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a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome, everyone, to "alex witt reports." we'll begin with the global mobilization against omicron. from europe to asia to north america, nations are banning travel to southern africa. president biden is expected to get an in-person briefing this afternoon at the white house. the u.s. travel ban takes effect tomorrow over concerns about the highly transmissible nature of omicron. >> so the question is will the antibodies generated by the vaccines that we've all had or should have had, will that enable us to be protected against this virus. i think there's good reasons to think it will probably be okay. i know, america, you're really tired of hearing those things. but the virus is not tired of

us. and it's shape shifting itself. if you imagine we're on a racetrack here, the virus just sort of emerged in a new version and it's trying to catch up with us. >> as the isolation of southern africa takes effect, officials are pushing back. the president of the african development bank said today banning african travel is like protecting one's home in the midst of a forest fire. thousands of people took to the streets in the czech republic today to protest restrictions even as hospitals fill up there. meanwhile, back in washington, a new hint that build back better may pass without paid family leave. congresswoman debbie dingell told my colleague jonathan capehart there may be a contingency in place. >> i also know that change takes time. we've got the commitment of republican and democrat senators to go to work on that if for some reason joe manchin once again wins at doing something

that's going to harm a lot of people. i believe we're going to get build back better done by christmas. we need to get it done. it will make a difference in so many american lives. plus new insight from congressman adam schiff on exactly what his january 6th select committee is looking for in documents that donald trump may be trying to hide from congress. >> was this essentially the backup plan for the failed litigation around the country? was this something that was anticipated? how was it funded? what do the funders know about what was likely to happen that day? and what was the president's response as the attack was going on as his own vice president was being threatened? now for an expanded look at our top story, raf, we'll start with you and the latest developments on the omicron variant. what about restriction where you are in israel, how tough are they? >> reporter: alex, they are the toughest anywhere in the world.

in four hours' time, israel is ringing in a ban on all foreigners entering the country. that ban is going to last two weeks. and it is a ban that is going to hurt the economy here. israel just reopened for tourism a couple of weeks ago and now it's closing back down again. but the fact that the government is bringing this ban into force shows you just how determined they are to try to head off this variant. now, there is an acknowledgement, it is probably going to be nearly impossible to keep the variant out altogether, just like it was impossible to keep delta out altogether. but the goal here is to buy time, buy time for the scientists to get a better handle on what we are dealing with here. dr. fauci was speaking earlier today about this new variant and its mutations. take a listen to what he had to say about what we know so far. >> it just kind of exploded in the sense that when you look at south africa, you are having a low level of infection, and then

all of a sudden there was this big spike. and when the south africans looked at it they said, oh, my goodness, this is a different virus than we've been dealing with. so it clearly is giving indication that it has the capability of transmitting rapidly. that's the thing that's causing us now to be concerned. >> now, in the last couple of hours, dutch authorities have confirmed they found 13 cases of the omicron variant among passengers who got those last two flights out of south africa. those last flights that made it into amsterdam. alex, this is pretty stunning. 13 cases of omicron but 61 people on those two flights testing positive for various different forms of covid. that is raising a lot of questions about how these people were able to get on planes when so many of them appear to have been positive for the virus, alex. >> that is a really good

question, and yikes at those numbers, imagine, 61 with 13 being omicron. raf, thank you so much. we'll check in again with you in the next hour. the u.s. is certainly on high alert for cases of omicron to be detected here, potentially. new york has declared a state of emergency to prepare for the very worst amid warnings that the variant could already be here in the country. nbc's stephanie stanton joins us from tampa, florida, a state that has final seen its covid case numbers drop, stephanie. how are folks reacting to this new threat? >> reporter: good afternoon to you, alex. it is a much different picture here in the state of florida. as you know, in recent weeks florida has enjoyed the lowest covid case rate per capita in the nation, tracking six cases per 100,000 people. the seven-day average of covid cases, 683 cases. florida has not reported data to the cdc, i should say the cdc hasn't released the latest florida covid case rates from the past week because of the

holiday weekend. so we didn't see any reports from thursday or friday. so everyone is waiting to see if those low rates will continue here in the state of florida or if we'll see not only an uptick in cases but potential deaths as well because of a backlog. all eyes are on that. these lower case counts in the state come after we here in florida saw that pretty serious surge in late summer. and it is a much different picture from what we're seeing here in other parts of the country like the upper midwest and michigan, which is experiencing a very serious surge right now. michigan last week reported 38,000 cases of covid. and of course, as you said, all of this is coming as there are new fears around the country of the omicron variant. but i did speak to some people here on the ground, alex. at this point they don't seem too concerned yet about the new variant. take a listen. >> as far as being scared of it,

