moore, professor brinkley van jones, thank you so much for being with us this morning.onor to have all three of you here. we'll have more on the debate over the confederate flag in just a minute. stay with us. >>> welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper live in charleston south carolina. the massacre of nine people inside this church behind me here this week reopened many of the nation's oldest wounds. now we see the confessed killer in photographs with the confederate flag. the plainly racist aims of the terrorist shooter have left many here and across the country wondering frankly why the flag is still flying on the grounds of the capitol. protesters gathered this weekend demanding its removal. >> symbolizes pain. it symbolizes hate. >> there is not one elected official who has got that flag at their business in their yard on a sticker, but they defend it. >> at least one south carolina legislator has promised to introduce a bill to take the flag down. a majority of south carolinians favor keeping the flag flying. one of the individuals, although not a s

thank you and our thanks to douglas brinkley for putting much of this into context for us. let's switch gears now and turn to dana bash with republicans who are now -- running another lap in 2016. gop candidates are in iowa this morning. are we going to that? okay. all right. taking part in the first annual roast and ride in the city of boon. it's part of a memorial motorcycle ride. and it's also conservative campaigning. cnn chief congressional correspondent dana bash is in the mix. dana tell us what's going on there? >> well we're still actually in des moines. because this is where the ride part of the roast and ride is going to begin. you see behind me, this is a harley barn and what joni ernst, the freshman center from iowa a harley rider decided to do is to make this perhaps the first annual tradition. of making this kind of fun day for harley riders and also a very political day for would-be republican presidential candidates. and of course since this is a presidential year actual presidential candidates. let's just start here. there's going to be a gathering of a lot

that's a little bit brinkley here he said that's where other people to kind of decide, we do believe in the second amendment but we acknowledge there needs to be other rights. and what it means today and two the complications of the gun control issue here in a red state and in mississippi the republican speaker of the state legislature says it is time, to consider taking the emblem off the state flag. it is the first time it has proposed the removal. and online petition is also calling for the symbol to be taken from the flag. be uh the governor says the flag should stay because mississippi voters approved it. me want withs to phase out license plates featuring the flag, the democrat called the symbol unnecessarily devicive and hurtful. they do not count as private speech. how significant is today's vote? >> it is a big step forward because just a week ago it looks like the trade goals were with dead. it has created some strange allies. president obama is on the same side of this fight as republicans and we with got a sense today from majority leader about what a long strange road it

joining me now is cnn senior brinkley. you weren't surprised.e victory for the president and legacy of the president? >> best day for this administration since he was re-elected maybe the best day since the death of osama bin laden. this puts him in a different category from jimmy carter, from bill clinton. he is someone who will have a legislative legacy that will go on for decades and change the way people live in the country. >> can this be reversed? >> not by the courts at this point. there are parts of it that can be chipped away. it of course can be overturned if congress tries to pass a law repealing it or putting some other law in. that is part of why we have elections in this country. but, as a legal matter, obamacare is settled. >> doug, it is remarkable that obamacare was at first used as a pejorative, but twice now it has gone to the supreme court, twice it survived. if that name, it is kind of a olutely. i was doing a magazine profile of president obama, you know, back when he was running for re-election. they were unsure if obamaca

joining me now on the phone, cnn historian douglas brinkley is with us also lou sa hadi also richard roth and andy schultz on the ground. douglas, let me go to you. big picture here the last time this happened the last time this happened 37 years ago, it was in 1978. affirmed winning, you had three triple crown winners in the '70s, then none until today. big picture, what do you make of today's win? >> well, that's right. i mean i was working with cnn on the '70s documentary they're doing. you read all these time lines of the '70s. it was a big deal, secretariat kind of dominated sports in a lot of ways and the same with affirmed. and the fact that so many years have gone by without a triple crown winner suddenly this has occurred and i think it's just a great moment because, you know we always have super bowl winners. you always have a world series winner year after year. but to get a triple crown winner happens very rarely. there are a lot of viewers right now that haven't been alive when we had the last triple crown winner. so it's a great day for horse racing and for america in g

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wrote what went on on the campaign trail and i remember coming back after some trip and i was on the brinkley show and i was the only woman and i said something along the lines that we do report, everything is what the candidate is up to end it is relevant. of course we tell stories from the trail and a lot of our best friends and other correspondents's why of san and this look of total terror came over the guys's faces and the timekeeper for the show said there was 45 solid minutes of silence while they absorb this piece of information and then there are women you do know about but don't know quite how remarkable they are. within like dorothea dix and clara barton. before the word for the headaches had come to washington to lobby for a bill for the federal government, she wanted the government to put aside 12 million acres for the mentally ill and poverty-stricken and she was so influential because of her work for the mentally ill that the senate set aside an office in the capital for her from which to lobby and finally she gets both houses of congress and president pierce vetos it and she l

. >> i was a family that watched nbc nightly news with the brinkley hundley for you. for us you brought about credibility to stories and you become as far as i was concerned with the voice of god making things real. >> you should check with my family. [laughter] >> but now is that what this book is about if tom brokaw can get cancer, then you can get cancer, anybody can get cancer. >> and every one will in some family. people are diagnosed with cancer every year and has been astonishing to me is that since i wrote that book and we did the documentary i'm hearing from families and cancer patients with all kinds of cancer a senior admiral that has multiple myeloma and he got in touch with a football coach, the dallas cowboys got in touch with me. we had multiple patients in the family talk about about what they have if they have a different version and then i'm going through. i'm not into position to do that but if it's working, stay where you are. and i'm hearing as well from clinicians wanting to know how i reacted for example when they put that on. it is a consulting

>> guest: i say a step in the right direction brinkley as a result of some of the activities. there've been some concern over things that trouble folks. to be able to think about how the government is collecting data it's important that it's done right and there are rules of the road and due process and things of that nature so what is happen with the usa freedom act when it comes to section 215 m. local election and the collection of metadata it's very important and so i think that's a step in the right direction. i think other issues when that comes to surveillance or privacy i think about one bill that we are interested in a bill that senator hatch coons and heller have advance which is called needs dealing with law enforcement access to data and congressman moreno on the house side advanced a similar type of bill so how does the government collect information and what rights do we have them one of the things that takes place with the act as it develops the rules of the road when that comes to collection of information and when it comes to data and when you request a warran

brinkley, you've only heard some reference to it today and the interchange of the ranking member and in the next day and all we hear about cost a significant amount of money to re-engine fiat misfires with thea r. one. can you address -- from what i understand it will cost $200 million to modify or the spot for the ar-1 appeared can you address that? >> yes, i can did we'd been working with you l.a. for several years on replacing various forms and like i've said we would get the problem over the past 10 years. we have an active contract identifying specific changes that need to be made assuming that goes to an atlas five vehicle. the configuration requires a different launch vehicle. i summarize the question. the changes that need to be made i will submit for the record. in terms of the estimate for those costs and underrated members have never heard a $200 million number. every changes associated with the ar-1 going into an atlas five is millions of dollars are the cost estimate is still needed to be refined but the modifications required are very minor. >> for the ar-1 and the atla