good day, i'm andrea mitchell at the supreme court where thousands will be paying their respects to justice ruth bader ginsburg. among them, just now, president bill clinton and hillary clinton, just moments ago, after a moving tribute from chief justice john roberts at a ceremony, a private ceremony for the family, the justices, their spouses, for her clerks and close friends inside the court's great hall.

>> she became a star on the bench where she sat for 27 years. her 483 majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions will steer the court for decades. they are written with the unaffected grace of precision. her voice in court and in our conference room was soft but when she spoke, people listened. i mentioned at the outset that ruth's passing weighed most heavily on her family and that is true. but the court was her family too. this building was her home too. of course she will live on in what she did to improve the law and the lives of all of us. and yet still, ruth is gone and we grieve. >> the only other speaker this morning, rabbi lauren holtzbaugh, notably a woman, whose husband is a former

ginsburg law clerk. >> to be able to see beyond the world you are in, to imagine that something can be different, that is the job of a prophet. as justice ginsburg said, and i quote, think back to 1787. who were we the people? they certainly weren't women. they certainly weren't people held in human bondage. the genius of our constitution is that now over more than 200 sometimes turbulent years. that "we" has expanded and expanded. this was justice ginsburg's life's work, to insist that the constitution deliver on its promise. >> i'm so very pleased to be joined by one of justice ginsburg's closest friends, npr veteran legal affairs

correspondent nina totenberg. nina, you were one of the few who were inside the hall of the great court. tell us the experience you shared. >> i'm sorry, what did you say, andrea? tell us what? >> i know we're both muffled with masks. the experience that you shared inside the ceremony, if you can tell us the emotions that you were experiencing. >> well, you know, the family was there. the court. and a few very close friends. and they had the chairs -- it didn't look the way it normally does where everybody is standing quite close together. they had the chairs spaced very far apart. anybody who was in there had to get a covid test yesterday. and the court members came in looking very somber. justice thomas had his arm around his wife.

justice so the otomayor, who ha diabetes, as we've talked about, was extra careful. she not only had a mask, she had a shield over her face. it was very quiet, very moving. the portrait of justice ginsburg was up at the end. but the rest of us were very far spaced apart. there were some tears. but it was a very -- ruth would have liked it, it was a very dignified goodbye with grace. and we're standing out here where people are lined up as far as the eye can see, anyway. and going to pay their respects. the casket is of course at the top of the courthouse steps. it's not inside where it would normally be. they carried it back outside. it's a small, wooden box.

it's the smallest casket i've he ever seen at a supreme court ceremony, reflecting her tiny self. >> and nina, talk to us about what she was like as a friend, the special qualities of ruth bader ginsburg. >> i was lucky enough to know her from when we were both young women. she was in her 30s, i was in my very early 20s. over the years we became closer friends. she was a person of enormous generosity and grace. there are many stories i can and have told about her generosity, her decency, her ability to connect with people and stay in touch with them. i don't know how she stayed in touch with not only her 159 clerks but hundreds of other people that she was very close to, who have written about her lately, and i had no idea.

but she somehow managed. this very shy public person had this huge heart for reaching out to other people and finding out what interested them, and being inclusive of them. she was a person of enormous grace. what i found is that some of the stories i've told are replicated by hundreds of other people, acts of generosity that she did, clubs that she didn't join because they excluded women or minorities or the fees were too high for people she knew. it's just -- it's astonishing. >> nina totenberg, thank you very much for being with us. i know it's a very emotional day for you and you have all of your work still to do for npr. we thank you for all your reminiscences. >> thank you, andrea. what i have said frequently is i was lucky to have her as a

friend for 48 years. she taught me a lot about how to understand the law and the competing issues of the law. but she taught me a lot about how to live too. >> as she did everyone through her opinions, not just the majority opinions and concurring but the dissents as well. thank you. let's go to nbc's geoff bennett who has been speaking with so many of the men, women, and children here today to pay tribute to justice ginsburg. geoff? >> reporter: hey, andrea. we're just south of where you are, in the line where hundreds of people are here to pay their respects including mareredith becker. why was it so important for you to bring here? >> ruth bader ginsburg was an absolute living legend.

