mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. it's called delay, delay, delay. >> we're going to hear from four of the leading republican presidential candidatete this morning, donald trump, ted cruz, marco rubio and john kasich. the democratic candidides meanwhile were alsoquick to spond to the vacancy. >> supreme court of thehe united states has ninin members, not eightht we need thaha ninth member. >> elections have consequences. thth president has a responsibibity to nominate a new justice. and the senate has a responsibility to vote. >> we'll also be taking a close look at the democratic race and how hillary clinton's team is working overtime to try to turn this contest from b bng a referendum on her to a rrerendum on bernie sanders. a lot to getto, but we start with the impact and the implications of scalia's death

nobody better to joioi me on this than our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, welcome back, sir. t me ask veryquickly, we're in the middle of some ontentious cases ononhe supreme court now. what happens rigigig nowow the most one with pololical mplications is e immigration decision. >> right. when you have eight justices it creates the possibility of a 4-4 tie. when there's a tie it's as though the supreme court decision doesn't count, the lower courtruling stands and the supreme court decision has no presidential value. so for the immmmration policy it would be a defeat for the administration because it would leave standndg the lowow court rulings thatlocked it. for s sch abortion question which is coming, it would l lve the tough texas restriction on access to abortion clinics standing. might encourage other states too try the same thing. for public sector u uons though it might be a victory because they won in the lower courts, defeating an effort to try to restrict their ability to raise union dues. >> all right. we are headed for the popontial

nominate sosobody, he's made that clear. the republican controlled senate doesn't want to consider it. it's possible terms of the supreme court begin in october andndend in e. >> right. >> so at this point under this scenario we might go an entire term, october of '16 through june of '17 without a supreme court justice because even if the next president appoints it takes timemetoto get through the prococs. >> two haugt ethoughts, majority decisions are not close votes. the court willllontinue functioning and do a lot of its business. it does raise the possibility that you won't get what only thee supreme court can prprvide, and that is the final answer. only thehehe preme court canan resolve these thingsfor once and forever. so a lot of these things will just have to keep coming back until the supreme court gets the right combination to make the decision. >> scalia, the w w cases are heard, once they're ard, there's an immediate vote that takes place among the nine stice. >> that's right.

>> no, not unless the decision was handed down. theheule is votes can shift and opinions can change, you have to be present for your vote to count. >> i want you to talk about one candidate i think we may see nominated. it's a judge by the name of merrick garland. if there's a repeplican senate, this is a guy they think they can get t trough the republican senate. he's considered more moderate than other liberal justices, why? >> because of his recocod, experience in the justice department, widely respected. i mean, the thing now presidents tend to want younger minees. if you look at the most recent trend, they're nominating people in their 50s. that's not merrick garland, but he's thth right kind of ideology. >> all right. pete williams, going to be a busy 18 months for you onis confirmation process, i think. >> indeed. joininin me now is the first of four republican presidential candidates who are on with us this morning. it''donald trump. mr. trump, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. >et me ask you firir on the

do you have a litmus test? do you have a litmus test on row v. wade? citizens united whh it comes to who you might appointto the supreme court should you become president? >> well,l,i think we have some greatt people out there. diane sikes from wisconsin frr what everybybdyells me uld be outstandingngng we need a conservative person. i think that certainly we have some great people. we lost one of the grees. i'd like to o ve the person tailored to be just like justice scalia, justice scalia was trulyly a eat judge. and respececed byy all. both sides. >> that's what i meaea how will you determine that? how will you determine whether you got somebody -- >> well, i mean, ok, you never know what happens, chuck. you look at where a a gugu like ted cruz pushed very hard for justice roberts. everyone thohoht that was wonderful. and justiti roberts let everybody down by approving obaacare, twice. i mean, he really did let us down. that's largely cruz's fault andnd the bush ult because they put the wrong guy in ere. that was a shocking decision.

know. but at the time he looked okay. but he's -- that was a d cruzuz mistake because he pushed him very hard. look, we needed greaea intellect. we need i say absolutely conservative. but i think the real plan for it would be somebody just like justice scalia. >> all right. i want to move on to the debate last night. >> by the way which is hardtoto find. >> yeah, i think a lot of con terer sieve serertives will agree with you. i want to go to the debate last night. your 2008 comments about george w. bushsh were brought up and this idea that you weresurprised at the time that then-speaker pelosi had ruled out impeachment. did you believe that -- and i just want to clarify this, did you believe that there was enough there to bring up impeachment proceedings against george w. bush in 2008 over iraq? >> no. i was in the private sectoo so i didn't think about it toooo much. but certainly the war in iraq was a disaster.

