confirmed that. would that grand jury and others that may confront similar questions look to what just happened in south carolina? joining me now is former federal prosecutor paul butler. thanks for being here, paul. >> great to be here, reverend. >> so why this civil rights charge against michael slager but not in some of these other cases that we've seen recently? >> you know, we have videotape, which from a prosecutor's point of view, is just compelling evidence in this south carolina case. we literally see the officer

shoot mr. scott eight times in the back and then plant evidence. and, of course, files a false police report full of lies. so that's very compelling evidence in this case that we don't have in all of the cases. now, we do have video in the eric garner case, so i'm hoping that the justice department is going to look at this as just the beginning. you know, the department declines to bring charges 96% of the time in these cases. 96%. for too long african-americans have looked to the federal government to vindicate civil rights. so this is a promising beginning. >> we had a video on tamir rice, and there was no indictment. so we see videos because of technology, with the camera phones, with the videos now with your cell phones, really, are more commonplace. but we still -- this is the first time we're seeing it actually leading to a federal

indictment in all of the recent cases. >> yeah, reverend, as you know, african-americans have been complaining about abuse by police for decades. >> yes. >> now, the videos help for people who just didn't believe that the police could act like that because people believe their own eye, so they see it. now, there's another group of people who believe it just just don't care because they think the police are doing what they need to be doing. so sometimes even when therz individu there's video, it's hard to get a conviction. but again, this is a very promising start. loretta lynch, the attorney general, maybe she's trying to act boldly in her last few months in office because, again, there's a crying need for this kind of intervention from the federal government. >> now, i note also that slager is also being charged with misleading investigators for claiming that scott was coming toward him. the video shows scott running away. which is also now a charge here of his misleading investigators.

>> honestly, reverend, to me, that's one of the most troubling aspects of this case because, you know, normally the police file a report, and judges tend to believe it. they think that the police are telling the truth. we know that this police report was full of lies. and we have seen that in other cases where there's been video that's contradicted what the police say. in chicago, with the laquan mcdonald case, and it just makes my heart ache for all of the cases in which there are these allegations, but we don't have video. >> yeah. now, you know, it brings me to raising that this week the fbi director was quoted as saying that videos may have a "chilling effect on police" -- "the new york times" wrote, and i'm quoting here, james comey "said that while he could offer no statistical proof, he believed after speaking with a number of

police officials that a viral video effect with officers wary of confronting suspects for fear of ending up on a video could well be at the heart of a spike in violent crime in some city cities." president obama has pushed back on this in the past. what's your take? >> first of all, it's weird for the nation's chief law enforcement officer to be saying that the police are afraid to do their be jos because of a bunch of videos or protesters. it's just silly. you know, there's no evidence of this ferguson effect or viral video effect. it's true that crime is going up in some places. it's going down in other places. and the cops i know, people who i know who become. cos, they do it to serve and protect, not because they're afraid of some kind of protesters. you know, the real concern is it makes it sound like the fbi director thinks we need more aggressive policing. that's the last thing that we need. the president has said we need police to act as guardians, not as warriors. and it just sounds like the fbi

director is going for this ar yo warrior mentality. and real quickly the worst thing is this mindless speculation about criminal justice that's brought us to this place now. where we had the new jim crow, mass incarceration and vast race disparity. we really need evidence-based policing. we don't need this, again, mindless speculation from the fbi director. the president pushed him back once when he went down this path. i hope he pushes him back again. >> well, yeah, you're correct in which you're saying the president did push back before. and i might note that most of these videos are not done by protesters. just citizens that happen to videotape some of the encounters. paul butler, thank you for your time. >> it's great to be here. thanks for having me. up next, auditing donald trump. his hide-and-seek on taxes lands him in our gotcha. ♪ ♪

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-i can actually see a lot of it. -oh. so you've got to ask yourself, why does he want to release him? yeah, well, we're going to find out. >> hillary clinton questioning why donald trump doesn't think voters have awe right to see his tax returns. releasing tax returns is a longstanding tradition for presidential candidates. it goes back decades. but here's what trump said friday when i asked about his tax rate. >> it's none of your business. i fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible. >> do you believe voters have a right to see your tax returns before they make a final decision? >> i don't think they do, but i do say this. i will really gladly give them. they're not going to learn anything, but it's under routine audit. when the audit ends, i'm going

to present them. that should be before the election. i hope it's before the election. >> he hopes it's before the election? excuse me if i don't believe him. first of all, the irs says being audited doesn't stop you from releasing your returns. even president richard nixon did it in 1973. and second, trump already promised to release his returns back in 2011 if president obama released his birth certificate. >> if i run, you'll see what a great job because i'll do a full disclosure of finances. >> including your tax returns? >> we'll look at that. make i'm going to do the tax returns when obama does his birth certificate. >> we have a birth certificate, but do we have trump's tax returns? in also a break from trump's own advice to republican nominee back in 2012 after mitt romney

delayed releasing his returns. >> i think that mitt was hurt really very badly by this whole thing with the income tax returns. i believe that he should have -- he either said i'm giving them april 1st or i'm giving them soon. i think he would probably be better off if he just released them now. >> did trump really think he wouldn't be held accountable for this? nice try. but here's your filing status. we got you. you live life your way. we can help you retire your way, too. financial guidance while you're mastering life. from chase. so you can.