i'm not letting it affect how i live my life. i'm trying to do the same things. obviously it affects the world and things are -- people are freaking out and everything, but, i mean, i have a different view. >> i don't put a lot of salt into what they say about those variants and things like that. i hope it doesn't become a big issue, you know, but i don't really believe it, to be quite honest with you. >> i just heard about it the last couple of days and, you know, i support vaccination. i support wearing masks indoors, things like that. my father died a year ago from covid-related pneumonia. so i'm kind of tainted against those who say oh, it's a hoax. >> reporter: and, you know, the opinions here vary across the board, alex. but for the most part there are a lot of people who are pretty lax about covid restrictions. at this point you know that

governor ron desantis is against those mask mandates. we're not seeing masks in school. a few people wear masks in places like grocery stores but for the most part it is life and business as usual here in the state of florida, at least for now, alex. >> at least for now. thank you so much, stephanie, for that. joining me now is dr. irwin redlener from the national center for disaster preparedness. i want to know what is the most concerning thing you've learned about this variant in the last 24 hours or so. >> hi, alex. one of the things of course is that this has moved very, very quickly. and i think that people are surprised, even though this is probably hovering around south africa for the last few weeks, it exploded on the scene just now. the reason we're concerned about it is this is definitely a different form of the virus. it's called a variant, which it is, of course. but it also is a variant of concern, which is the highest

level of watchfulness that can be designated bit world health organization. but in addition to that, there's at least 40 mutations on this, on a particular protein in the virus. and the protein that we're concerned about is the one that makes it attach more easily to human cells. and potentially makes it spread more. and i think those are things we're obviously concerned about. but maybe the biggest thing that has investigators and officials worried is the fact that the vaccines that are currently available may not be as effective with omicron as they are with the other variants of the coronavirus that have been circulating. and that's what we're going to know more about in the next a couple of weeks, alex. >> okay. i want to break down what you said into two parts there.

"newsweek" reports that the doctor who first raised concern over omicron says symptoms are mild. >> we'll see. so many times studies that have come out of the united states, out of israel, out of any other country in the world, there's been a preliminary report and then it has to be confirmed and followed. there weren't that many cases that came out of the study he was talking about. and perhaps it will be, we hope it will be not very dangerous in terms of causing deaths or hospitalizations. but it might be -- besides that, it might be a lot more contagious. so we'll see what happens here. but again, the big thing is, will it be more resistant to the vaccines that we've all been taking. and that really remains to be seen. >> okay. so that then is the question. what do we do, how does one combat this, how do we generally combat this if indeed it is more resistant and it takes on an aggressive stance like delta has and is widely spread?

>> so first of all, let's talk about what we should not be doing. and i think a lot of us in the field are a little concerned about the knee-jerk reaction to create travel bans which generally don't work very well. by the time we create the ban, the cat's already out of the bag, the horse is out of the barn, whatever metaphor you want to use. we're already seeing cases in denmark, in belgium, in the netherlands and so on, and probably, i wouldn't be surprised if in the next few days we see cases in the united states. what we should be doing, though, is using our first and most effective line of defense which is to get people vaccinated. by the way, we're starting to talk less about booster and more about the fact that people should be getting a three-shot series. so if you got two shots of moderna or pfizer, you really do need to get a third. if you got one shot of johnson &

johnson, you should be getting another shot on top of that. getting people up to speed with vaccinations is the most important thing we need to do and then a lot more testing to make sure we're tracking where that virus is or is not. those are the two most important things we need to do right now. >> real quickly, let's say you're right and within the next couple of days we have a couple of cases detected, confirmed, of omicron. how fast might it explode? if i have you back next weekend are we talking about a thousand, tens of thousands across this country? what do you think? >> i think it would be impossible to predict. those who do predict are on pretty thin ice. there's been so much we thought was going to happen and hasn't happened and vice-versa. the best thing to tell you is we'll just have to wait and see. hopefully it will turn out to be a little blip of nothingness. but we never know, with this very wily, very concerning pandemic that we're dealing with. >> okay. then i'll reiterate what you have said that we know.