war in iraq it was a mistake. he just made a mistake. we went into iraq, we lost thousands lives -- >> but you don't believe it's an impeachable offense now? you were implying it might be in 2008. >> well, that's for otherereople to say. look, that iss for other people to say.y. i can say this, itit may not have been impeachable because it was a mistake. i think it was a mistake. but it was ahorrible mistake. number one, there were no weapons of mass destruction. so did they know there weren't or r t? that would tell youu something right there. but there were no weapons of mass destruction. chuck, the war in iraq was a disaster. we end up with absolutely nothing. iran is taking over iraq as we sit here right now. and as sure as you can be iran is doing pretttt well worldwide. they take $150 billion, we get nothing. they're taking over iraq. they're getting the l. it was a disasterous decision

fortunately bush happened to be president. >> you were saying preredent bush lied. how do you know he lied abobo wmd? i think thatateople knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction. i think they wanted to go in there. i think they thought it would have been easier. they didn't p psecute ththwar well. wasn't well prosecuted andndnd they ended up getting -- i mean, leaving. now, i have to say he made a mistake getting in. and i'm the only one onn the stage that said we should not go into iraq. that ththwar in iraq is a mistake. everyone else said, oh, you know, all the other people on stage i should getet points for vissn. because everybody -- >> let me pause you there. >> chuck, it took -- >> right. let me pause you -- >> it took jeb bush five days -- wait a minute. it took jeb bush five days to say that the iraq war was a mistake. he went back and forth, back and fofoth. then finally hisollster told him what he had to say. but jeb bush -- then he admitted it was a mistatae. i mean, look,e's got no chance anyway, but it almost cost him

>> well, i want to for what it's worth p pitifact that has never been le to find, nonon of us have been able to find any instance where before the invasion you came out against this war. why is that? >> well, i did it in 2003. i saa it before -- don't forget, i wasn't a politician. so people didn't write everything i said. i was a business person. i was as they say world class business person. i built a great company. i employ thousands of people. so i'm not a popoitician, but if you look at 003 ththe are articles, if you look at 2004, there are articles in fact i saw somebody commmmting on it last night that trump really w w against the war. i was against it -- look, i'm the most militaristic persrs, i'm going to b bld the military bigger, better, stronger, hopefully we'll nevererave to use it, but nobody's going to mess with us. but iiill say this, the war in iraq, it was a mistake. anybody would have realized iran and iraq they used to fight. they'd go back, forth. chuck, you destababize the middle east, i'm the only one that called. i was the only one that called

>> you made it clear that you wanted to remind people that 9/11 happeneded i believe you used the phrase, during george bush's reign. do you believe that george bush kept america safe? >> no. because the e rld trade center wasasnocked down. lookokthat's another mythth i wish hee did. i have nothinggainst him. i don't know him. i don't know that -- i don't thii i ever even met him. i don't think i did meet him. i have nothingggainst george bush. i'm'm just saying when jeb bush gets up and says my brother kepep us safe. how did he keep us safe when the world trade during his time in office, , lost manan many friends -- that was the worst tragedydyn the h htory of this country. worse than pearl harbor because thehe attacked civilians. they attacked people in office buildings. >> and you think george w. bush could have prevented this? >> well, according to -- if you go back, you will see the cia and other agencies had information that bad things w wre

and, yes, the a aswer is he should have known. they wewe not talking to each other. there was totaldisassociation. they didn't like each other, all of the e fferentgencies were a mess. they were fighting with each other. absolutely theyyhould have knownwn they should have known something. osama bibiladen -- hey, look, i wrote a aut osama bin laden in 00 in a book. i was t tking about osama bin laden. if i know about osama bin laden t by seeing press and seeing, you know, what's going on,, why wouldn't the president of the united states know about osama bin laden? >> well, let me ask you this. in south cararina as you know, george w. bush is popular among republicans. you are -- this is a risky ststlt strategy. you called him a liar last night about wmd and you essentially said you would have beeee okay -- >> i didn't call him a liar. i didn't call anybody a liar. >> well, you called ted cruz a liar. >> chuck, i said maybe there were lies because, look, the weapons of mass d dstruction they said they existed and they didn't exist.