she did so much in her time here on this earth. and i thought it was only responsible as a parent to be respectful and pay respect to her for all of the amenities that she has allowed us, particularly as women, particularly as jewish women, and also men too, have afforded us opportunities in fights that we will never know from. >> reporter: and sam, 13 going on 14 years old, your mom pointed to you when she talked about the importance of men paying tribute to the late justice. what does her passing mean to you, what is her legacy as you see it? >> first off, it's really, really sad that she had to go, especially right before the election. she's done so many great things for this country with equal rights and all. so just really, it's tragic altogether. >> reporter: you brought some clay with you, what's that about? >> so this clay is actually from israel. usually we bring rocks when

people pass. but this is the closest thing we have to rocks. and yeah, we got these pieces of pottery on an archeological dig in israel. so we're here to place with rbg. >> reporter: and ten-year-old alana becker, how are you feeling? >> this is going to be the beginning of an absolute nightmare, because she is no longer here to help the world. >> reporter: thank you, thanks to your mom and your brother for your time this morning, i really appreciate it. andrea, these are perspectives that we've been hearing all morning as we've talked to people paying tribute to the late justice as a trailblazer, and icon, a defender of human rights, women's rights, and a defender of liberal ideas, a protector of progressive policies, andrea. >> geoff bennett, thank you so much. that just illustrates the extraordinary appeal and the reach that she had, a power to reach that we've never seen before after the passing of a

justice at the supreme court. let's bring in someone who knows this far better than anyone else, nbc justice correspondent peter williams, nbc's garrett haake on capitol hill, nbc's peter alexander at the white house. pete, tell me about the role she played in the court, certainly reflected in the chief justice's comments today. >> reporter: you know, the chief justice, i think any chief justice, rehnquist before him, probably berger too, they did not like to see their colleagues grab the spotlight off the bench. and the difference, i think, you heard today from chief justice roberts, i think he was actually amused and delighted by the culture, the pop culture status that justice ginsburg had. you heard him say she wanted to be an opera star and she became a rock star and her stage was the supreme court. if you talk to him privately, i think he was amused and frankly

delighted by the attention that justice ginsburg got, because of course it was something that she had earned because of her hard work for women's rights before she came here. remember, andrea, it was 49 years ago that she first came to the supreme court to argue her first case in that long chain of cases that eventually caused the supreme court to say that discrimination on the basis of gender is also outlawed, also illegal under the constitution. so she was -- you know, the other thing that's been remarked on a lot is that while she was definitely in the liberal wing, one of her closest friends here was antonin scalia who could not have been philosophically and judicially different but were joined by a love of opera.

>> peter alexander at the white house, there was an early friction between justice ginsburg and donald trump when she called him a faker during the campaign and had to apologize for it, it was one time she really went outside her lane. he is coming tomorrow to pay respects with melania trump as well. >> reporter: that's right, the white house announcing the president and the first lady will pay their respects as the late justice ruth bader ginsburg lies in repose. it's notable, though, as they pay their respects, the president is not respecting what ruth bader ginsburg's granddaughter received as her most fervent wish, dictated to her by ginsburg just before she passed, that she wanted whoever the next president was to be responsible for replacing her, wanted to wait until the next president was installed before the decision on a replacement was made. we know that the president is moving ahead very quickly with

his plans to replace her. an announcement is scheduled for this saturday at 5:00 here at the white house. obviously the speculation game begins over who it will be, but suns senate republicans have made clear they're basically going to vote one way or the other on whatever it is from the president's nominee with all the obstacles effectively clearly, with mitt romney saying he's on board with that as well. the contenders right now, much of the focus, the attention has been on judge amy coney barrett who is a 48-year-old, a mother of seven, a notre dame law professor. in many ways she's sort of the polar opposite in terms of her views of the law from ruth bader ginsburg. i'm told that she met with the president on monday. there are reports that she was here again yesterday. she was spotted by our teams in indiana today, so we know she's back home. i'm told by white house officials, andrea, that the president, if he conducts any additional meetings, they will take place here in washington. i'm told he has met with at least one other candidate,

