thescandidates dpping out would suddenly throw their support to one candidate and not him, that he will in fact attract these voters. does that make sense? is there enough support for trump among those voters? amber: trump has a very strong case to make that that' s what' s going to happen. when people drop out, perhaps voters will go to him. and i say this because, ted cruz originally was, even when donald trump was still topping the polls nationally, seen as kind of the evangelical, social conservative candidate. well, we' ve seen donald trump pick up those voters. marco rubio is arguably the more establishment candidate. in nevada, we saw donald trump win among moderate republicans. i think donald trump has a very strong case to make that more and more people will choose him as other people drop out of the race. fernando: what do you think will be the impact of the supreme

want to have a hearing -- the president will nominate someone? amber: well i think this is game theory in real life, right now. i think both sides are kind of stuck. they' ve put their heels in the ground where senate republicans say absolutely no, no hearing, we' re not going to listen to anyone, even a republican governor who president obama floated this name of, a moderate republican governor in nevada, governor brian sandoval. that being said, everyone' s playing politics because look what is up for grabs in this confirmation battle. the white house, potentially the court, the senate. if things go either party' s way with this, you could end up having a trifecta of control of all three of those essentially, those chambers of government. so i think right now everyone is testing the other side to see how they' re going to respond and therefore how their bases respond, because when it comes down to voting in november it' s all about the bases. fernando: but if there'

s this impasse, and this log jam again in washington, do you think that could actually help trump? in other words, by showing dysfunction in washington and disgust with both parties, could that motivate people for him? amber: yeah, i think you' re absolutely right. quite frankly, anything that happens in washington, politicians on the campaign trail, especially outside of washington like donald trump can s and you' re absolutely right that american disgust of congress right now is high. approval ratings of congress is low, this doesn' t help congress' case at all to make the argument that they can function. and someone like donald trump and possibly only donald trump at this point on the campaign trail, can say, you know what, i' m going to be the one that is going to come in and shake all this up, get great people on the supreme court, the best nominees only, the hugest people, the senate is going to agree to them, they' re going to be so happy to vote on my nominee. people like those, arguments and i think you' re absolutely right, this could end up benefiting donald trump more than any other

race. fernando: thank you amber: thank you. fernando: in two weeks, almost 60% of all republican delegates will be committed to a candidate, with primaries in florida, illinois, missouri, north carolina and ohio. >> up next, birmingham, alabama. >> what are some of the issues that make birmingham the blue heart of a red state? >> has political polarization become a black and white issue? and, newspaper endorsements. what' s the track record of this

fernando: welcome back. in the presidential election of 2000, journalist tim russert coined the term red state-blue state to describe the nation' s divided politics.

reflects the partisan divide in the nation. yet, left leaning and right leaning constituencies must co-exist. "matter of fact correspondent" scott maulden examines the challenges for the blue hearts that beat in red states. he reports from birmingham, alabama -- a democratic stronghold in the reddest of the red states. scott: 1963, birmingham, alabama. police dogs and fire hoses turned against young african americans when they marched for equality. ku klux klan bombings of black churches. a haunting past, and struggles -- tied to the political struggles of today. birmingham mayor william bell walked us through a memorial park of the civil rights struggle. how does that history play a role in birmingham' s political -- politics today? mayor bell: it plays a tremendous part. this park and so many other locations around the city represents the struggles that

civil rights. but what i don' t want to see is that define our future. scott: today, birmingham is alabama' s biggest city. 75% african-american, a democratic stronghold in a red state. what are some of the issues that make birmingham the blue heart of a red state?' mayor bell: well, after we had the out migration of citizens who left because of the racial conflict, birmingham became poorer. it increased in the minority population, and that, for a long time, probably 40 or 50 years, played a role in the direction the city was going. scott: the city is in a battle with the republican statehouse for the right to raise the minimum wage, and is embroiled in an ongoing fight to increase the number of sites where citizens can get voter id' s, battles made harder by the

merval: in local and state races there have been gerrymandering by the parties, with solid democratic districts and solid republican districts. scott: a political landscape where political views collide. >> birmingham, i guess, has a history of diversity and, you know, attracts all kinds of different people, not just red people, and i feel like that' s a big plus. steve french: where you have a city like birmingham, where a predominant amount of people live off of government transfers, they tend to vote democrat. and those that pay those transfers tend to vote republican. scott: in a city where civil rights memories remain strong, there' s still a fight on, but the colors have changed from black and white, to red and blue. scott mauldin, birmingham, alabama. fernando: thank you, scott. alabama' s red history is long, with a forty-year republican streak. it hasn' t gone democratic since

>> coming up next, money and endorsements. are they the real predictors of who will win their party nominations? and, kelly and crew -- one year in space. can their mission change the

fernando: over 150 years ago, the "new york times" threw its support behind an illinois legislator, abraham lincoln. it marked the beginning of a longstanding tradition -- the newspaper endorsement. historically endorsements have , mattered. but in this election cycle we' re seeing a trend -- a seeming rift with the voting public or a decision to go silent. when iowa was center stage, the "des moines register" threw its support to marco rubio. the "manchester union leader" picked chris christie. the voters went their own way. as we approach super tuesday, we

saying endorsements only demonstrate a bias and "undermine trust" with their readers. others defer, saying they don' t have enough direct access to the candidates. most polls show a tight democratic race, though the endorsements appear weighted towards clinton. governor john kasich, the republican underdog, picked up the nod from texas powerhouse, "the dallas morning news." the "boston globe" went bi-partisan, endorsing clinton on one side and john kasich on the other. the paper took the unprecedented step of a third endorsement -- stop donald trump. we also found a cartoon worth sharing. it' s a commentary on the value of money and endorsements in this race -- questioning the return on investment for those supporting jeb bush. all of this made us wonder if social media is having a bigger impact on campaigns with candidates going directly to followers, and voters getting their positions reaffirmed by

postings, and twitter feeds. i' d like to know your thoughts. tweet me @matteroffacttv, check in on facebook or connect with our video site to view and share videos from all our programs. >> when we return -- life after landing. how astronaut scott kelly' s year