there are weapons of mass destructionon that's why we went in.n. that's why somany people got hoodwinked into going inniraq. then they go in thee, they searched high and dry. they looked all over. there were no weapons ofass destruction. turned out that there were absolutely not no weapons of mass destruction. now, was it a lie? i don't know. >> if you lose south carolina, do you think the gamemehange moment people will point to is what happened last night and what you said about george w. bush? but if you wiwi does this prove that the republican party is rejecting bush? >> nono i don't ththk so. i think they're rejecting the war in iraq. the war in iraqs a disaster. i have a great relationship with south carolina and the people. i've known them for a long time. i've been there many times. there. theyeye very smart people. they understand that the warar in irir is a a disaster and was a disaster. it totally destabilized thth middle east. when you lookokat themigration,

things that are happening right now, it a a started with thth war in iraq. and yououknow what, we got noththg. we have absolutely nothing. iran is getting the whole deal. >> mr. trump, i ve to leave it there. little short onnime this morning. i look forward to speaking with u agaiaisoon, i hoho. anks for congresswoman iming on and stay safe on the e ail. >> thank you very much. moments ago i spoke to senator ted cruz of texas. and i began asking him about how he might go about replacing justice annnin scalia on the court. let me go to litmus tetets, do you hhe them for potential supreme court justices? >> well, my litmus test for any supreme court justice is whether he or she will faithfully apply the constitution to the law. it's not a specific issue. approach. the only w w to determine that is if they have a proven record, demonstratatg they'll be faithful to thth law. that's the job of a justice. it's what liberal activists don't do.

instead legislate from the bench. a perfect example of that is justice scalia. justice scalia wass a lion of the supreme court. he was one of the greatest supreme court justices in history. spent three decades on the court. but before he e as onhe court he was a law professor for many, many years. he was a court of appeals judge. he had a long proven record so you knew exactly what you were getting with justice scalia. i knew justice scalia for 20 years. >> > thh the mistake you think was made with john roberts? >> of course it is. >> you were a big supporter of him, but in hindsigig you're is that because you think that he didndn have atrack record? >> he didn't have a track record. and i would not have nominated john roberts. once george bush nominated him, i supported the nominations a repupuican nominee, but i would have nominated my former boss, a court of appeals judge,ustice scalia's very first law clerk and h h a long proveetrack record.

reagan was to the presidency, so supreme court. he had that big an impact. and i think his passing yesterday really underscores the stakes of this electioio we are facing our fundamental rights in a balancnc. >> let me ask you, does the united states senate have an obligation to at least consider a nomination that president ooma puu forward? i understand that you guys don't want it. and you would prefer to let the -- t doesn't the united states have an obligation to at least go through the process and have an up or down vote? >> not remotely. >> why? >> it has been 80 years since a supreme court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. there is a long tradition that you don't do this in an election year. anddhat this means, chuck, is we ought to make the 2016 election a reffendum on the supreme court. i cannot wait toto stand on that debate stage with hillary clinton or bernie sanders and talk about what the supreme court will look like depending

if hillary clinton or bernie anders wins, or for that matter if donald trump wins whose record is indistinguishable from them on a great many issues, then we will see theecond amendment written outf the constitution. another thing we'll see, and his is veryy relevant, for conservatives in south carolina, if donald trump is the nomomee, or if hillary clinton is the president, we willl see unlimited abortrtn on demand throughout this country. partial birth abortion, taxpayer funding, no parental notififatioio and we'll also see our religious liberty torn doww basic rights. >> i want to go backk to the united states senate here. so you believe the presidency is only three years long in each termrm i mean, if we go down thisisoad, we're cutting off a presidency with a year to go. and more importrttly, senator cruz, the risk here for conservativeve is that ifif you have all these 4-4 ties in the court,t,hen the more liberal leaning circuits will then have,

take precedent. >> look, the consequence of a 4-4 tie is that the judgment ofof the courur ofppepes is affirmed by an equally divided vote. this has happened maa times in history that there have been vacancies, sometimes on a closely contentious case they'll hold over for the next term when the replacement justicic arriviv. in an election year we have a long tradition that a lame duck president doesn't get to jam a a supreme court nominee through in tt very end. lbj tried thatt and theheupreme court r rected it. nd particularly when the court is 5-4 is balananed an obama liberal nominee would dramatically shift the u.s. supreme court. >> but why not go through the process? should the united states senate do its duty and go through the process, reject it, senator, but go through the process? >> by the way, the senate's duty is to advise and consent. thth senate is advising right now, we are advising that a lame duck presidenen in an election year is not going to be able to tip the balance of the supreme court. that w wre going to have an election, and if liberals are so

people want unlimited abortion on demand, want religious liberty torn down, want the second amendment taken away, nt veterans memorials torn down, want the crosses and stars of david sandblastst off of the tombstones of our fallen veterans, then go and make the case to the people.e. i don't think the ammican people want that. i'i' very happy to take th94 ] case directly to hillary clinton, direrely to bernie sanders. and i would note, look, how do we know donald trumums record on this is going to be bad? he haspported liberals for four decades, jimmy carter, john kerry, hillary clinton, chuck schumer, harry reid, anyone who cares about judges would not be supporting harry reid and chuck schumer and john kerry and hillary clinton. and the consequence is if either hillary or bernie or donald trump is the president, we will see the second amendment written out of t t constitution. this is a basic question who will defend our liberties. >> senator cruz, i have to leave it there this morning. a lot more to get to.