though the white house is declining to indicate who that person may be. so even as we honor the life of ruth bader ginsburg, it's very clear that with the president's pick to be named within days, this court is going to head in a very different direction, a much more solidly conservative court for the years to come. >> and nbc's garrett haake here on capitol hill, it was her dying wish that this not happen but mitch mcconnell made his announcement that it would actually the night she died, there was no hesitation, no pausing for these ceremonies to take place. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, andrea, i mean, the constitution says this is up to the president and the senate to move forward, and they've made it clear they intend to move forward in this case. we know the president, as peter just laid out, is set to announce his choice on saturday. republicans are already trying to make plans to get a judiciary committee hearing, the first formal step in this process, on the capitol hill side, scheduled for the first or second week in

october. that does not give them a lot of time for the review of documents, the typical interviews that happen between senate members, particularly judiciary committee members and the nominee. then you're looking at a really short timeline, again, for a vote on that nominee in the judiciary committee and moving that nominee to the floor sometime around the very end of october. all of this would be theoretically up against a very hard deadline here, if republicans want to get this done by election day. although mitch mcconnell, who is ultimately the man who controls what comes to the floor, has been a bit coy about that portion of this. we know republicans want to move fast, we know there are a number of republicans including ted cruz, lindsey graham is in a very tough reelection of his own and is chairman of the judiciary committee, want to see this done, all wrapped up before election day, but mitch mcconnell has not gone that far himself. there's a lot of debate whether it might be better or worse for his members to hold this just before or just after election day. i think to the degree there is drama remaining in how this will

play out, that's the spot i'm watching for. >> and garrett, former missouri democratic senator claire mccaskill who you know so well joins me now. claire, it was very emotional, i heard you this morning, i was fighting tears as we were broadcasting this morning, watching the casket, watching the pallbearers, the honorary pallbearers. what did she mean for you? then i want to ask you about the politics of this fight. >> on a personal basis, i was a young lawyer when the first woman joined the supreme court. the first woman i saw in a black robe other than the church choir was sandra day o'connor and i was working as an assistant prosecutor in kansas city at the time. when ruth bader ginsburg was nominated, she had been so involved in cases i had followed very closely as a young lawyer, one that impacted my state, the

last case she argued in front of the supreme court was a missouri law that allowed women to exempt themselves from juries just because they were women. and it was frustrating to me because i was handling sex crime cases in the prosecutors' office and women would just say, i don't want to serve. i thought having women on those juries was so important. so did ruth bader ginsburg. she won that case. and i had to retry a lot of cases, which gave me a lot of experience. but it is her battles that she fought, whether it was equality under the law or the rights of people to marry who they love. what a giant, what a tiny giant she was. she's going to be missed terribly, especially by those people trying to get their shot at justice. >> indeed. and it's interesting you refer to sandra day o'connor, i was assigned to be one of the reporters at national airport when she first arrived from arizona, when she was named by

ronald reagan. then years later at her 80th birthday party in aspen, two weeks after marty ginsburg died, ruth ginsburg came with her grandson paul. she recounted how much sandra day o'connor meant as a mentor, helping her get through her first majority opinion, assigned by chief justice rehnquist, teaching her the ropes as to how to handle the supreme court. she was really so grateful. and their sisterhood was profound because they had suffered such discrimination. i wouldn't have my job, and i think many of the correspondents and certainly the lawyers and the judges and the women in congress, you, claire, represented -- you were on the armed services committee and did so much for women in the military, the sex discrimination they were experiencing. for them now to see this fight take place, which could really

