no one has your back like american express. so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. good morning, and welcome to "politics nation." yesterday, the best of america was on display as thousands took to the streets to protest the trump administration's family separation policy at the u.s./mexico border. but more on that in a minute. because this week i also watched, as one of, if not the true purpose of this white house came to fruition.

with the news that u.s. supreme court justice anthony kennedy will retire, giving president trump yet another opportunity to nominate a conservative who will rubber stamp this republican party's agenda for years to come. all i could think of was what is the future of voting rights, civil rights, affirmative action, roe versus wade, lbgtq rights and immigration rights? as we continue to protest, as we continue to raise these issues, we must look at the threat to major generational shifts as the supreme court becomes more and more alt-right if not just right. and that's where we start this morning. joining me now is democratic

strategist heather foster, and republican strategist matt mckoviak. let me go to you, matt. at the end of the day, when all of the antics and theatrics of president trump that just has to embarrass a lot of republicans, isn't this really why they are able to tolerate some of his behavior is the fact that he has the supreme court appointments, that now another one comes to bear with justice kennedy's resignation, and he's been stacking the federal courts so they can endure some of his behavior because he's effectively beginning to set some generational trends in the judiciary.

>> well, you're right. there's no question that the most lasting effect of the trump presidency is his judicial appointments, 21 federal circuit court judges confirmed so far, on a record pace, an outstanding justice neil gorsuch, confirmed in his first year, and now we're going to have one of the biggest political fights in my lifetime, the nomination of the supreme court kennedy seat. these judicial appointments are going to affect generations. and this is something president trump promised he would do, that he would put conservative originalists, textualists. for conservatives, they look at this with a lot of confidence and a degree of pleasure and happiness that he's done what he said he would do as it relates to judges. >> now, heather, you worked in the obama administration in the white house. so you were there in the white

house when this president, president obama i'm talking about, nominated justice garland, judge garland to be a supreme court justice, and the republicans delayed it, even refused to meet with him for over a year. now we are where they have a nomination from president trump, and many on the left, including me, is saying the mcconnell rule. why don't they wait until january after the midterm elections? you have, i think, about a third of the senate up to decide on that. yet the numbers are very narrow in being able to pull this off. >> absolutely, reverend sharpton. i mean, we are going to see, i think, a big debate around this. and, you know, democrats watched in the 2016 cycle how there was a candidate, and merit garland was very qualified, he was a moderate, he could have passed. but senator mcconnell refused to

hold a vote, and nothing happened, no hearings. >> wouldn't even meet with him. they wouldn't even have meetings. >> the meetings wouldn't even occur. so it is really going to be interesting. we've already seen how he's come out and said that there should be an appointment this fall. and we are in the midst of one of the biggest election cycles, i think. >> president trump has said that he's going to announce his nominee by july 9th. so they're really fast tracking this. and, you know, matt, they are critical issues, as i said in the opening, hundreds of thousands of people marching on immigration yesterday. i went to the mic and spoke in brooklyn, and actress kerry washington was among the speakers with us there, 25,000, 30,000 people. people are passionate about immigration rights, about the rights of voters, the union decision this week. and you're just going to -- eh,

we're not going to do the mcconnell rule this time, we did it last time to jam garland. now we're going to fast track this. this is as hypocritical as it gets, isn't it, matt? >> keep in mind, at the time that the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell decided to wait until the election, that was because the president appoints, and it was a presidential election. he said that at the time -- >> what's the difference? it takes a senate confirmation, and the senate is up. you can't have a presidential appointment without a senate confirmation. and a lot of the senators up. so that does not -- that doesn't seem to me to be a likely argument here, or at least an acceptable one. >> well, keep in mind that the distinction there is that the president of the united states has the responsibility to nominate, and the united states senate -- >> and the senate has the responsibility to confirm. >> yes. well, they have -- they have the responsibility to advise and consent. and they can advise and consent on any timetable that they wish.