hhing you on perhaps next that. thank you, sir. >> excellent. when we come back, we're going to hear from marco rubio who hopes to put new hampshire behind him. and john kasich who hopes new hampshire is a sign of the future. >> the world trade center came we wererborn 100 years ago into a new american century. born w wh a hunger to fly and a passion to build something better. and what an amazing time it's been, decade after decade of innovation,, inspiration and wonder. sosowe say thank you america for a century of trust, for the privilege of flying higher and higher, together. i was not aware of how much acidity was in my diet. i was so focused on making good food choices, i had d idedethat it was damaging the enamel of my teeth. i wanted to fix it, i wanted to fix it right away.

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joined by senator marco rubio off florida and govereror john kasichh of ohio. d i started with senator rubio asking him whether the senate has an obligation to give the president's supreme court nominee ananp or dodo vote. >> we have an obligation to do it, but not now. the term of this supreme courtrt is already -- they just started it, but it's not allll yearlong. the court can function with eight justices, it does it all the time especially when jussces have to recuse themselves. kagannas to recuse herself early in the rm. we're going to have an election in noveveer where this vacancy will be an item of debate and voters w wl get to weigh in. i don't think it's wise and it's precedent for thisisresident nearing the last few months of his administration to put someone on the court that may be there for 30 years. >> sosoou don't think i understand that. and i understand the decision that you may not support and that the rereublican majority doesn't want this, but aren't they obligated to at least go rough the motions here? i mean, you'u' saying -- >> no. >> you're sayiyi don't even go

>> correct. we will go through the motions, but not while barack obama's in the white house. it's not going to happen. >> do presidential terms end after three years? that's what i don't understand why not go thrhrgh the advice and consent. you don't have to approve it. you can reject it. that's what happened in '68. but why not go through this process? >> becausesethere's -- actually, it's not just for the supreme court. even for appellatat courts it's been both p prties followewe this precedent. there comes a point in the last year of the president, especially in their second rm, where you stop nominining -- or you stop the advice and consent process. you basicalal say at t ts point with a few months left in your term, no accountability from the ballot box and the appointment you're going to make onn a lifetime appointment. that's the important t tng here. these are not lawss that can be -- but these are not laws ththt can be reversed. in essencehis is a aifetime appointment to the highest court in the country at a time when the balance of the constitutionon and the court's interpretation of it is at stake. mitch mcconnell has already made

forward and i support 100%. bottom line i don't trust barack obama on the appointment of supreme court justice. we cannot afford to have scalia replaced by someone like nominees he's put there in the past. we're going to have an election, there's going to be a new president. i belilie it's going to be me. we're going to look for meone that most resembles scalia to replace him. >> i want to move to o e debate. you said in response to a heated exchange between jeb bush and donald trump 9/11, this is what you said about 9/11. and i want to ask you about it on the other side. >> the world trade center came down because bill clintonon didn't kill osama bin laden when he had theehance to kill him. >> that's a big charge. i know bill clinton has said it is one of his regrets, but he did make an attetet to go after him. but you belilie that iss a direct resulttthat basically bill linton's failure led to9/11? >> well, i believe that if osama bin laden had been killed, al qaeda as an organization would not have grown to the point where it have conducted 9/11.

argument that trump was making that somehow president bush h as responsible for 9/11. and my argument was, no, the responsibilili of 9/11 falls on the fact that al qaeda was allowed to grow and prosper and the decision was not made to take out their leader when the chance existed to do so. not once but four times according to the 9/11 port. president clinton has acknowledged that has as a regret. so the b btom line is that al qaeda was able to carry out 9/11 because as an organization they grew and prospered in capability led by osama bin llen. had bin laden been taken out, it is doubtful that 9/11 would have happened. atatleast on september 11 of 2001 because al qaeda would not have been in a position to be able to carry something like that out. >> > you're not blaming 9/11 on bill clinton? >> no, he made a decision not to ke out itt leader which i think ended up being there, the situationonhat happened with 9/11. and as a response to ann attack that the reason why 9/11 happened was because of george w. bush. my argument is if you're going to ascribe blame, don'n' blame

