wife and also we are waiting to hear any minute now from the mayor of orlando. also on the agend ajohn mccain criticizing president obama saying he was directly responsible for the orlando shootings. >> the problem with our country is we have leaders that give up. it's almost like they gave up on isis. >> democrats coming out and attacking john mccain for his comment, but a surprising new ally jumping in on john mccain's behalf as he faces a very difficult re-election bid. we'll tell you who is siding up with him. it's a surprising name if you know your political history. we'll get to that ahead. and rounding out the agenda, democrats are claiming a breakthrough on gun control. but now the republican speaker of the house is saying not so fast. >> the fbi is telling us, be

careful how you do this so you do not undermine or blow terrorism investigations. so we can't just be very clumsy and rush to judgment and do something that actually harms our ability to do terrorist investigations. >> more from chuck todd's sit-down with the house speaker and the latest from capitol hill. that's still ahead this morning. we begin with the latest on the orlando nightclub shooting. the focus now squarely on the wife of gunman omar mateen. today there are new details about what she saw and heard in the weeks leading up to the attack and those text messages she sent back and forth with her husband while he was carrying out the killings. nbc's ayman mohyeldin has been on the ground in florida. he joins us now. we have the headline here. texts exchanged between omar mateen and his wife as this was playing out. what else are we learning, and what does this mean for her own legal situation?

>> yeah, and this is a question that i was able to pose to her sprue an intermediary, a close source who has been in contact with her. this is something important to contextualize. in the middle of the night she was woken up from a phone call by her mother-in-law asking if she knew where omar was. she hung up and texted her husband saying, where are you? he was at that point, according to them, already engaged in the shooting at the pulse nightclub. he replied by saying do you see what's happening now? he replied, i love you, babe. that was the end of the exchange according to the source able to put it into context. but afterwards she called him repeatedly and it was only around 4:00 a.m. or so that police called her telling her to come out of the apartment with her hands up and she was then notified and made aware of what had talken place. the fbi and others have been

focussing on her. some suggestion she may have been an accomplice because she may have known about this attack. she's repeatedly denied she didn't know anything about this attack. she's been cooperative with the fbi. there has been reporting that she, in fact, was with him when they purchased ammunition or purchased weapons. in fact drove him around the pulse nightclub. both of those she says are not true. she is saying they were together at a walmart where omar went alone to purchase ammunition but she was with him at the store at the time. that one time even asking him why did he buy those ammunitions to which he replied he was going to renew his license and needed to practice on a shooting range. she said she's never driven him by the pulse nightclub but did go through a route by the pulse nightclub while driving. she was not aware they were driving specifically to case or look at that particular venue as a possible target. this was on a night they were driving back from orlando to their home. the bottom line is she is saying

she's being negatively portrayed and criticized for something she did not know about or could not have prevented because of the way some of these pieces of information are coming out from law enforcement. at this time she's saying it's important to put them into context. she is trying to get some legal representation in the event this escalates and some charges are brought against her. >> ayman mohyeldin, thanks for that. turning to the political reaction, the political fallout playing out across the country now. john mccain as we mentioned coming under heavy criticism from democrats for his comments saying that president obama was, quote, directly responsible for the orlando shootings. >> barack obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of iraq, al qaeda went to syria and became isis. >> democrats, as we say, they were quick to jump on mccain for those comments. harry reid's office saying

mccain's comments were, quote, unhinged and just the latest proof that senate republicans are puppets of donald trump. nbc's hallie jackson tracking mccain down in the capitol a few hours after he made those comments. she asked him, do you want to clarify what you said in any way? >> i want to be clear. are you backtracking on your statement? >> i'm not backtracking on anything. i'm saying the president of the united states' actions -- actions were responsible because of the full withdrawal of troops from iraq which led then to al qaeda going to syria, which then led to isis. >> and mccain later tweeting that he, quote, misspoke. republicans like mccain in contentious election fights this fall figuring out how they can still tap into trump's voter base if they also want to distaps themselves from the presumptive nominee for more moderate voters that may emerge

on the trail soon in the form of former president george w. bush. he's getting out to raise money on behalf of mccain and some other republicans this summer. we'll have a closer look at that ahead. right now peters alexander, kristen welker are here. we played a little bit of paul ryan talking to chuck yesterday. he's basically telling republicans, you have to figure out. yo are o your own to figure out trump. >> he's given him some breathing room as well. as long as we're talking politics, it's like he's trying to give these house members room, the breathing room he initially tried to give them by not making an endorsement. now having given that endorsement and witnessing more of the language he and other republicans are uncomfortable with, he said follow your conscience. here's part of his conversation with chuck todd. >> the last thing i would do is tell anybody to do something that's contrary to their conscience. of course i wouldn't do that. believe me, chuck. i get this. this is a very strange situation. very unique nominee.