and so even "the washington post" has said in the last couple days that it was clear that majority leader mcconnell was talking about presidential elections, not about midterms. this is something that certainly democrats -- an argument they can make, but the timeline is set by the senate. it's a responsibility they have. it looks like a nomination on july 9th, a committee hearing for the nominee in august, initial committee votes in early september, and a vote in midor late september before the october term begins. but it's going to depend on who the nominee is, and how they comport themselves with private meetings with senators and on capitol hill. >> let me raise this to you, heather, i'm out of time, but there are some that are saying one of the reasons president trump wants to rush this through is not only because the senate may change, but because he wants to put somebody on the bench that if, in fact, we end up in a constitutional crisis as a result of whatever comes out of the mueller investigation, he

would have another appointee on the supreme court that might say oh, no, you can't prosecute a sitting president if, of course, that president is not forced to recuse himself. so there are a lot of us that have some, at least, concerns of whether there's something more sinister here in the timetable. >> well, i think if we look at the previous record of this president, we can anticipate seeing someone very conservative coming up for a nomination. and i don't have any doubt about that. >> matt, i mean, how do you respond to that? would you say, right now, and call on republican leaders right now to say that if the timetable is fast tracked, that whoever president trump nominates should recuse himself if we end up with a constitutional crisis and the question of whether or not donald j. trump could be indicted or not comes before the supreme court, if he has a nominee that is seated, they ought not to be part of those

deliberations? >> well, of course then you'd have the possibility of a 4-4 split. and i don't think anyone wants that either. >> so your answer is no? that they should vote, even though their an appointee of a person who was under the investigation at the time if, in fact, it comes to that? >> well, look, it's an independent branch. it's not like a cabinet official that continues to serve in the administration. the white house selects the person, the senate advises and consents and then that person is entirely independent of the administration. i don't have huge concern about that. there is no doubt that would be an unprecedented situation. >> your answer is no. what is your answer, heather? this person would be nominated by him. obviously this person could be someone he knows. should the person be recusing? should that be part of the confirmation proceedings leading up to whether or not the senate confirms him to ask the person whether or not you think you

would recuse yourself, and whether or not you have any pre-judged notions on whether a president, any president, can and should be indicted if criminal activity has been discovered by an investigator? >> i definitely think it's a question that should be raised, and i think it's very important that we do have someone that's independent but that also someone who's going to be fair. this is our highest court of the land, and we have to set the right precedent. >> all right. well, i think that i'm going to have to leave it there. but as i said, there are a lot of concerns. and i was at the big march in brooklyn yesterday along with actress kerry washington. and a lot of us are going to stay out there on issues that we believe are above republican or democrat. it's about what is right. and what we feel is just for the country. thank you, heather foster. thank you matt. coming up, how the progressive

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this week we saw progressive victories in key democratic primaries. put this party's mainstream on the defensive as democratic socialist alexandria ocasio c

cortez big win. stacked field in maryland's governor's race. now has many insisting that the democratic party's future is in its activist win and that its leadership in and out of congress needs to get with the times and reflect an increasing leftward shift. joining me now, fresh off his primary win tuesday, is maryland democratic gubernatorial candidate ben jealous. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you, rev, it's good to be here. >> before getting into politics you had a shooting in maryland in annapolis, five dead, others injured, in a newspaper, a threat to reporters, a threat to the press, something that is

obviously horrible. but it even brings on another dimension of our fear of gun violence when it's directed at free media. as one running to be the head of that state, your reaction to the shooting and how you will handle situations like shootings and guns, and mental health issues if you were to be elected governor of maryland? >> you know, it made me shudder, rev. i was just in that newsroom two weeks ago, first thing in the morning. they were talking to me to see who they would endorse. "capital gazette" like so many other newspapers we depend on. my conversation was about how i

used to work for a small paper in jacksonville, mississippi, the capital of mississippi when i was a young reporter, and how my newsroom had been blown up four times in the '80s and the '90s. last burnt down in 1988. i was there in the mid-90s. and how it was shot up once. it's a little bit of what we were talking about. and i think right now we're all still in shock. we're all still mourning. these are reporters and editors that all of us who are involved in politics in this state came in contact with. and it's a revered institution, as it is in every state capital, a small state capital newspaper that's kind of feisty, and covers the state capital with great heart. my prayers go out to the family, my sorrow, and their friends and colleagues. this also, i think, drives home -- it strikes a cord, how uneasy we feel in so many places

we used to feel so safe. my kindergarten son's classroom was on lockdown. my son is too young to be watching this program. he thinks that that was a drill. it was not a drill. and in a school district, not far away, we had a high school student show up with a gun and they went back to his house and they found hand grenades and land mine detonators and an ar-15. and so we will in the next legislative session have to have a real conversation about how we finish the job here of our assault weapons ban. we have to go much further. journalists were killed with a shotgun. and it really speaks to mental health issues, it speaks to how we deal with stalking. and again, it really does, in this moment, highlight the courage of our journalists. they took on a stalker who they knew was a very dangerous person. and will now -- they've paid a very dear price for it. but journalists are heroes. if nothing else, we need to be reminded of that. >> absolutely.