wreck whatever comity is left in the senate. >> yeah, i said earlier, you know, the senate is on life-support when it comes to one of those things that ruth bader ginsburg embraced, and that's collegiality. and mitch mcconnell is about to pull the plug. and i think he's killing what makes the senate so marvelous, and that is coming together and finding compromise. >> and claire, i'm going to interrupt you only because the louisville mayor greg fisher is briefing right now on the outcome i believe of the breonna case. >> i do not know what the decision from the ag will be. what is important is that all the facts come out on what occurred on the night of breonna taylor's death. no matter what attorney general cameron announces, i urge everyone to commit once again to a peaceful, lawful response like we've seen the majority of the past four months. i ask that we, all of us,

maintain that critical and unwavering focus on the need for racial equity, reimagining public safety, so we can all move forward as a city. for today and subsequent days, we must plan for the potential for large gatherings. representatives of my office and the pd have been in contact with some of the protest organizers. our goal is ensuring space and opportunity for people to gather and express their first amendment rights while maintaining public safety. i want to thank the pd for the work they're doing, often under difficult conditions, to keep our people and our city safe. and i urge everyone to realize that we must all work through these challenging times. and the only way we're going to do it is to do it together. the plans we have already put in place include three executive orders, two already announced, and one new order. the first order declared a state

of emergency due to the potential for civil unrest. this basically allows for exercising any of the emergency powers including those to hire or contract for services, implementing curfews and other restrictions. the second order, already announced, restricts access to downtown parking garages and on-street parking in order to provide an extra layer of security for protests in and around jefferson square park. my third executive order, county-wide, 72-hour curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. beginning tonight. the curfew does not apply to people in the community to work, going to and from work, houses of worship for services, or those seeking medical attention for themselves or others. people are asking how can i help to ensure peaceful protests.

>> and with that appeal for calm, with the police on 12-hour shifts and an expectation that an announcement will be made probably about an hour from now about what is going to happen to the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of breonna taylor, let's bring in cal perry there in louisville. cal? >> reporter: andrea, it's a very tense day here. you heard there the mayor concerned about violence. this is a mayor who in many ways has been under siege in the last six months since breonna taylor was killed. we'll give you an idea what we're talking about. you heard when he talked about a ring of security. it is an absolute ring, when you look at these dump trucks. mark, we'll get you to swing back around. andrea, these have been in place since 8:00 a.m. yesterday. so no vehicles can get past this point. we're talking about a ten-block radius that has been completely shut down. you can hear the police chopper overhead. at the end of this street is breonna taylor square, where people are starting to gather.

word has spread that we will have that grand jury announcement at 1:15, we're hear from the attorney general at 1:30. breonna taylor was killed six months ago and ten days. the city has been waiting for this day now for more than six months, andrea. >> thank you so much, cal perry in louisville. and of course we'll have complete coverage when that happens. claire mccaskill, i'm sorry for the interruption, but as you know, this is a very tense situation in missouri. let's talk again about the senate and where we go from here. i covered the bork hearings which led to "bork" becoming a verb, to be borked, which was the first armed conflict, verbal reflect, over a supreme court nomination in modern times and now of course we've seen what's happened since. how can we get back from this precipice? >> well, i think the democrats are going to try to focus on what is going to drive the

election. certainly the vast majority of americans support roe v. wade. over 70% of americans support roe v. wade. certainly they support protecting preexisting conditions and other things that bring insurance companies to heel in the aca. so i think you're going to see a health focus by the democrats. i think they're going to try to avoid some of the circus-like atmosphere that grew up around the kavanaugh controversies. just because it's unsettling, and frankly i think most democrats feel like we are in a good position moving towards november. lots of work to do, but i think most democrats think that the democratic party is in the stronger position right now. now, having said that, i don't know what mitch mcconnell is going to do in terms of the timing of this vote. i think he's going to wait and poll battleground states for incumbent senators, to determine what's better for them, the thom

tillises of the world, whether to hold the vote before or after the election. i think that will control the timing of this vote. >> claire mccaskill, thank you very much. democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia, thank you very much. your thoughts about ruth bader ginsburg, and yes, the political battle that has now taken -- that is beginning in defiance of her dying wish. >> first of all, andrea, thanks for having me. let me say hello to my good friend claire mccaskill, i sure do miss you, claire, i wish you were with us to help us navigate this. this is a time we should be reflecting on an amazing woman's life, an american, basically, through and through. what she has done for the ladies and women and any young girl in america, my six granddaughters and my wife and my daughters and everybody that she's touched their lives. i mean, it's a sad, sad day, but a day to celebrate the life that she gave and the life that she