>> in effect he's saying that every republican is on their own to do what they like. more and more republicans coming forward, not necessarily falling in line. we're witnessing. the representative from michigan, fred upton, he is the senior member of the nine-member celligation from michigan right now. we'll put up his comment to the "detroit news." there's a lot of things that folks are not happy about with either of these two candidates. we're not endorsing. we're running our own campaign. >> there's a couple of governors on the sideline as well. larry hogan, maryland, charlie baker. >> richard armitage saying he's going to vote for headquarteill clinton. >> the house speaker making clear he's still on ultimately. >> this is the period of time

where the democrats, $17 million being spent by hillary clinton right now to try to define donald trump in this window. they have it all to themselves because the trump campaign is still fighting to raise enough money to compete in that way. so this is a time when trump is being defined and a lot of republicans are saying we support him. we don't support his words. a lot of americans will make their own conclusions if that seems like a reasonable argument. >> that's the question of unito the republican side. on the democratic side, bernie sanders issuing a video message to supporters last night. he says he's going to do everything he can to stop donald trump in the fall but he still refused to actually drop out of the race or to formally endorse his primary opponent hillary clinton. on morning joe, his campaign manager jeff weaver signaled no endorsement is coming now. but that doesn't mean never. >> i think we are in discussions with the clinton campaign. that's been widely reported. obviously the secretary and senator met in person a couple of nights ago.

i'm in communication with the clinton campaign on a daily basis. we are working towards coming to a resolution on a number of issues, both process issues and substantive issues. >> who better to bring us up to speed on what's going on than kristen welker. in the final days of the democratic primary race there was all this panic among democrats. is bernie sanders going to blow this whole thing up for us? he's not dropping out right now but it certainly doesn't sound that contention anymore. >> he's trying to walk a fine line. i've been talking to his top officials who say, look, what he wants is to be able to say to his supporters that we won something here. that ultimately, we did get secretary clinton to compromise on some of the things he's asking for like getting rid of superdelegates. the challenge for senator sanders is that by focussing on some of these process issues he runs the risk of not really achieving what he wanted to with his revolution and undercutting the core messages of his revolution. a lot of democrats are startin

to lose patience. it's not that contentious but it still limits her a little bit in terms of being able to focus solely on donald trump. and largely, the general election race is moving on with or without senator sanders. we're seeing that. yesterday secretary clinton won the endorsement of the afl-cio, oprah winfrey. she is blanketing these key battleground states with ads trying to define donald trump. there's this lingering issue with senator sanders. i think a lot of democrats are going to start to put morand more pressure on him to drop out. will he do it this weekend? based on my conversations, he's not leaning in that direction yet. he still wants to be able to say we really won something. >> you look back at how those primaries ended. if maybe he would have folded earlier, he could have had more leverage. >> every day, does he not lose a little bit of leverage? i think that's one of the other challenges. the conversations are fast and furious between the clinton and

sanders camps. they really want to get something done on this. >> kristen welker, peter alexander. tight quarters here, but we did it. the second black box has now been found on the egyptair flight. are we going to get answers on what brought that plane down. the senate is going to vote on gun control next week. we'll look at the competing proposals. two from democrats. two from republicans. whether they have any chance of passing. senator blumenthal will join me. hmmmmm... the turbocharged dream machine. the vo named one of car and driver's 10best, 10ears in a row.