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democrats seem to have a new weapon in their fight against donald trump. elizabeth warren. she unleashed on trump this week saying he is unqualified to be president. >> here's a man who looked around and said, what are the profit opportunities? i know. let's get out there and pretend to run a university.

what donald trump has demonstrated over his entire career is it's all about donald trump. we need a government that doesn't just work for billionaires like donald trump. >> she also launched a twitter storm on trump, calling him "dangerous, reckless and embarrassing." trump fired back calling the senator "goofy" and accusing her of, quote, using the woman's card like her friend, crooked hillary. and now there's buzz that the clinton campaign may be eyeing warren as a potential running mate. but, of course, bernie sanders may have something to say about that. let's bring back our panel, krystal ball, yameesh alcindor and matt welch. let's start with the attacks. why is she so well suited to go after him? >> she really is kind of the perfect anti-trump. while he talks all this populist

rhetoric and pretends to be a man of the people, you look at his tax plan and it tells a very different story. she, on the other hand, has real credibility in terms of taking on the big banks. she was enemy number one for the big banks. and on setting up the consumer financial protection bureau to look out for ordinary folks. and you just know, even if you don't like elizabeth warren, you know she wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night thinking about how she can fight for middle-class americans. so that really makes her the perfect person to go after him here. >> yameesh, i brought up about it has been reported that the clinton people are looking possibly at warren as a running mate. look at what she said this week about joining the clinton ticket. >> i love my job. i'm here in the united states senate doing exactly what the people of massachusetts sent me here to do. for me, i'm going to keep doing my job every single day. and i'm not thinking about another job. >> now, help me out here. did that sound like a yes or a

no or neither one? >> that sounded like i'm open to taking the job if they offer it to me. and he think that she's showing herself to be someone who is ready to attack donald trump head on. and i think the 16 republicans that he beat out now know that if you're going to defeat trump, the thing that you have to do is go after him and go after him in a way that mirrors kind of how he goes after people. so i think while elizabeth warren is saying that she loves her job, part of her job is already attacking the republican nominee, which would be part of her job if she was the vice presidential nominee, too. >> now, matt, you know, there was also a report this week that vice president biden had mentioned elizabeth warren as a possible running mate during his first strategy session. there's clearly an appetite for someone like war. in t warren in the democratic party. is that why bernie sanders caught on? >> yeah, this enters slot was the warren slot. if she runs against hillary, i think she wins, right? >> absolutely. >> she was what everyone wanted.

they got bernie instead. and bernie blew up. it was a very big thing and caught fire. so yes, but i'm not sure as a running mate it makes a lot of sense because you think about it, hillary's been pulled to the left particularly on economics by bernie. usually at this stage in the race, she's going to be wanting to tack to the center. granted, donald trump has blown up the right/left categories and will be going against hillary from the left on a number of issues, actually. but still, are you really want to -- >> talking about that, krystal, you know, democratic senator dianne feinstein, she wants bernie sanders to drop out, saying, quote, it's actually harmful because she can't make that general-election pivot the way she should. trump has made that pivot. is he -- is his continued presence, i'm talking about bernie sanders now, is his continued presence in this race helping to shape the party's

message, or is it just hurting the party? >> well, here's my problem with that quote. the premise of that quote is that hillary clinton needs to change somehow now for the general election. well, what do we mean exactly by that? has she not been straight with us about what she's going to do and what she's going to prioritize for the general election? so that whole premise bothers me. there are millions of people who have backed bernie sanders. he has brought a lot of energy into this race. and i think that's only a good thing for the democratic party. a democratic party, by the way, that has really relied on young people to win its past victories. so i don't think it's a bad thing for him to stay in it. and i want to see what kind of changes he and his supporters make for the party itself. >> the reality is he has gotten millions of people's support, no problem -- no question, rather, about that. but she's got 3 million more votes in these democratic primaries. >> she does have more votes than him, and i think the thing that's interesting, i wrote think story this week where i was able to get my hands on this draft proposal put together by a

group of anonymous bernie sanders supporters and volunteers. they're also calling for him to drop out after california. >> they're saying let's go after donald trump. >> they're saying let's go after donald trump and they're also saying we don't we create an independent organization where we can now go after donald trump. that's the first goal. and then after that we won't be part of the democratic party. we can then go on and push progressive policies. so even on the people who support bernie sanders are saying, look, the writing's on the wall. >> they're going their own way. >> and let's not waste this energy. a lot of people look at what happened after obama's election in 2008 and say we had all this energy, but then it went away because we never really thought very hard on how to do that, and obama for america which became organizing for america, a lot of people felt like that just didn't harness the energy. so there are a lot of progressives worried about that. >> matt, i'm hearing a lot of the same, and i read her article, and i'm hearing a lot of the same around, and people are going even as far back as independent runs like ralph nader that we don't want to be responsible to elect a donald

