>> today on "matter of fact." the president pick of the supreme court will go door-to-door. it will he get a welcome in the senate? and smacked down. free speech butts up against the right to protest. plus, cartoon karma. did bart simpson predict the rise of donald trump? [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

fernando: welcome to "matter of fact." the nomination of a moderate judge to the supreme court sets up a high-stakes showdown between the white house and capitol hill. republicans have vowed to lock the republican merrick to the supreme court. the president has made his nomination for the supreme court. senate republicans are still saying they will not confirm him. what is next? >> the republicans are in an unreasonable position, refusing to do their job. many won' t even meet with the unquestionably qualified individual president obama has put forward. he has nominated chief judge merrick garland. he has more judicial experience than any other supreme court

the chief judge in the d.c. circuit. he is eminently qualified and someone republicans themselves described as a consensus nominee. a lot of republicans say they won' t meet with him and all of them say they won' t give him a hearing. this is an unprecedented escalation. and a rejection of partisan politics. fernando: and some are saying this is a political maneuver to put them in a hard place by nominating someone that would be , and another year, eminently confirmable. >> the president has actually put politics aside and focused on putting forward a name republicans themselves have recommended to the president as

if republicans are feeling the political heat it is entirely because of decisions they have made that are totally indefensible. there is an expectation that members of the senate should do their job particularly when it comes to something as important as preserving the integrity of the supreme court and making sure the supreme court can be fully staffed. fernando: and you are getting flack from the more left-wing part of your party, that judge garland is not progressive enough. had you respond to that criticism? >> he has a lot of strong support from democrats, many of whom pride themselves on being progressive. leaders of the civil rights movement have been enthusiastic advocates.

black caucus don' t get a vote but have an opportunity to speak out. and they have spoken s nominee. we have confident that we have people on the left enthusiastic about the nomination. have spoken favorably. it means the president consensus nominee. will republicans follow through on their promise not to do their job? that' s got to change. fernando: the president is going to be in cuba. what is his objective? what is he trying to do? >> it will be an historic trip. the last time a president traveled to cuba, he had to do it on a battleship. president obama will be flying to cuba. it will be an opportunity to take the next step.

pursued a policy of trying to isolate cuba. and get them to do a better job of respecting basic human rights of the cuban people. it has not brought about the kinds of changes we would like to see. a little over a year ago, the president announced a change that we will do even our engagement with that country and we will get american businesses the opportunity to do business in cuba. and we give them the opportunity to travel to cuba. and hopefully empower them to fulfill their ambition for their country. it is a policy not strongly supported, it has overwhelming

they help in deepening relations with our country. fernando: thank you for your time. current republican senators voted to confirm in 1997. senators coke, cochran, collins, hatch, mccain. . >> are these fighting words? >> if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the craft out of them. >> whose side are you on? >> younger generations may

>> security concerns grow with supporters and demonstrators. protesters sucker punched another protester. chastising the protesters at the same time. >> go home to mommy. fernando: our larger actions playing into the candidate' s hands? they described as progressive. they are also participating in the trump protests. ben fro m moveon.org joins me. the demonstrations and counter demonstrations, what role are

ben: in chicago, students contacted us and said they were planning a massive nonviolent rally. we were very happy to e-mail members. some protesters went inside of the event and donald trump decided he was going to cancel it without contacting police and blamed moveon.org. fernando: you say you are not involved with what happened inside, but there seems to be a theme which is to silence trump. the gentleman that ran at the stage to try to take the microphone away told cnn that he wanted to silence him. how do you feel about that? >> everyone is protected by the

demonstrators have constitutional rights to their free speech and it' s important that all of our rights are protected and respected. donald trump has more access to the public years than just about anyone else in the country. to respectfully show that they reject the kind of hate that is permeating out from the stage. fernando: is shutting him up one of the goals? ben: for us, it is to show we are united against hate. fernando: interrupting free protesting, right? every campaign, has security. i think in citing a mob is bad.