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president obama and democrats in congress renewing their fight for new gun control measures in the wake of orlando. the first test could come on monday. one key flash point the so-called terror loophole

referring to people on the federal terror watchlist being allowed to buy guns. the orlando shooter was once on that federal terror well, although the fbi did remove his name two years ago. democrats want to vote on their plan to close that loophole. that's where things get very complicated. let's take a look at the big board here. what's going to happen in congress next week, it looks like, is it going to be four votes. two on democratic plans. two on republican plans. two of those rival plans involve this terror loop hole. let's just take you through the differences you're seeing here. democrats say take that list that's out there right now, this federal terror watch list. it's a large sprawling list. we're talking hundreds of thousands of people who are on this thing. they are saying, if your name is on that list, you don't buy a gun, period. and then the one little add on hire it looks like is if youor that list and you can prove you don't belong on that list you can go to the justice department. the justice department can

arbitrate your claim and if the justice department decides you actually don't belong on the list, then you can get a gun. that looks like the democratic plan. on the republican side they say there are some civil liberties issues with this terror watch list. people don't necessarily know when they are added to it or how to get their name off of it. there is no due process where you can go to court or a judge. they say if you are on it, 72-hour waiting period. in that 72-hour waiting period, the burden of proof is on the attorney general, on the department of justice to prove in court that you are a threat and shouldn't be able to buy a gun. those are the two rival proposals taking shape. each one it looks like will get a vote next week. two rival proposals on the issue of background checks. if any of these proposals get through the senate next week they'll need 60 votes to do it. that's going to make it even tougher to sift through what's happening, what we can expect.

let's go to capitol hill. nbc's luke russert. two different issues here. the background checks, the terror loophole. two proposals. a proposal from each party in a 60-vote threshold. is this a recipe for nothing happens? >> i think ordinarily it would be a recipe for nothing happens. but if you look at the democratic proposal and republican proposal you just put forward regarding not being able to purchase a feirearm on the terrorist watch list, there are a lot of commonalities. obviously the democrats want a more forceful bill, really tip the scale in favor of doj. but republicans are admitting the system as it currently is, is flawed and there should be a way for the government to prohibit a sale of somebody who is on that list in some capacity. i think what's very interesting is you've seen since the course of orlando last week, republicans are now open to, if you've been on this list for a period of five years, even if you've been taken off, you still

can be flagged. that's a big movement for them. in that case, this killer in orlando specifically, he would have been flagged again because he'd gone on and off of that terrorist watch list. there are areas of commonality where a compromise could come forward. the question will be, though, is how contentious is this vote next week? what's the language from people like chris murphy who fought to get a vote like this, the language from mitch mcconnell and ted cruz who have gone on the floor against any types of gun control measures. what is the house willing to accept? what i'm interested in, to be honest, is reid's playbook. if reid wanted to negotiate, i suppose they could get somewhere. reid is a tactician and he can say, if we negotiate a deal, it allows the republicans to get a win regarding guns. something we feel that the politics is in our favor heading into november. that's the real question. will they make a compromise that, when in theory would probably help out those red

state -- sorry blue state republicans, purple state republicans running in the senate more so than democrats. people will say we're talking about politics and guns and people's lives but that's how every decision is made up here on capitol hill. that's really the question. do democrats want to give republicans what i think on the face would be perceived as a win for them? >> it's hard to take the politics out of politics. luke russert on capitol hill, thanks for that. coming up, nbc's tom costello on the news the flight data recorder has now been recovered from egyptair flight 804. will we finally find out what happened to that plane? that's next.

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aviation. >> it's a big deal. so you know there 24 blaare two boxes on a typical plane. two days ago they recovered the cockpit voice recorder and now the flight data recorder. the boxes for both of them were damaged but the memory unit was apparently recovered. that's very good news. on the cockpit voice recorder, you'll get the last two hours of cockpit conversations between the pilots and the ambient noise in the cockpit. the flight data recorder, about 45 hours of data on the engine performance, any technical issues, computer issues, what was the direction, speed, heading, condition of the flaps. all of that will be on the flight data recorder. what they will do now. they'll sink these two black boxes. once they get them to the lab, they'll sync the timeline for the cockpit voice and flight data recorder so they can match. if they hear a pilot saying he is observing something, they can

look on the flight data recorder and see what does that show? does it indicate a problem? does it indicate a sudden loss of pressure or sudden loss of altitude or any indication of an on-board fire or explosion or anything of that nature. this is critical. this is how they'll solve what happened to flight 804 and why 66 people died. you may recall early on there's been speculation, it may have been a bomb or some sort of on-board fire event but nobody ever claimed responsibility for bombing this plane. this is very much a mystery. they want to get to the bottom. why did an airbus a320 fall from the sky about a month ago. if it wasn't a bomb, there could be a mechanical issue involving one of the most widely flown planes in the world. >> tom costello with the details. a big break in that investigation. up next, going to be joined by senator richard blumenthal. he played a key role in that 15-hour filibuster democrats did this week on gun control. here he is at the very end of