let me get into the politics. we see this morning in the "new york times" there's an op-ed piece, the red wave is coming, but it wasn't the red wave donald trump fought. and they're suggesting that the socialists and the red wave is on the progressive side. certainly the win over joe crowley in new york, your win in the primary in maryland is indicative of that. but many of us -- well, some of us have been calling for the democrats to become more true to different values for a long time. you recall when i ran for president in the democratic primaries in 2004 i talked about elephants with donkeys skins over their back, but they really were representing right wing values. and we saw some progressives here in their win, and we see this now. is this just you and ocasio

cortez and a couple others, or are we going to see a real shift and the democratic party begin to heal from this identity crisis of trying to on one hand play to the trump voter that they'll, in my opinion, never get, or on the other hand try to be progressive? are we seeing them say they're going down this road? what are we looking at here, ben? >> we're seeing the reemergence of the party of fdr, rfk, the party of mlk, the party of barbara mckolskey. right now in our country, 25% of the workers, people like at a fast food restaurant have to sign a non-compete agreement. they can't even say the restaurant next door will pay me 50 cents more an hour. will you pay me 25 cents more?

right now we see unions under attack across this country. and, look, i know how my family got out of poverty in west baltimore. it was a day we became a two-union household. that was made possible because the tuition of the university of maryland school law was $200. my grand dad went for one year, and that qualified him to be a probation officer. today, rev, that would be $2,600 if it kept up with inflation. the same school now costs more than $31,000. our young people come out layered in debt. that does that mean? they buy fewer cars. car dealerships sell fewer cars. they buy fewer new homes. why? because they're layered in debt. >> but is that why we need to have the democratic party take a more solid progressive approach? i mean, the issues are there. it's how you approach the issues. and it seems like the democratic party, for the last two decades, have wrestled with how they're

going to deal with these issues. are they going to imitate some moderate view, or are they going to be forthright in a progressive view? >> we've got to be forthright for the people. i mean, rev, you know there's many ways that, you know, you could say, look, you know, this is progressive. you could say it's christian if you just read what jesus had to say. here we are on sunday, you and i are both christians, you can spin it a whole bunch of ways. what you get down to, beyond faith, beyond race, beyond region, beyond religion is just simply this is about running towards the people. you know, dealing with the opiate crisis as a health crisis is a people issue. ending the student debt crisis, giving our kids the same deal that the boomers were given is a people issue. ending mass incarceration in this country where we have 5% of the world's people, but 25% of the world's inmates, most incarcerated black people, incarcerated brown people and the most incarcerated white

people on the planet, that's a people issue. fully funding our schools is a people issue, making sure everybody has health care and we keep the costs under control so it stops choking our small businesses, that's a people issue. that's quite frankly why i won 22 out of 24 counties, including every rural county in this state. >> how are you going to take that message and that same kind of county whiins in a general election, not a democratic primary, but a general election against a popular governor? >> this is what our governor is so worried about. he knows that under his watch, health care costs have skyrocketed, and it's killing our small businesses. i'm a small business person. rev, the last decade, what have i done? i've invested in small businesses and turned them into big businesses, including big businesses in our state. i tried to move a factory here from canada. ultimately the deal fell. why? health costs are surging. i'm going to campaign at every

corner of this state and we're going to focus on real kitchen table crises facing our families, how we're going to fully fund our schools get healthcare costs under control and get back to our public universities being a great bargain for our families by ending massive incarceration and taking the money we save and pump it right back into our one universities. i'm the one guy he didn't want to have to run against. i'm an actual organizer. this fight has just begun, rev. >> thank you, ben jealous. up next, why my blood is boiling over the number of incidents across this country that's given rise to the hashtag living while black. stay with us.