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fernando: after spending an extraordinary full year in outer space, american astronaut scott kelly is about to bid farewell to his fellow crew members aboard the international space station. but as a closing thought, we wanted to share a few of commander kelly' s tweets from

when commander kelly returns to earth, he' ll see a far different political world from the one he left. i' m fernando espuelas. have a great week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

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head back to the oscars. people are talking about the beginning of the ceremony >> and the moment chris rock took the stage the world really waiting to see what he would say about the lack of diverse ity among the nominees and as expected rock had plenty to say. >> this is the wildest, craziest oscars to ever host because we got all this controversies, no black nominees, you know, and people are like, chris, you should boycott. chris, you should quit. you should quit. you know, how come there's only unemployed people to tell you to quit something. i'm sure there were no black nominees some of those years say '62 or '63 and black people did not protest. why? because we have real things to protest at the time. too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer. jada is going to boycott the oscars. jada boycotting the oscars is

i wasn't invited. if you want black people every year at the oscars just have black categories likeest black friend, hollywood is sorority racist. it's like we like you, rhonda, but you're not a kappa. because "rocky" takes place in a world where white athletes are as good as black athletes. "rocky" is a science fiction movie. >> he did take on race. well, "rocky" is getting mostly rave reviews for the way he handled what is an explosive subject. >> he handled it well. and one of the lighter moments on the show was when rock did a massive favor for the girl scouts. >> he sent out a number of them into the audience with plenty of girl scout cookies to sell. the audience members and they dug deep buying boxes and passing them around, rock did

help out. >> tina fey, get that money, girls, make that money. tina fey, charlize theron. yes, matt -- yes, okay, you get him. leo, you made 30 million. come on. come on. oh, michael b. jordan is here. you know what, no, no, you got enough girls. well, jordan was left empty-handed no girl scout cookies for him but they did well. >> he does all right with the ladies. okay, when all the buying was done by the way there was more than $65,000 for rock's daughter's girl scout troop. >> you know they were hungry squeezing into those dresses trying to look at skinny as possible. good call. now to a slightly awkward moment playing out on the red carpet and to the internet. >> there was a beauty company that tweeted out this image,

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ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz. checking our top story, donald trump is under fire for refusing to condemn an endorsement from former kkk leader david duke. trump and hillary clinton are leading in most states as they head into super tuesday. >> an american college student detained in north korea has issued an apology at a news conference in pyongyang. otto warmbier said he stole a political slogan from a hotel which is considered a hostile act. a navy s.e.a.l. who protected the life of a u.s. hostage is being honored with a medal of honor. edward byars is the first navy man to be given the highest award for valor in years. looking at today's weather rain in the northwest, some severe storms in the middle of the country. mild readings for the mid-atlantic states.

ttes have been handed out. >> on the red carpet they were out in force. here's some of the coverage. >> chris rock was for sure amazing, especially the way he started the show, i was like, what, did he just say that. >> get to hang out with everybody, laugh, talk, drink and party. >> top night of hollywood? my favorite moment was leonardo dicaprio winning and his speech. >> the agony of defeat is always fun to watch, as well. >> the best thing, winning. >> this is the second one i've been lucky enough to win. it makes writing my inheritance quite a bit easier because i have two kids. timely and important that we remember what an asset this is to our society and culture and democracy. >> the man with the statue is charles randolph who won an oscar for best adrafted screenplay for "spotlight." the film also won. this is probably one of the best nights of your life. >> it is, my birthday today, i'm awhile. >> we all hope for the best and

achieved so much. >> you clutch that like you're never going to let it go. >> nobody is getting it. >> i'm still very, very overwhelmed. i kind of look down and i just got my name on it so it's actually -- first it was like, oh, this looks like an oscar and i can't really wrap my head around it but it's just wonderful and i'm so happy to be here with my fellow colleagues and hopefully go out and celebrate tonight. >> it means everybody pays great money to come here and goes away satisfied and wants to come back next year but we deliver the goods. >> i ran into harry connick jr. and turned into a 15-year-old girl and played with my hair a lot. he couldn't be more charming. >> coming out of this party when he won, i sort of lost the ability to speak and my husband thankfully was there and was able to speak on my behalf and bump me. >> always fun seeing celebrities get excited to see other celebrities. >> always fun to see them at those nice parties as well.

courage to see "the revent." the bear. >> that's what's mak randy: good morning. it's monday, february 29. emily: i'm emily riemer. stories we're following on the eyeopener right now. a fallen virginia police officer remembered in her new england hometown. the tribute planned today in new hampshire. randy: arming campus police at a major boston university. the meeting today ahead of a controversial change. emily: a big test for candidates this week. the events here in massachusetts ahead of super tuesday. and where both sides are throwing punches. chris rock: is hollywood racist? you're damned right hollywood is racist. randy: no holds barred for oscars host chris rock. addressing industry racism at the awards show. and the actress hoping for