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you're a young farmhand and e*trade is your cow. milk it. e trade is all about seizing opportunity. sign up at etrade.com and get up to six hundd dollars. here are the headlines at the half hour. iraqi forces have managed to retake parts of fallujah. the last major city in western iraq still under isis control. however, militants still control parts of the city forcing the military to go street by street trying to clear them out. in an unusually dramatic break with the obama administration's policy, 51 state department officials have reportedly sent an internal memo calling for a reversal of u.s. policy in syria. the group wants to see u.s. military action to pressure syria's government into accepting a ceasefire and

engaging in peace talks. this at odds with current u.s. policy. the story first reported by "the new york times." the shocking murder of a british member of parliament has led to the suspension of campaigning ahead of next week's referendum on whether britain should remain part of the european union. thomas mair was arrested for the attack on jo cox. she was pushing for britain to remain part of the eu. no word on the motive. wildfires are threatening homes across the west as hot, dry weather pushes flames into areas that haven't been burned in decades. hundreds of people have been forced from their homes. no one yet has been killed. three babies born in the u.s. have shown birth defects linked to the zika virus. three more were lost to miscarriage or abortion. all the women were affected outside the country. the cdc is worried about outbreaks in the u.s. as the

summer season gets under way. turning back to the efforts by some members in congress to pass gun control measures in the wake of the orlando massacre. connecticut democratic senator richard blumenthal has helped lead that fight. so it's going to be a series of votes next week. a little complicated and weedsy on the details. i want to ask you about one specific thing you're pushing for. this is the idea of people whose names appear on the federal terror watch list not being allowed to buy guns. a democratic proposal says if your name is on the list you can't buy it. civil libertarians are making an objection saying people can be added to that list without due process. you have hundreds of thousands of names on this list. ted kennedy's name, the late ted kennedy was on it at one point. congressman john lewis somehow ended occu eed up on it. when you're talking about a constitutional right, the second amendment, is that a fair way to

be deciding who gets to exercise their second amendment rights? >> and that concern is very fair and very well justified because people are entitled to due process before their liberties are impacted. but the proposal that we're advancing is a little bit different. there's a no-fly list, a terrorist watch list. what we're proposing is that the attorney general of the united states have the discretion to base decisions on evidence, specific facts that would justify her determining that someone should not be sold a gun because they are engaging in terrorist activity or they are preparing to do it or aiding it. there has to be a determination. much as there is to arrest someone with a warrant and civil liberties obviously are impacted by that decision as well. it's not just being on a list. >> the idea is, how this works functionally, if you are on the list you try to buy a gun, that

gets flagged because you're on the list. then it's up to the attorney general to take a look at the individual case and make a decision? >> and if you are on the list, as a result of some mistake or error, there is a process to have your name removed. and it ought to be expedited and streamlined so that people are not on this list with deliberate or inadvertent errors being responsible for it. i'm very sensitive to civil liberties concern. i've been an attorney general of my state fighting for civil liberties, due process goes to the heart of what makes america different from every other nation in the world. we need to protect our basic values. >> you can see here there's two competing proposals. you can see where this is going. if there's no compromise between the republican proposal and the democratic proposal, it looks like the end result is nothing passes. the key difference seems to be this republican proposal on this issue. look, there's a three-day waiting period. your name is on the list. you try to buy a gun. three-day waiting period. attorney general has to go to a

court. has to go to court to get an official determination that this person can't exercise their second amendment rights. can you see a potential compromise between what you're talking about and what the republicans are arguing for? it looks like that's the only way anything comes out of this. >> compromise should not be a dirty word. i can see compromise giving rise to something both sides can agree to support. but it has to be effective. a three-day trial is going to embroil these decisions, not just in three days but three months and probably three years and, meantime, the terrorists, and we're talking here about people for whom that determination is made on the basis of fact, not just speculation. may go ahead, buy the gun and do what happened in orlando. this threat of terrorist inspired or supported activities

and more than threats, actual attacks, is a real and urgent one. it's clear and present danger. >> do you see any circumstance you can support a court getting involved? >> after the person has been barred from buying the gun, yes. in other words, if it's a remedy that's applied after the threat is forestalled. >> so that's a potential compromise that you might be automobile able to get behind that the attorney general could stop it immediately and if the person on the list wants to fight it in court, the court could be the final arbiter but that would be a longer process. >> there's a lot of precedent for that approach to threats or imminent dangers. the foreign intelligence surveillance court, for example, or other courts allows warrants to be serve and executed. people to be arrested and then for the warrant to be challenged, for the search order to be under going scrutiny. this kind of measure, i think, has to be effective.