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and now for this week's gotcha. about every two weeks or so i toy with the notion of rebranding this segment as a new one that i call dot dot dot while black. because it seems like that's the average length of time before we hear about another incident when african-american is endangered

by a white civilian's threat to call the police for dot, dot, dot while black. and the bar just gets lower. irrespective of setting authority, or perhaps most disheartening, age. because last week there was the incident we all heard about in san francisco where a white woman threatened to call the authorities on an 8-year-old black girl selling water without a permit. the horror. permit patty, as she was dubbed by social media, was dragged so thoroughly that she resigned this week from her position as the ceo of, get this, a company that sells cannabis treats for dogs. and while we're talking about empathy gaps, on the same week that we were expected to cry for

trump enablers being heckled, there was this video out of south carolina in which a white woman denigrates a group of black teenagers at a public pool, striking one and, of course, threatening to call the police. when deputies went to arrest her for the incident, she assaulted two of them, even biting one of them on the arm, according to police. and that leads me to my favorite this week. because it touches the idea that respectability is all black people need to trump racial stereotypes. a black oakland, california firefighter told reporters he was confronted, not once, but twice in two days while performing inspections by residents who either reported him to authorities or refused to

believe he was who he said he was. uniform, id, 30-foot fire truck in plain view, notwithstanding. and that's according to his white co-worker who took the facebook with the story adding that she'd never received such scrutiny while performing her duties. that's an ally, folks. we're taking pliapplications al the time. but to the rest of you that remain so easily triggered as i said a few weeks ago and will surely say in weeks to come, dot, dot, dot, i got, got, gotcha. ate after the other car got a scratch so small you coulda fixed it with a pen. maybe you should take that pen and use it to sign up with a different insurance company. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident.

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as i lamented at the top of the show, this was a week of devastating decisions by the nation's highest court. in its 5-4 judgment in the case of janice versus afscme ruling that non-union public employees no longer have to pay fees to support labor unions that represent them. it's a huge victory for conservative legal groups aiming to nationalize the kind of right to work laws that have

diminished unions' bargaining power across most of the nation. joining me now is the president of the american federation of state, county and municipal employees, afscme, lee saunders. lee, aside from the fact that it's devastating to many of us that a pro-labor and certainly y you as a president of the union which were the defendants here, or the responders here, what does this mean to the average worker that's watching you this morning, what does this decision mean? why is this decision to bad? >> well, clearly, al, the wealthy, the super wealthy, the rich, the corporations, the five men wearing black robes, are trying to take our power and strength away from us. they don't want us to have a seat at the table, they don't want working families to have a seat at the table.

that's what this decision means. they're trying to stipus of the power that we have. they're not going to be successful. we're mobilizing, organizing, educating our members and nonmembers alike. we're working very closely in coalition with our partners within the labor movement and outside the labor movement. i honestly believe that this is a movement moment for all of us. we are organizing like never before internally where we have had conversations with almost 1 million individual conversations with our own members. we're also organizing externally. two years ago we've -- we organized 18,000 new members into our union in 2016, 2017, and we're continuing to do that. the month of april for the entire labor movement we actually grew by 15,000 people. so there is an energy that's out there that we've got to -- that we've got to capture and we've got to be smart and we've got to be strategic about how we're going to grow our movement. but work closely with our coalition partners to fight back

like never before. we believe that this is the time. >> and one of the things that i've found very, very interesting about it is that you and afscme prepared for if you got a negative decision that you were going to use this as an organizing vehicle and have been able to actually show the numbers, work with outside groups, including mine, to talk about the value of labor movements, labor unions, and what they protect. because i think what the public needs to understand is when you negotiate to get more benefits and security and all, that's for everybody. so why wouldn't you want to support and underwrite the expenses of a movement and a struggle that's going to benefit you? >> well, there's no question about that. the work that we do as unions not only benefits our members, but it benefits working families who may not be in unions because wages are lifted up, benefits.