that w w made earlier not to take out bin ladenn when the opportunity presented itself. >> so i'm actually still not quite ccar. are you putting this on -- are you putting 9/11 on bill clinton? >> no, i'm putting it onis decision not to take out bin laden, absolutely. this is what happens when you have a chance to take out the leader of a terrorist organization and you fail to do so and the results are s smethingg like 9/11 >> later this week pope francis is going toto speak and certainly going to tour the border of mexico and the united states. in september in front of congress he called himself the son of immigrants. and he called on congress and americans not to, quote, turn their backs on their neighbors. youurself got e etional lissning to that speech. do you feel that t e pope's message about immigrants, particularly mexican immigrants and oo immigration debate here, do you agree with his take on this? >> sure. we're a country of immigrants. we continue to be a country of immigrants. let's have soo perspective re. america accepts close to a

no other n ntion in the world comes close to that numbmb. that's not the isisue we're debating. the issue we're debatingg is not whether or not we're going to accept immigrants, becacae we do. we'r'rgoinggto continue to. the issusu is is there going to be arocess people haveo follow to immigrate to the united states? do we as a sovereigncountry get to control how many people come here, when t tey come heree and who they are? and the answer is, yes. i don't thinknkhe pope is ying open up thehe borders and allow anyone who wants to come in. i mean,n,ou can't move to the vatican just because you feel like moving there. they've got lawaw that restrict who can live within that nation's city state. and i think the same is true for the united states. so i agree with pope francis' saying we should bebe compassionate towards immigrants. and we are. the united states is more than any nation on earth. but we are allowed as a sovereign nation have an obligation to have immimiation laws and to enforce them. and that's what we need to be ing better than what we're doing now. >> all right. i have to leave it there. we're short on time this morning. a lot to get to, senator rubio, nice to catch up with you. stay safe on the trail, sir. >> thank you.

fourth presidential candidate we've had on the show this morning, republican governor of ohio johnhn kasich. welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> always, you know, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." > appreciatetethat. i've had two u.s. senators on this morning who say the.s. senate shouldn't even bother considering a nomination that president obama puts up. does the u.s. senate ve an obligation to a a leaea consider it, hold a hearing? and if they vote down, they vote it down, but should the u.s. senatat should mitch mcconnell at least openenp that part of the process? >> well, you know, that's their decision, chuck. you know, a a the governor of ohoho i have to deal with legislators and their decisions. and i don't try to telll them what to do.. i do think that really the sident -- i understand the president has prerogative here. i got that. senate has erogative too of course. but i just think at a timee when the country is so divided it would just be great if the president didn't s sd somebody

and thenen everybody would be clear about what they want in the next supreme court justice. but i guess it's not going to go that way. >> to roll the didi. >> pardon? >> governor, it's a roll of the dice, you could have a democratat enate, democrarac president could come in and then have a more liberal justice than what president obama might provide. >> well, but that's life. then thehe people actually have had some say. it's really kind of a unique thing whehe you think about it, chuck. it's's unique to say that the public itself is g gng to have sort of an indirect vote on who's going t t be a s sreme court stice. i think that's kind of cool. and what i don't like now is, you know, we c c talk about this all day ng. you and i both know in the real world they're not going to confirm anybody. unless they pick somebody who's so beloved that everybody goes that's great. okay. i don't think that's'sgoing to happen. >> yeah, you're probably right on that. let me move to the debate. and i got to play this one clip from you last night becausus i want to get a better expxpnation of what you meant.t. here it is.

just crazy, huh? this is just nuts. okay. >> that was after jeb bush and donald trump were going at eaa other.. what did you mean by that comment? explain. >> well, i mean, it's like all ththyelling and screaming and back and forth. chuck, what i have found -- i tell you, i'm having the time of my life. for. look, i've been all over. yesterday i had went to this barbecue shack. there were 500 peopp waitingg there. i was there, you know, taking pictures, must have beenennother 45 minutes after i got done speakii and people are grabbing onto you saying please stay positive. plelee don't get into these fights. i get my energy by being four things. don't get my energy by being against things. and i think people tend to get negative when t ty're not selling their own positive. look, that's where i am. if works out for me, great. if it doesn't woo ouou for me, i'll get to spend more time with my family. but look, i want to win.