because nobody in the united states, so far as i know, wants a terrorist to be able to buy a gun. and the kind of 72-hour proposal that has been proposed, i think is just a way of, in effect, clothing a proposal that will make this process ineffective in the civil liberties guise or disguise that i think in a way is counterproductive. >> okay. votes look like they'll take place next week. we'll see if compromise takes shape. senator blumenthal, thank you. coming up, our most important number of the day. it involves this man. former president george w. bush. is he getting back into the political ring? the number of the day straight ahead. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. omar and camille brown knew nothing about the restaurant business when they opened their kale cafe.

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real strength, strength of core purpose comes from integrity and character. and in my experience, the strongest person usually isn't the loudest one in the room. >> that was george w. bush back in february. what has been to this point his only public appearance this campaign season. he was out there trying to save his brother jeb's campaign. that didn't work out. now it looks like george w. bush still has some campaign activity left in him this year. and that brings us to our most important number of the day. that number is 47. 47. what does that have to do with any of this. i'll explain. first, let's tell you what's going on. so here's the story. george w. bush, the former president, he recently headlined a fund-raiser for john mccain. that's interesting enough when you remember the history between bush and mccain. a vicious campaign between the two of them in 2000.

there's george w. bush raising money for him. he's going to do that for kelly ayotte, rob portman, rob blount. all of these embattled senators facing tough races. n all of them turning to george w. bush to raise money for them. where does that number 47 come in? this is the most recent polling on the popularity of the former president. a 47% favorable rating. a 47% unfavorable. you look at those numbers and say that's not too spectacular. why would they be enlisting him. compare that number, 47% favorable for the former republican president george w. bush. compare that to the current favorable score for the presumptive republican nominee. that's the wrong screen. this is what his used to be. 26 when he left office. compare that 47% to donald trump. 29%. donald trump right now in his favorable/unfavorable score is where george w. bush was when

george w. bush left the presidency. remember how unpopular he was. sidelined from the 2008 campaign between mccain and barack obama. that's where donald trump is right now. suddenly george w. bush with that 47% favorable score, he's the guy, the republican party leader who those embattled senators are turning to for help, not their party's presumptive nominee. that's our most important number of the day. 47%. the presumptive republican nominee would love to have it. but the former republican president does. for more i want to bring in katlyn from real clear politics. she's been following the republican race. abby philip of "the washington post" is on the hillary clinton beat. as i make my way back to the set here, katlyn, let's start with you. this issue of donald trump. we had the interview chuck todd had with house speaker paul ryan. paul ryan saying, hey, republicans, you are running for congress, the senate. use your conscience on this one,

how you want to use donald trump or not use donald trump. how you want to talk about donald trump. what do you think we'll see from republicans? >> i think we're in a phase of the campaign where republicans are figuring out how to create an environment that's safe for them. you're hearing from senate candidates and house candidates that they'll run their own race like a mayoral race. trying to focus on local issues and also differentiate themselves at every turn really from donald trump. i think the ryan comments are significant. he endorsed donald trump as a sign of unity trial to hold the party together. when we saw in the polling, a coalescing effect around donald trump. now you're seeing the bloomberg poll had the view of the republican party at an all-time low in terms of favorability. and that really figures to play in those down ballot races. >> and abby, on this subject of how republican members of congress handle donald trump, i

just want to show this. this is fascinating. duncan hunter is a congressman from out in california. he endorsed donald trump early in this thing. now he's getting all these questions about donald trump and trump university, his comments about the judge. everybody is asking me to explain all these things he said. some of these things, i don't know what donald trump is thinking or where donald trump is coming from. he's telling the media, stop thinking of me as a donald trump surrogate. this is one of his early key supporters. >> right. i think republicans are all finding themselves in this awkward position. you saw paul ryan also going through the same process and dealing with some of this saying, you know, this is about separation of powers and not necessarily about me answering for everything donald trump has to say. >> and what about on the democratic side. we talked about this earlier. bernie sanders is not getting out of the race. he's not dropping out. he's not endorsing hillary