get your vaccines, everyone. thank you, dr. irwin redlener, good to see you. coming up, nbc's catie beck is joining us from hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport. what are we facing today in terms of crowds and traffic? >> reporter: hey, alex. we've been seeing long lines inside and outside of airport. in terms of a travel day, what could be the busiest travel day of the year, things are going pretty smoothly. we have been checking those flight maps. there are very few there is an delays and cancellations. travelers are getting where they want to go despite having to wait in longer lines. this is a day airline executives call the super bowl of air travel. that's not all. millions more americans are hitting the road today. the great return. millions of americans heading

home this morning after the first normal holiday get-together in almost two years. airlines call today the busiest travel day of the year. triple-a predicting more than 4 million people traveling by air over the holidays. >> three kids. a lot of luggage. car seats. busy airport. but it's going. >> reporter: tsa chief dividend pikaski. >> we're close to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. >> reporter: it's not all friendly skies. reports of almost 5,000 unruly passengers this year. >> the airport is an emotional place. some people are running late, some are delayed, you have people getting ready to leave for a while and they kind of tend to act out if things don't go their way. >> reporter: the justice department stepping up prosecution of unruly air passengers. on board disturbances and violence can mean steep fines. jail time and getting banned for life by that airline. from the runways to the highways, most americans heading home today will hit the road. 48 million behind the wheel.

up nearly 4 million since last year and approaching pre-pandemic levels in 2019. driving into packed highways and sky high gas prices. a gallon of gas averaging $3.40 up from $2.12 last year when the pandemic was in full swing. the highest prices in the northeast and west. all of it leaving drivers frustrated. >> it feels like i've got to go to the bank and take out a loan to pay for my gas. >> really high. what can we do? >> reporter: now, we did speak to the pio here at the atlanta airport who says things are going about as well as predicted. there are no major delays or cause for concerns, just high volume, which they thought would be the case today. he said they expect 2.2 million passengers to go through the atlanta airport over the course of this holiday weekend compared to just 1.6 last year. so a significant increase.

triple-a says also if you are hitting the roads today, the worst time to do it is between 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. tonight, alex. >> yeah, people should be staying home and watching the show and your reporting is what they should be doing. catie beck, thank you so much. >> reporter: i agree. an ally of the former president did something this weekend that donald trump can't stand. the fallout from both sides of the aisle, next. wayfair's cyber monday sale is on now! score unbelievable savings with our biggest sale ever!

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new calls for action on republican congresswoman lauren boebert's anti-muslim comments to one of her colleagues. >> hi, everyone. i'm lauren boebert. >> reporter: an outspoken newcomer to congress. >> america does not need and cannot afford this junk. >> reporter: the 34-year-old colorado republican, married mom, gun rights enthusiast.

lauren boebert. ally of former president trump did something trump detests. boebert apologized. under pressure, she tweeted this friday. i apologize to anyone in the muslim community i offended with my comment about representative omar. minnesota democrat ilhan omar is one of only three muslims serving in congress. in this video taken at an event boebert joked and seemed to suggest that omar could be wearing explosives when with her in an elevator. >> i looked to my left and there she is, ilhan omar. i said, well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine. >> reporter: congresswoman omar responded, sayin i am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter. she writes, normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all muslims. speaker pelosi and democratic

leadership called boebert's comments deeply offensive and concerning. and slammed republican leader kevin mccarthy for his repeated failure to condemn inflammatory and bigoted rhetoric. mccarthy responded that boebert apologized for what she said and has reached out to congresswoman omar to meet next week. kelly o'donnell, nbc news. >> joining me now for more, hayes brown, writer and editor for msnbc daily. hey, hayes, it's awfully good to see you again. it's pretty rare nowadays that we hear public apologies, particularly from these far right figures. what do you make of what lauren boebert said after the initial infraction, if you will? >> so, i mean, if you parse her apology, it's a pretty vague semi-apology. she apologized to anyone who was offended, she doesn't necessarily call out herself for her own remarks, she doesn't

apologize to congresswoman omar, her colleague. she says she wants to meet up and have a conversation, which is very nice but places the onus on omar to accept that meeting and look magnanimous, versus coming out and making the apology you need to make and saying why what you said was wrong. this is what we teach our children, you have to acknowledge why what you do is wrong, which she doesn't do here. i'm glad there is enough public pressure and shame in many republicans who actually wanted to issue an apology and move forward on it but it's not exactly "a plus" material here. >> let's talk about kevin mccarthy's role because he responded yesterday, but again, only after a lot of public pressure. even so, hayes, his silence, on not just lauren boebert but on other lawmakers who have made controversial, outrageous, rude, nutty comments like paul gosar,