lived and a life she basically dedicated to public service. i hope that we all at least take that time. i'm glad that the president didn't put anybody forward in the fight that's begun. hopefully it will just rest until her funeral on friday. and i guess let the games begin after that. it's just a shame. andrea, let me just make sure that the people know the history we're dealing with. never in the history of the united states of america have we ever confirmed a supreme court judge during from july 1 of the year of the election up to election day. never before has it ever happened. it's only been four times there's been a vacancy during that period of time, july to november, and three of the presidents during that he aera r even put anybody forward, just for the decency of it, knowing it wouldn't be right in the closeness of an election. and abraham lincoln was one of

those, dwight eisenhower was another, john quincy adams was the other. the only person who put a judge forward to the senate and the senate rejected it by tabling it, was president fillmore. so this is unprecedented. if we have a vote before the election in november, it's unprecedented, never happened before. and it's just going to divide our country further. >> and of course there's president obama's nomination in february to replace justice scalia. >> let me give you -- >> and that never even got a hearing. >> let me give you the rest that have history. if you take january 1, the election year, election year, january 1 to november of the election year, whether it be 2016, 2020, during that election year, there's only been 13 vacancies that happened during that period of time. a in our history of our country. i gave you the four that happened after july. there was nine that happened

from january 1 to july, nine. of those nine, eight were confirmed. eight were confirmed. there's only one that wasn't confirmed, that's amerimerrick garland. he didn't even get a hearing. he didn't even get a meeting. and the constitution says we shall meet and confer. they didn't have the courtesy, i said it was the saddest day of my life being a u.s. senator, seeing my colleagues that didn't have just the decency to sit down and talk to the person, whether you agree or not, have a discussion, understand each other, then make your vote based on that. >> when you talk to voters, what i am hearing from the white house and our political correspon correspondents, the white house is relieved they have this fight because it is distracting from the pandemic, from covid where joe biden has so much more support in all the polling than president trump, that this is actually a useful distraction to

energize his base and to get people thinking about the court and all of the issues coming up before the court that they care about most fervently. >> by the time of the election on november 3, if we don't do something, i just got off the phone with a group back home, head start, head start is early childhood in very challenging economic areas, west virginia, appalachia, these people work so hard to provide educational benefits to people who are disadvantaged. we put them in the first covid package. that last package that mitch mcconnell, he started at one point at $1 trillion, i know the democrats were up here, we can still get together. i am very confident we can make a deal that the president would sign off on and it would help an awful lot of americans and west virginians. mitch mcconnell sent everybody home at august, we came back

after august, he cut his own deal in half. so he wasn't sincere about doing a deal. it's a shame. people like head start, people in the airline industry, do you know we have 19,000 people laid off in a couple of weeks if we don't do something? we have restaurants closing right and left. we need ppp extensions. a lot of people are getting half the income they got when the economy was better. they need help also, low earning income slips, that we could be helping so many people. i got no broadband or internet service in many parts of rural west virginia. kid can't even get their education because they're saying, well, we're going to close the schools, it's going to be all virtual. that's great if you have internet connectivity and live in the city. if you live in the country and have nothing, is that child going to go without? i have three rural hospitals that are closed. we're not doing anything there. come on. let's get together. it's all about our country. my goodness. politics will destroy us.

>> joe manchin, it's always great to have you here, to have you on our program, never more so than today, your comments so meaningful. thank you very, very much. >> my heart goes out to justice ginsburg's family. but i'll tell you, what a wonderful memory she left us all. i hope we all take time to pause and consider what a life that lady lived and what dedication and commitment, what a life she gave all of us, especially all the women in america. thank you, andrea. >> thank you. and we'll have more ahead, of course, from the supreme court. as we remember ruth bader ginsburg, who was nominated to the high bench in 1993 by president bill clinton. >> it contributes to the end of the days when women, at least half the talent pool in our society, appear in high places only as one at a time performers.