trump. >> sure. and you think about it, donald trump is using sanders right now. he is saying that, you know, sanders, a corrupt hillary is going after the superdelegates. you know, you have a lot of sympathy for sanders. he's right about trade, you know, unlike hillary clinton. for the next two months, that's what that game is going to be. he's going to be using bernie sanders quotes against hillary. and he's going to be hoping, i think, probably more hope than actuality that there can be just like there's a never trump movement, a little never hillary movement among disaffected sanders supporters. the longer sanders stays in, the more wounded the feelings are going to be of the hardcore bernie people. i think they will turn to hillary at the end. >> i have to hold it right there. thanks and enjoy the rest of your weekend. >> thanks, rev. still to come, the obama administration makes a major stand for equality all across the country. why do so many businesses

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the culture wars are back with a growing fight over transgender rights in america. on friday the obama administration sent a letter directing public schools to give transgender students access to restrooms they identify with. or face possible loss of funding. it's a policy that many schools across the country already follow. but, of course, some on the right are outraged. >> he says he's going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy. well, in texas, he can keep his 30 pieces of silver. we will not yield to blackmail from the president of the united states. >> but the administration is taking a stand. the justice department is suing

north carolina over a law that bans transgender people from the bathroom of their choice. with a policy statement from attorney general loretta lynch. >> let me also speak directly to the transgender community itself. no matter how isolated, no matter how afraid and no matter how alone you may feel today, know this. at the department of justice and indeed the entire obama administration want you to know that we see you. we stand with you. and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward. and please know that history is on your side. >> joining me now, jonathan capehart, "washington post" opinion writer and msnbc political analyst. he's been covering the story for "the post." thanks for being here, jonathan. >> thanks a lot, rev. >> jonathan, is this letter a signal from the white house that they're not shying away from a

fight? >> oh, absolutely. and we should have known something when attorney general loretta lynch stepped out there a couple of days ago and what the justice department is doing with north carolina and its so-called bathroom bill. and when the attorney general looked right into the camera and said she wanted to speak specifically to transgender americans and telling them basically that the justice department and the federal government has their back in all of this, that the directive that was sent out on friday is sort of the next step. the obama administration is taking fights for equality and anti-discrimination extremely seriously in the closing months of the administration. >> now, will the attorney general's words help sway the federal judges who will soon be dealing with these matters? >> well, it depends on where those federal judges sit. we already know that in a

virginia case, the federal judge sided with the transgender students. but, you know, we've got federal judges on the bench who were appointed by presidents reagan and h.w. bush and w. bush. so as these cases make their way -- lawsuits make their way through the system and make their way to federal courts, appeals courts and then probably ultimately to the supreme court, this is -- it will be sort of -- will sort of mirror the conversation on marriage equality where some courts will see the light, if you will, and other courts won't. and it will be up to the supreme court interpreting the constitution and interpreting the law to determine whether equality stands. >> now, many in the civil rights community including me came out strongly seeing this as a civil rights issue. the attorney general spoke explicitly about how the law relates to civil rights. watch this. >> state-sanctioned

discrimination never looks good and they ever works in hindsight. it was not so very long ago that states including north carolina had other signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations keeping people out based on a distinction without a difference. >> now, how important is it that the attorney general frames this in a larger context? >> because it makes people understand that forget about the differences in the discrimination and the differences in the equality. the ultimate thing that the people who are harmed by these laws and these bills, these legislation is discrimination. and so for the attorney general, the first african-american woman attorney general to link transgender equality fight with the fight against jim crow, the fight against segregation makes it clear that there is a long

line here between what happened with african-americans in the 1950s and the 1960s and still ongoing and what's happening now in terms of the current-day conversation about transgender rights. >> let me ask you quickly i'm out of time, but what about those that feel that the governor of north carolina and others are just playing politics to drive out their votes up for re-election. because in many areas this is unenforceable like at airports. who's going to inspect people to see if they're transgender or not? a lot of this seems like a ruse to manufacture some of us. >> no. just to highlight that, rev, this law that's in north carolina was proposed, debated, passed and signed into law in less than 24 hours. >> jonathan capehart, thank you for your time this morning. >> thanks, rev. >> have a great day. that does it for me. thanks for watching. and keep the conversation going. like us at

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really hard. trane. the most reliable for a reason. good to be with you. i'm frances rivera in new york at msnbc headquarters. new remarks today from house speaker paul ryan on the donald trump meeting. the good, the bad, the clash and what's most critical. >> it's important that we have real party unity, not pretend party unity but real party unity. >> what exactly does that mean for trump and some republicans who still don't want him as the nominee? in fact, a new group says there's a group of operatives plotting right now to draft an independent candidate. the list of names might surprise you. california dreamin', a report from the west coast on whether the golden state might be a last stand for the bernie sanders campaign.