>> let me point to something last night you said at the debate. you said you dididt thinkk we should have gone into iraq if there weren't any weapons of mass destructcton. >> ririt. >> but you also said we should not get embroiled in civil wars overseas. >> that's right. >> well, wewee done it before. we did it with bosnia. >> we did it with lebanon. chuck, let me tell you -- well, libya was a terrible mistake. frankly that was -- that's something peopop ought to be thinking about in regard to hillary. you know, they spend -- they talk about benghazi, which is is. gadhafi. that wass terrible mistake. the guy was working with us and now we've created chaos in that country. look, i was not in favor of u.s. troops in lebanon. and i voted against it.. even when reagan wanted them there, tip o'neil wanted them there, then when they got blown up tip was out blaming reagan.

civil wars -- getting in between -- you knoo since the sixth century sunni and shia have been fighting. >> sooou would stay out of syria? >> i would only go to syria to destroy isis. i would not use u.s. troops to depose assad, but i would support the rebebe here. it's okay to support people who share your view, but for the united states to be embroiled in a civil war in syria aiait asss i think is a b b b mimitake. >> you know, you've also been critical of how the surplus that you as a republicic budget leader and working with the clinton administration y y guys foraged a budget that was projected surpluses throughout the first part of the 2 1st century. it was gone immediately. one way many demomorats have said one of the reasons that surplus went away so quickly was due to the bush tax cuts. do you concur with that? were the bush tax cuts too big?

the dirir little secret is democrats love to spend. and republicans do too, it's just that republicans feel guilty. look, if youdon't have a leader that stands thehe breach to restrain the spending of government, they'll always spend. >> i'm going to leave it there. >> ay, chuck. >> i appreciate it. we'll catch up i'm sure in the xt week or so. >> yeah, we will. all right. coming up, the democratic race and why it may start getting tougher from here for bernie sanders. and of course saturday night fights, in other words, lastst night's republican debate and

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to make people and organizations safer. welcome back. the panel i i here on a huge sunday of political news. gwen ifil fresh off moderating that democratic debate i think happened in the last few days. welcome of pbs news hour. kathleen parker,, columnist from "the washington post" and ron fouuier. let me start with consequences ickly on scalia and then move to the debate of the united states senate. chris, you know the politics of this. >> yeah. >> theeunited states senate, will it be a functioning chamber this year? could this fight shut the

ooy. so i generally put myself in the 1% of most cynicalal people abouou politics. i was surprised that mitch mcconnell came out w wth a statement as quickly as he did saying not it's unlikely that president obama'a' nomomee will go through, there's'sno point in president obama putting a nominee forward. you then saw harry reid respond. given that and g gen what we've heard from ted cruru donald trump, marco rubio. i think mitch mcconnell will feel under considerable political pressure. i know he just got re-elected but considerable political pressure to shut thth thing down before it ever starts. and,d, gwen, this is the base. they don't want to see even a chance that somebody could get confirmed. on the other hand there's five blue state republicans who do theyywant to look like obstructionist? basically he's gogo a tigege on one end and the cliff on the other, i think. >> it's the box that mr. mcmcnnell has been in and john

time. i was not surprised that he came out that quickly. i'm not sure he had any choice but to come out and say this is the line we're going to draw and then step back and let other people fight it out. just as the leader to say this is the line i'm drawing. as we saw from the pressure comomng from the presidential candidates, that wasn't a big risk for him. and for the blue state republicanan worry about them later. right now they have to worry about the base. >> i think it's even worse. withh 20 minutes of the announcement that h hwas dead i got an e-mail from a vee prominent republican consultant all of who you know saying we're not goinin to allow even a hearing. the man's body, a good man's body was not even d dd yet and politicscsas already in play. the republicans are not going to let this happen. it's totally irresponsisie. it's a sign again of our democracy, of our system not functioning. and i have no reason totoelieve that if a republican wins the white housus why would the ddocrats s minate? >> i was going to say. i think this is heavy political risk. >> i thihi we could have a 3 for yeyers. >> this seems like a good time to say a ang conservatives especially people are very, very

acknowledge that for a oment. because justice scaliaia you know, we've heard a lot about the many wondersrs of hihi personality and hisrilliant mind and all that. but to your point i agree it was a little bit jarring to suddenly hhe everyone talking a aut the political implications. that's our job. >> within hours. >> within minutes. >> and i got a call from the hill just of somebody saying,g, okay, game over, time to get serious. everything matters now. but let me just say this, on the conservative side i i ink a lot of these people, a lot of does not respect the constitution and that he'sone around the legislative b bdy to -- you can argue that he had to, but he wanted done. let's remember it's not unusual -- no, it's very unusual to nominate a supreme court justice during an election year. it's only happened once in 80 years. and kennedy's -- it was justice kennedy, it toooo a year. >> well, it did. i want to move to the debate

but we'll know what kind of fight president obama wants. does he find somebody who's a little more to the right of his two previous nominationsn order to find a confnfmable sort of left leaning judge or not. >> there's not such a thing -- >> i don't think anymore. >> but it's clear that president obama was not going to take mitch mcconnell's advice on this. >> nor should he. ut he started out on the high road yesterday with a very high road complimentary -- >> of course. >> ababt scalia. he should do the samething. put up somebody who would be confirmablelef things wee working well and show that the republicans aren't willing to work.k. >> well, that is the bigig risk for the republicans. he's got to be thinking, oh, my gosh, ted cruz or donald trump could become president d then they're going to appoint the next justice. >> big story, chuck, this is another signgnf the political dysfunction in this town that you and i have talked abtdd for a long time. i think this is goingo be a long time before we have nine judges on that court. a long time. >> can i say one morething? there's also a risk for these republicans that maybe h hlary clclnton or bernie sanders does get elected.