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right now, just across the street from me in the capitol, top medical leaders are testifying before the senate health committee on the country's pandemic and the response is there are signs that covid-19 is on the rise again in parts of the u.s. joining me now, nbc news senior medical correspondent dr. john torres. dr. torres, when i was listening to the hearing earlier, they were really being questioned pretty intensively about signs there's been political influence on the rollout of the vaccine, the president's comments, of course, and also the political influence changing the fda and cdc guidelines in particular ways. how do they respond to that? >> and andrea, you're right, exactly what they're being asked about is what's going on inside the fda, the cdc, these

different agencies, when the message gets changed back and forth. why is the message being chan d changed? the big concern, with people i've talked to, is undermining the health message which also undermines people's confidence in the message that's getting out there. and the examples they gave with the cdc changing a few things, who should get tested, who should not get tested, whether it can spread through small aerosolized droplets versus large droplets. who is making these decisions? they're basically going back in time and saying some of these decisions were made a little early by our own staff, some of the other decisions were made without our consent and we need to make sure we get a good understanding of how that's changed so we can make sure these messages are out there. but one of the big concerns when you listen to the senators talking to is confidence in what that message is when particularly confidence in a vaccine since the vaccine is going to be the next big step in our treatment of getting this pandemic under control. and one of the questions they

had which i thought was very interesting was they talked to dr. hahn about, you're the one who is going to make a decision for the emergency use authorization for the vaccine, would you take the vaccine yourself. and here is what he had to say. >> will you be willing to take that vaccine for you and for your family? >> absolutely yes, senator, mr. chairman. i have the complete and absolute faith in the expertise of the scientists who are terrific at fda. if they were to make a determination that a vaccine would be safe and effective, i would do that and i would encourage my family to take the vaccine. >> and the words you heard there, safe and effective, that was the keyword you heard a lot this morning throughout the hearing. what they're saying, dr. fauci, dr. redfield, dr. giroir, dr. hahn, they're saying once it's safe and effective, they'll release the vaccine. the safety is the utmost

importance. dr. hahn said they'll come out with new requirements for the emergency use authorization. they're not going to have that emergency use authorization completed until they have a better understanding of making sure it's safe and effective. his pledge was, he's going to put science first, he's going to make sure that people are protected, andrea. >> one of the reasons why they're being questioned so intensively is that on convalescent plasma and other therapeutics, they gave emergency authorizations before all the facts were known, and of course hydroxychloroquine, there was huge white house pressure from the president. they've got a lot of explaining to do, aside from dr. fauci, redfield and hahn have been under fire from a lot of democrats. i think they did themselves good today with those reassurances. the question is, is the american public already so confused that fewer people are going to take the vaccine? thank you so much, dr. john torres, always great to see you. thanks for helping us today. >> you bet. the son of the late justice

antonin scalia, one of the sons, to remember ruth bader ginsburg ahead, and the extraordinary family friendship. first, this from the late justice, from ruth bader ginsburg, about the rights afforded to women by the constitution. >> over the course of now over two centuries, it has grown and developed so that more and more people are included in that concept, "we the people." he peo. >> tech: we'll come right to you. ♪ upbeat music >> tech: you'll get a text when we're on our way. >> tech: before we arrive, just leave your keys on the dash. we'll replace your windshield with safe, no-contact service. ♪ upbeat music >> tech: and that's service you can trust when you need it the most. ♪ upbeat music >> tech: schedule at safelite.com. ♪ upbeat music >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

today as we honor justice ruth bader ginsburg, her legacy as a pioneer of equality lives on. nbc's kristen welker has the story. >> reporter: outside the supreme court from these young girls, a unanimous opinion honoring justice ruth bader ginsburg. >> changed her life and ours. >> reporter: this 10-year-old began learning about the feminist icon when she was in third grade. what do you like about justice ruth bader ginsburg? >> i really like the fact that she stood up for everybody's rights, men and women. she used her mind to fight for what she believed in.