we believe in programs like social security and public education, medicare and medicaid. and we fight and push for that. that's why we've got a target on our backs, a bull's eye on our back because there are people that want to take those rights and privileges away from working families. we just can't let that happen. you're seeing it all over the country, al. you're seeing this movement moment with teachers, educators, striking in some of the reddest of states across this country making their point that they need better wages and benefits, but they're also protecting public education and they're protecting the students. you're seeing it with the immigrants marching yesterday, hundreds of thousands of folks demanding -- essentially demanding that families cannot be split up. you're seeing it in our communities across the country. you're seeing it in the labor movement. you were in memphis the beginning of april, where we had a commemoration of the striking sanitation workers, 50 years ago

when they went on strike. >> which was what dr. king was there about. >> we're fighting back like never before. this is not just one moment in time, but we are growing. we're becoming more powerful. we're working closely with our communities, and we're going to make our voices heard. and in november, we're going to the ballot box. >> now, make it clear to me and the listeners and viewers, lee, this was not a lawsuit and a court battle to protect nonunion workers from having to pay a fee. this was really about big corporations being able to stifle you and other unions from being able to represent the interests and benefits of workers period. i mean, i think they tried to act like they were standing up for the little man. they really were benefiting the big man so the little man would not have leverage to deal with him. >> there's no question that we stand in their way. and we're going to continue to

stand in their way regardless of this recent supreme court decision. no supreme court decision is going to stop or stymie the labor movement. no supreme court decision is going to -- is going to attack our family without us saying something about it, without us organizing and mobilizing. and you're seeing that happen in city after city, in state after state. and we're going to fight back. you know, there's an old saying, al, you've heard it, you continue to play with fire, you're going to get burned. i believe they're going to get bu burned in the end. >> i'll leave it there. thank you, lee saunders. >> thank you for having me. up next, how police killings are leading to poor mental health in the black community. you're watching "politics nation."

it all started when donald trump tore thousands of immigrant children away from their parents. we the people challenged him in court and in the streets. then trump was forced to admit that his policy was wrong. and he caved. the court just ruled that trump must reunite every family he broke apart. (clock ticking rapidly) time is ticking. these children must see their parents again, and they're counting on us to act quickly.

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like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis, the number one cardiologist-prescribed blood thinner. ask your doctor if eliquis is what's next for you. when prosecutors in pittsburgh charged police officer michael rosfield with criminal homicide this week in the shooting death of black teenager antwan rose, they broke with the all too common precedent of police officers evading charges, let alone convictions for fatal shootings

of black civilians. rose was shot three times as he fled rosefield during a traffic stop. his death triggering angry protests, exacerbated this week by rosefield's release on an unsecured $250,000 bond. this as a new report finds that fatal police shootings of individual black americans negatively affect the mental health of black america. joining me now is ebony riley, bureau chief of the national action network in washington, d.c. also joining me, dr. molina abdul, chair of pan-african studies in los angeles. and latifah simon. thank you all for being with me

this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> as i look at this whole question of mental health, i was looking at this study that came out that talked about how people do not understand the impact that it has psychologically on young people. and for that matter, older people in the african-american community that go through these endless unanswered attacks by people that are paid to serve and protect. and though the numbers may be debatable, which is always the case, the impact of, if it's one a month, one every two months, of insecurity, of making people feel like they're living where there can be no redress of protection has real impact on their lives. and i know that you leading the

washington bureau of nan, and you work on this for us in nan, ebony, and hear about it every day as you try to bring this together into some kind of legislative and policy change, the psychological impact, give us an idea of what you get from the field of how we have to deal with the trauma, not only of the families, but of the people in the neighborhood. >> absolutely. experiencing and witnessing police brutality has reverberating emotional effects on our mental health. it sends a message that we are disposable and undeserving of justice. societies reaction are a constant reminder of our historical in the current devaluing of black lives. i believe the study, the findings really speak to police brutality as a serious public

health issue. >> dr. abdul, the study of this, i don't think, has been given enough attention, of having to live under this kind of communal stress and trauma. how does this impact the entire lifestyle and environment of the black community? >> right. so i just underscore what ebonie is saying, and when we talk about witnessing police killings. one of the things the study points out is it's not just direct witnessing, it's this concept, this way in which black people live. we have the highest sense of what's called linked fate of any group in the country. we understand that our fortune is tied to the fortune of every other black person. so when you see unarmed black people being killed by police, and there being absolutely no accountability for those deaths,