does that speak volumes about the modern day gop or about kevin mccarthy? i know it does to some degree about both, but kind of put it in proportion. is it more about kevin mccarthy unable to keep his constituents -- not the constituents, but his colleagues there in congress in check? >> i mean, it's hard to picture who in congress would be able to do a better job than kevin mccarthy right now. the people i feel like would be able to challenge him in a republican were to take the house next year and he were to run for speaker, the people who would challenge him would be no better in terms of letting colleagues say whatever it is that they want. i mean, but right now i will say that kevin mccarthy kind of leads the same way that a sail leads on a sailboat. the wind is pushing you forward and you go where the wind is going. you're technically pulling that boat along but it's not exactly like a strong, decisive leadership role that he is playing right now. >> interesting. let's switch gears and talk about the omicron variant,

because information about this new strain, it's still pretty knew. there's still a lot that we don't know yet. but there are headlines, and we see the ones like this one, fox & friends weekend host suggesting democrats are making up new variants to help biden. and that host that said that insinuating the administration is just using covid and lockdowns to put off fixing other issues like the supply chain. i'm not sure what president biden and the administration gets out of that. but what's your reaction to what was said? >> i mean, first of all, i don't know how having a new variant of concern would fix the supply chain, considering the fact that people staying home during the first waves of covid is what kind of broke the supply chain to begin with. people want a lot of stuff right now. that isn't changing because of a new variant. i think that the idea that this is all -- it's basically a remnant of -- it's a variant of

its own, trump's original push that this is a hoax from democrats to make trump look bad, yadda yadda. i'm not surprised they're still dipping into this well, but the more they do it, as we get these new variants, the less sense it makes. it didn't make much sense to begin with. >> right, but when you have misinformation like that that spreads and we still don't have a lot of factual data on this new variant, how much more challenging does that make the president's job in terms of trying to contain it and get people to understand what is out there? >> i mean, it was never going to be easy to begin with, considering the fact that we've had delta around for a long time. people still aren't getting vaccinated. they still don't want to take precautions to stop the spread of the virus in their communities. one thing that gets lost as we get vaccines and have all of this new technology in place to help keep us safe is that we're not seeing as much testing as we should to track variants like omicron and other potential

variants in the united states. so we are half blind, in a way. and on the flip side, we also have to think about the fact that when we don't know a lot about the variant, as in the case of omicron, it's very easy to fill in the gaps. there's going to be a lot of misinformation that says that oh, this proves that the vaccines don't work, this shows that we never will get control of covid so why not let everyone get it naturally so they can have herd immunity. all these lies we've been hearing, all of the misinformation, it's going to come up again, and that makes the job of keeping the actual numbers down that much harder. >> i'll tell you, you're right, hayes brown. awfully good to see you, thank you. hope you had a good thanksgiving. it's back to work in washington and it's a race against the clock for many reasons. the big battles that lie ahead, next. ahead, next >> i believe we're going to get build back better done by christmas. we need to get it done. >> what's not to like? it's a bad, bad, bad bill.

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president biden is right now on his way back to the white house where he will prepare for a very busy week ahead. he faces a number of key agenda items that need to be addressed over the next couple of days. josh lederman is at nantucket where the president just departed. there is a big and busy agenda for the president this week. what all is on it, josh? >> reporter: alex, president biden would like to be focusing squarely on that legislative agenda, particularly getting his massive spending bill through congress before the end of the year. but facts are facts. and at this point in time, the omicron variant has really thrown a wrench into the president's plans for the next several days. it was the only thing that really took the president out of his thanksgiving holiday plans with his family over the last few days. he had about a half hour

briefing with dr. fauci during which he decided to put in those travel restrictions and just as president biden in the last hour was leaving nantucket, heading back to the white house, we learned from a white house official that when he gets back, president biden will have an in-person briefing with members of the his covid-19 response team as well as with his chief medical adviser, dr. anthony fauci. the white house saying that meeting will focus on providing an update to the president on the omicron variant and the administration's response. we don't have any indication at this point in time that we will actually see that meeting or be able to ask president biden questions after that meeting about how it went or what else they might have decided. but we know that this is really job number one for the white house right now, because they know that everything else that they want to be doing on the economy, on legislation, could really be upended by the concerns about the omicron variant and about people's fears that this may really take over and become the latest health crisis that they're going to

have to deal with. so the white house over the last few days has been staying in very close contact not only with the cdc and u.s. health authorities but also with folks in south africa, these other countries, as they're trying to learn more about this variant, what it could mean for covid-19, and what the best way to actually respond to it as far as the public health situation might be. and as they are doing all of that, the white house trying not to lose focus in this coming week on the other major deadlines heading down the pike including on friday, when government funding is set to run out, the biden administration will be working with congress to try to pass a short term spending extension as well as working to avert a fiscal cliff on december 15th with the debt ceiling being hit and of course trying to pass that social spending bill by christmas and the end of the year, alex. >> a lot on the agenda. thank you so much, josh lederman in nantucket. the dow tumbled more than