appointment untiti the next president, the next president could be a democrat. >> by the way -- all of these potentialalresidential candidates beeareful what you wiwi for. if your first 100 days is dominated by a supreme court fight and this environment, you will get nothingg else done. >> we've talklk about this. you haa basically one big swing, rightht >> yes. >> for obama it was healtlt care. you have one big thing. >> it's a scotus pick. >> well, you have to do the right thing i agge with john kasich, just let the processs >> let it roll.l. all right. we got to let it roll here. we're going to do some debate chatter later in the show, but coming up, bernie sanders came and new hampshire. but can he win over african-americans to defeat

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after thth new hampshire primary we saw a flood of press releases fromomthe national parties andndtheir releled interest groups. and most of them had a similar theme, they did not want to talk about what's going on on their side of the aisle at all. look at this. the rnc wrote, hillary clinton's resounding loss in new hampshirr is another devastating blow for

and then the house cacaaign republican arm said, clinton was defeatat in the first in the nation primary by an elderly socialist. on the democratic side it wasn't evenbetter. the new hampshire snowskap where robot rubios run free and the republican debate stage mirrors an "snl" skit donald trump has emerged a a a a decisive front runner. and trump has done nothing but cause anxiety a a heartburn for nate incumbents and candidates since his launch. so national republicans and democrats burying their heads in the sand about what's going on there. hahaa sanders a a ha ha trump, trying to avoid confronting what's going on in their o o

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welcome back. bernie sanders proved he can do very well against hillary clinton in iowa. aanew poll gave hillaryy a 57 point lead. he morning after new hampshire sanders traveled to harlem for breakfast with my next guest, civil rights leader and msnbc host al sharpton. reverere sharpton, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> i wantnto play for you an interaction that bernie sanders hahaon friday with an african-american voter in minnesota and get your response on the other side. re it is. >> so the question specifically, my black son -- okay.

black, scared to say reparations -- >> ma'am, ma'am, we have the highest rate of childhood povevey ofofnyny major country on african-american community. >> say black -- >> i've said black 50 times. all right. that's the 51st time. >> is that a fair criticism frr the croro of him? >> well, i think that what it is is that people have felt in our communities ignored. and marginalized and t tt people have kind of like generally discussed things. and wewere supposed assume we're part of that when we have some very specific needs. and all of us don't agree nobody can deliver the black vote, but all of us agree thatat there are specific things that you just can't cover just talking about economic inequality without talking about racial inequality in that. you can't just talk about the problems with washington without talking a aut a race problem in that.

anger you hear is from being marginalized. and that has come from both liberals andconservatives. >> go ahead,guysys >> i think the reverend is right in that -- and i think t tis is the problem for bernie sanders is that bernie sanders believes at the core the fundamental inequality that explains america is economic in nature, not racial, nottanything else. the problem is he believes -- well, i've covered it. i've talked about economic equality. you've heard his response there in innesotata that's not enough for some voters. >> go ahead. >> ere was also in that same event he was asked about reparations. >> right. >> he's been through this argument already. yet somehow he went back to what we were talking about, talking in general about economic inequality. the skepticism about bernie sanders among maa african-americanananan be summed up in two ads he's run. one, the wonderful simon and garfunkel come to america ad where there was base #barely a

ad that has almost nothing but faces of color, this together ad. reminds me a lotot of the will i am ad from 2008 because it was very much about how we can all be together. >> part of the problem that i think that is coming to the surface in this is that we have experienced both in the liberall north and the south hostilities. let's not forget howard beach where beeie sanders w w born inin new york. howard beach was in the north. people like me emerged in the north. i never lived in thesouth. we are dealing with llywood progressive hollywood with oscar whiteout right now. so i think what lot of people are begigiing to see is wait a minute we do not want to be marginaliziz.. and we don't want to be thrown into a situation where specific needs are not deaea with. >> what if bernie sanders talked about one of the issues whehe the africananmerican community has been marginalized and instead of talking about the number of times he saidd black what if he talked about the number of african-americans