clinton formally yet. democrats, we were hearing from kristen welker, getting impatient with him. how much time does he have to come around to her, do you think? >> he says he's going to stay in through the convention. i think if he started having these conversations maybe a month ago, he might have played more of an influence. but, remember, this week started off with a huge tragedy. the conversation shifted to issues like national security and terrorism. also foreign policy. so sanders has really been left out of the conversation at large. so he's kind of losing his own momentum as the longer that he stays in without endorsing her and kind of rallying the troops so to speak. >> abby, it strikes me every time i look at one of these polls. hillary clinton in the last week. her numbers have been improving against donald trump or maybe more than donald trump's numbers have been falling. i feel every time i see one of these polls that puts hillary clinton 10 or 12 points ahead of donald trump, that takes away from bernie sanders' leverage. >> that's right.

and some of these recent polls, hillary clinton isn't even hitting 50%. she's in like the mid. 40s. and that speaks more to donald trump's weakness than her strength in this particular race. and that undermines one of the core arguments that bernie sanders is making. especially toward the end. he was saying he could convince superdelegates to change over to him because he's the stronger candidate against donald trump. but the polls recently, including a recent abc news/"washington post" poll shows that hillary clinton is doing okay at this moment against trump. and sanders tacitly recognizes that. heel le ttold his supporters l night that he was willing to work with hillary clinton to defeat donald trump. it was a key acknowledgment that she's the one that's going to be up against him in november. >> the sanders campaign acknowledging for all that talk about reaching out to superdelegates and trying to reach them in the summer, bernie sanders not making calls to superdelegates making that case.

but clearly, politically, it's been a rough week for donald trump. we always have to keep in mind covering these things, there is still so much time between now n november. with donald trump, we have seen how things that feel like they are major campaign-changing events can be forgotten very quickly. >> it's interesting to look at the polls that think that voters think donald trump, more than hillary clinton is best to handle things like -- sorry, terrorism and national security. they just didn't like how he handled this one. just taking all these polls collectively. so republicans were really upset because they thought this could be a turning point in his campaign. using this as a sign of strength. instead, he really missed a lot of opportunities. you are seeing this constant disappointment on behalf of republicans hoping for a turn of the page. but we don't yet know how this will affect him moving forward. we still need more polls week after week this campaign changes. day by day actually. >> waiting for that pivot and

waiting and waiting so far. thanks for joining us. and coming up, msnbc's ari melber got a chance to sit down with the top attorney. his thoughts on donald trump's proposal to block muslims from entering the country. that's ahead. hmmmmmm..... hmmmmm... [ "dreams" by beck ] hmmmmm... the turbocharged dream machine. the volkswagen golf gti. nameone of car and driver's 10best, 10 years in a row. ♪ booking.com offers free cancellations, so you're free to decide if the trip you're on... hahahahahaha! ...isn't really the trip you want to be on. hahahaha... hahaha... [mountain woman and key laughing together]

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donald trump due to take the stage in texas for another big rally tonight. if past is prologue, he will again call for a ban on all muslims entering the united states, but the big question here is, is it legal? msnbc's chief legal correspondent, ari melber, has an exclusive interview with president obama's top attorney and he asked him that question. ari. >> i just sat down with don varilli. he has served as solicitor general, arguing dozens of cases before the supreme court. he probably knows what these justices are thinking better than most people. this has been a big area of controversy so that is one question i put to him on the

muslim ban. >> and you mentioned immigration. when people look and say, oh, well, you've got a nominee proposing a religious ban for immigration, legally, constitutionally, would that power exist? >> i'd be surprised. i'd be surprised to think that it would. >> do you think a supreme court would likely strike that down? >> you don't want to speculate on a case that doesn't exist and probably will never exist, but, you know, i can't imagine that the court would find a religious test like that appropriate. >> and a religious test, you use that word because that itself is banned in the constitution? >> in a different context, but yes. >> he's referring to article 6 which says in the constitution as the founders originally wrote, you can't have religious test. there are some who argue that might not apply abroad. obviously a big debate. another thing we were able to talk about is when he entered this office, obamacare was the biggest political and legal controversy in domestic policy. i think everyone knew that. the question was always going to happen. he twice argued big obamacare