900 points on friday in its biggest drop of this year as the new covid variant is raising concerns and it could derail the recovering economy. i'm joined now by rick newman, yahoo! finance senior columnist and a good friend to us here. hey, rick. >> hey. >> sometimes financial markets have a better read on how severe some of these events are than the general public. did the market drop on friday suggest folks on wall street think this variant is serious? or do you think we'll see a bounceback tomorrow as we are getting more information? >> we could see a little snap-back on monday. we clearly got a very negative reaction in financial markets to omicron on friday. it's not surprising because traders and investors have learned the virus is in charge. the virus dictates where the economy goes. and the rise of omicron suggests we could see another surge similar to delta over the summer. so look what happened from the delta surge, everybody thought we were going to be past covid. president biden promised a summer of freedom.

but we did not have a summer of freedom. we know that the delta variant, it kept people out of the labor force, so it contributed to worker shortages, which is slowing down economic growth. it did keep some consumers home. we still have not seen a rebound in travel and services. and that in turn is fueling this imbalance where we've got people demanding way more goods than before and way fewer services which is contributing to shortages and to higher prices. so investors know that the delta variant caused all of those distortions. and just as we seemed to be getting past those kinds of concerns, now comes omicron which could be just like delta all over again. that's why we saw what we saw in financial markets on friday. >> speaking of those higher prices, inflation is rising at its fastest rate in 31 years. originally the administration, as you know, said this is transitory. it seems or feels less transitory now. where do you stand on that, whether this is a blip or will

be with us quite some time? will consumers have to change their behavior if inflation remains high for a while? >> president biden made a -- he kind of made a definitional mistake by using that word "transitory" and also the word "temporary" without saying what those two words mean. when economists use those words, they mean -- they're trying to make a distinction between is this going to be a problem that is going to be with us for years and defy efforts to fix it? or is it something that is related to anomalies in the economy? i think there's still a pretty good case this is related to anomalies in the economy. it's the supply chain disruptions we've been talking about for six to eight months, shortages of things, this imbalance between what consumers want, between goods and services. but at the same time, even if it starts to abate sometime by next year, i think president biden now has a bit of a credibility problem on this because i think what he was trying to get people to think was this was only going to last a couple of months, and

most economists are now saying it actually got worse after biden called it temporary, not better. inflation is going to persist into 2022. now, we did see a big drop in oil prices on friday. and that is actually going to start showing up in lower gas prices, probably within a few weeks or even perhaps a few days. we are probably going to see lower gas prices. but that's for the wrong reason. it's because we might have another covid setback here which has already crushed consumer confidence. and it will probably continue to, that if omicron turns out, for example, to be as worrisome as the delta variant. >> we have the president tapping into the strategic oil reserve at this point, i think he's going to release 50 million barrels, when on average, the u.s. consumers use, what, 20 million barrels a day. so how would that affect prices at the pump? that's like a 2 1/2 day surge or support.

>> right, in fact that 50 million barrels, it's only half of what the whole world consumers in terms of oil in a single day. and almost every economist who looks at this says, if you just judge this from a supply at some point, is this going to increase supply enough to make a difference, and the answer is no. but there could be an unstated political role here, alex, because think about what happens if gas prices do go down in 2022, which is what most energy forecasters thought. they thought before we saw omicron that we would see a decline in energy prices in 2022. well, if that actually happens, then president biden gets to say, hey, i did it, you know, i said i was going to put some oil into the market, i was worried about people spending too much, i put that oil in and look what happened, energy prices fell. so if that happens, for sure, you know, he'll be claiming credit for it. that's what presidents do, they claim credit if things go in the

right direction whether they deserve that credit or not. that could be some of the motivation. >> rick newman, you take credit for a good discussion. thank you, my friend. >> see you, alex. mississippi's abortion case goes before the supreme court this week, a direct challenge to roe v. wade. what to expect, next. ke one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us ♪ (vo) reflect on the past, celebrate the future. now you know. season's greetings from audi.