>> i don't think she could have a better role model than ruth bader ginsburg. >> reporter: this 9-year-old wrote about her in a book report. >> ruth is important because she tried to make women's rights equal. ruth is strong and tough when things get bad. >> reporter: her mother posting it online, now viewed 33,000 times. ginsburg's appeal spanning generations, for mothers and daughters learning about her to young aspiring jurists donning their own lace collars and law school students lucky enough to meet her. >> it was completely humbling to be in her presence. >> reporter: would either of you be where you are today without justice ginsburg? >> i don't think so. >> i wouldn't be in a law school classroom if it weren't for her. >> ruth bader ginsburg certainly paved the way by showing women could reach truly the highest echelon of lawyering. i don't think the fight is over. >> reporter: it sounds like the two of you are ready to, to some extent, pick up the to arch and carry it forward. >> absolutely.

>> i would be honored to, i would love to. >> reporter: a call to action motivating the next generation. >> a quote she said that stuck with me is, fight for what you care about but do it in a way -- >> -- that will lead others to join you. >> reporter: young women and girls now following those words and the footsteps of a trailblazer. kristen welker, nbc news, washington. joining me now, two very good friends and colleagues, anne gearan, washington correspondent for "the washington post," and ruth marcus, deputy editor at "the washington post." both of you have daughters, and for those of us who love the young children, the niece, the godchildren, all these young women really look up to her and the inspiration she caused. an anne, your daughter and her friends? >> absolutely, andrea. my daughter is a freshman in college right now, and she grew up in washington and grew up knowing a good bit about the

supreme court, where i used to cover, i was covering the court when she was born. and her -- my late stepmother, america grandmother, was a judge herself and knew justice ginsburg. so, you know, with that kind of background, she's always thought a great deal about what justice ginsburg meant in terms of her early years fighting for women's equality under the law. and then the kind of justice she was on the court, which was very fierce. she was small and quiet but you would not know that from the way she asked confessiquestions and right in there on the bench during oral arguments and very incisively in her opinions and dissents. >> and ruth marcus, you're a harvard lawyer. can you imagine being in that class of nine among 500 men when the dean said to the nine women, how do you justify being here

and taking the place of a man? >> it was a different era, and i was going back today and looking at justice ginsburg's remarks on the day that president clinton named her to the supreme court. and she talked about how she wished her mother had been there to witness the day when women had as much ability to achieve as men and when daughters were valued as much as sons. and i think we have, thanks in part, in significant part, to justice ginsburg, achieved that moment. and that is something that the girls that kristen spoke with were just adorable and inspiring, and thank you, justice ginsburg, for that. >> ruth, i know you have a daughter now in harvard as well. but when you talk to some of other women, you've covered the court recently, what did she mean to elena kagan and the other women on the court? >> you know, i've seen the three female justices together several

times. and it was very important for justice ginsburg to have that kind of core of women at the court. she's talked, i've seen her with justices from supreme courts of other countries, talked about how it's difficult to be the sole women on the court. when it becomes something -- and we've all experienced this in our own workplaces, when you're the only woman at the table, it's odd. justice ginsburg talked about the day when the right number would be nine women on the court. but having three there made it more normal, more regular for women to be full participants in the life of the court. and those three women on the bench were fierce. when they started questioning a lawyer, just watch out, they were like a kind of she-wolfpack. >> of course, the presidential campaign, anne gearan, today a

significant endorsement of joe biden from cindy mccain, crossing party lines for this moment. i wanted to play a part of that. >> i'm hoping that i can encourage suburban women to take another look and suburban women particularly on the fence, unhappy with what's going on right now but also are not sure they want to cross the line and vote for joe. i hope they'll take a look at what i believe and will move forward and come with me and join team biden and vote for biden. >> you have a new arizona poll in particular today in "the washington post" which is neck and neck with trump a little bit marginally ahead. what do you think cindy's endorsement means out there, especially to undecided women voters? >> probably means less than it was it would in another year with another president. we say this about donald trump but this is an example of a