cases and won. i asked him whether at this point that debate is effectively over. >> is the legal debate over obamacare over? >> i think so. and you had the chief justice for six justices in the second case explaining that as a matter of the statute and the way the program is set up, it really needs to provide subsidies and affordable health care in every state in order for it to work as congress intended. that's the chief justice writing for not five but six justices in the statutory case so i think the debate is effectively over, yes. >> obviously a strong victory feeling there in the doj about that. the final point when you think about obamacare is conservatives and republicans felt it was very important to keep attacking it. but in that second case he was referencing that was the statutory case, about whether congress meant it to be a national law or not. when they won that, they did bring over john roberts. what that means now is you have

precedent that's very favorable for democrats even after this election, no matter who wins it, because you have a wide supreme court majority having said this is the law of the land. makes it a lot harder for future administrations to chip away at president obama's signature domestic achievement. steve. >> interesting interview. ari melber, thanks for that. coming up, disney world now adding warning signs about alligators. yet the resort reportedly knew all about their presence near their hotels. is it now too little too late? 73% of america t...

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the tragic death of 2-year-old lane graves, who was killed by an alligator at walt disney world, has led to more visitors speaking out about their encounters with alligators at the park. now the theme park says it will be adding more signs warning visitors about alligators. nbc's gabe gutierrez is in lake buena vista. so, gabe, more for the future but could more have been done

with what they already knew before this? >> hi there, steve, good morning. that is the big question but as you mentioned disney has said that it will add warning signs here at disney world, although it has not specified how many signs and what exactly they will look like. that is the debate right now, could this park have done more to prevent this. you know, there are people coming to disney's defense saying that, look, alligators are a part of florida's habitat. their natural habitat is in florida and they're a fact of life here. the local sheriff says the investigation is continuing into what led to this boy's death. state wildlife authorities have pulled several more alligators over the past few days but have still not determined which one grabbed the boy. now, the medical examiner has ruled that the toddler died because of -- the cause of death is drowning and dramatic injutr injuries, but this investigation continues. we have been hearing from many people that have been to the

park over the last several years, including david hyden, an attorney in san diego, he said his family was here last year at the coronado springs resort in disney world of the he said that his son was chased by two alligators. when he brought it up to disney authorities, they really didn't do much about it. so there is some concern. but we should point out that alligator attacks are extremely rare. the last known alligator attack that resulted in injury was 30 years ago here at disney world. that person survived. so again, disney has said that it will add warning signs to its park here, although it has not specified the details as of yet, steve. >> all right, gabe gutierrez. two alligator attacks in 30 years. that still sounds like two too many but gabe gutierrez, thank you for that. that's going to wrap up this hour. i'm steve kornacki. msnbc live continues with jose dee iaz balart. >> thank you, steve. good morning. we begin in orlando where investigators are learning more about the gunman, omar mateen, and a lot of information is

coming from 30-year-old wife noor zahi salman. we've learned she's cooperating with authorities and a source tells us she's not just telling them about the days or the weeks before the nightclub attack but text messages she exchanged with her husband in the midst of the shooting. ayman mohyeldin is in port st. lucie and has been in contact with family members. ayman, good morning. what are they telling you? >> reporter: good morning, jose. we're learning a little bit more about her version of events and, more importantly, the context in which so many of these pieces of information have been coming out. you talked about those text messages that were exchanged during the shooting rampage. the way it has been told to us from a source close to noor is that the exchange began when her mother-in-law called her telling her or asking her about omar's whereabouts. this was late in the evening, late at night. at which point noor woke up and texted her husband saying where are you. he replied by saying have you been following the news or did you see what's happening now? she replied no with a question

mark to which he replied i love you. that was the last exchange they had that took place roughly around the time of the shooting rampage. she called him afterwards repeatedly to find out where he was. she did not get an answer. it was only a couple of hours later when police showed up telling her to come out with her hands up that she was aware of what had happened at the pulse nightclub. obviously a lot of questions about what she knew or what she may have prevented. she's very cooperative with the fbi. she volunteered to take a polygraph test. she's handed over all of her electronics to comply with fbi's requests and some of the issues being reported are being taken out of context. for example, was she with him when he bought ammunition. again, this was at a walmart. the family went together to go to walmart. she went to the children's section to buy clothes for her son, he went off to buy ammunition and it was only on