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♪ i remember when you were here ♪ that's mommy! and finish this year strong. ♪ and all the fun we had last year ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 the nation's highest court is preparing to hear arguments this week in a case that could

directly challenge roe v. wade, the landmark decision that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion. on wednesday, the supreme court will consider the legality of a mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. fetal viability is typically considered to begin between 24 and 26 weeks. the case, known as dobbs v. jackson, could be a pivotal moment for abortion rights. joining me is joyce vance, an nbc legal analyst. is the fact that the dobbs case even made it to the court alarming to you and what are the implications of it being taken up by the supreme court? >> it's always been clear that when the supreme court takes a case that would appear to be well-decided law, something has to be up. and that's precisely the issue with dobbs. the issues set forth in roe and

casey, these are the cases that have guaranteed american people the right to access abortion for almost the last 50 years. and that law is well-decided. and dobbs, the statute in mississippi that's the source of this case, is the sort of law that routinely gets brushed aside by the courts because it violates that well-established precedent. so the fact, alex, that the court will hear this case this week is very alarming. >> well, let's look at justice clarence thomas. he is the court's longest serving member. he has for a long time been a vocal opponent of roe v. wade. last june, after the court struck down a louisiana law, he wrote that a woman's right to abort her unborn child is not a liberty protected by the u.s. constitution. now you have three new justice the on the bench, all pointed by donald trump. so it is one of the most conservative courts in decades. do you expect them to fall in lockstep with justice thomas?

do we have any read on how these new justices might rule? >> so many of these justices were confirmed, three of them to be precise, after the former president said he would not appoint anyone to the supreme court if they were not opposed to roe v. wade. something we know, though, is that justices don't always perform as predicted once they have life tenure and they're confirmed to a spot on the supreme court. but it seems likely that at least six of the justices have very conservative views about abortion. that would be the part of the court from chief justice roberts to the right. and votes can be mustered can be do something to roe. the question, though, alex, is what that something looks like. is it outright reversal? is it something that restricts roe? would it be a decision that does away with the viability standard and puts something else in its place? what we don't know is if there are actually six votes for the clarence thomas view, this very restrictive view that he

espoused shortly after he was confirmed to the bench. he ducked the question during his confirmation hearings and then developed strong views on roe and abortion within the weeks following his ascent to the bench. whether he could command a majority for the view that abortion should be completely done away with in this country, i think is questionable. >> the views have not just within the supreme court. this is a mississippi law we're talking about. let's take a listen to the mississippi governor, tate reeves, just this morning. here is what he said. >> i think that this law can be enacted within a changing confinement of roe v. wade but i also believe that roe v. wade was wrongly decided. i believe in a simple reading of the united states constitution, that when roe was decided in 1973, there is no fundamental right in our united states constitution to an abortion. and furthermore, chuck, i believe very strongly that if you read the constitution, there is nowhere in the constitution

that prohibits individual states, states like mississippi, to limit access to abortions. >> he is saying the law can be enacted in a changing environment of roe v. wade. what does that mean to you?well we just heard was premiere legal scholarship because we have a lot of rights as americans that aren't specifically mentioned in the constitution. for instance, the constitution doesn't specifically mention that you have a right to vote. it discusses principles that make it clear that you do, but it's not specific. abortion is one of those rights that's a privacy right that the supreme court has interpreted from other constitutional rights and the fact that it's been embedded in our case law in what lawyers call the body of decided case law and rights for so long speaks volumes to the contrary of what folks in mississippi have had to say recently.

so this is an interesting view that they have. it wasn't until july that mississippi's attorney general actually petitioned the court to reverse roe. they say the 15-week ban could pass unconstitutional muster. >> how much do the opinions of americans matter? a poll finds 60% of americans say roe v. wade should be upheld. that's consistent since 2005. is it aligned with the american people? i know the justices aren't driven by poll numbers but legally speaking reflecting the law as it is now? >> the only reason i want to waffle a little bit on this one, alex, is because we're approaching the midterm

elections and we can all contemplate what the political implications might be if the supreme court said there's no more right to an abortion no matter what week of a pregnancy you're in. that would have political implications. in reality one of the court's most important jobs is to divorce itself from the wishes of the people and to make a decision based on the law. that's because we want to protect the rights of minorities in this country. we want to protect constitutional rights even when they're not popular so the court is guided by the law and not by the whim. >> okay. joyce, thank you so much, my friend. a new rash of smash and grab robberies. how retailers are fighting back coming up. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience,

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