thing that would be just earth shattering, race changing news in a different presidential race or with a different candidate. in this case he's already dismissed cindy mccain's endorsement of joe biden saying he barely knows her and from his perspective it's a blip. i do think since cindy mccann's conservative credentials are unimpeachable there's some women that will take a second look as she said. >> anne, ruth, your observations are so invaluable, thank you very much. and we want to talk about a washington odd couple, the friendship and extraordinary friendship of justice scalia, ruth bader ginsburg. despite theirtheir ideological differences they had same interests. joining me is a son of antonin

scalia. a new collection of the legal writings, the essential scalia on the constitution, the courts and the rule of law published last week. chris, i was fortunate enough to get to know both your parents and your father sitting next to your father at washington dinners was such a delight, such a funny, smart, wonderful human man. those were the qualities that ruth bader ginsburg saw. >> first of all, thank you very much and thanks for having me back on the show. yeah. she saw these qualities in him and he saw similar qualities in her. they made each other laugh. you know, despite their differences. that collection you mentioned, for example, has plenty of dissents in which he goes after arguments she makes and she went after his arguments, too, but they went after the arguments and ideas, not after each other as people.

they really admired each other. they even helped each other with their writing and on opinions when they were on different sides. they really cherished each other's friendships very much. >> one of the thing that is she told me in an interview a number of years ago is knowing him on the d.c. circuit he would take delight in whispering funny things and trying to crack her up on the bench. >> yeah. she had to apparently pinch herself so she wouldn't laugh out loud and disrupt the courtroom. yeah. that sounds like a lot of fun. she said that really only two people made her laugh out loud very often or regularly and one was her wonderful husband marty and one was my dad. as you know my parents were close to marty and basically a gourmet chef and my mom liked to swap recipes with him.

and his passing about ten years ago hit my parents very hard. >> he became a gourmet chef because jane particularly the older child, they would have starved if they relied on their mother because she was such a bad cook. they took vacations together, sent new year's eve together and took vacations. there's a wonderful picture that the chief justice spoke of today on vacation together in india on the elephant and the chief justice said there's no sign this either of them trying to throw the other off. so your families were close and that says so much. but also, those dissents. they took shots at each other in the dissents but he serk lated one important dissent in advance to be aware of what he was going to write and tailor her response to it so they were -- you know, sort of partners that way.

>> yeah. absolutely. one of the reasons they bonded and d.c. kir sit court of appeals is that the other judges there didn't like getting feedback on their draft opinions, justice ginsburg liked getting that feedback and liked giving that kind of feedback and the same went for my father and they formed what he called a mutual improvement society and in addition to the kind of interests they shared that working relationship was really important to them. >> well, chris scalia, i know you and your brother eugene wrote a wonderful column in "the washington post" and has been, you know, so eloquent on the subject, as well, this is exactly the kind of family and personal relationships we need to celebrate today. thank you so very much for being with us. >> it was an honor to be with you. >> thank you. special edition of our show, an emotional one for me i must confess, thank you for watching. steve kornacki is in for chuck

todd next. thank you for joining us as we remember the life of justice ruth bader ginsburg. as we go to break, this final time, let's look back at her confirmation hearing in 1993. >> in my lifetime, i expect to see three, four, perhaps even more women on the high court bench. women not shaped from the same mold but of different complexions.

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good afternoon to you. i'm ari melber and welcome you to the breaking news coverage right now tracking in just a few moments we will have legal information that should provide the knowledge of whether or not three of the officers involved in the fatal killing of breonna taylor would face criminal charges or not. here's why we expect to know that. in just about 15 minutes, the formal grand jury in jefferson county, tennessee, will publicly present it first-ever report on this case which includes potential charges or not to the local judge. after that, i can tell you that we are told by local officials to then hear from kentucky's attorney general daniel cameron. he is holding a formal press conference on this matter. expets told nbc news it is highly unlikely, that is to say they don't