there's this ongoing trauma. i'll tell a quick story. yesterday i was at the baldwin hills crenshaw mall. and just two months ago an unarmed brother, they say he was armed with a kitchen knife, buts armed with a kitchen knife, but a brother was killed right outside of t.j. maxx. and i was walking inside the store and i just felt this overwhelming sense evfever of anxiety. and this is what the study is picking up on, the anxiety that spreads through the black community. we know there is a sense of almost helplessness around our ability to protect ourselves and as a mother, our ability to protect our children and our loved ones. >> in that sense, i thought as she was speaking, as the doctor was speaking, you know, i breached the eric gardner's

funeral, mike heal brochael bro funeral, on and on. this year the funeral in sacramento. and it always gets me when i see all these young people looking at us like we're helpless, we can't do anything. and i don't think people understand not the grieving family, but the collective grief in the community that we have to minister and analyze to is overwhelming. >> absolutely, reverend. you touch on what i actually came here to talk about, the study. and by the way, i'm on a panel with some of my dearest heros. thank you all for being in community with us today. >> and my heros too by the way. >> they are incredible. what the study tells us is what we already know, that when police killings happen amongst unarmed black folks in community, what the study tells

us is that this is not just an individual issue of a mother grieving or a community grieving. that there are epidemiological impact. and what the study also tells us is that the harms are far-reaping. akin to diabetes, akin to disease in community, when you have whole communities not feeling safe at the hands of the state. when you have communities who are struggling every single day to figurdointo figure out who w me, when it is the state actually causing harm. young men in oakland, california believe they cannot sit at a bus stop, not because they will be shot and killed just by people who look like them, the study lifts up the reality that we fear the folks who are supposed to take care of us. and that causes a public policy response and a movement building response. we must change the culture of what law enforcement and safety looks like. and thank god this is the first time that academia has come

together with a population based study of merit. and we encourage everyone to read the story. >> i absolutely encourage people to do what you said, read it. so how do we translate this academic study into legislation? you have the washington bureau of nnan. is there is a legislative response under way or that you will be pushing for and your colleagues and other civil rights organizations? >> absolutely. we absolutely need a legislative fix moved quickly. what we know for sure, reverend sha sharpton, is that people are resisting systemic oppression. as we continue to pursue justice, we want to make sure we include all the tools that we have. i want to point out quickly in new york national action network was in the forefront of advocating for a special prosecutor as well for police cases involving civilian deaths. we're also encouraging people to vote in the midterm elections

which include state attorney general and district attorney race which is can make or break a case. so as we also talk about the impact of our mental health on our communities, we also need to remember to vote in november. >> i wish i had more time. i'll have all of you back. thank you for being with us this morning. and a programming note. coming up at the top of the hour, my colleague alex witt has a conversation with my civil rights colleague, president and ceo of the ncaa derrick johnson on how justice anthony kennedy's retirement might affect civil rights. that is right here on permmsnbc beginning at 9:00 eastern. final thoughts. stay with us. nsula trail? you won't find that on a map. i'll take you there. take this left.

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in week we lost two men that were born and raised in segregated times but were able to function and break through and help to change the times in which they lived. joe jackson, the patriarch of the jackson family, that produced michael jackson and janet jackson and the jackson five. i knew joe town through tdown t years through my relationship with his son, michael. he was a stern man who inspired and pushed his kids.

and his kids pushed in the industry that broke barriers. and he should be given credit for staying there and being persistent. and making culture different in this nation and world through the talents of his children. and john mack who served over 30 years in the national urban league from different positions and decades as the head of the los angeles urban league. the reason i bring these two together is not only because of they made their transition around the same time, but they served the same function. because they were not the ones that were out front in front of the mic. he joe jackson was a musician, but he was not his son or his daughter janet. he wasn't starring in the show, but he helped to make the show go and keep going. john mack never headed the

national urban league. he wasn't whitney young. but he kept the chapters going, he kept the train going. you don't always have to be the headlight as long as you are part of the train going in the right direction and you play your role. then you will be a joe jackson or a john mack. you will have made a difference. none of us out front matter if there is nobody behind us making it work. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next sunday. now to my colleague alex witt. you make a very good point. we all play a part. but i'm personally very glad that you are out front and center. have a good sunday. and a good morning to all of you. i'm alex witt. it is 9:00 here in the east. 6:00 a.m. out west. supreme battle, the very latest on expectations for the president's pick for the highest court in the land. plus how the pick might energize