what if he talked about the 10-1 racial despairisparity under president clinton? what if he saa i have a solution for this, i'm goingto unleash the popors of presidential clemency and i'm going to free every person, many of who are african-americans in prison over sentences that have not been grandfathered? howourwerful would that be? >> whether he talked about issues people not agree specific issues. theheroblem is when you talk abobo president clinton and the crime bill, bernie sandede voted for it. so that migig be one reason he doee't bring it up. but i think that at the other side of that is mr. clinton has said he made a mistakak mr. sanders augtd to say he shouldn't have voted for it. and then we ought to talk about how we deal with mass incarceration, police reform and all of these issues. i don't think unlee we press it those of us -- i got to wrap it up here, but

to endorse before sososo carolina? >> i don't know. we're meeting g th mrs. clinton tuesday. >> okay. >> we're talking to senator sanders. we may or may not. what i don't want to get caught in is who we're going to endorse. i want to see who's going to endorse us having a fair share in this country. not whose side are we on, whose on our side. >> reverend sharpton, i will leaveitit there. prophetic words. when n come back, we have less than a minute with our end game segment. some of the highlights or low lights from last night's debate. coong up, "meet the press" end game brought t t - you set rules aroundndhe house, right? so set rules for your kids when they go online: don't be a cyberbully. no racy selfies. and remember everyone can see everything you post, even grandma. rules keep kids safe online.

"meet the press" end game is

bubuding the future o o centurur at a time.. well, donald trump was building a reality tv show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. and i'm proud of what he did. cheers and applause ] and he's had theall -- >> the world trade center came down d ding his reign. rememeer that. [ audience booing ] >> end game time. panel is back. we haven't't discussed the debate. kathleen, jeb bush's big moment there taking on trump. >> that was a good line. you know, every time trump baits b bush, jeb bush responds. and it never worors that well for him. i don't know why, bute just can't p pl it off. and every timerump opens his mouth, i think, okay,e's really trying to get fired this time. this is the time he's going to do it. you know, it's all about style. you can say the iraq war was a mistake, but you could also say in south carolina particularly

of militarar people and veterans, with great respect to the brave men and women who fought in iraq, i have to just s s it was a mistake. and i think a lot of people agree. and let me just say this and then go on. but he a atacks the family, he attacks the mother. jeb isdesperate. heerought in laura yesterday. >> if any other candidate literally in politics in america performed the way that donald trump did in that debate last night, i would have writttt and concluded this person is gone off the rails. he looked angry, too kathleen's point though -- >> but we know better than that now. >> you spent $36 billion and thing about newewampshire and ads and thing don't care ababt, bubu -- anan seasons that begins this is going to doom donald trump because has been proven wrong so many timim. what's the point? >> it's not so much about trump, it's about the people supporting him who are so angry with the establishment. why do we assume that they're going to defend the establishment? they're going to defend a bush? >> it was interesting to watch marco rubio who found a way too

trump and cruz and bush play out and he said this is what believe and he did it in the fluid nonrepeative way. in that respect he did himself a favor. >> it was mutually destruction last night and good night for kasich kasich. >> i think we have trump, cruz, one, two and we don't know which order one, two is going to be. ird place matters. >> that's why i thought jeb was actually as good as he has s been. and i thought -- >> but rubio doing well didn't help. >> rubio needed to do another last saturday debate because rubio's b-plus and better than jebb a in debate tetes. and i think rubioio was better, did more good for himselflf i thought to gwen's point, how does marcocoubio wind up being the big figure defending the bush administration in a fight with jeb bush on the stage? >> i think overall don't you think people just felt likeke okay, kids, can you just stop fightinin?? >> to your point a aut john kasich. he's clearly said there's only

i can't get into that fight. i'm not going to get in it. i'm going to be mr. positivity and we saw it again this morning. >> i love it. my mom will bebeappy about that. that's all for today. we'll be back next week becausese if it's sunday it's "meet the press." . it's monday, februruy 15th.. coming up on "early today," in the quiet dark of night, the bodydy of supreme courtustice antonin scalia returns to virginia but the political reaction has been anything but quiet. as the candidates weigh inn on

tearing one another apart. >> they lied. >> been telling lies. >hy do you lie. >> liar, liar, liar. millions endured record cold temperatures over the valentine weekend but more cold is in store for the week ahead. plus, is kanye west millilis in debt. a monster week at the b b office. and what happens when you giving a sea lion a selfie stick? "early todayay starts right w. good morning. the stakes are high after the death of supreme court justice antonin scalia. it's already reached the point of a justice scalia dissent. president obama says hee will nominate a new justice although so far there is no timetetle for an annonocement. and the president's republican colleagues don't think it should be his to make at all.