fernando: we totally agree. ben: there is no place for violence. i think there' s a difference between lifting a banner and issuing a chant than in citing violence or inciting a mob. there is a giant gulf between those two things. if your intent is to disrupt the speaker, aren' t you asking -- i' m not saying anyone deserves violence -- but isn' t that asking for confrontation? they may do things that i disagree with and other things that i agree with. for some protesters, we will see what is happening on the stage and they will speak out against it in a way that is heard.

cancel in chicago. he is speaking across the country. no question his campaign is going to continue. it' s up to him to figure out what kind of tone he wants. he needs to take a step back. calling for an atmosphere of respect and mutual stability. we need to move back. i am not in support of violence on either side. we are absolutely urging people to commit to nonviolence. that should be crystal clear. it' s on all of us to get

it can really poison our political system. fernando: we appreciate it. >> the membership voted to endorse bernie sanders for president. >> identify more as a democrat. >> is his power about money or message?

channels president h fernando: comparatively, donald trump is spending more money on advertising. take a look at this analysis by a tracking firm. he' s clearly using media while other candidates are spending big.

to the republican nomination, most have been stumped at his ability to succeed without using the standard campaign ground game. she helps create fa ctcheck.org. the analysis of campaigns a sought after by both parties. political advertising has worked for decades. >> the advertising works given imbalance.

ads, and can effectively drown out the other side. all of that media access , there is a very large twitter following. they catch up to the size of the trump voice. it works more effectively than the rest just means they did not spend enough money to get up to the same volume. you drown out the other side. and balance creates impact. -- imbalance creates impact. fernando: is he leading the the environment tells him to do? s doing both.

that you hear and you think, i' ve always thought that. you see a part of the electorate that is very anxious, very angry, and focused on the fact that government doesn' t seem to be working very well. donald trump comes along and says, i' m a strong leader and i' m going to get results. i' m not tied up in the government you think is ineffective. i know how to build things. i can build skyscrapers. fernando: the country seems to be ready, has been ready for a woman to be president. there are questions about her like every other candidate. do you think that there will be some support in the ideology -- women that say i' m going to vote to make history? is that a real dynamic and politics? or does it come back to the strongest leader?

whether or not you will vote for a political candidate is if she is all of your political party. remember elizabeth dole ran for president? now we can say , elizabeth dole, hillary clinton, and we can watch. is there going to be a different kind of vote if she is running against donald trump or marco rubio or ted cruz or john kasich? there would be. but there might be another factor involved. if you see the male candidate has attacked women in some way. or democrats have managed to persuade electors that the republican candidate has. >> the goal is to monitor

>> could a trip to cuba be in your future? and a simpsons prediction.

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fernando: we have focused on campaigns and political strategies today. it we wanted to point to a few stories of note. the north korean media is reporting that supreme leader kim jong-un has ordered test of a nuclear warhead. experts remain skeptical. north korea has also issued statements warning of a preemptive strike against washington dc. usa today say that the

2000 water systems impacting people across all 50 states. congress continues to investigate. >> the dissent simpsons critic the rise of donald trump as far back as the year 2000? >> we have inherited quite a crisis from president trump. >> we could not let it go without one last look at this viral video. the help of president obama with this rose garden wrap. -- rap. fernando: i would like to know your thoughts. tweet me , check in on facebook, or view and share

>> when we the spring home event is happening now.

fernando: on monday and tuesday, president obama will be in cuba. another step forward in normalizing relations. a departure from our 50 plus year embargo. younger generations for whom the cold war is a deep dive into history may wonder why cuba. we engaged in a fierce battle . equal protection under the law. that conflict. it was supposed to bring about the end of the castro dictatorship. dissidents are still jailed. political rights are nonexistent. embargo. of social media as a tool for free expression.

technology that had political action here at home. it is seemingly propped up by american policies. there are new ways to have their voices heard. if we support engagement on the home front, engagement with our neighbors should follow.

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